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I. The Vietnam War (1959-75). The ‘Cold War’ gets HOT !. Ho Chi Minh – communist Vietnamese leader. The French War in Indochina: At the end of WWII Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh (the Vietnamese nationalist force) took over the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam independent (1946).
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I. The Vietnam War (1959-75) The ‘Cold War’ gets HOT !
Ho Chi Minh – communist • Vietnamese leader. The French War in Indochina: • At the end of WWII Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh (the Vietnamese nationalist force) took over the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam independent (1946). • French were unwilling to give up their claims in Indochina because of the valuable resources like tin, rubber, and rice. • Faced a formidable foe in Ho and the Vietminh who did not want foreign rule. • Vietminh practiced guerilla warfare.
U.S. Support for the French • 1950 – Truman agreed to send $20 million to the French. • Practices the policy of containment – opposing communism wherever it appeared in an effort to “contain” its spread. • In May 1954 the Vietminh overran Dien Bien Phu and it ended French control of Vietnam • In 1956, representatives from the U.S., France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Laos, Cambodia, and the Vietminh agreed that Vietnam would be divided at the 17th parallel and then reunified in 1956 after national elections.
B. Domino Theory – If Communists won in Vietnam, other nations in SE Asia would fall. U.S. President Eisenhower. The U.S. did not sign the agreement for fear that if South Vietnam became communist, other nations of SE Asia would do likewise (the Domino Theory). Vietnam in a Civil War.
U.S. hoped Ngo Dinh Diem (1955-63) would be the savior of South Vietnam: Nationalist, Anti-communist, and refused to weaken the ruling class, thereby infuriating the peasants. • Discontent among the peasants with Diem made it easy for Vietminh to gain support in South Vietnam. • Vietminh and other groups in South Vietnam who oppose Diem form the National Liberation Front (the Vietcong, aka VC) = close ties with Ho Chi Minh, China, and the Soviet Union.
C. JFK expands U.S. role in Vietnam (1963). 1. Sends advisers and $. Instead of using the $ for schools, hospitals, and land reform, Diem pads the pockets of corrupt Saigon officials. No significant military victories over the Vietcong.
D. President Johnson increased combat troops (1965). • Johnson did not want Vietnam to fall to communism like China. • Surrounded himself with JFK’s foreign policy team (Sec. of State Dean Rusk, Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara, and NSA McGeorge Bundy. The Vietnam War was one of the most divisive wars in the history of the U.S. The war divided generations, families, and classes. All told, the United States lost over 58,000 men and women in a fruitless struggle to halt the spread of Vietnamese nationalism, while spending anywhere from $112 to $155 billion to defeat North Vietnam.
E. ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ Resolution (1965) – Gave LBJ legal authority to increase involvement. • August, 1965 – LBJ announced N. Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked two U.S. destroyers patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin. • Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. • Gave LBJ the authority to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” • Gave LBJ authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in SE Asia. • The Johnson administration subsequently cited the resolution as legal authority for its rapid escalation of U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam conflict. • LBJ failed to tell the public that American warships had been helping South Vietnamese commandos raid 2 North Vietnam islands the night of the attacks.
Feb. 1965, VC forces attacked a U.S. military base at Pleiku, South Vietnam killing 8 Americans. • LBJ orders bombing of major bases, roadways, and railways including the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” (a supply line of dirt roads and trails which supplies flowed from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
By the end of 1965, more than 180,000 Americans were in South Vietnam. • By the end of 1967, nearly 500,000 soldiers had been sent to Vietnam.
At first, Americans were optimistic of ending the war quickly. • High VC body counts led many to believe the U.S. was winning the war. • Underestimated the VC and North Vietnamese allies. “You can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.” -- Ho Chi Minh
Bombing cost fewer lives than ground combat; U.S. relied heavy on air power. • 108,000 bombing raids in 1967. • Bomb roads, railways, factories, & homes in South Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia. • By 1967 the U.S. had dropped more bombs on Vietnam than the Allies dropped during WWII. • To evade the bombs, the VC developed an extensive network of underground tunnels. A U.S. EB-66 Destroyer and four F-105 Thunderchiefs dropping bombs on North Vietnam.
The Vietcong tunnels
Viet Cong base camp after an attack. • Miserable conditions. • Suffocating heat, mosquitoes, leeches, etc. • Muddy trails. • “Bouncing Betties.” • Farmers by day, VC by night - did not know who the enemy was (card game).
Guerrilla Tactics – Vietnamese avoided • open battles. • 1. Ambushes, hit-and-run raids, • sabotage. • VietCong had 2 advantages:1. They knew the terrain, 2. Support of the peasants who supplied them with food, shelter, and intelligence. • U.S. Pacification program – uprooting entire villages and forcing the people to move to cities or refugee camps surrounded by barbed wire and then the troops burned the fields and empty villages (Upset the peasants). • Troops also tried development projects where they offered medical care and farming advice. But it was too little, too late. The Vietcong were masters at moving through & blending into the local terrain.
G. The Tet Offensive (1968) – VC attack started lunar new year day. National Chief of Police Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executes an NLF officer in Saigon during Tet. Images of the killing shocked the world. The Tet Offensive is widely seen as the turning point of the war.
Average soldier was 19 years old. • Faced a daily horrors – mud, heat, booby traps, and an invisible enemy. • Agent Orange. Burning draft cards.
Anti-war demonstration. Kent State (Ohio) May 4, 1970. During a protest, four students were killed by the Ohio State National Guard.
The Paris Peace Accord of 1973 started the withdrawal of U.S. troops. • The war claimed 58,000 U.S. combat dead and the lives of between 2 and 5.1 million Vietnamese, a large number of whom were civilians. • On July 2, 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was declared. • In 1977, President Jimmy Carter issued a pardon for nearly 10,000 draft dodgers. Vietnam civilians try to board an Air America helicopter on an apartment rooftop in Saigon, April 29, 1975. This is perhaps the most famous image from the Fall of Saigon. All told, the United States lost over 58,000 men and women, spending up to $155 billion to defeat North Vietnam.
H. The Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) – group ruling Cambodia. 1. Led by dictator Pol Pot. Some of the Khmer Rouge leadership during while in power. Pol Pot is at left. Cabinet full of skulls. Vietnam falling to Communism led Laos & Cambodia becoming Communist. The ‘Killing Fields’ of Cambodia were mass graves; up to 2 million were murdered. Most were killed with pickaxes, hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks to save ammunition. Suspected of being “enemies of the state.”
Vietnam was to America what the Spanish war was to Napoleon. • It was a futile attempt to keep South Vietnam from falling under Communist influence. • What started as assistance, led to a full-blown conflict involving nearly half a million U.S. troops and billions of dollars worth of equipment and arms. • The conflict lasted some 10 years and it only ended in 1975 with America withdrawal aid Communist troops conquering South Vietnam.
