The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War
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I. War in Southeast Asia

• A. 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

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A. The French War in Indochina

• 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
• War broke out in November 1946 when a French ship
  shelled Haiphong
• French controlled most of the cities and the
  Vietminh retreated into the countryside
• Vietminh practiced guerilla warfare

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1. 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
• Over the next 4 years, the U.S. gave more than
  2.6 billion to the French

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2. The End of French Rule

• 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

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B. The U.S. Enters the War

• 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)

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1. The Diem Regime

• U.S. hoped Ngo Dinh Diem would be the savior of
  South Vietnam
• Nationalist
• Anti-communist
• Aloof man,
• Autocratic rule
• Refused to weaken the ruling class, thereby
  infuriating the peasants
• 4 of every 5 the U.S. sent was spent on the
  military

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2. Civil War

• 1957 - Diem cancels elections with U.S. support
• Held a referendum in South Vietnam - claimed 98
  approval
• In Saigon he claimed 605,000 votes - only 405,000
  registered voters

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2. Civil War (continued)

• 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)
• Close ties with Ho Chi Minh, China, and the
  Soviet Union

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3. The Kennedy Years

• Kennedy expands the U.S. role in Vietnam
• 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

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4. The Overthrow of Diem

• May 8, 1963 - Buddhists gathered to protest a
  govt ruling forbidding the display of Buddhist
  flags and govt troops fired on them
• A month later a Buddhist monk immolated himself
  in protest of the Diem regime
• Nov. 1, 1963 - South Vietnamese army officers
  seized control of the govt and in the process
  Diem was killed

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C. Johnsons War

• Johnson did not want Vietnam to fall to communism
  like China
• Surrounded himself with JFKs foreign policy team
  (Sec. of State Dean Rusk, Sec. of Defense Robert
  McNamara, and NSA McGeorge Bundy

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A. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• 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

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Gulf of Tonkin (continued)

• 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.
• 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

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B. Operation Rolling Thunder

• 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

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C. U.S. Troops in 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

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IV. Fighting the War

• At first, Americans were very 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 menfor every one I kill of
  yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and
  I will win. - Ho Chi Minh

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A. The Air War

• Bombing cost fewer lives than ground combat so
  the U.S. relied heavy on air power
• 108,000 bombing raids in 1967
• Bomb roads, railways, factories, and homes in
  South Vietnam, Laos, and 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

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B. The Ground War

• 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)

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C. Guerilla Tactics

• Vietnamese avoided open battles
• 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

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Guerilla Tactics (continued)

• 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.

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D. The Endless War

• Average soldier was 19 years old
• Faced a daily horrors mud, heat, booby traps,
  and an invisible enemy
• Agent Orange