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The Fighting in Vietnam

The Fighting in Vietnam. Section 20.2. The War on TV. Body counts on TV every night First “living room war”. Goals of the War. No clear cut territorial goals Save S. Vietnam What is victory? US public confused and fatigued. Americanizing the War.

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The Fighting in Vietnam

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  1. The Fighting in Vietnam Section 20.2

  2. The War on TV • Body counts on TV every night • First “living room war”

  3. Goals of the War • No clear cut territorial goals • Save S. Vietnam • What is victory? • US public confused and fatigued

  4. Americanizing the War • Before Gulf of Tonkin, US troops served mostly as trainers and advisors • 2,500,000 will eventually serve • Average age of US soldiers: 23.1 years old • US troops now fighting a well supplied and well motivated Vietcong

  5. The First Problem: Who are we fighting? • Vietcong: Farmers during the day; guerilla soldiers are night • Patient, willingly to take many causalities • “The guerilla wins if he does not lose, the conventional army loses if it does not win.” – Mao Zedong • Peasants (not involved) are willing to hide those who are fighting

  6. Second Problem: How do you fight an invisible enemy? • Constant threat of booby traps • Punji stakes • Land mines (bouncing betties) • Tunnel systems

  7. Third Issue: What do you do with the Ho Chi Minh Trail? • Runs through Laos and Cambodia…two places not currently involved in the fighting…

  8. Fourth Problem: How do you win an emotional war with people who don’t want you there?

  9. US Strategies to Win • Pummel the North with continuous bombing • Agent Orange attacks to destroy the VC hiding places

  10. Evolving Strategy • Search and Destroy • Drive out the enemy from villages then call in air strikes • “It becomes necessary to destroy the town to save it.” – unidentified American soldier • Pacification • Effort to win the hearts and minds of the peasants • Villagers relocated then villages often destroyed

  11. Defoliation • Prevent VC and NVA from natural cover in jungles • Napalm • Sticky, jellied gas that covered large areas in flame • Hard to extinguish • Agent Orange • Chemical defoliant • Exposed the enemy and cut food supply to the VC

  12. Agent Orange • Possible linked to long term disorders suffered by US troops long after the Vietnam War

  13. Pleiku and Operation Rolling Thunder • VC attack US airbase near 17th parallel in Feb. 1965 • Johnson orders massive bombing of the North to stop supply lines to VC

  14. Escalation of the War • Sec of Defense Robert McNamara and Gen. William Westmoreland plan the war • Claimed to see the “light at the end of the tunnel” by 1967 • 1968: 536,000 troops in Vietnam • 1973: 6,000,000 tons of bombs dropped on enemies

  15. Women in Vietnam • 10,000 served in noncombat positions • 20,000-45,000 work in civilian capacities • Relief agencies • Red Cross • Sharon Lane • Lt. who was killed by shrapnel after the 312th Evacuation Hospital was hit by rockets • Awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism

  16. Ho’s Strategy in the Vietnam War • Attack the way a tiger attacks an elephant • If the tiger sits still, it will be crushed • But the elephant cannot catch it if it keeps moving…so bite and move • Bleed the elephant to death • Fight only when victory is assured, no large scale battles

  17. The Elephant Slowly Bleeds • US never loses a battle but can’t win the war • Slow bleeding and constant uncertainty in theater frustrates soldiers • VC accepted all losses in order to win

  18. Vietnam Becomes a Quagmire • S. Vietnam gov’t seen as corrupt and ineffective • Countryside feels neglected, sides with VC and North • Stalemate develops

  19. Political Missteps • War was micromanaged from Washington to “limit the scope” • North was never invaded • Didn’t want it to look like war for territory and draw in Soviets

  20. Morale Suffers • Disproportionate representation of poor people and minorities • Major drug problems of enlisted me • Officers in combat for 6 months, in rear for 6 months • Enlisted men stayed in combat for a year… • 25% excused for heath reasons • 30% get deferments (college) • 1969 attempt to reform (lottery) • 3% escape the draft (Canada) • Confusion and Anger

  21. Split in US Unity • In 1967, Hawks vs. Doves in US and Congress • Hawks see Domino Theory and Containment • Doves see a civil war, not the Cold War • 1967 – Sen. Fulbright, a Dove, holds public hearings on the war • Conducted between 1967-1971 • “Under our system Congress, and especially the Senate, shares responsibility with the President for making our Nation’s foreign policy…[Vietnam] started and continues as a Presidential war in which the Congress, since the fraudulent Gulf of Tonkin episode, has not played a significant role...”

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