30.2 U.S. Involvement and Escalation

Holland US History II, MATES 2026

Robert McNamara

• Secretary of Defense

• one of LBJ’s foreign-policy advisors

  • helped devise war plans

Dean Rusk

• Secretary of State

• one of LBJ’s foreign-policy advisors

  • helped devise war plans

General William Westmoreland

• commander in South Vietnam

• continued to request more troops

  • not impressed with Vietnamese troops (ARVN)

• WWII veteran, West Point graduate

Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)

South Vietnamese Army

Vietcong strategy

• guerilla tactics: jungle terrain

• hit & run + ambush tactics

• moved in and out of general population: attack U.S. lines in cities or countryside

  • difficult for U.S. troops to discern friend or foe (spies everywhere)

• elaborate network of tunnels

  • surprise attacks + avoid airstrikes

• terrain laced with booby traps and land mines

U.S.Strategy

• hoped to win war through attrition (gradual wearing down by cont. harassment)

• idea of body count introduced

  • goal: high numbers would force surrender

• win support from South Vietnam’s rural population (proved difficult)

• use napalm and Agent Orange

• search and destroy missions

napalm

gasoline based bomb that set fire to the jungle

Agent Orange

• toxic leaf-killing chemical sprayed by U.S. planes

• left surroundings in ruins

• blamed for cancers and birth defects (later on)

search-and-destroy missions

• raid on Southern Vietnamese villages, intended to root out villagers with ties to Vietcong

• often resulted in burning of villages

Sinking Morale

• morale dropped as war continued

  • guerilla warfare/jungle conditions

  • many turn to alcohol and drugs

  • South Vietnamese govt. remained unstable and corrupt

  • (late war) soldiers realized they were fighting as the govt. was negotiating a withdrawal

credibility gap

a public distrust of statements made by the govt.