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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War. 22 Gia Long St., Saigon, 1975. Maps of French Indochina. Vietnam: Historical Background. Vietnamese people: resisted Chinese control for a millennium, French colonialism in the 19 th and 20 th century, and U.S. power in the 20 th century

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The Vietnam War

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  1. The Vietnam War 22 Gia Long St., Saigon, 1975

  2. Maps of French Indochina

  3. Vietnam: Historical Background • Vietnamese people: resisted Chinese control for a millennium, French colonialism in the 19th and 20th century, and U.S. power in the 20th century • French colonial policies violently uprooted Vietnamese society • Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969): “father of the Vietnamese revolution,” helped found the French Communist Party, worked for the Communist International in 1920s and 1930s, organized the Vietminh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) in World War II to resist Japanese and French presence, proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 by quoting from the American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man [Source:Vietnamese Declaration of Independence] • During World War II the Vietminh worked with the Office of Strategic Services to liberate Vietnam from the Japanese: rescuing downed airmen and passing intelligence [Sources: Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Summary and Chapter I and Advising the Viet Minh]

  4. The First Indochina War, 1946-1954 • 1946: outbreak of French-Vietminh war after the French high commissioner in Saigon declared the Republic of Cochinchina a separate state, and after the breakdown of a negotiated compromise agreement between the French and Ho Chi Minh • Eight-year guerilla war, including the 1947 French aerial bombing with napalm (jellied gasoline mixture, incendiary weapon), ended with decisive French defeat at Dienbienphu in 1954 • Dienbienphu: General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated French garrison with 15,000 soldiers (many elite paratroopers); major military victory of a non-European colonial independence movement against a modern Western occupier; Eisenhower administration refused air strike to break the siege • By 1954 U.S. paid about three-quarters of the financial cost of the French war against Ho Chi Minh; between 1950 and 1954 the U.S. gave $3 billion in aid to the French; U.S. sent 300 men as part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group • April 5, 1954: President Eisenhower coined “domino theory” [Source: Domino Theory]

  5. Eisenhower and Diem • Military Intervention Debated: President Eisenhower vs. Sec. of State John Foster Dulles and Vice President Richard Nixon • American Military Divided: Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan Twinning (for atomic bomb) vs. Army Chief of Staff Matthew Ridgeway (air power does not equal victory) • 1954 Geneva Conference: temporary division of Vietnam at 17th parallel; national elections in 1956 [Source: Geneva Conference] • After 1955: U.S. supported government of Ngo Dinh Diem even though it had little support in South Vietnam; U.S. provided $300 million per year (mostly for South Vietnamese military) and up to 740 uniformed U.S. soldiers; Diem refused to hold elections • December 1960: National Liberation Front [NLF] (the Communist Party’s vehicle for armed insurgency against Diem); Diem and American officials called the NLF “Vietcong” although it was not entirely communist. Was NLF part of civil war in South Vietnam? [Source: NLF] • Did U.S. intervene in South Vietnam after 1954 because it had been defeated politically at Dienbienphu? • Illusion of Nation Building: military security over economic and political reform [Example: Lansdale Report , Lansdale to Diem, Lansdale Bio]

  6. Kennedy and Diem • JFK increased U.S. support to South Vietnam: $41.1 million in military aid in 1961; military advisors grew from 900 in 1961 to 16,700 in 1963 • JFK’s Cold War Optimism: counter-insurgency [defense against armed or unarmed rebellion] to save American troops [Relevance: 2006 Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Crane, Counterinsurgency Paradoxes] • Strategic Hamlet Program (1961-64): South Vietnamese peasants were uprooted and concentrated in fortified villages to counter Vietcong political and military influence [Source: Failure of Strategic Hamlet Program] • 1963 Buddhist Crisis: self-immolation of Buddhist monks to protest Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu (head of the government’s police and security forces) • 1963 Military Coup against Diem and Nhu: South Vietnamese killed both brothers; U.S. intelligence agents knew of plotting, but did not warn Diem • If JFK had lived, would he have withdrawn? Not in light of his 1961 inaugural address to “bear any burden” in defense of liberty [Sources: JFK Audio, JFK Speeches]

  7. Malcolm W. Browne’s Photo:Burning Buddhist Monk, Thich Quang DucSelf-Immolation (June 11, 1963) Malcolm W. Browne Digital History Website

  8. “Johnson’s War” ? A Closer Look at 1964 • LBJ as reluctant warrior: LBJ did not want war, but pledged to build on Truman’s, Eisenhower’s, and Kennedy’s military containment policies. LBJ in early 1964: “This country was built by pioneers with an ax in one hand and a rifle in the other.” [Source: Gardner, 103] • LBJ as New Dealer, January1964: “I got a lotta problems. I’ve got a brazen Communist attempt to conquer Asia on my hands. I’ve got Negroes revolting in America … I got troubles in Central America that the people don’t even know about. I gotta figure out how to pay for these fucking wars and keep my commitment to feed, educate, and care for the people of this country.” [Source: Gardner, 104] • In his mind, LBJ’s “unconditional war on poverty in America” hinged on victory in Vietnam • Dec. 1963-July 1965: LBJ sought victory in South Vietnam and expanded JFK’s limited commitment into an open-ended one • Aug. 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident: LBJ argued that North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. ships were unprovoked and widened the war [Source: National Security Archive] • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed Congress 416-0 in House and 88-2 in Senate: gave LBJ a blank check for war; Democratic Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska dissented [Sources: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Senate Debate, Norman Solomon] • Senator J. William Fulbright, who had supported the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, later said: “I don’t normally assume a President lies to you.”

  9. Interactive Vietnam War Map

  10. Vietnam War Escalation, 1965-1968 • Operation Rolling Thunder: U.S. retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam after an NLF attack on American barracks in Pleiku (Feb. 6, 1965); between 1965-1967 U.S. dropped more tonnage of bombs on Vietnam than the Allies dropped on Europe in World War II; only Undersecretary of State George Ball opposed air war at the time • Land War: first two battalions of U.S. Marines deployed in March 1965; peak level in April 1969 with 543,400 soldiers in Vietnam • April 1966: for the first time, more Americans than South Vietnamese were killed in action • Bombings probably killed a ratio of two civilians to one Vietminh; search-and-destroy operations on the ground perhaps killed as many as six civilians for each Vietminh • Attrition Strategy: developed by Gen. William Westmoreland, aimed at destroying enemy forces faster than they could be replaced; Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara’s emphasis on “body count” led to inflated accounts and targeting of civilians [Tip: McNamara Symposium] • Casualties (1961-1973): 58,193 U.S. deaths; 635,357 South Vietnamese (military and civilian deaths); 916,000 North Vietnamese (military and civilian deaths)

  11. Tet—The Turning Point 1968 • Tet: North Vietnamese surprise offensive in January 1968, hit 36 of 44 provincial cities and 100 villages, including the American embassy in Saigon, Khe Sanh (U.S. Marine base besieged), Ben Tre (a Pyrrhic victory—as one American officer stated, ”it became necessary to destroy the town to save it”) • Tet: a tactical failure, yet a strategic success for Hanoi, given its psychological impact on U.S. antiwar movement and media • Feb. 1, 1968: NBC news showed a film clip of Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of South Vietnam’s national police, pointing a gun at the head of a Vietcong lieutenant who had just murdered a South Vietnamese colonel, his wife and their six children; newsman John Chancellor called it “rough justice on a Saigon street” as the general pulled the trigger; the U.S. public was horrified • March 31, 1968: LBJ announced in a television address that U.S. would halt the bombing, begin peace negotiations, and that he withdrew himself as a candidate for reelection [Source: Johnson Speeches]

  12. Edward T. Adams’ Pulitzer Prize Photo“Viet Cong Execution” (February 1, 1968) Newseum

  13. Atrocities • Violence against civilians as intentional tactic of war • Vietcong utilized terrorism to solicit cooperation from the Vietnamese; Vietcong guerrillas assassinated or kidnapped thousands of local officials, priests, teachers, and other “counterrevolutionaries” • U.S. policy of bombing with high explosives and napalm created many civilian deaths—some accidental and some intentional • My Lai Massacre (March 16, 1968): largest single American atrocity; U.S. Army infantry company killed 504 unresisting women, children, and old men; officers in charge tried to cover up; only one officer, Lieutenant William Calley, received judicial punishment [Tip: S. Hersh] • Hue Massacre (Tet Offensive, 1968): North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong occupied Hue and executed those connected with Americans; 2,810 bodies found in mass graves and 3,000 residents missing • Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994): “Healing from trauma depends upon communalization of the trauma—being able to safely tell the story to someone who is listening and who can be trusted to retell it truthfully to others in the community.” [p. 4]

  14. Nixon’s War, 1968-1974 • Nixon sought “peace with honor” by negotiating for peace while escalating the war at the same time • Vietnamization: reduction of American troops in South Vietnam; by 1971 down to 139,000 (protests at home continued) • June 1971: Pentagon Papers leaked to press; secret 20-year summary of war revealed superficiality and lack of candor in U.S. Vietnam policy; strengthened case for ending the war • Secret Bombing of neutral Cambodia (1969-1973), naval blockade of North Vietnam, and continued bombing of Vietnam (on average one ton of bombs dropped each minute). Example: Linebacker II or “Christmas Bombing” (Dec. 18-29, 1972) dropped 20,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam [Explore: Henry Kissinger—Hero or Villain?] • January1973: Paris Peace Accords, formal ending of American war in Vietnam, but fighting in Vietnam continued; U.S. left CIA and military advisers in Saigon, pulled last combat troops out of Vietnam in March 1973, and continued bombing in Cambodia until August 1973 • War Powers Act (Nov. 1973): Congress limited president’s war powers, funded fighting only for 60 days in an undeclared war • February 1974: begin of North Vietnamese offensive against South Vietnam • April 1975: Saigon came under North Vietnamese control and was renamed Ho Chi Minh City—Vietnam reunified, war ended

  15. Huynh Cong Ut’s Pulitzer Prize Photo“Vietnam—Terror of War” (June 8, 1972) Huynh Cong Ut

  16. Why did the United States fail in Vietnam? • “Vietnam Syndrome:” American unwillingness to exercise its power vs. military containment doctrine and domino theory • Lack of presidential support for military: General Westmoreland criticized LBJ for moving too slowly and Nixon for conceding to 1973 ceasefire; 82% of Vietnam veterans believed they were not allowed to win • “Limited War:” Lack of American public support for widening the war, i.e. occupation of North Vietnam and ground war in Cambodia and Laos • American underestimation of Vietnamese determination and willingness to suffer casualties • U.S. put itself in a no-win situation; lack of a political base in South Vietnam; GIs rarely spoke Vietnamese; in his 1999 memoir A Rumor of War Philip Caputo characterized Vietnam as “a formless war against a formless enemy” • Misuse of military power: Army War College instructor Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr. told a Vietnamese colonel after the war, “You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield,” to which the colonel replied, “That may be so, but it is irrelevant.”

  17. Recommended Readings • David L. Anderson, ed., Facing MyLai: Moving Beyond the Massacre (1998) • David L. Anderson, The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War (New York, 2002) • Dixee Bartholomew-Feis, The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies in the War Against Japan (UP Kansas, 2006) • Fox Butterfield, “Getting it Wrong in a Photo” New York Times (April 23, 2000) • Denise Chong, The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War (New York, 2000) • Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955) • Mason Drukman, Wayne Morse: A Political Biography (1997) • Lloyd Gardner, Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam (Ivan Dee, 1995) • George Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 , 3rd ed. (McGraw-Hill, 1996) • Seymour Hersh, My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and its Aftermath (1970) • Seymour Hersh, The Price of Power:Kissinger in the Nixon White House (1983) • Christopher Hitchens, The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001) • Robert D. Johnson, Ernest Gruening and the American Dissenting Tradition (Harvard UP, 1998) • Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2006 (2008) • Robert McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (1997) • Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2005) • Cyma Rubin and Eric Newton, eds., The Pulitzer Prize Photographs (The Freedom Forum Newseum, 2000) • Marilyn Young, Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 (1991) • Miller Center of Public Affairs - Vietnam War Bibliography

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