Vietnam

CHA3U - Harris

Vietnam

• Post WWII –declares independence from France

• Leader – Ho Chi Minh • U.S. supports France• Refused to back Vietminh b/c of Ho’s

Communist background• 1949 – China falls to communism • 1950 – North Korea invades South• 1950s – Communist uprisings in

Indochina, Philippines, Malaya • Belief if Vietnam fell to communists

rest of SE Asia would soon follow

The Domino Effect

• “You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is a certainty that it will go over very quickly.”

• 1954 - U.S. paying for France’s war in Vietnam • French defeated forced to surrender in 1954• Vietnam divided along 17th parallel • U.S. rejects plans for general elections to reunify

country out of fear communists would win

Vietnam

• 1955 - U.S. rigs election in South Vietnam

• Install Ngo Dinh Diem as President

• Late 1950s armed revolution erupted in south

• 1959 – military assistance begins to trickle down from communist north to rebels in south

• 1960 – southern Vietminh form National Liberation Front - goal to over throw Diem

• Known simply as Vietcong

JFK

• Believed in Domino Effect

• 1960 – 900 U.S. military advisors in Vietnam to train Diem’s army

• Increases number to 16 000 and authorized U.S. forces to directly engage Vietcong

• 1961 – 14 U.S. casualties

• 1963 – 500 U.S. casualties

Diem’s Overthrow• Diem was waging brutal

crackdown on Buddhists• U.S. threatened to withdraw

support • U.S. “encouraged” group of

South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem

• November 1963 – Diem is assassinated

• JFK – “In the final analysis it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it”

• JFK assassinated two weeks later

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution• 1963 – Secretary of Defense

Robert McNamara advised LBJ he had to increase U.S. military commitment or south would fall to communists

• Needed permission from Congress

• U.S. Maddox attacked by north in Gulf of Tonkin - provoked/unprovoked?

• Congress passes Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• Authorized use of military force to prevent further aggression

• Gave LBJ war making powers w/out declaring war

The Draft• LBJ ordered Select Service to

begin military draft • April 1965 – 13 700 men drafted• More than 2 million Americans

would serve in Vietnam• Average soldier was younger,

poorer and less educated than in WWII

• 30% received deferments – postponements of service

• Most were for college enrollment - result?

• African and Hispanic Americans served in higher percentages

• Served in dangerous ground units

• African-Americans made up 24% of all fatalities

Operation Rolling Thunder

• LBJ believed air power could achieve quick victory

• Rolling Thunder – bombing campaign against military targets in north

• Goal was to weaken enemies will to fight

• Target was Ho Chi Minh Trail

Ho Chi Minh Trail

• Network of jungle paths• VC used it to bring

weapons/supplies into South Vietnam

• Bridges along trail – including those in Cambodia and Laos – were repeatedly bombed

• VC rebuilt them or managed w/out them

• 300 000 people worked full-time to maintain Trail

Operation Rolling Thunder

• 1967 - LBJ daily average of 800 tones of bombs on North Vietnam

• LBJ frustrated • Never produced desired

results• Rather than surrender VC

sent more troops and supplies into South

The Ground War

• 1965 -1967 – # of troops grew to 486 000• Aided by NV Regular Army, VC struck at

U.S. patrols, government held villages and then disappeared back into jungle

• U.S. conducted 1000s of search-and-destroy missions that attempted to drive VC out of hiding place

• Faced booby traps, snipers• Villages seldom remained cleared of VC

The Ground War

• Pacification – U.S. program where residents moved to secure locations and burned abandon village

• Daily body count of enemy dead became measuring stick for war

• Morale declined• Frustrated by VC

willingness to keep fighting • Victory was no closer in

1967 than it had been in 1963

Deadly Weapons

• U.S. used new weapons• Napalm – a jellied gasoline

used in firebombs• Cluster bombs – sprayed razor

sharp metal fragments when exploded

• Agent Orange – defoliant – stripped land of vegetation over thousands of acres

• Goal to expose jungle supply routes and enemy hiding places, and destroy VC food supply

The Tet Offensive • January 30, 1968 –

Vietnamese New Year• Holiday meant lull in

fighting…but…• Early morning VC and North

Vietnamese Army launched coordinated massive attack

• Struck 100 cities and 12 U.S. military bases

• Heavy fighting in U.S. strongholds of Saigon and Da Nang

• VC hoped Tet Offensive would bring down South government and they would be hailed as liberators

The Tet Offensive

• Clear VC defeat – lost 40000 at cost of 1100 American lives…but…

• Political effect was shocking

• Anchor of CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite called the war “unwinnable”

• LBJ – “If I’ve lost Cronkite I’ve lost middle America”

• Time and Newsweek call for end to war

Vietnamization

• Election of Nixon in 1968 – “peace with honor”

• National Security Advisor – Henry Kissinger

• Vietnamization – policy of gradually turning fight over to South Vietnamese and pulling out U.S. troops

• Hoped it would produce a stable non-communist South or delay defeat long enough to spare U.S. embarrassment

Nixon and Kissinger

• August 1969 – U.S. troops begin withdrawal

• Kissinger meets secretly w/ Le Duc Tho in Paris

• Nixon ordered wide spread bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia

• Wanted to show North U.S. was willing to expand war in “peace with honor”

• Nixon and Kissinger kept Cambodian air strikes secret from American people, Congress, military leaders and Sec. of the Air Force

Cambodia• Revolution ousted

Cambodian ruling party in 1970

• New regime was pro-American

• Nixon made strategy public • Justified air attacks as

defense of friendly nation• Sent 80 000 troops into

Cambodia• Destroyed countryside and

destabilized nation• Led to rise of Khmer Rouge

and Cambodian genocide

Kent State

• News of bombing and invasion of Cambodia provoked outrage in U.S.

• Ohio’s Kent State – fire set to the ROTC building

• May 4, 1970 – National Guard troops sent to control demonstrators shot randomly I into large group of students

• Killed 4, wounded 9• Some of the victims were just

walking across campus • Shocked nation

Pentagon Papers

• 1971 –NY Times began publishing collection of top secret government documents related to the war

• Leaked to Times by Daniel Ellsberg – a former Defense Department official

• Revealed government had mislead American people re: course of war

• Ellsberg had been strong supported of war until he visited Vietnam and seen effects of war up close

Madman Theory

• “I call it the Madman Theory. I want the North Vietnamese to believe that I’ve reached a point where I might do anything to stop the war. We’ll just slip the word to them that, ‘for God’s sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about Communists. We can’t restrain him when he is angry – and he had his hand on the nuclear button’ – and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.”

- Nixon to his Chief of Staff H.R. Haldimand

Cease Fire

• October 1972 – North Vietnam offered peace plan that Kissinger and Nixon found acceptable

• Cease fire• Pullout of all foreign troops from Vietnam • End of U.S. military aid• Creation of new government for South Vietnam• Nixon forced to reject plan when South Vietnam

protested • North Vietnam demanded that agreement be

reinstated

Christmas Bombing

• Nixon furious – orders Christmas bombing of Hanoi

• U.S. drops 400 000 tons of bombs b/w December 18-29

• 1600 civilians killed• Largest airstrikes launched by

U.S. since WWII• Talks resume • January 23, 1973 - both sides

announce peace plan• Almost identical to plan from

October of 1972

The Paris Peace Accords

• U.S. pledged to remove troops and help rebuild Vietnam

• Included POW exchange• Did not address political

future of South Vietnam• Nixon secretly promised

President Thieu U.S. would come to South Vietnam’s aid if fighting resumed

The Fall of Saigon• 1973 - U.S. forces withdrew• 1975 - South Vietnam’s

military government collapsed• April 1975 – U.S. military

rushed to evacuate thousands of Americans from Saigon

• Some escaped from roof of U.S. embassy – clinging to helicopter as North Vietnamese stormed compound

• 120 000 Vietnamese who had worked for U.S. flown to America

• April, 30 1975 – South Vietnam surrendered

The Cost of Vietnam

• Long, costly effort to prevent united independent communist Vietnam failed

• War spread to Laos, Cambodia

• Predicted collapse of SE Asia – The Domino Effect never occurred

The Cost of Vietnam

• 185 000 South Vietnamese soldiers killed• 500 000 South Vietnamese civilians killed• 1 million VC killed• 800 000 children orphaned• 181 000 children disabled• 2 million Americans served• 58 000 Americans killed• 300 000 wounded• 2500 MIA• 600 Americans held as POW• Cost American taxpayers $150 billion

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

• Washington D.C.• Inscribed on huge granite wall• are names of 58 000

Americans who died in Vietnam

• 10 feet high – 247 feet long • Names are in chronological

order• Tens of thousands of people

visit ever day• Some leave flowers,

mementos, messages

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial