Korea, Cuba, and
Vietnam
Theme: Challenges
of limited war
Lesson 20
Korea
Divided Korea
• After World War II,
Japan’s former colony of
Korea was divided into
two occupation zones
along the 38th parallel
with the Soviet zone in
the north and the US
zone in the south
• Before the occupation
forces departed, an
anticommunist regime
was established in the
south and a communist
one in the north
US in Asia
• The US was uncertain as to the
extent of its commitment in
Asia
• It knew its umbrella definitely
covered Japan, Okinawa, and
the Philippines, but it was
unclear about Taiwan, South
Korea, and Southeast Asia
• Believing the US did not intend
to protect South Korea, the
USSR allowed the North
Koreans to invade the south in
1951
Secretary of State Dean
Acheson’s speech to the
National Press Club
omitted South Korea from
the US “defensive
perimeter”
North Korea Attacks:
June 25, 1951
• North Korean army crossed the
38th parallel with an invasion
force totaling over 90,000 troops
and 150 Soviet-built tanks
• By the night of June 28, Seoul
had fallen and the South Korean
forces were in disarray.
• South Korea appealed to the
United Nations for assistance
• The UN passed a resolution
recommending that “the members
of the United Nations furnish such
assistance to the Republic of
Korea as may be necessary to
repel the armed attack and to
restore international peace and
security to the area.”
United Nations
• As a member of the UN Security Council, the Soviet
Union could have vetoed UN involvement in the war
• However, at the time Moscow was boycotting the
Security Council in protest of the UN’s failure to seat a
representative of the newly established People’s
Republic of China
– (Remember from last lesson the victory of the communists over
the nationalists in China)
• In the absence of the USSR, the UN passed a resolution
sending a military force to South Korea
• The force was predominately American with Douglas
McArthur as the Supreme Commander.
– There were also substantial contributions from the UK, Canada
and other Commonwealth countries.
Pusan Perimeter:
June 27 to Sept 15
• The American forces
were unprepared for the
North Korean attack.
• By the end of July, the
North Koreans had
pushed the UN forces to
the southeast corner of
the peninsula, where they
dug in around the port of
Pusan.
Inchon (Operation Chromite)
Sept 15
• MacArthur completely changed
the course of the war overnight
by ordering -- over nearly
unanimous objections -- an
amphibious invasion at the
port of Inchon, near Seoul.
• The Americans quickly gained
control of Inchon, recaptured
Seoul within days, and cut the
North Korean supply lines.
• American and ROK forces
broke out of the Pusan
Perimeter and chased the
retreating enemy north.
Approaching the Yalu
• MacArthur continued to push
north, ignoring threats of
Chinese intervention
• On October 25, the Chinese
army attacked after having
infiltrated into North Korea
• After suffering setbacks, the UN
forces stabilized their lines by
November 5
• Chinese withdrew northward
• MacArthur launched a great
offensive toward the end of
November, which he
optimistically hoped would end
the war in Korea
Counteroffensive
• MacArthur's “all-out offensive” to
the Yalu had barely begun when
the Chinese attacked en masse
on the night of November 25.
• Roughly 180,000 Chinese troops
shattered the right flank of the
Eighth Army in the west, while
120,000 others threatened to
destroy the X Corps near the
Chosin Reservoir.
• On November 28, MacArthur
informed the Joint Chiefs, “We
face an entirely new war.”
• UN retreat ended about 70 miles
below Seoul.
Stalemate
• Beginning January 15, Ridgway
led the UN in a slow advance
northward.
• UN re-recaptured Seoul (the
fourth and final time it changed
hands) on March 15, and had
patrols crossing the 38th parallel
on March 31.
• In the meantime, MacArthur had
been steadily pushing
Washington to remove the
restrictions on his forces.
• Truman declined for fear of
widening the war
MacArthur’s Relief
• MacArthur repeatedly
made public statements
that were contrary to
official US policy and
suggested that Truman
Administration policies
were responsible for the
retreat of the Eighth Army
• Eventually Truman was
forced to relieve
MacArthur and replace
him with Ridgway
“But once war is forced upon us,
there is no other alternative than to
apply every available means to bring
it to a swift end. War's very object is
victory, not prolonged indecision. In
war there is no substitute for victory.”
MacArthur’s Farewell Address
Apr 19, 1951
Negotiation and Stalemate
• On June 29,1951,
Ridgway broadcast a
message to his
communist counterpart
announcing his
willingness to negotiate
• Eighth Army transitioned
to an “active defense”
• Tried unsuccessfully to
break communist supply
line with air and artillery
Matthew Ridgway
Negotiation and Stalemate
• Both sides expended
enormous amounts of
effort to solidify their
lines
– Costly seesaw battles like
Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak
Ridge, and Old Baldy
• Negotiations
characterized by
intransigence
– POWs a major obstacle
• Armistice not signed till
July 27, 1953
Heartbreak Ridge with Bloody
Ridge in background
Korea Today
• An armistice is not a
peace treaty so the
Korean War did not
officially end with its
signing
• Today a Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ)
encompasses 2
kilometers on either
side of the 151 mile
long Military
Demarcation Line
(MDL)
• North Korea remains
communist and a
nuclear threat
Panmunjeom is the official diplomatic
headquarters at the DMZ. North Korean
guards, in brown, face their South Korean
counterparts, in blue.
Cuba
Fidel Castro
• In the early 1950s Cuba was
controlled by a moderate rightwing military regime that was
friendly to the US government
and businesses
• The US supported Fulgencio
Batista as an anti-communist
and a proponent of the US in
domestic and international
policies
• However, in 1959 Fidel Castro
was able to mobilize the
disaffected rural peasants and
topple Batista’s regime
A Cuban crowd listens to Castro
after his takeover
Fidel Castro
• Castro assumed
dictatorial powers and
announced his goal was
to create a society based
on Marxist principles
• He nationalized largescale landholdings,
sought economic aid from
the Soviet Union, and
tried to export revolution
throughout Latin America
through peasant and
urban guerrilla warfare
Che Guevara directed many of
Castro’s Latin American operations
until he was killed in Bolivia in
1967
Bay of Pigs
• The US could not accept the
presence of a revolutionary
Marxist government so close to
its borders and President
Eisenhower authorized planning
for a force of anti-Castro
Cubans to invade Cuba and
overthrow Castro
• When Kennedy became
president he authorized the
invasion but stipulated that the
US not be involved in the
landing itself
Bay of Pigs
• The invasion took place at the
Bay of Pigs in April 1961 and
proved to be a disaster
• Instead of rallying to the
invaders, the local population
supported the Castro
government
• The failure embarrassed the
US and weakened President
Kennedy in the eyes of the
Soviet Union
– However, it strengthened
Kennedy’s personal
resolve to act more
vigorously in any future
crisis
Castro helping to repel the
invasion
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Castro feared the US
would try again to
overthrow him and he
called for additional
support from the Soviet
Union
• Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev responded
by sending mediumrange bombers and
missiles to Cuba to help
defend Castro and
threaten the US
• In Oct 1962, US spy
planes discovered missile
sites under construction
in Cuba
Kennedy’s Response
• Kennedy
responded
decisively,
demanding that the
Soviets remove the
missiles and
bombers or face
their destruction by
air strikes or
invasion
• He also imposed a
naval “quarantine”
of Cuba
US Victory
• On Oct 28, Khrushchev
agreed to remove the
missiles
• “Eyeball to eyeball,
they blinked first.”
– Dean Rusk, US
Secretary of State
• The Cuban Missile
Crisis had shown the
dangers of nuclear
apocalypse in the
bipolar world
• It was a major Cold
War victory for the US
and a major loss of
face for the Soviet
Union and Khrushchev
1962 British cartoon showing Kennedy and
Khrushchev arm wrestling on top of
nuclear weapons
Cold War Society
Vietnam
Vietnam: Post-World War II
• Vietnam was divided after World War II to facilitate disarmament and
then formally divided in 1954 by the Geneva Accords
– Communist forces in the north led by Ho Chi Minh forced the
withdraw of French forces in 1956
– In 1959, Ho declared a “Peoples’ War” to unite Vietnam
• In 1961, President Kennedy sent 400 Green Berets to Vietnam
– In Oct 1961, Maxwell Taylor visited Vietnam and reported “If
Vietnam goes it will be exceedingly difficult to hold Southeast
Asia.” (domino theory)
Vietnam: Major US Involvement
• 1964… North
Vietnamese patrol
boats attack a US
destroyer in Gulf of
Tonkin. US begins
bombing.
• Mar 2, 1965…
Operation Rolling
Thunder begins.
• Mar 8, 1965… First
US combat troops
arrive. By the end of
the year, 184,300
troops are in Vietnam.
The massive bombing campaign
was plagued by restricted targeting
and the non-industrialized nature of
North Vietnam
Conditions in South Vietnam
• Diem’s regime was
illegitimate and corrupt
– Catholic in an
overwhelmingly
Buddhist society
– Ignored Geneva
Accords call for
elections in 1956
– Nepotism
• Succession of military
coups resulted in a
revolving door government
Several Buddhist monks burned
themselves alive to protest
Diem’s religious oppression
Insurgent Leadership
• Increasing North Vietnamese
infiltration created security
threat in South Vietnam
• In Dec 1960, the insurgents
formed the National Liberation
Front (typically called the Viet
Cong or VC), a broad-based
organization led by
communists but designed to
rally all those disaffected with
Diem by promising sweeping
reforms and genuine
independence
– Developed effective
military and political
components
Flag of the National Liberation
Front
External Support
• North Vietnam began
constructing a massive
supply route through
Laos and Cambodia that
allowed it to infiltrate
supplies and personnel
south
– The Ho Chi Minh Trail
• The Soviet Union and
China provided
equipment, advisors, and
diplomatic support
Mao on Guerrilla Warfare
• Mao wrote On Guerrilla Warfare
in 1937 while in retreat after ten
years of battling the Nationalist
Chinese army of Chiang Kaishek
• In 1949, Mao defeated the
Nationalist Chinese and
validated his theories of
revolutionary guerrilla warfare
– Remember from last lesson
• The National Liberation Front
would pattern much of its
strategy and tactics after Mao
Phases of Development
• Phase I: Latent and incipient insurgency.
– Activity in this phase ranges from subversive
activity that is only a potential threat to
situations in which frequent subversive
incidents and activities occur in an organized
pattern. It involves no major outbreak of
violence or uncontrolled insurgent activity.
The guerrilla force does not conduct
continuous operations but rather selected
acts of terrorism.
Phases of Development
• Phase II: Guerrilla warfare.
– This phase is reached when the insurgent
movement, having gained sufficient local or
external support, initiates organized
continuous guerrilla warfare or related forms
of violence against the government. This is an
attempt to force government forces into a
defensive role. As the guerrilla becomes
stronger, he begins to conduct larger
operations.
Phases of Development
• Phase III: War of movement.
– When the guerrilla attains the force structure
and capability to directly engage government
forces in decisive combat, then he will
progressively begin to use more conventional
tactics and may obtain combat forces from an
external source. He may also begin to
conduct more extensive defensive operations
in this phase to protect the areas he controls.
Pacification
• Between 1961 and 1963,
President Kennedy
launched a full-scale
counterinsurgency
program in Vietnam, part
of which would become
the “pacification” program
• Major goals
– Strengthen the South
Vietnamese
government’s hold on
the peasantry
– Cut into the heart of
the Viet Cong politicomilitary organization
• Designed to “win the
hearts and minds” of the
South Vietnamese
In 1967, Robert Komer, shown here with
President Johnson, was selected to head
CORDS (Civil Operations and Rural
Development Support)
and coordinate all pacification programs
Pacification: Various Programs
• Strategic Hamlet Program
– Peasants from scattered villages were brought
together in defended and organized hamlets in order
to protect them, isolate the Viet Cong, and show the
superiority of what the SVN government could offer
• Combined Action Program
– Placed selected Marine squads within the village
militia to eliminate local guerrillas
• Revolutionary Development Program
– Put armed social workers into Vietnamese villages to
begin grass roots civic improvement and eliminate the
VC shadow government
• Chieu hoi (opens arms)
– Amnesty program designed to persuade VC to
change sides
Pacification: Overall Assessment
• Commonly considered a
missed strategic
opportunity
• Suffered from being “too
little, too late”
– CORDS not activated
until 1967
• Perceived as competition
with the “big war” and
many military officers
favored a “military
solution”
Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis
LeMay reportedly said, “Grab
‘em by the balls and their hearts
and minds will follow.”
Limited War
• When the Soviet Union and the US nuclear programs
reached the point of Mutually Assured Destruction, the
US faced the dilemma of responding to communist
challenges in peripheral areas by either risking starting a
nuclear war or doing nothing
• The alternative strategy of limited war was developed to
harness the nation’s military power and employ only that
force necessary to achieve the political aim
• The objective was not to destroy an opponent but to
persuade him to break of the conflict short of achieving
his goals and without resorting to nuclear war
Limited War
• The limited war theory
was more an
academic than a
military concept and
its application
resulted in tensions,
frustrations, and
misunderstanding
between the military
and civilian leadership
Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara is sharply criticized
for his technocratic and
statistical approach to the
Vietnam War
Strategy of Attrition
• Traditionally, the “American way of war” had been a
strategy of annihilation
– Seeks the immediate destruction of the combat power
of the enemy’s armed forces
• In Vietnam, the US would instead follow a strategy of
attrition
– The reduction of the effectiveness of a force caused
by loss of personnel and materiel
• This proved to be a poor strategy against the North
Vietnamese who used a strategy of exhaustion
– The gradual erosion of a nation’s will or means to
resist
Problems with the Strategy of
Attrition
• Led the US to fight according to the theory of
gradual escalation
– A steady increase in the level of military pressure
would coerce the enemy into compliance instead of
employing overwhelming force all at once
– US never had enough forces to control the
countryside
– US soldiers served one year tours in Vietnam
– North Vietnamese soldiers were there till the end and
recognized “Victory will come to us, not suddenly, but
in a complicated and tortuous way.”
US Troop Levels in Vietnam
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
760
900
3,205
11,300
16,300
23,300
184,300
385,300
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
485,600
536,100
475,200
334,600
156,800
24,200
50
Problems with the Strategy of
Attrition
• The nature of guerrilla war allowed the North
Vietnamese to avoid contact when it was not to
their advantage to fight
• Low-tech nature of the enemy prevented the US
from bringing to bear the full effects of its combat
power
• North Vietnamese were always able to replace
their losses while Americans became
disillusioned with the mounting death toll
Tet Offensive
• On January 30, 1968,
the North Vietnamese
escalated to Phase III,
the War of Movement,
when 84,000 Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese
attacked throughout
South Vietnam
• Designed to foster
antigovernment
uprisings against the
South Vietnamese
Tet: A US Tactical Victory
• By attacking everywhere, the
North Vietnamese had superior
strength nowhere
• By fighting in a conventional
fashion, the North Vietnamese
allowed the US to bring to bear
its full firepower and technology
and use a strategy of
annihilation
• The North Vietnamese had
wrongly assumed South
Vietnamese were on the verge
of a general uprising
Helicopters gave the US the ability
to cover all types of terrain,
maneuver over large areas, react
quickly to enemy attacks, reinforce
embattled units, and conduct raids
into enemy territory
Overall Results of Tet
• Tactical defeat for North
Vietnam forces them back to
Phase 2
• North Vietnamese
32,000 killed and 6,000
captured
• US and South
Vietnamese 4,000 killed
• But a strategic victory
• “I thought we were
winning this war!”
(Walter Cronkite)
• Dramatic shift in public
opinion in US
Returning from Vietnam after Tet, Walter
Cronkite reported, “It seems now more
certain than ever that the bloody
experience of Vietnam is a stalemate”
and then urged the government to open
negotiations with the North Vietnamese.
Societal Changes
Martin Luther King
delivers his “I have a
dream” speech in 1963
Country Joe
McDonald at
Woodstock, 1969
Gloria Steinem
helped found Ms
magazine in 1971
War Protests
President Johnson
President Lyndon B. Johnson
listens to tape sent by Captain
Charles Robb from Vietnam,
July 31, 1968.
Democratic delegates protest the
Johnson administration's policies
in Vietnam at the 1968
Democratic National Convention
in Chicago.
President Nixon
• Richard Nixon was elected
president in 1968 campaigning
for “peace with honor”
• Under Nixon the process of
“Vietnamization”– the gradual
transfer of primary
responsibility of the war to the
South Vietnamese that
Johnson had begun on a small
scale after Tet– was
accelerated
• Nixon’s involvement in
Watergate, his impeachment,
and resignation hamstrung his
ability to influence peace
negotiations through sustained
offensive operations
Nixon was succeeded by Gerald
Ford. By this point the US was
traumatized by war-weariness and
economic recession. Ford had
almost no maneuver room to help
the South Vietnamese.
Kent State and Jackson State
Four students were killed and nine wounded at Kent State
and two students were killed at Jackson State during
protests against a number of issues to include US
operations in Cambodia
Defeat
• The US concluded a
peace agreement
with the North
Vietnamese in 1973,
but the South
Vietnamese
continued fighting
until April 30, 1975
when the North
Vietnamese captured
Saigon
Americans and South Vietnamese
who had worked for the US are
evacuated from Saigon
Legacy and Lessons
• Sophisticated weaponry and conventional
forces have limits in “low intensity conflict”
• The restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs)
and political considerations of limited war
hamper military operations
• Domestic support is critical
• You can win the battles and lose the war
• “Vietnam syndrome” effects military and
diplomatic operations until finally exorcised by
Desert Storm.
– We’ll take about that in Lesson 24
Vietnam Today
• Vietnam remains communist
• However, since 2001, it has committed to
economic liberalization and is trying to
modernize the economy and to produce more
competitive, export-driven industries
• An April 28, 2005 article in the Economist was
aptly titled “America Lost, Capitalism Won”
• If you’re interested, USM has a nationallyacclaimed Vietnam Study Abroad Program
Next
• Economic Globalization and Travel
• Media