Chapter 24

The Vietnam War

CHAPTER 24 THE VIETNAM

WAR

Section 1

Setting the Scene

Vietnam under foreign rule

• For much of Vietnam's history it has been under foreign rule.

• China controlled Vietnam for much of its existence prior to 1860.

• In 1860, France began its domination of the area.

• During WWII, the Japanese government took control of Vietnam and set up a puppet regime.

• The Japanese were eventually forced out by the Vietnamese at the end of that war in 1945.

• France tried to regain control.

•

U.S. Policy in Vietnam• Containment –keep communism from spreading• Domino theory – if one country falls to communism in

southeast Asia, then they will all fall

U.S. Pledges $15M to Aid FrenchIn 1950, the United States sent $15 million dollars in military aid to the French for the war in Indochina. Included in the aid package was a military mission and military advisors. At the same time, China and the Soviet Union offered arms to the Vietminh.

Ho Chi Minh

• Leader of the Vietminh who fought for Vietnamese independence

• Favored Communist ideas, like in China

French defeated in Vietnam After WWII and until

1955, France fought hard to regain their former territories in the region, but with a poorly organized army and little determination among the troops, their efforts soon collapsed. The French were finally defeated at Dien Bien Phu on the 8th of May 1954 by the communist general Vo Nguyen Giap.

In 1946, as war with the French loomed, Uncle Ho cautioned them, "You can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those odds, you will lose and I will win."

Geneva Accords• Vietnam was divided at

the 17th parallel• North Vietnam would be

ruled by Ho Chi Minh, communist

• Ngo Dinh Diem, president of the anti-communist, South Vietnam

• Elections were supposed to be held in 1956 that would unify Vietnam

• South Vietnam opposed this part because they said the Communists would never hold fair elections

By 1960, Eisenhower had sent about 675 military advisors to South Vietnam. (containment)

Eisenhower greets Ngo Dinh Diem in Washington in 1957

Kennedy became President in 1960. He increase military advisors

to South Vietnam to 16,000 by 1963.

Kennedy wanted to make a stand in Vietnam on containment.

Ngo Dinh Diem’s downfall

• For the most part, Diem was hated by his fellow countrymen.

• He was Catholic in a country that was about 70 percent Buddhist.

• Diem was incompetent and corrupt.

• He passed laws that persecuted the Buddhists in Vietnam.

Buddhist monks protest• The monk has set himself on

fire performing a ritual suicide in protest against governmental anti-Buddhist policies. Crowds gathered to protest government policies regarding the Buddhists.

• Government troops opened fire to disperse them, killing nine people.

• Diem’s government never admitted responsibility.

• The Buddhists organized demonstrations that led to seven monks burning themselves to death.

Ngo Dinh Diem’s Death

• The United States no longer will support Diem and makes it known that we would not object to his overthrow.

• In November 1963, President Diem was overthrown and executed.

• The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country, aided by China and Russia.

Robert McNamara• Secretary of Defense under JFK and LBJ• 1963, was unsure that U.S. should remain in

Vietnam; advised JFK to withdrawn; JFK died that year

• Later, under LBJ, advised increase in U.S. military involvement in Vietnam

Viet Cong

• Communist guerillas in South Vietnam

• Gained power because of the weak government created after Diem’s death

• Aided by Ho Chi Minh’s forces

National Liberation Front

• Communist political party in South Vietnam

• Earned support of many South Vietnamese people

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution• 1964 North Vietnamese boats torpedoed U.S. destroyers

in the Gulf of Tonkin• In reality, the attacks did not occur.• Gave the president complete control over the war in

Vietnam; unlimited war powers• power to “take all necessary measure to repel any armed

attack against the forces of the U.S. and to prevent further aggression”.

Section 2Fighting the War

Tactics of the Enemy (Vietminh and Vietcong)

• used guerilla warfare• familiar with swamps and jungles• protected across border in Cambodia and Laos• supported by local population• South Vietnamese saw Americans with indifference;

did not really support cause• used tunnels, land mines, booby traps

Vietcong tunnels

American war battle conditions• Hard to maintain morale with little support • Difficult to know who enemy was; farmer by day, Vietcong by night• used saturation bombing - drop thousands of tons of bombs on large

area• Fragmentation bombing –sharp pieces of metal imbedded in bomb so

that when it explodes it will create extensive damage• Agent Orange – herbicide used to destroy jungle vegetation• Napalm – chemical in bombs that were dropped from airplanes; jelly-like

substance that stuck to everything that it touched and burned

napalm

Agent orange

Escalation – expansion of war

• By the end of 1965, 184,000 American soldiers were stationed in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh Trail- supply line that ran through Laos and Cambodia; used by North Vietnam to supply the Vietcong

The Ho Chi Minh Trail will eventually expand into a 1500 mile-long network of jungle and mountain passes extending from North Vietnam's coast along Vietnam's western border through Laos, parts of Cambodia, funneling a constant stream of soldiers and supplies into the highlands of South Vietnam. In 1959, it takes six months to make the journey, by 1968 it will take only six weeks due to road improvements by North Vietnamese laborers, many of whom are women. In the 1970s a parallel fuel pipeline will be added.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Controversy over the war grows

• Hawks – senators who supported the war

• Doves –senators who opposed the war

Tet Offensive -1968• Major coordinated offensive by North Vietnamese and Vietcong during Tet, Vietnamese New Year• Attacks launch in many major cities and military bases throughout South Vietnam• Communists rounded up American supporters and executed them• Showed America’s lack of control over Vietnam

My Lai Massacre• American soldiers received word that village was

sheltering 250 Viet Cong members• When infantry company arrived found only

women, children, and old men• March 1968, Lt. William Calley gave order to

round up villagers and kill them• American helicopter crew arrived on scene and

stopped massacre of even more people • 1971, Lt. Calley was convicted and sentenced to

life in prison• Sentence was later reduced to 20 yrs

My Lai Massacre•

The 504 People Killed in the My Lai Massacre• The names of the deceased are followed by their age and sex. A brief tally

shows that 50 of the people were three years old or younger, 69 were between the ages of four and seven, 91 were between eight and twelve, and 27 were in their seventies or eighties. The list was provided by the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington, D.C., in response to a request by Trent Angers, author of The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story.

In 1998, the United States honored the members of the helicopter crew that stopped the attack: Lawrence Colburn, Hugh Thompson, and Glenn Andreotta

Crewman Glenn Andreotta, who died in a helicopter crash three weeks after My Lai, was also honored.

LBJ looses crediblity

• In late January of 1968 the Tet Offensive destroyed any remaining credibility LBJ had with liberal Democrats and lost him the support of the American people generally. Johnson had been insisting for months that victory in Vietnam was nearly at hand; the penetration of 67,000 North Vietnamese and Vietcong deep into South Vietnam that winter suddenly made an American victory seem very distant, if not impossible.

Section 3

Political Divisions

Generation gap• Gap in values between youth and their

parents over issues like music, sex, drug use, and the Vietnam War.

Students for a Democratic SocietySDS

• Middle class young people who called for social change

• Led to the development of the New Left - a new political movement that called for radical changes in racism and poverty

Berkeley 1964

• Students took over the USC at Berkeley’s administration building to protest the limiting of their free speech, particularly over the Vietnam War.

• Police came in and broke up demonstration

Teach-in Movement

• First teach in at University of Michigan in 1965• Group of faculty members made public

statements against Vietnam War.• Led to other teach ins around the country

Conscientious objector

• Opposed war on religious or moral grounds

deferment

• Official postponement of military service, usually for college students

• Was protested by many Americans who could not afford college

Vietnam War protests grow

Johnson does not run for re-election in 1968

• Lost confidence of American people

• Lacked credibility• Tet offensive• McCarthy’s strong showing

as anti-war candidate

Election of 1968

• Hubert Humphrey, LBJ’s VP runs as Democrat, but is hurt because he supported LBJ’s Vietnam policies

• Robert Kennedy ran as Democrat, but was assassinated in June, 1968

• Nixon ran as Republican and won.

Section 4

The End of the War

Nixon’s Vietnam Policy

• Vietnamization- replacing American troops with South Vietnamese troops and gradually pulling American troops out of Vietnam

• Even though he was pulling America out of Vietnam, he still ordered secret bombing raids, particularly in Cambodia

• Nixon appealed to the silent majority, who he said supported his policies in Vietnam, but were not protestors like the hippies

Kent State and Jackson State• Protests erupted over Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia• Protests became violent as National Guard and police

fired on crowds• 4 dead at Kent State and 2 dead at Jackson State

An End to U.S. involvement in Vietnam (Paris Peace Talks)

• January 1973

• U.S. withdrawn from South Vietnam within 60 days

• All prisoners of war released

• End military involvement in Laos and Cambodia

• 17th parallel would continue to divide Vietnam

South Vietnam falls to Communism

• By 1975 North Vietnamese forces had taken Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital

• South Vietnam was communist

Laos and Cambodia fell to communist forces soon after the fall

of Vietnam• The Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia

under Pol Pot.

• Executed 1.5 million Cambodians who were tainted with Western influence

POWs and MIAs

• 2,500 Americans were listed as prisoners of war or missing in action

• Many remain unaccounted for

Vietnam War Memorialdesigned by Maya Ying LinListed the names of those killed in Vietnam