Download
1 / 39
390 likes | 396 Views
“President Johnson did not want the Vietnam War to broaden. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone.” - William Westmoreland. A group of porcupines is called a prickle. The Vietnam War: America Goes to War. 1960-1969. Kennedy's Escalation: 1960-63.
E N D
“President Johnson did not want the Vietnam War to broaden. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone.”- William Westmoreland A group of porcupines is called a prickle.
The Vietnam War: America Goes to War 1960-1969
Kennedy's Escalation: 1960-63 • When Kennedy became President in 1960 he was concerned only with S.U. (rockets and space), Euro., and Latin Am. despite Eisenhower’s warnings about Viet. • In June 1961, JFK bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev when they met in Vienna over key U.S.-Soviet issues. • Cold war strategists concluded SE Asia would be one of the testing ground where Soviet forces would test the U.S containment policy.
Kennedy's Escalation: 1960-63 • In 1961, Kennedy faced a 3-part crisis: • The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion • The construction of the Berlin Wall • A negotiated settlement between the pro-W. gov. of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement • During the crises Kennedy believed that another failure on the part of the U.S. to gain control and stop communist expansion would fatally damage U.S. credibility with its allies and his own reputation. Kennedy determined to 'draw a line in the sand' and prevent a communist victory in Viet.
Kennedy's Escalation: 1960-63 • Kennedy's policy towards S. Viet. rested on the assumption that Diem and his forces must ultimately defeat the Viet Minh guerrillas on their own; he was against the deployment of Am. combat troops. • The quality of the S. Viet. military, however, remained poor - bad leadership, corruption and political interference all played a part in weakening the Army of the Republic of Viet. (ARVN). • The frequency of guerrilla attacks and Hanoi's support for the NLF also played a significant role, but S. Viet. gov. incompetence was at the core of the crisis. • In order to aid the situation, increased the number of U.S. military advisers in S. Viet. from 700 to 12,000.
The Strategic Hamlet Program • The Strategic Hamlet Program initiated in 1961 was a joint U.S.-S. Viet. program attempted to resettle the rural pop. into fortified camps. • The aim was to isolate the pop. from the insurgents, provide education and health care, and strengthen the gov.'s hold over the countryside. • The Strategic Hamlets, however, were quickly infiltrated by the guerrillas; the peasants resented being uprooted from their ancestral villages. • Corruption dogged the program and intensified opposition, gov. officials were targeted for assassination; the program collapsed 2 years later.
Coup and Assassinations • During the summer of 1963, some policy-makers in Washington began to conclude that Diem was incapable of defeating the communists and began discussing the possibility of a regime change. • The CIA began to be in contact with generals planning to remove Diem. They were told that the U.S. would support such a move. • President Diem was overthrown and executed along with his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, on Nov. 2, 1963; Kennedy was shocked, he did not support an assassination. • Following the coup, chaos ensued: Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the guerrillas, S. Viet. entered a period of extreme political instability as one military gov. toppled another in quick succession. Increasingly, each new regime was viewed as a puppet of the Ams.
Diem and Nhu www.coldwarfiles.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=peo...
United States Goes to War: End of 1963–1968 • Lyndon Johnson, more concerned with his great society and social progressive programs, did not consider Viet. a priority as he took over the presidency after the death of Kennedy. • On Aug. 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, on an intelligence mission along N. Viet's coast, was attacked by torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. • A second attack was reported 2 days later on the USS Turner Joy and Maddox in the same area; the circumstances of the attack were murky. • The second attack led to retaliatory air strikes, prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave the president power to conduct military operations in SE Asia without declaring war.
United States Goes to War: End of 1963–1968 • The National Security Council recommended a 3-stage escalation of the bombing of N. Viet. • On March 2, 1965, following an attack on a U.S. Marine barracks at Pleiku, Operation Flaming Dart and Operation Rolling Thunder commenced. • The bombing campaign, which ultimately lasted 3 years, was intended to force N. Viet. to cease its support for the NLF by threatening to destroy N. Viet.'s air defenses and industrial infrastructure. It was also aimed to increase the morale of the S. Viet. • Between March 1965 and Nov. 1968, "Rolling Thunder" deluged the N. with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs. • Bombing was not restricted to N. Vietnam. Other aerial campaigns, targeted different parts of the NLF, including the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which ran through Laos and Cambodia. The objective of forcing N. Viet. to stop its support for the NLF, however, was never reached.
Troops on the Ground: 1965 • After several attacks, it was decided that U.S. Air Force bases needed more protection; the S. Viet. military seemed incapable of providing security. • On Mar. 8, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were dispatched to S. Viet - this marked the beginning of the Am. ground war. • U.S. public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment. Public opinion, however, was based on the premise that Viet. was part of a global struggle against communism. • The U.S. troops were supposed to be in a defensive position, but when they suffered heavy losses, they switched to an offensive one.
Troops on the Ground: 1965 • Operation Starlite was the first major ground operation by U.S. troops and proved largely successful. • U.S. soldiers engaged in search-and-destroy missions. • Learning from their defeats, the NLF began to engage in small-unit guerrilla warfare, instead of conventional Am.-style warfare; this allowed them to control the pace of the fighting, engaging in battle only when they believed they had a decisive advantage. • The guerrillas benefited from familiar terrain, a degree of popular support and from the fact the U.S. troops were unable to tell friend from foe. • Control over a certain portion of the population gave the guerrillas access to manpower, intelligence and financial resources.
LBJ Is In a Pickle • Despite calls from the Pentagon to do so, LBJ refused to mobilize Reserve units - He feared a political backlash. • This led to larger draft call ups (553,000 by 1969) and the extension of some tours of duty. It also put a heavy strain on U.S. forces committed to other parts of the world. • The average U.S. serviceman was 19 years old. This compares with 26 years of age for those who participated in WWII; soldiers served a one year tour of duty. • The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor" in its dealings with the media – good news only = lower public trust. • In Oct. 1967 a large anti-war demonstration was held on the steps of the Pentagon. Some protesters were heard to chant, "Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" • One reason for the increase in the opposition to the Vietnam War was larger draft quotas.
Tet Offensive • Having lured U.S. Gen. Westmoreland's forces into the hinterland at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri Province, in Jan, 1968, the PAVN and NLF broke the truce that had traditionally accompanied the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday. • They launched the surprise Tet Offensive in the hope of sparking a national uprising. Over 100 cities were attacked, including assaults on General Westmoreland's headquarters and the U.S. embassy in Saigon. • Although the U.S. and S. Viet. were initially taken aback by the scale of the urban offensive, they responded quickly and effectively, decimating the ranks of the NLF.
National Chief of Police Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executes an NLF officer in Saigon during the Tet Offensive.
Tet Offensive • In Nov. 1967 Westmoreland spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson admin. to bolster flagging public support. • In a speech before the National Press Club he said that a point in the war had been reached "where the end comes into view." Thus, the public was shocked and confused when Westmoreland's predictions were trumped by Tet. • The Am. media, which had been largely supportive of U.S. efforts, rounded on the Johnson admin., for what had become an increasing credibility gap. • Despite its military failure, the Tet Offensive became a political victory and ended the career of LBJ, who declined to run for re-election. • The Tet Offensive was the turning point in Am.'s involvement in the Viet. War; it had a profound impact on domestic support for the conflict.
After Tet • On May 10, 1968, despite low expectations, peace talks began between the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of Viet. • Negotiations stagnated for 5 months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of N. Viet. The Democratic candidate, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, was running against Republican former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Through an intermediary, Nixon advised Saigon to refuse to participate in the talks until after elections, claiming that he would give them a better deal once elected – no peace progress for LBJ. • Historian Robert Dallek writes, "Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps … cost 30,000 American lives by the time he left office, (and) destroyed Johnson's presidency …" His refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was Johnson's admission that the war was lost.
