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Vietnam was part of the French Empire in South East Asia. After the Second World War France was unable to control the area and withdrew in 1954. Vietnam was divided into two parts. The North was communist, the South was not.The US government had become involved in Vietnam before the French left in 1954, but in the following years US involvement became more and more significant. • At first US soldiers were there only as ‘advisers’, but increasingly they began to take part in the fighting.Why did the USA become so involved in Vietnam? What effects did the war have upon the USA?Why was the world’s most powerful army unable to defeat the Viet Cong? These are some of the issues that you will be considering.
Assignment One: Why and how did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s?
After the French were defeated in 1954, Vietnam was split in two - the north was Communist, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the south was Capitalist under Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem's regime received billions of dollars from the US but remained deeply unpopular with most Vietnamese people.
Why did America fight the War? • Basically to hold the line against the spread of world Communism. America paid for the war the French fought against Communist Vietnam as a part of the Truman Doctrine (1947) “to protect free peoples…” and then by the 1950’s became involved when the war flared up again.
By the late 1950’s the Americans developed the “Domino Theory” as a justification for the involvement. This theory stated, “If South Vietnam falls to the Communist, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Pakistan would also fall like dominos. The Pacific Islands and even Australia could be at risk”.
The US prevented the elections that were promised under the Geneva conference because it knew that the Communists would win. Vietnamese Buddhist monks protested against American involvement by self-immolation.
The administration of President John F. Kennedy remained committed to the bi-partisan, anti-Communist foreign policies inherited from the administrations of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.
Fearing that failure on the part of the U.S. to stop communist expansion would fatally damage U.S. credibility with its allies, Kennedy reaffirmed the commitment to defend Vietnam.
Operation Phoenix was organized by the CIA. This led to the arrest and murder of thousands of Communists in the south. First the US sent in military advisers, then President Johnson sent in troops in huge numbers.
The Kennedy administration was growing increasingly frustrated with Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of South Vietnam . In 1963, a crackdown by Diệm's forces was launched against Buddhist monks protesting discriminatory practices and demanding a political voice. Diem's repression of the protests sparked the so-called Buddhist Revolt, during which self-immolations by several monks took place and which were covered in the world press. The communists took full advantage of the situation and fueled anti-Diem sentiment to create further instability.
The U.S. embassy in Saigon communicated through the CIA to military officers that the U.S. would not oppose the removal of Diem. The president was overthrown by the military and later executed along with his brother.
Chaos ensued in the security and defense systems of South Vietnam and, once again, Hanoi took advantage of the situation to increase its support for the insurgents in the south. South Vietnam now entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military junta replaced another in quick succession.
By July 1964 the total US troop level in Vietnam was 21,000. On the evening of August 4 1964, the destroyer U.S.S. Maddox was conducting an electronic intelligence gathering mission four miles off the North Vietnamese coast when it was attacked by three torpedo boats of the North Vietnamese navy.
It was on the basis of the administration's assertions that the attacks were "unprovoked aggression" on the part of North Vietnam, that the U.S. Congress approved the Southeast Asia Resolution (also known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) on 7 August. The law gave the president broad powers to conduct military operations without an actual declaration of war.
Assignment Two: Describe the military tactics used by both the U.S. and the Viet Cong Forces in Vietnam in the 1960s?
US Tactics • Working closely with the Army of the South Vietnamese (Arvin’s) the Americans tried to make it difficult for the Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communists – ‘Victor Charlie’) to gain support from the South Vietnamese peasants. • ‘Strategic Hamlet’ attempted to place peasants in fortified villages at night, where they couldn’t be ‘infiltrated’. This backfired badly. It was very unpopular with the peasants who resented being so far away from their rice fields and ancestors. VC demolished many of the fortified villages anyway.
The Air War – Frustrated by lack of success on the ground, the US tried to win the war from the air. Operation Rolling Thunder that began with dropping millions of tons of High Explosive bombs on North Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh trail.
This was backed up by phosphorous and napalm bombs – the latter causing dreadful burns to thousand of innocent civilians.
When this failed to break down the jungle cover the USAF started ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ – the defoliation programm, using Agent Orange. This deadly chemical cocktail, containing dioxin, killed off millions of acres of jungle to try to weaken the VC – but left a horrendous legacy in Vietnam. The dioxin got into the food chain causing chromosome damage to humans. There were hundreds of cases of children born with deformities.
Of all aircraft, the helicopter (mainly Bell Huey) was the most useful, dropping platoons in the jungle clearings and out again. They were excellent air ambulances.
Vietnamese Tactics – • The Communist NLF (National Liberation Front) or "VC" used classic Maoist guerrilla tactics.
“Guerrillas must move through the peasants like fish through sea”, i.e. the peasants will support them as much as they can, shelter, food, weapons, storage, intelligence, recruits. • In VC held areas they distributed the land to the peasants, which went down extremely well. By 1973, the VC held about half of South Vietnam. • Their weapons were cheap and reliable - the AK47 Kalashnikov assault rifle out-performed the American M16, and the portable rocket launcher took out many US vehicles and aircraft.
They recycled dud bombs dropped by the Americans or old weapons left by the French.
Deadly booby-traps could inflict huge damage on young American conscripts!
The US countered with ‘Search and Destroy’ tactics. In areas where the VC were thought to be operating troops went in, checked for weapons and if found, rounded up the villagers and burned the villages down. This often alienated the peasants from the US/Arvin cause.
As one marine said of a search and destroy mission – “If they weren’t VC before we got there, they sure as hell were by the time we left”. The VC often helped the villager’s re-build their homes and bury their dead. • The Vietnamese built large tunnel complexes such as the ones at Cu Chi near Saigon. This protected them from the bombing raids by the Americans and gave them cover for attacking the invaders.
To counter this the Americans set up a special unit, the Tunnel Rats to seek out the Vietnamese fighters.
Assignment Three: Explain why there were such different reactions in the USA to the country’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict in the 1960s. Why did the U.S. get out of Vietnam?
Some continued to believe in the Communist threat. The Cold War was real and Communism must be stopped.
