HIST Vietnam War continue from devs of war tb pg 119

Who were the viet minh?

Leagye for independence of vietnam, nationalist movement that aimed to achieve independence.

Made up of communists who wanted to establish an independent communist state in vietnam and non communists who wanted to drive the japanese out of the vietnam in favour of self rule.

What was the aftermath of WW2 in Vietnam

The french came back wanting to rule vietnam, but faced resistance as the viet minh had not fough the Japanese to hand power back to the french.

What was the Battle of Dien Bien phu?

The viet Minh had cut off the french army’s supply lines and had defeated the French throughly.

What were the geneva accrods and when were they signed?

They were signed in May 1954, and it was decided that Vietnam would TEMPORARILY be split at the 17th parallel, communist dominated north vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and south vietnam under PM Ngo Dinh Diem.

Impt: It was agreed that the elections would be held to establish single government for unified vietnam.

Who refused to sign the Geneva accords?

The USA and SV. By ignoring the agreement and backing SV, US turned the conflict into a cold war battleground.

Why were the geneva accords singnificant?

reflected great power ambitions while seeming to repect vietnamese aspirations.

Eisenhower did not sign and misinterpreted the temporary ceasefire as a permanent deivison.

The agreement shows that communist giants were willing to sacrifice Ho Chi Minh, since both had persuaded Ho to retreat behind the 17th parallel.

Who was Ngo Dinh Diem and why did the US support him?

Anti-communist.

Significance for later: The US were willing to support an unpopular dictator if it helped the policy of containment.

What was the sentiment toward Ho Chi Minh

Ho was beloved, having fought against the japanese.

It was predicted by the CIA that he would most certainly win the 1956 elections over the Chief of state Bao Dai.

How was Diem’s regime percieved?

deeply unpopular and authoritarian, corrupt

Diem did not carry out land reform programme and wealth remained in the hands of landlords, despite US pressure that this would help to increase his popularity.

This resulted in the villages that lost their land to assasinate some saigon appointed officials. Diem responded by sending forces to raid and arrest villages.

He practiced nepotism, with key positions of power being held by his brothers.

What was the US’ involvement in the Diem Regime?

While the US was aware of the repression in SV, the continued to support his regime with 1.6 billion dollars and despite that the regime was weak and unstable.

What did Ho do in NV? [additionally, why was he well liked?]

He consolidated his hold in the North, introducing land reform policies that redistribute land from the landowners to poor peasents.

However, he was ruthless in dealing with opponents, with thousands of landowners being executed for resisting the land redistribution.

Why weren’t the elections of 1956 ever held?

Diem rigged a referendum in 1958 to make himself President SV (98% of the vote.)

Diem refused to hold the 56 national elections claiming NV would not allow free voting even though Ho had repeatedly asked to negotiate fair elections (and was refused by Diem)

The US backed his actions seeing him as a strong anti-communist ally.

Diem also cancelled village elections and added government leaders to prevent vietminh supports gaining power.

What was the south vietnam insurgency [recall dates]

from 1954 to 1960.

well educated and influential buddist monks protested by self immolation (which created more resentment towards Diem)

and other groups such as former vietminh members waged a low level campaign of harrassment and disruption to the regime

How did Diem react to the SV insurgency?

brutal crackdown Thousands of suspected communists were locked up and tortured + executed.

What did NV initially want, and how did the cruelty of Diem’s crackdown change that?

They had initially hoped for peaceful reunification without US intervention (seeing as USSR wanted to keep peaceful relations) and encouraged political and not vielent struggle in the south.

The killing of communists pushed them to act and by 1959, Hanoi sent thousands of trained fighters to outh to build a gruerilla movement.

How was the viet cong formed, and what was it’s purpose?

The national liberation front for south vietnam included SV opponents of the governments and communists under Ho’s control.

It was a united political military frint to overthrow diem, promote reform and reunite country.

what was the Ho Chi Minh trail?

created by the viet cong, it was a supply route through which NV army troops were sent.

What did the Viet cong do in the guerilla war against the SV government? date !!

From 1961 to 1963, NV army troops were sent into SV through the HCM trail, and they attacked SV governemtn forces and focused on making the countryside unsafe for SV governement officials. They also attacked USAF supply bases.

how did South vietnam respond to the guerrila fighter being sent up the HCM trail?

The strategic hamlet programme: relocating peasants to foritified villages away from viet cong. This allowed USAF and SV army to destroy vietcong w/o villagers in the crossfire.

What role did USSR initially play Ho’s NV and the development of their support?

in 1960s, USSR was cautious about getting involved tho they had supported the vietcong against the french and had supported the formation of viet cong. Unforch, the USSR and china relations shad declined (sino-soviet split).

However the USSR wanted to assert its leadership over china, and supporting a communist nation, and by late 1960s, the USSR was providing support to NV in the form of aircraft and air defense.

Why and how did china support NV?

Mao was concerned that the fall of vietnam to democracy would mean that China was surrounded and vulnerable to a US invasion. Hence, he was eager to support any communist sate that would create an anti US buffer in vietnam.

Also wanted to show loyalty to Ho and hoped that his leadership would unite the chinese people, esp since it had worked in korean war.

Why was the US initially involved in vietnam?

The domino theory: if vietnam fell to communism due to china and the ussr, the other asian countries would also fall/be vulnerable to the spread of communism.

However, developments such as the development of the China’ first atomic bomb, and political instability after Diem’s assassination,

President Johnson increases number of military advisers and economic assistance to keep SV non-communist.

What was the gulf of tonkin incident? why turning point? [not the maga one, but the question would apply even then]

NV patrol boats attacked the USS madox (a destroyer) in the gulf of tonkin.

US congress passed the Gulf of tonkin resolution, that allowed Johnson to take all nessecary measures to prevent further aggression.

Now, military troops were sent to fight in ‘nam, with allies like NZ, BRIT, SK and AUS sending soldiers.

What was the la Drang valley war? [date]

November 1965, It was the first major war of the US against the Viet cong.

Despite the superior US war power killing large numbers of vietcong, they were unable to win a clear victory.

From this point, neither power was able to drive the other completely out of vietnam, and the war developed into a stalemate.

Compare and contrast the military strtegy used by the viet cong and the USA in vietnam.

VC relied on guerrila warfare to avoid large scale clashes: did not wear uniforms and were indistinguishable from villagers.

Significance: USA had to use agent orange to defoliate forests to catch the VC, and the illnesses caused by it were used by the vietcong as a form of propoganda against US.

USA used airpower to bomb vietnam strategically, resulting in thousands of casualties.

Contrast the support that the US had in comparison to the viet cong.

VC and Ho were respected in NV, but VC also killed 27,000 civilians between 1966 amd 1971. However, for the most part, they had the support of many in the north and the south.

USA did not have much support, since the hunt and destroy missions to find VC forces resulted in mass civillian casualties. After the Mai Lai massacre, the US also lost popular support at home.

morale of VC fighters as compared the the US army?

The VC refused to settle for anything less than the complete removal of the US, and their toughness contributed to the eventual exit of the US from vietnam

However, the morale of the US forces fell as the war continued, with many young soldiers being young and the media portrayal of US involvement worsened matters at home.

What was the tet offensive? [exact dates]

January 1968: VC forced attacked over 100 cities , using the HCM trail to move weapons to the south vietnam.

While the battle was costly for the VC (losing over 10,000 fighters) they had managed to surprise the US and the people of south vietnam did not join them as expected.

Significance: The US began to reconsider the reasons for it’s involvement. Despite spending nearly 20 billion dollars, the communists’ offensive had taken them by surprise.

How were guerrila tactics effective for VC fighters?

Since the fighters wore no uniform and were indistinguishable from civillians, they were difficult to catch.

The US soldiers constantly feared surprise attacks, which wore down morale and was a key factor in the exit of the US.

What was the role of the media in the exit of the USA?

“first television room war”

Before 1968, american TV did not want to be seen as critising US anti communist policy. However, after the tet offensive, increasing graphic reports began to arrive and the media began to claim that the war was unwinnable.

What was the my lai massacre and how was it significant in changing public opinion? Date**

March 1968, US soldiers raided and killed nearly 400 unarmed citizens . These reports shocked the american public and the graphic images that were published in the media turned the american public against the war.

How did the US admistration react after the tet offensive?

most importantly, Johnson conluded that the War was unwinnable and looked into possibilites of leaving,

What was the policy of vietnamisation? [ft the paris peace accords]

The US began to hand war to SV troops and withdraw US troops, between april 1969 anf 1971, nearly 40,000 US troops left vietnam.

The paris peace accords were signed in january 1973 to “end the war with peace and dignity.”

Did US congress support viet war after the tet offensive?

No, both Nixon and Ford had both promised to provide aid to ietnam war effort, but both times US congress rejected (signalling the lack of support for the vietnam war.)

What and when was the fall of saigon?

Without US air and military support, SV was unable to defend it’s sovereignty.

december 1974, the NV forced launched major offensive against SV and saigon fell to the communists and eventually fell to them when the President Nguyen Van Thieu fled from saigon.

What political changes happened after saigon fell to the communists?

In 1976, vietnam became the socialist republic of vietnam under the communist party chairman le duan. It was closely aligned with the USSR for support as well.

List the key impacts the loss of the vietnam war had on US cold war foreign policy.

1. Failure of containment: South Vietnam, laos, cambodia all turned communist

2. Demonstrate that the western ideology was not superior + permanent damage to army reputation due to the atrocities and chemical agents.

What some key reasons historians believe the US stayed involved in the war for so many years?

1. The US had to not lose in vietnam to maintain its international credibility of protecting liberty and opposing communism

2. American economic interests and military greed: america could benefit from the raw materials of south asia, something that would be lost in the fall to communism.

3. Quagmire theory: presidents truman, eisenhower kennedy, johnson and nixon all took incresing poor steps thinking it would solve the war in vietnam, and the US increasingly got itself stuck in the war and was unable to withdraw.