The Vietnam War 1954 - 1975

Chapter 25

Why It Matters

War caused bitter divisions within the U.S.: * Supporters of the war: “Patriotism

demands that communism be halted!”

* Opponents: “Vietnam war is immoral!”

Many young people protested or dodged draft.

Victory was not achieved, although more than 58,000 American soldiers died.

After the war, the nation had many wounds to heal.

American efforts to contain the spread of communism led to U.S. involvement in the affairs of Vietnam.

COMMUNISM

Early American Involvement in Vietnam

• American officials felt Vietnam was important in their campaign to contain the spread of communism.

French Indochina

• Early 1900s - nationalism was strong in Vietnam.

• Vietnam was a French colony that wanted independence.

• Several political parties formed, including communism.

• Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Nationalists, had become a communist.

Background Information

• When WW II broke out, the French abandoned Vietnam.

• By 1941, Japanese took control of Vietnam for its rubber, rice, and minerals (needed for Japan’s war effort).

• Ho Chi Minh organized the Vietminh, which united Communists and non- Communists

to force Japan out.

• France sent in troops to regain its colonial empire; asked the U.S. for help.

• American officials were against France controlling Vietnam, but they did not want Vietnam to be Communist either …….CONTAINMENT!

• At the end of WWII in 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation.

• Eisenhower defended the U.S. policy in Vietnam with the domino theory – the belief that if Vietnam fell to communism, other nations in Southeast Asia would also fall.

• The United States, supported the French against the Vietminh.

The Vietminh Drive Out the French

• Despite aid from the United States, the French struggled against the Vietminh.

• The Vietminh often used the tactics of guerrillas.

• Hit-and-run and ambush tactics.

• In 1954 the French commander ordered his forces to occupy the mountain town of Dien Bien Phu.

• A huge Vietminh force surrounded the town.

• French were forced to make peace and withdraw from Indochina.

• Negotiations to end the conflict, called the Geneva Accords, divided Vietnam between the Vietminh (communists) controlling North Vietnam and a pro-Western regime in South Vietnam.

• The Accords also recognized Cambodia’s independence.

NORTH VIETNAM

SOUTH VIETNAM

• In 1956 elections were held to form a single government.

• The U.S. protected the new government in the South led by Ngo Dinh Diem, a pro-Westerner and

anti-Communist. • Tension between North

and South Vietnam escalated.

• The U.S. was caught in the middle.

Eisenhower presidency 1953-1961

American Involvement Deepens

• Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold national elections.

• Ho Chi Minh and his followers created a new guerrilla army known as the Vietcong.

• Their goal: reunify North and South Vietnam under communism.

• United States continued to send aid to South Vietnam.

Vietcong fighter plants a land mine

• Many Vietnamese opposed Diem’s government; Vietcong continued to grow.

• JFK supported South Vietnam, agreeing that it was important to contain communism in Southeast Asia.

JFK’s presidency1961-1963

South Vietnam’s Pres. Diem was unpopular. Why? * His government was corrupt. * Catholic Diem discriminated against Buddhism.

• Diem was overthrown and later assassinated.

• This further weakened South Vietnam’s government, forcing the U.S. to become more involved. (so that communists wouldn’t take over)

• After Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson inherited the problem of Vietnam, which will ultimately drive him out of the White House.

Lyndon B. Johnson presidency 1963-1969

Johnson and Vietnam

• President Johnson was determined to prevent South Vietnam from becoming Communist.

• Politically, Democrats needed to keep South Vietnam from becoming Communist, or the GOP would use it against them.

• Aug 1964, LBJ announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

• Congress passed Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; authorized president to take “all necessary measures” to repel any attack on U.S. forces.

• Congress had given its war powers to the Pres.

• After Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed, Vietcong began attacking bases where American advisers were stationed in South Vietnam.

• Johnson sent bombers to strike in North Vietnam.

• Some dissenters in the White House warned that if the United States became too involved, it would be difficult to get out.

• But In March 1965, Johnson sent American ground troops to fight alongside the South Vietnamese troops against the Vietcong.

A Bloody Stalemate Emerges

• By 1965, 180,000 American combat troops were fighting in Vietnam, with the number doubling by 1966.

• Many Americans believed they could win in Vietnam.

• To take Vietcong’s hiding places away, U.S. used:

* Napalm, a jellied gasoline that explodes on contact.

* Agent Orange, a chemical that strips leaves from trees and shrubs.

• Farmlands and forests were turned into wastelands.

• The US underestimated Vietcong’s strength, stamina, and morale.

• Johnson refused to order a full invasion of North Vietnam, fearing China would get involved in the war.

(* Remember the Chinese army invading against UN forces in Korea?)

LBJ agonized over what to do about

Vietnam

• Johnson also refused to allow a full- scale attack on the Vietcong’s supply line, known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

• Not cutting off the Vietcong’s supplies made winning difficult.

Why do you think LBJ was against an attack on the Trail?

• As U.S. casualties increased, many US citizens began questioning American involvement in the war.

Images seen on television news greatly increased Americans’ opposition to the war.

The experience of Vietnam produced sharp divisions between Americans who supported the war and those who did not.

A Growing Credibility Gap

• Some Americans began to question the war and the government.

• A credibility gap had developed, making it difficult to believe what Johnson and his advisors said about the war.

An Antiwar Movement Emerges

• As war casualties increased, Americans, especially college students, began to publicly protest the war.

• 1965 - University faculties and students abandoned classes and formed teach-ins where they informally discussed the war and why they opposed it.

• Protestors felt the draft system was unfair. • College students could delay draft until after

graduation.

• Low-income & limited education youth had to serve.

• Result: poor people and minorities, especially black Americans, were called to fight the war.

• Many draftees refused to serve.

• Others moved to Canada and other nations.

A lottery system was created to try to make the draft more fair, but lower income Americans still made up the greater percentage of young men who fought the war.

• By 1968 the nation seemed divided into two camps – the doves and the hawks.

• The doves wanted the United States to withdraw from the war.

• The hawks felt the United States should stay and fight.

1968: The Pivotal Year

• On January 30, 1968, during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack known as the Tet Offensive.

• Guerrilla fighters hit American bases in South Vietnam as well as the South’s major cities.

• Militarily, the Tet offensive was a disaster for the Communists, but it was a political victory that turned more Americans against the war.

• The President’s approval rating plummeted.

• Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy entered the 1968 presidential race as “dove” candidates for the Democrat nomination.

EugeneMcCarthy

RobertKennedy

"I will not seek, and I will not

accept, the nomination of my party for another

term as your president."

• March 1968 - Johnson withdrew from the presidential race.

Four days later, Martin Luther King was

assassinated.

• Two months after that, in June 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

Washington, D.C. -- one of many cities that saw race riots in 1968….the “summer when American cities burned.”

• In August there was a clash between protesters and police at the Democrat National Convention.

• The nation seemed to be in a state of chaos.

Democrat NationalConvention -

Chicago, 1968

• The chaos benefited the Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon.

• Nixon promised to regain order and end the war in Vietnam.

• An Independent candidate, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, split the Democrat vote.

GeorgeWallace

RichardNixon

• Democrat presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey lost by more than 100 electoral votes.

• Richard Nixon became President.

Hubert Humphrey

Richard Nixonpresidency1969-1974

Nixon Moves to End the War

• President Nixon named Henry Kissinger Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, giving him authority to find a way to end the war.

• Kissinger used a policy he called linkage to improve relations with the Soviets and China which supplied aid to North Vietnam.

• He started up peace talks again with North Vietnam.

• Nixon began a policy of Vietnamization – gradual withdrawal of US troops in Vietnam.

• South Vietnam had to assume more of the fighting.

Turmoil at Home Continues

• In 1969 Americans learned of an event that further increased their feelings that this was a senseless war.

• An American platoon led by Lieutenant William Calley killed more than 200 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai.

• 1970 - American troops invaded Cambodia to destroy Vietcong military bases.

• Americans viewed this as an expansion of the war. A wave of protests followed.

• Result: Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that had given thepresident near totalpower in directingthe war.

↵

• 1971 - former Defense Department worker, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press.

• Secret document showed that many government officials had privately questioned the

war while publicly defending it.

• Also showed how the various administrations had deceived the public about Vietnam.

Americans: “Have we been lied to all along?"

The United States Pulls Out of Vietnam

• By 1971 nearly two-thirds of Americans wanted us OUT of Vietnam.

• Nixon dropped the insistence that North Vietnam withdraw from South Vietnam.

• A month before the 1972 presidential election, Kissinger announced that peace was near.

• Nixon won re-election in a landslide.

George McGovern Democrat

Richard Nixon Republican

The 1972 Presidential Election

• Peace talks broke down when South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, refused any plan leaving N. Vietnamese troops in S. Vietnam.

Nguyen Van Thieu

• U.S. began a bombing campaign that led to the resumption of peace talks.

• On January 27, 1973, the sides agreed to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam.

• After eight years at war, the longest in American history, the United States ended its direct involvement in Vietnam.

• March 1975 - the North Vietnamese army launched a full-scale invasion of the South.

• Thieu asked for U.S. help.

• Nixon had resigned after the Watergate scandal; new president, Gerald Ford, asked Congress to supply aid.

• Congress refused.

• On April 30, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, united Vietnam under Communist rule, and renamed Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City.

The Legacy of Vietnam

• The war had cost over $170 billion in direct costs and had resulted in 58,000 deaths.

• Many soldiers who did return home faced psychological problems, and some families were left uncertain about POWs and MIAs.

• The 1973 War Powers Act reestablished limits on executive power.

• The Act required the president to inform Congress of any commitment of troops abroad within 48 hours and to withdraw them in 60 to 90 days unless Congress approved.

• The Vietnam War increased Americans’ cynicism about their government and made them question their leaders.

Click the Speaker button to listen to the audio again.

Reviewing Key TermsDefine Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

__ 1. policy of improving relations with the Soviet Union and China in hopes of persuading them to cut back their aid to North Vietnam

__ 2. a jellied gasoline used for bombs__ 3. member of an armed band that

carried out surprise attacks and sabotage rather then open warfare

__ 4. lack of trust or believability__ 5. someone who believed the

United States should continue its military efforts in Vietnam

A. guerrillaB. VietcongC. napalmD. credibility gapE. teach-inF. doveG. hawkH. linkageI. Vietnamization

CA

H

DG

Reviewing Key Terms (cont.)

Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

__ 6. an extended meeting or class held to discuss a social or political issue

__ 7. the guerrilla soldiers of the Communist faction in Vietnam, also known as the National Liberation Front

__ 8. the process of making South Vietnam assume more of the war effort by slowly withdrawing American troops from Vietnam

B

I

E A. guerrillaB. VietcongC. napalmD. credibility gapE. teach-inF. doveG. hawkH. linkageI. Vietnamization

Reviewing Key Terms (cont.)

Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the left.

__ 10. a person in favor of the United States withdrawing from the Vietnam War

F A. guerrillaB. VietcongC. napalmD. credibility gapE. teach-inF. doveG. hawkH. linkageI. Vietnamization