The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War

• Americas Longest War

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Beginnings

• Following WWII, President Truman began to help
  the French
• They wanted to regain their colony
• Called it French Indochina

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Opposition

• Communists
• Led by Ho Chi Minh
• Resistance groups called Viet Minh

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Final Battle

• 1954
• Dien Bien Phu
• Country divided at 17 N
• Communists controlled the north
• Democracy in the south

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Vietnam
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Leaders

• Communist North
• Ho Chi Minh

• Democratic South
• Ngo Dinh Diem

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Elections

• The agreement said free elections were to take
  place within two years to reunite the country
• Never happened
• South Vietnam and the US refused to allow it

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War again

• Civil war begins again when no elections are held
• Opposition now called the Vietcong
• North Vietnamese Army (NVA) also supported by
  Soviets

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Continued US involvement

• President Eisenhower 1953-1960
• Rejected sending troops and use of nuclear
  weapons
• President Kennedy 1961-1963
• More advisors
• 3200 in 1962
• 16,300 in 1963

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Kennedy, continued

• Trained S. Vietnamese troops
• Increased equipment supplies
• Covert military operations

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President Johnson1963-1968

• Said he did not want Vietnam to be his failure
• Didnt want to lose it to communism like Truman
  had lost China Korea

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Turning Point

• Gulf of Tonkin incident
• August, 1964
• US ships attacked off Vietnamese coast
• President Johnson warned of grave consequences
  for further aggression
• Two days later, alleged second attack
• Possible radar malfunction

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The Resolution

• President Johnson announced retaliatory measures
• Asked Congress for authority
• He was given permission to use any means
  necessary

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• The escalation began
• War never officially declared
• Helped Johnson win the 1964 Presidential election

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Early Tactics

• Continued training of S. Vietnamese to do the
  fighting
• Continued covert missions
• Limited bombing attacks
• All had little effect

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First Troops

• Arrived in March, 1965
• Draft instated
• Quickly followed by seven more battalions
• 1st enlisted women arrived in 1967

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Conflicting Advice

• Undersecretary of State George Ball warned that
  no amount of US troops could defeat the Viet Cong
• Majority of presidential advisors supported major
  attack on N. Vietnam

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Tactics Change

• Using deaths at Pleiku as excuse, President
  Johnson orders immediate reprisal

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Operation Rolling Thunder

• Campaign of gradually intensifying attacks
• Bombing runs on Hanoi and other northern targets
• Hoped to make the deployment of ground forces
  unnecessary

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Troop Increases

• Johnson said only two battalions were being
  assigned to protect air bases
• Six weeks later 50,000 US troops were in Vietnam

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• November 1965165,000 US troops
• Mid-1966431,000 US troops

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Strategy

• War of attrition
• Continued bombing would eventually exhaust North
  Vietnams resources
• Military commanderGen. William Westmoreland

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In the South

• Plan was to inflict both moral and military
  defeat on the Vietcong

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Terrain

• Tall grass
• Jungle
• Swamps
• Mountains
• Etc.

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• US supported a series of repressive leaders in S.
  Vietnam
• Only requirement was that they be anti-communist
• Lacked support from the Vietnamese people

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Results

• Destroyed society and culture
• Devastated agriculture, economy, and the
  environment
• Gave political power to the communists

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Chemical Warfare

• Deforestationtrying to destroy the jungle so
  that the Vietcong would have no place to hide

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Chemicals used

• Agent Orangecode name for a herbicide effective
  against broad leafed foliage common in Vietnam
• Napalmincendiary jellied gasolinesticks to
  everything it touches

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Growing Dissent

• Opposed Johnsons military policies
• Felt he was deceiving the American people
• Protested the draft
• Etc.

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1968

• Johnson announced he would not run for
  re-election
• Robert Kennedy was the leading Democratic
  contender until his assassination in Los Angeles

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Reporting

• Vietnam became the living room war
• Growing critical commentary on the war
• Showed the nightmarish effects on the national
  news

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Congressional Criticism

• Most vocal critic was J. William Fulbright who
  had personally helped pass the Gulf of Tonkin
  resolution, but had decided that Vietnam was
  unwinnable

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Costs

• 21 billion per year
• Over 47,000 US battle deaths
• Over 153,000 US wounded
• Etc.

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• Vietnam was the longest and most costly of any US
  war to date
• It was the only war weve lost to date
• Many Americans question whether it was worth it

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THE END