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Vietnam: In Search of a Strategy

This lesson explores the timeline of events leading to the major US troop deployments in Vietnam in 1965 and the discussions surrounding the decision to escalate the war. It also covers the evolution of US objectives and strategy for the Vietnam War.

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Vietnam: In Search of a Strategy

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  1. Vietnam: In Search of a Strategy

  2. Lesson Objectives •  Understand the timeline of events that led to the decision for major U.S. troop deployments to Southeast Asia in 1965. •  Be able to articulate the issues and discussions surrounding the 1965 decision to escalate the war in Vietnam. •  Understand the evolution of U.S. objectives and strategy for the Vietnam War.

  3. Review Timeline The Stage is Set * North Vietnamese Army

  4. Review Strategy of Revolutionary War Phase I: Targeted state stronger militarily • Revolutionaries avoid combat • Guerrilla war: raids, ambushes, sabotage, terrorism • Political conflict predominant Phase II: Rough military parity • Combined guerrilla and conventional war • Military and political conflict equally important Phase III: Revolution stronger than targeted state • Revolutionary forces go to totally conventional war • “General Offensive” linked to political “Great Uprising”

  5. Review Viet Minh Strategy As Used In First Indochina War Strategy of Revolutionary War Objective: The seizure of power in a nation-state … … by any means possible Characteristics: • Integrated military conflict and political conflict • War on multiple fronts • Geographical • Programmatic

  6. Review North Vietnamese Strategy Viet Minh Strategy As used In First Indochina War Strategy of Revolutionary War Objective: The seizure of power in a nation-state … … by any means possible Characteristics: • Integrated military conflict and political conflict • War on multiple fronts • Geographical • Programmatic … just as they used against the French in the First Indochina War!

  7. Strategy of Revolutionary War As applied to the Vietnam (Second Indochina) War Timeline 1954-1965: Phase I(targeted state stronger) • 1961-1965: Heated Politburo debate on transition

  8. Timeline 1961 Kennedy ordered 2,530 more advisors to South Vietnam 2,530

  9. Timeline May 61 Kennedy ordered 2,530 more advisors to South Vietnam 11 Dec 61 US Army helicopters arrived in South Vietnam Mar 62 USAF personnel began “training” ops in VNAF aircraft

  10. US Advisors (to Army of the Republic of Vietnam - ARVN) ( First 1:26 )

  11. US Advisors (to Montagnard irregulars)  (5:00)

  12. Early Air Operations (2:03 – 8:00)

  13. The Vietnam War Operation Ranch Hand Defoliation Spray Missions

  14. UC-123B in VNAF Markings

  15. Aircraft Markings VNAF USAF

  16. Operation Ranch Hand ( 7:37 – 9:02 )

  17. Timeline NVA troops begin moving into South Vietnam 1960 1961 Kennedy ordered 2,530 more advisors to South Vietnam 11 Dec 61 US Army helicopters arrived in South Vietnam Mar 62 USAF personnel began “training” ops in VNAF aircraft Mar 62 RVN initiated Strategic Hamlet Relocation Program

  18. Timeline NVA troops begin moving into South Vietnam 1960 1961 Kennedy ordered 2,530 more advisors to South Vietnam 11 Dec 61 US Army helicopters arrived in South Vietnam Mar 62 USAF personnel began “training” ops in VNAF aircraft Mar 62 RVN initiated Strategic Hamlet Relocation Program May 62 VC began battalion-sized operations (Central Highlands) 1 Aug 62 Kennedy signed Foreign Assistance Act of 1962 • Provided assistance to countries under Communist attack

  19. Timeline NVA troops begin moving into South Vietnam 1960 1961 Kennedy ordered 2,530 more advisors to South Vietnam 11 Dec 61 US Army helicopters arrived in South Vietnam Mar 62 USAF personnel began “training” ops in VNAF aircraft Mar 62 RVN initiated Strategic Hamlet Relocation Program May 62 VC began battalion-sized operations (Central Highlands) 1 Aug 62 Kennedy signed Foreign Assistance Act of 1962 • Provided assistance to countries under Communist attack

  20. Timeline 3 Jan 63 Battle of Ap Bac: VC inflicted major defeat on RVN force • First time VC units had held their own against ARVN • Significant setback for US faith in Diem government

  21. Battle of Ap Bac January 3, 1963 Green: Rice growing area

  22. Timeline 3 Jan 63 Battle of Ap Bac: VC inflicted major defeat on RVN force • First time VC units had held their own against ARVN • Significant setback for US faith in Diem government May- Aug 63 Buddhist unrest, repression in South Vietnam Monk Self-Immolation Hué, RVN June 11, 1963

  23. Diem vs. Buddhists

  24. Timeline 3 Jan 63 Battle of Ap Bac: VC inflicted major defeat on RVN force • First time VC units had held their own against ARVN • Significant setback for US faith in Diem government May- Aug 63 Buddhist unrest, repression in South Vietnam Aug-Oct 63 Kennedy Administration discusses options for Diem 1 Nov 63 CIA-supported ARVN coup overthrows Diem • Diem and this brother killed by ARVN

  25. Timeline 3 Jan 63 Battle of Ap Bac: VC inflicted major defeat on RVN force • First time VC units had held their own against ARVN • Significant setback for US faith in Diem government May- Aug 63 Buddhist unrest, repression in South Vietnam Aug-Oct 63 Kennedy Administration discusses options for Diem 1 Nov 63 CIA-supported ARVN coup overthrows Diem • Diem and this brother killed by ARVN 22 Nov 63 President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas

  26. John F. Kennedy May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963

  27. US Locked In General William C. Westmoreland, who seven months after Diem's assassination replaced General Paul Harkins as commander of MACV, summed up the consequences of President Kennedy's involvement. “In his zeal, the young president made a grievous mistake in assenting to the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963,” Westmoreland said. “In my view that action morally locked us in Vietnam. If it had not been for our involvement in the overthrow of President Diem, we could perhaps have gracefully withdrawn our support when South Vietnam's lack of unity and leadership became apparent.” Why It Was Impossible for the U.S. to Stay Uninvolved Col. William Wilson, USA (Retired) Vietnam Magazine, April 1997

  28. Situation 1964 White House concerned about the 1964 election Staffers realized current advising strategy was not succeeding • Predicted North Vietnamese takeover that year • Hoped to stave off collapse until after election Fredrik Logevall “Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam” Presidential Studies Quarterly, March 2004 Link

  29. Timeline Mar 64 Secret CIA bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos began • Civilian pilots (Air America) flying old U.S. aircraft May 64 LBJ staff begins drafting Congressional support resolution • Temporarily shelved due to lack of support in Senate Summer 64 Guerilla warfare spreading throughout South Vietnam • Now supported by NVA regulars 2-4 Aug 64 Gulf of Tonkin Incident

  30. Timeline Mar 64 Secret CIA bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos began • Civilian pilots (Air America) flying old U.S. aircraft May 64 LBJ staff begins drafting Congressional support resolution • Temporarily shelved due to lack of support in Senate Summer 64 Guerilla warfare spreading throughout South Vietnam • Now supported by NVA regulars 2-4 Aug 64 Gulf of Tonkin Incident 7 Aug 64 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress • Authorizes president to use force to protect U.S. forces • President orders retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam

  31. Tonkin Gulf Incident

  32. Tonkin Gulf Incident

  33. Tonkin Gulf Incident Jul 65 US & Vietnamese navies conducting special operations along N Vietnam coast 

  34. Tonkin Gulf Incident Jul 65 US & Vietnamese navies conducting special operations along N Vietnam coast Destroyer USS Maddox providing support and conducting electronic intelligence gathering

  35. Tonkin Gulf Incident

  36. Tonkin Gulf Incident

  37. Tonkin Gulf Resolution

  38. Tonkin Gulf Incident Robert McNamara (2002) Players: Admiral Sharp: Ulysses Simpson Grant Sharp, Jr., - CINCPAC. General Burchinal: David A. Burchinal - Director, Joint Staff, JCS Excerpt from The Fog of War (5:47)

  39. Timeline 16 Oct 64 China explodes its first nuclear weapon I Nov 64 VC attack Bien Hoa Air Base • First attack on Americans; five Gis killed 3 Nov 64 Lyndon Johnson elected to presidency by landslide

  40. Attacks on US Airfields I Nov 64 VC attack Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigom • First attack on Americans; five Gis killed 6 Feb 65 VC attack US base at Pleiku (central Highlands) • Eight Americans killed, ten aircraft destroyed President orders air strikes against North Vietnam 7 Feb 65 • Operation Flaming Dart continues to 24 Feb 65 7 Mar 65 President authorizes Operation Rolling Thunder • Progressively escalating air attack against North Vietnam • Dual military and political objectives • Ran until 2 Nov 68

  41. Operation Rolling Thunder Battlefield Vietnam Ep 10 (YouTube – 4:54)

  42. Support for Buildup “Even in the aftermath of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, as the Johnson administration began increasing troop levels in Southeast Asia, … 45 percent of Americans wanted to stay the course in Vietnam,” … 36 percent wanted to 'step up the war by carrying the fight to North Vietnam,' for example, through more air strikes against communist territory, … while only 19 percent supported pulling out. In short, by a large margin, Americans demanded victory of their leaders ... A Lyndon Johnson, then, was acting with the full faith and support of his electorate. Joshua Zeitz "1964 - The Year the Sixties Began" American Heritage, October 2006 Source

  43. LBJ’s Dilemma “In later years [Johnson] lamented: 'I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved, the Great Society, in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, I would lose everything at home. All my programs. ... But if I left that war and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.’” Joshua Zeitz "1964 - The Year the Sixties Began" American Heritage, October 2006 Source

  44. The Great Society

  45. LBJ’s Dilemma Escalate or Withdraw

  46. Discussions on Escalation Feb 65 – Jul 65 Part 1 Feb-Mar 64 Part 2 May64 Part 3 Jun-Aug64 Part 5 Jun-Jul65 Part 4 Feb-Jun65

  47. Next: Vietnam: Great Society to Great Quagmire

  48. Lesson Objectives •  Describe and analyze the changes in the American home front and their impact on US conduct of the war prior to and after the Tet 1968 offensize. •  Describe and analyze the impact of technology in the Vietnam War. •  Describe and analyze the significance and history of the bombing campaign against North Vietnam. •  Be able to describe the Ho Chi Minh Trail and analyze its significance in the Vietnam War. •  Describe the operational and strategic significance of the Tet Offensive (1968) and analyze is impact on US foreign policy since.

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