Johnson's Vietnam War Legacy: A Closer Look at US Involvement & Withdrawal

1. Chapter 28

3. Contextualising Johnson and Vietnam • Why the USA got involved in Vietnam • Johnson’s role in the Vietnam War • Johnson and the Anti-War movement • The impact of the Vietnam War on the USA (1963–68) • Why the USA lost the Vietnam War • Why the USA withdrew from Vietnam President Johnson

4. Timeline of Johnson and US Involvement in Vietnam War 1963(November) President Kennedy assassinated; Johnson became President 1964 (August) Gulf of Tonkin Incident Tonkin Resolution Johnson re-elected President 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder – air bombardment of North Vietnam US Marines land at Da Nang (South Vietnam) – first US combat troops 1965–67 Growth of US forces to over half a million (January) Tet Offensive in South Vietnam (March) My Lai Massacre 1968 Johnson ordered partial halt to bombing of North Vietnam; proposed peace talks; announced he would not seek re-election Paris peace talks began 1969 (January) Nixon became President of US

5. Background • Truman • Support for French in Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) • Against Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh • Policy of containment (following Truman Doctrine) • Eisenhower • Domino Theory • Sent first military advisers • Geneva Agreement – four countries • US support for Ngo Dinh Diem • Saw it as Cold War conflict • Kennedy • Domino Theory • Policy of containment • Financial aid • More military advisers – 16,000 by 1963 • Strategic Hamlet Programme – failure • Diem assassinated

6. THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND Can you identify the four Presidents? What is the message of the cartoon? Four Presidents entangled in Vietnam.

7. Johnson and Vietnam Source 2 – Johnson’s Speech ‘Most of the nations of Asia cannot by themselves and alone resist the growing might and grasping ambition of Asian Communism. Our power, therefore, is a vital shield. And an Asia so threatened by Communist domination would imperil the security of the US itself. Moreover, we are in Vietnam to fulfil one of the most solemn pledges of the American nation. Three Presidents over 11 years have promised to help defend this small and valiant nation. We cannot now dishonour our world.’ Speech by President Johnson in 1965 Source 4 – Lessons from Munich ‘We learned from Hitler at Munich that success only feeds the appetite of aggression.’ President Johnson Factors Influencing Johnson’s Policy: Source 3 – Phone Call • Domino Theory • Policy of containment • US credibility • Military solution • Followed Kennedy • NSAM 273 • NSAM 288 ‘I don’t think it’s worth fighting for and I don’t think we can get out. I don’t see that we can ever hope to get out of there once we are committed. It’s just the biggest damn mess.’ President Johnson in a private phone conversation in 1964

8. 1964 Presidential Election Barry Goldwater, Republican • Wanted ‘total victory’ – hawk • Proposed use of atomic bomb Lyndon Johnson, Democrat • A candidate of peace ‘We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.’

9. Johnson’s Choice Withdraw from Vietnam OR Commit huge numbers of US troops What happened at the Tonkin Gulf? Source 5 –Johnson’s Version of Tonkin Source 6 –Tonkin Gulf Resolution ‘The initial attack on the destroyer Maddox, on August 2, was repeated today by a number of hostile vessels attacking two US destroyers with torpedoes. The destroyers and supporting aircraft acted at once on the orders I gave after the initial act of aggression. We believe at least two of the attacking vessels were sunk. There were no US losses.’ President Johnson’s television address, 4 August 1964 ‘ … Whereas naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international water, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace …’ Extract from ‘The Tonkin Gulf Resolution’, 7 August 1964, in the Pentagon Papers

10. Source 7 –Why did Johnson Escalate the War? Source 14 –Memo from Secretary of Defense McNamara Johnson’s decisions were based on complicated political and military considerations. LBJ steered a middle course: The ‘hawks’ in Congress and in the military wanted him to engage in massive bombing of enemy cities, threaten to use nuclear weapons, and even threaten to invade North Vietnam. This might have led to Chinese entry into the war, as had happened in the Korean War, or even Soviet engagement. ‘Doves’ in Congress, the State Department, and even Vice President Hubert Humphrey wanted Johnson to negotiate with Hanoi for a ‘neutral’ South Vietnam and eventual reunification with the North. The President’s ‘middle way’ involved a commitment of U.S. ground forces, designed to convince the regime in Hanoi that it could not win, and some punishing bombing campaigns, after which serious U.S. negotiations might ensue. Kent Germany, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina, Lyndon B. Johnson: Foreign Affairs How did the ‘hawks’ and ‘doves’ differ? Was Johnson more a ‘hawk’ or a ‘dove’? ‘With the situation continuing to deteriorate (in 1965), McNamara wrote a decisive memo in late July. It laid out three options: “cut our losses and withdraw,” “continue at about the same level,” or “expand promptly and substantially the U.S. pressure.” … He recommended the third. It would lead to “considerable cost in casualties and material” but would “offer a good chance of producing a favourable settlement in the long run.”’ Quoted in J. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States 1945–74

11. Escalation of the War, 1965–68 • Operation Rolling Thunder – bombing of North Vietnam • Ground forces – Da Nang (1965) Source 8 – Johnson’s view Source 9 – Johnson and Advisers ‘We have kept our guns over the mantle and our shells in the cupboard for a long time now. I can’t ask American soldiers out there to continue to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.’ President Johnson at a meeting with his top advisers, February 1965, after the attack on a US air force base in which eight soldiers were killed President Johnson meets with advisers in the Cabinet Room of the White House (May 1967)

12. The Four Points Source 10 – Summary of North Vietnamese Four Points for Ending the War, 1965 Withdrawal of the US military from South Vietnam. Neutrality of North and South Vietnam pending their reunification. The organisation of South Vietnam based on the programme of the Vietcong. The peaceful reunification of Vietnam without foreign intervention. Why, do you think, would Johnson reject these Four Points?

13. The Fighting • Search-and-destroy • Operation Cedar Falls • Body counts/kill ratios • Bombing forests of South Vietnam – napalm and defoliants • Huge tonnage of bombs • Helicopters • Free fire zones • Better South Vietnamese army • Short service of US troops The role of helicopters The role of bombers

14. Guerrilla Warfare What difficulties were posed by guerrilla warfare? Source 12 – The Effects of Booby Traps Pulaski tripped on a booby trap, and it blew the hell out of him. Evidently, the enemy stole the explosives or something. The explosion blew one leg off about midway between the knee and the groin, and the other leg was blown off at the calf. The explosion left his body naked. A US soldier’s description of what happened to a fellow soldier

15. Source 13A – A Soldier in Vietnam Source 13B – An Officer in Vietnam Seven months later, I found myself in Vietnam (1966) (after volunteering). What I found in Vietnam, however, was not at all what I had been taught to expect. The American people had been told that we were defending a free democracy. What I found was a military dictatorship rife with corruption and venality and repression. The premier of South Vietnam openly admired Adolf Hitler. Buddhist priests who petitioned for peace were jailed or shot down in the streets. Officials at every level engaged in blatant black-marketeering at astronomical profit and at the expense of their own people. And the government was clearly devoid of the support of the vast majority of the Vietnamese people. Source: W. D. Erhart, In the Shadow of Vietnam, Essays 1977–1991, McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2011 We have seen the creation of a new empire by North Vietnam. We have seen Laos occupied by the North Vietnamese government. We have seen Cambodia robbed and starved by Cambodian Communists and then occupied by the North Vietnamese. We were right to resist terror and war being inflicted on a poor and backward people. The South Vietnamese government had many faults, but Ho Chi Minh and his Communist Party have left a trail of cruelty, famine and tyranny. I maintain in the face of all accusers that we who served in Vietnam did so when our only thought was duty and our only cause was freedom. Source: David Donovan, Once a Warrior King; Memories of an Officer in Vietnam, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985

17. Progress of the War What is the main conclusion you would draw from this source?

18. Progress of the War Source 19 – Johnson Listens Source 17 Source 18 – Student slogan against the Vietnam War Hey! Hey! How many kids did you kill today?

19. Declining Support for the War

20. The Anti-War Movement • Largely confined to university students at the beginning Reasons for anti-war protest • War taking away money from Johnson’s Great Society • Vietnam War a civil war so US should not intervene • US had no interest in South-East Asia • War is morally wrong • Influence of television – ‘living room war’ – the way the US was fighting the war • Rise in casualties • Fear of call up for draft Casualties and Opinion on the Vietnam War ‘The war wasn’t really popular in 1964, it just wasn’t unpopular. By 1965 the marches and teach-ins began … there was plenty of opposition to the war without the casualties. But the casualties were the kind of thing that was oppressive. The letters that had to go out to the families; the funerals that were observed when you’d cross [Arlington] Memorial Bridge [Washington] every day. It was getting so that by 1966 and 1967 one could meet people whose sons or husbands had died or had been seriously wounded in Vietnam. In 1964 and 1965 this was a very rare thing. And it was then that the reality of this war came home.’ Chester Cooper, National Security Council staff, Interview, March 1982

21. Which of the following factors were most influential in leading to a decline in support for the war? (see also The Anti-War Movement, pp. 366–69) • The war is morally wrong. • The war is going on too long. • US casualties are increasing. • America has nothing to gain. • American is fighting against Vietnamese independence. • The war is costing too much. • The Great Society is losing out. • Blacks are being discriminated against. • Vietnamese civilians are being killed. • Media coverage showed how soldiers suffered. • America cannot win the war. • America is breaking the rules of war. • The middle classes are escaping the draft.

22. The Tet Offensive, 1968 • Vietcong and North Vietnamese surprise attack • Undermined Johnson’s claims of winning the war • A credibility gap developing • US army commanders looked for another 200,000 soldiers • War taking away resources from Great Society • Large vote for Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire Democratic primary election • Television and the impact of the war • Spread of anti-war movement

23. Johnson’s Approval Rating

24. Johnson changes policy • Doubts about military solution • Calls partial halt to bombing of North Vietnam • Withdrew from presidential race • Beginning of peace talks in Paris • Complete halt to bombing of North Vietnam • No final peace before Johnson left office in January 1969

27. Conclusion – Johnson and the Vietnam War • Role of US Presidents in shaping foreign policy • Growing power of US President • Impact of foreign policy on domestic policy and the Great Society • Johnson withdrew from presidential election • Impact on US economy – budgetary deficits and inflation • Johnson expanded small-scale war to full-scale war – 30,000 dead, 200,000 casualties while he was president • Limits of US military technology against guerrilla campaign • Caused great divisions in US society – anti-war movement and supporters of US involvement in the war • Johnson distracted from foreign policy issues elsewhere

28. Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam? • US view of war as part of Cold War v. Nationalist Vietnamese • Conventional v. Guerrilla warfare • Failure to win hearts and minds • Failure of US bombing • Anti-war movement/press and TV coverage • Cost of war/impact on US economy • Weakness of South Vietnamese government and forces • North Vietnamese resistance • Chinese and Soviet help • Role of Tet Offensive

32. Structured Essay Plans Write paragraphs based on these plans