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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs. Lesson 18: The Navy, Vietnam and the Limited War, 1964-1975. Learning Objectives. Know the Navy’s roles in the Vietnam War (1964-1974) Comprehend the impact of the Vietnam War on the Navy’s force structure under Admiral Zumwalt during the Nixon administration.
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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs Lesson 18: The Navy, Vietnam and the Limited War, 1964-1975
Learning Objectives • Know the Navy’s roles in the Vietnam War (1964-1974) • Comprehend the impact of the Vietnam War on the Navy’s force structure under Admiral Zumwalt during the Nixon administration. • Recall the reasons for the relative decline in the U.S. naval preeminence from 1962-1977. • Comprehend the differing naval policies of the U.S. and the Soviet Union and how those differences affected their resulting force structure.
Republic of Vietnam (South) U.S. Ally Capital: Saigon Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North) Communist Capital: Hanoi
Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) • Succeeds Kennedy as President after his assassination in Dallas in 1963. • Increases U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. • High level of restrictions put on military planners by his administration. • Concerned with “Great Society” and domestic politics.
Robert S. McNamara • Secretary of Defense in Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. • Use of mathematical models to calculate required military force in Vietnam. • Attempted to avoid escalation of the war by putting restrictions on military operations.
Tonkin Gulf Incident - 1964 • U.S. Seventh Fleet operating off Vietnam coast • Surveillance and covert operations against North Vietnam • Destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy: • Night attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats reported • Evidence supports North Vietnam’s claim that no torpedo boats were present in the area • Carrier strikes ordered in retaliation
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution • LBJ requests authority from Congress to increase U.S. involvement • Congressional approval for the President to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack” in Vietnam • Made him look good against Barry Goldwater
Escalating Intervention - 1965 • Johnson Administration goes to work after the election • MACV- Military Assistance Command Vietnam • Overall- General William Westmoreland • Naval Advisory Group • Sea Force • River Force • Junk Force • Task Forces • Ground war of attrition against North Vietnam begins.
Retaliatory strike on enlisted barracks FLAMING DART TF 77 (CVs) ROLLING THUNDER TF 77 (CVs) North Vietnamese bombing campaign MARKET TIME TF 115 (WPBs, PCFs) Coastal Interdiction GAME WARDEN Mekong Delta Interdiction TF 116 (PRBs) SEALORDS Interdiction in Mekong Delta on Cambodia border TF 194 (PRBs)
Westmoreland and LBJ Cam Ranh Bay 23 DEC ‘67 WESTY’s STRATEGY: “SEARCH AND DESTROY” MEASUREMENT: BODY BAGS
“Rolling Thunder” • Theory: punish north until it stops supporting V.C. in South • Reality: lasted intermittently un 31 OCT 68 • Interrupted by 7 bombing halts which North used to rebuild • 304,000 fighter bombers and 2,380 B-52 sorties • Evaluation
“Rolling Thunder must go down in the history of aerial warfare as the most ambitious, wasteful, and ineffective campaign ever mounted. While damage was . . . done to many targets in the North, no lasting objective was achieved. Hanoi emerged as the winner of Rolling Thunder.” (CIA analyst quoted by COL Harry Summers, USA, Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War, p. 96)
Douglas A-1 Skyraider - AD or “Able Dog”“Spad” or “Sandy” Flew close air support missions in Vietnam.
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk • Navy and Marine light attack aircraft in Vietnam.
A-6A Intruder • Introduced in Vietnam. • Navy and Marine carrier- or land-based medium bomber. • Evades enemy radar by low level flight.
F-4 Phantom • U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter aircraft flown in Vietnam on fighter and attack missions
Soviet-built MiG-19 • Used by North Vietnamese Air Force to defend against U.S. attacks during the Vietnam War.
May 1965: Naval shore bombardment begins against South Vietnam as supplement to air strikes; in support of military operations along the coast; first since Korean War. NGF, USS Carronade
Overall Conclusions on Naval Aviation • Cost were too high • Results were uncertain • POW suffering N. Vietnam SAM sites
Coastal Patrol Force: Operation “Market Time” (March 1965- December 1972)
“Market Time” • Coastal interdiction of supplies moved from N. Vietnam to South Vietnam by small boats, etc. • Improvised Force • 84 PCF armed with .50 cal machine guns and 81-mm mortar. • Destroyers, destroyer escorts, minesweepers • Coast Guard Cutters • Not unlike North’s blockade during Civil War!
Evaluation as outstandingly effective: “From January to July 1967, Market Time forces . . . inspected or boarded more than 700,000 vessels in South Vietnamese waters. Except for five enemy ships [sighted during Tet] . . . no other enemy trawlers were spotted from July 1967 to August 1969.” (COL Harry Summers, USA, Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War, p. 150)
Cautious evaluation: “There are no statistics to show what MARKET TIME did not interdict. At the very least, MARKET TIME forced the enemy to be even more inventive and creative in bringing into the South the tools of war.” (Symonds, Historical Atlas, p. 210) .50 caliber machine guns of PCF
S. Viet “Junk Boat Force” operating during Market Time Certain evaluation: Forced North Vietnam to expand and rely more heavily on the overland Ho Chi Minh Trail running south through Laos and Cambodia.
Mobile Riverine Force of the “Brown Water Navy” Operation “Game Warden” (December 1965- September 1968
Brown Water Navy • Deny use of Mekong River and tributaries • Specially designed and improvised small craft • 50 FT, aluminum hull fast patrol craft (PCFs), .50 cal and 81-mm • 31 ft, fiberglass, river patrol boat. ~ 25 knots • Monitors, armored troop carriers (ATC) • Highly Dangerous • Less effective and more costly than coastal interdiction • Turned over to S. Vietnamese during “Vietnamization” in Feb 69
Tet and Its Impact (30 Jan 1968 – 20 Jan 1969) “The Turning Point in the War”
Tet Offensive -- January 1968 • Conceived by N. Vietnam’s General Vo Nguyen Giap, architect of Dien Bien Phu (1954 defeat of France) • Combine attack by N Vietnamese and Vietcong • Goal: popular uprising (failed) • Achieve Dien Bien Phu- like tactical battlefield victory for propaganda purposes • Scope • Struck at 36 of 44 provincial capital and military bases (most notably, Hue and Khe Sanh) • 100 other villages
“What the Hell’s Ho Chi Minh Doing Answering Our Saigon Embassy Phone. . . ?” Paul Conrad, Los Angles Times, 1968 General Vo Nguyen Giap Former history teacher
TET in and near Saigon 0245 Jan. 31 - 7 Mar. 1968 NVA and VC attack city-wide, especially against US Embassy and MACV HQ (Gen. Westmoreland), near Tan Son Nhut airbase. Also at Bin Hoa airbase (NE of Saigon), busiest in world. (875,000 landings & takeoffs per year) Enemy repulsed by strategic/ tactical foresight of LGEN Fred C. Weyand, veteran of China-Burma- India campaign, WW II
“We fought from house to house and street to street. When we had to go inside a house we’d just shoot inside with our rifles and then the M-60. Then we had to go up into the house and make sure they were dead. We didn’t have no flame-throwers. I didn’t see no tanks in Saigon. They didn’t have things like you see in the movies on TV about World War II. It surprised me.” -------U.S. soldier A Vietcong (VC) corpse lies on the US Embassy grounds in Saigon shortly after the Tet attack. (U.S. Army photo)
Marines in the Tet Offensive • Hue City • Ancient capital of Vietnam. • Held by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for 26 days. • Retaken by Marines and South Vietnamese forces. • Street fighting from house to house. • Khe Sanh • Important base in northern South Vietnam near DMZ. • 6,000 Marines under siege by 20,000 North Vietnamese Army regular troops. • Supplied by air drops and supported with air strikes. • Eventually abandoned.
