US involvement in Vietnam: THREE STAGES

1. US involvement in Vietnam:THREE STAGES • Financial assistance to the French (1946-54) • US Puppet regime in So. Vietnam and Covert Action (1954-1964) • Direct Military Engagement (1964-1973)

2. US views the Vietnam situation… • Through a COLD WAR lens • DOMINO THEORY

3. The Vietnamese view the situation … • As a struggle for INDEPENDENCE • Imperialism in Vietnam means that Vietnamese are likely to view any interference by US as an attempt to colonize and control the country, as the French had for the past 80 years.

4. First Indochinese War1946-1954 A Preview of Things to Come

5. General Vo Nguyen Giap • Chief of the Viet Minh forces fighting French colonial rule and later the Americans – Architect of Vietnamese strategy and tactics

6. Giap’s Three Stages of Struggle • Building the Base • Guerilla Warfare • Mobile Warfare

7. First Stage:Tactics for establishing the base • Situate headquarters in mountainous, difficult terrain for meetings, supplies and refuge • Viet Minh win hearts and minds of peasantry • Beat/Assassinate landlords/tax collecters • Redistribute land holdings • Education/literacy campaigns • Help with farming • Viet Minh gain • Taxes • Supplies • Intelligence • Porters

8. Second Stage:Tactics of Guerilla Warfare • Pin-prick attacks meant to frustrate the enemy into dispersal and low morale, inciting reprisals • Reprisals drive civilians to VM for support and guidance, increasing their popularity and strength • Guerilla “Pin-Prick” tactics • Sabotage (road cutting, damage to vehicles, poison) • Traps (homemade bombs, trip wires, pungi sticks, pit traps) • Terrorism (attacks on civilian targets, R&R sites) • Camouflage (local vegetation, holes, tunnels)

10. The biggest tunnel systems were in the Iron Triangle and the Cu Chi District, only 20 miles from Saigon. This map gives an idea of the extent of the tunnel system at Cu Chi--the orange lines represent major tunnels. The base area at Cu Chi was a vast network, with nearly 200 miles of tunnels

12. Third Stage:Tactics of Mobile Warfare • By 1949, China had begun to equip the Viet Minh with automatic weapons, mortars, howitzers, trucks • Guerilla infrastructure allows for Viet Minh to move more quickly and more stealthily to carry out open warfare

13. The Geneva Peace Conference: Ending the French War in Vietnam Viet Minh, France, United States, Britain, USSR, China

14. Outcomes • France has lost the war and Vietnam will be an independent country • Partition of Vietnam into North and South along 17th parallel • Ho Chi Minh’s government will continue to rule in the North • French-friendly gov’t will rule in South as French slowly pack up and move out • General, democratic elections will be held in two years, July of 1956, to reunify the country into a single, sovereign state

15. Vietminh United States • US fearful of such a victory • Refuses to sign agreement • If communists win, then US loses. What? Confident of electoral victory

16. 1954 to 1963 • United States supports the anti-Communist Ngo Nguyen Diem as the president of South Vietnam. • US gives over $1.5 billion in aid to South Vietnam. • 80% of these dollars go to the military. • S. Vietnam is essentially a creation of the US • US “defending the independence of the South Vietnamese government.”