CLASS NOTES
THE VIETNAM WAR YEARS
“MOVING TOWARD CONFLICT”
I.
The roots of American involvement.
A.
America’s involvement began in 1950.
1.
We supported the French with massive amounts of
military and economic support.
2.
60,000 American and 1.5 million Vietnamese deaths.
a.
A. Peter Dewey was first American casualty
September 26, 1945.
B.
French rule in Vietnam.
1.
From the end of the 19th century until WWII, French took
land from peasants and built large plantations.
a.
Rice and rubber.
2.
French were oppressive occupiers.
a.
Restricted freedom of speech and assembly.
3.
Vietnamese strike and revolt in the 1930’s.
4.
Ho Chi Minh founds Indochinese Communist Party in 1930.
a.
Orchestrated Vietnamese independence movement.
b.
Exiled to Soviet Union and later to China.
c.
Returned to Vietnam in 1941 to battle invading Japanese
and created nationalist group, Vietminh.
d.
September 2, 1945, Ho declared Vietnamese independence
from Hanoi.
C.
France battled the Vietminh.
1.
French troops returned to Vietnam in 1946.
a.
They regained control of southern Vietnam.
b.
Ho: “If ever the tiger pauses, the elephant (France) will
impale him on his mighty tusks. But the tiger will not
pause, and the elephant will die of exhaustion and loss
of blood.”
2.
U.S. entered struggle in 1950 when Truman sent $15 million in
economic aid to France.
a.
Next four years, we pumped $2.6 billion into French
support.
b.
U.S. supported Ho during WWII as he resisted the Japs.
c.
U.S. wanted French support in NATO and that is reason
we were backing French in Vietnam – Europe is the big
enchilada!
D.
II.
III.
The Vietminh drove out the French.
1.
1953, U.S. still supplying aid to French.
a.
Stalemate in Korean conflict.
2.
Eisenhower’s domino theory: “You have a row of dominoes
set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to
the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly.”
3.
Despite our financial support, the French could not retake Vietnam
4.
May, 1954, Vietminh overrun French at Dien Bien Phu.
5.
The Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into two countries at the
17th parallel.
a.
Elections in 1956 to vote on reunification.
6.
Total French troop losses were 200,000 lives!
The United States steped in.
A.
Diem canceled the 1956 reunification elections.
1.
Diem was U.S. supported “president” of South Vietnam.
a.
From wealthy aristocratic family.
b.
Catholic in a predominately Buddhist country.
c.
Persecuted Buddhists.
d.
Corrupt government.
2.
Ho Chi Minh won support in the north by breaking up large
estates and redistributing land to the peasants.
a.
Plus he was a war hero from WWII by fending off Japs.
3.
By 1957, Communist opposition in south formed, Viet Cong.
a.
By 1959, Ho supported Viet Cong in south.
b.
Ho Chi Minh Trail.
c.
Guerrilla attacks.
4.
Eisenhower took little action (surprised?)
a.
Decided to “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem.”
B.
Kennedy and Vietnam.
1.
Chose initially to “swim” with Diem.
2.
By end of 1963, U.S. had 16,000 military personnel in Vietnam.
3.
Diem’s popularity was eroding quickly due to lack of land reform
and corruption in government.
4.
Diem initiated the strategic hamlet program.
a.
Moved all villagers to protected areas.
b.
Villagers resentful due to ancestral homes and burial sites.
c.
Diem intensified persecution of Buddhists.
5.
November 1, 1963, U.S. supported military coup.
a.
Regime overthrown and Diem and brother executed.
President Johnson expanded the conflict.
A.
Before his death, Kennedy said, “In the final analysis, it’s their war.”
1.
He indicated he would begin withdrawing support.
B.
C.
The south grww more unstable.
1.
Diem’s death brought more chaos to South Vietnam.
2.
Vietcong influence in countryside grew steadily.
3.
Johnson felt a Communist takeover in the south; disastrous.
a.
He didn’t want to be perceived as “soft” on Communism,
“If I…let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then
my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would
find it impossible to accomplish anything…anywhere
on the entire globe.”
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1.
8-4-64, LBJ claimed North Vietnam attacked the U.S.S. Maddox.
a.
Prompted him to begin bombing the north.
b.
LBJ asked Congress for “all necessary measures to repel
any armed attack against the forces of the United States
and prevent further aggression.”
2.
August 7, 1964, The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
a.
House: 414-0.
b.
Senate: 88-2.
c.
Not a declaration of war, but gave LBJ open ended
military powers.
3.
By June, 1964, 50,000 American troops in Vietnam.
a.
The Vietnam War had become Americanized.
“U.S. INVOLVEMENT AND ESCALATION”
I.
II.
The decision to escalate.
A.
Strong support for containment.
1.
Nation supported LJB.
2.
LJB began sending troops to fight the North and Vietcong.
3.
LBJ won landslide election in 1964 against Barry Goldwater.
a.
Many people thought Goldwater would bring the Soviets
into the conflict.
b.
Johnson was more moderate.
4.
Even after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, LBJ did not want to
send ground forces into Vietnam.
5.
Dean Rusk, Secretary of State.
a.
Policy of confronting Communism anywhere in the world.
b.
Dispatched troops to Dominican Republic to quell rebellion
6.
1965 poll showed 61% of Americans support war and Johnson.
B.
The troop buildup accelerated.
1.
By the end of 1965, 180,000 troops in Vietnam.
2.
General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces.
3.
By 1967, U.S. troops numbered 500,000.
A war in the jungle.
A.
An elusive enemy.
1.
Although U.S. had superior military equipment, guerrilla warfare
of the Vietcong and the jungle would provide a stalemate.
a.
Vietcong utilized hit-and-run and ambush tactics.
b.
Knowledge of the jungle.
c.
Moved secretly in and out of the general population.
d.
Because the enemy lived among civilians, it was difficult
for U.S. to determine friend or foe.
e.
Vietcong use of booby traps and land mines.
f.
Network of elaborate underground tunnels to launch
surprise attacks.
g.
VC used these tunnels as underground homes even to eat
and sleep.
2.
U.S. troops dealt with extreme heat and humidity and leeches.
B.
A frustrating war of attrition.
1.
Westmoreland's strategy for defeating the VC was to destroy their
morale through a war of attrition.
a.
Introduced the concept of the body count.
b.
The general felt that as the VC death rate grew, their
surrender would be inevitable.
2.
The Vietcong had no intention of quitting: "You can kill ten of my
men for everyone I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will
lose and I will win."
a.
The VC remained defiant.
b.
The U.S. never really understood the VC.
c.
U.S. viewed the war strictly as a military struggle.
d.
VC saw it as a battle for their very existence.
C.
The battle for "hearts and minds."
1.
U.S. attempted to keep the Vietcong from obtaining the support of
the South Vietnamese: "Just remember this. Communist guerrillas
hide among the people. If you win the people over to your side,
the Communist guerrillas have no place to hide."
a.
Win the "hearts and minds" of the South Vietnamese
villagers.
2.
Napalm - used to deforest the jungle to assist visually.
3.
Agent Orange – Ditto.
4.
By 1967, 3 million South Vietnamese refugees: "We had to
destroy the town in order to save it."
D.
Sinking morale.
1.
Guerrilla warfare, brutal jungle and failure to make headway
militarily hurt U.S. troops' fighting spirit: "When we marched
into the rice paddies…we carried, along with our packs and rifles,
the implicit convictions that the Vietcong could be quickly beaten.
We kept the packs and rifles; the convictions, we lost."
a.
Soldiers turned to drugs and alcohol.
2.
"Fragging" U.S. officers.
a.
Lob a fragmentation grenade at an officer during battle.
3.
Continuing corruption and instability of the South Vietnamese
government damaged U.S. morale.
III. The early war at home.
A.
The Great Society suffered.
1.
LBJ thought the war would be short.
a.
Johnson's domestic policies suffered due to lack of support
from population and lack of funds due to war effort.
2.
The war began to be costly.
a.
U.S. economy suffered.
b.
Inflation rate tripled to 6% by 1969.
c.
LBJ wanted to fund both the war and the Great Society.
3.
August, 1967, LBJ asked for a tax increase to fund the war and
curb inflation.
a.
Republicans went along.
b.
$6 billion less for his domestic programs, thus The Great
Society became a Vietnam War casualty.
B. The living-room war.
1.
1967, majority of Americans still supported the Vietnam War.
2.
TV made Americans aware of the war.
a.
Footage of combat appeared on the nightly news
as Americans had dinner every night with Walter Cronkite!
b.
These scenes seemed to contradict what we were viewing
on TV versus what Westmoreland and the Pentagon were
saying.
3.
Westmoreland: "Victory lies within our grasp-the enemy's hopes
are bankrupt."
4.
Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara: he could see "the light
at the end of the tunnel."
5.
Communists may have been dying, but so were American boys.
a.
16,000 American troops died between 1965-1967.
6.
Credibility gap.
7.
Senator William Fulbright charged the president with a "lack of
candor."
a.
Fulbright hearings contributed to the growing doubts about
the war.
8.
The mood of Middle America: "I want to get out, but I don't want
to give in."
9.
The youth of America began to actively protest the war.