Vietnam War (1955-75)

What is the Vietnam war?

A war between the North and South of Vietnam.

When did the Vietnam start and finish?

1st November 1955 - 30th April 1975.

What is the Geneva Accords?

It was a conference based on the results of the Korean War and the Indochina War. It was decided that Vietnam would be separated into two zones which were capitalist and communist.

What parallel was Vietnam split?

17th.

What was the final declaration?

It was a decision to create a unified Vietnam decided by the South and the US which later would not be signed.

What is the Gulf of Tonkin?

It was an incident that lead to Johnson to declare war on Vietnam.

What happened during the Gulf of Tonkin?

USS Maddox was hit by a North Vietnamese force in the Gulf of Tonkin.

When was the Gulf of Tonkin?

2nd August 1955.

Who supported North Vietnam in the Vietnam War?

• China

• People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN)

• Viet Cong.

Who supported South Vietnam in the Vietnam War?

• USA

What were the escalations for the North of Vietnam?

• China agreed to provide them military supplies.

• USSR established firm diplomatic links with the National Liberation Front (NLF) and sent military equipment to help them.

What is the South Vietnamese army called?

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)

What is the North Vietnamese army called?

People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN)

What were the issues with the South Vietnamese army?

• They had poor leadership.

• They lacked good training.

• They received low pay.

What is a guerrilla tactic?

A type of warfare with mostly hit and run tactics from smaller groups.

What is a pineapple bomb?

A type of bomb that fragments when dementated.

What is Operation Ranch Hand?

A policy of spraying pesticides in Vietnam from 1962-75.

What is Agent Orange and Agent Blue?

They are both pesticides used to damage crops and remove foliage in the Vietnam War.

What is Operation Thunder?

A bombing campaign from 1962-68.

What are the statistics of the Vietnam War?

• US military dropped 250 million tons of munitions on Laos over the course of 5680,000 bombings.

• 4.8 million deaths.

• 400,000 children were born with birth defects due to the exposure of Agent Orange.

What is the Tet Offensive?

A major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.

When was the Tet Offensive?

30th January - 23rd September 1968. 

What was the impact of the Tet Offensive?

• 45,000 Vietcong soldiers died.

• 1,536 US soldiers died.

• Millions of people worldwide witnessed battles from this offensive on TV news reports.

• US were able to keep Vietcong out of their major cities.

What were the strengths of the North Vietnamese army?

• They had Peasant support.

• Guerrilla tactics.

• Ho Chi Minh Trail.

How was Peasant support a strength of the North Vietnamese?

It strengthened the Vietcong as they were able to recruit disaffected, anti-American people in the South.

How was Guerrilla tactics a strength of the North Vietnamese?

They were able to adopt a wide range of tactics to undermine the resolve and morale of US forces.

What Guerrilla tactics did the North Vietnamese use?

• Complex tunnel systems to hide Vietcong troops.

• Booby traps deployed in the forests (trip wires, grenades and mines).

How was the Ho Chi Minh trail a strength for the North Vietnamese?

What were the weaknesses that the North Vietnamese had?

• They were heavily dependent on the USSR and China.

• Their economy couldn’t sustain a war based on the Guerrilla tactics.

What were the strengths the USA had?

• Bombing

• Search and Destroy.

Why was Bombing a strength for the US?

Why was search and destroy a strength for the US?

What were the weaknesses that the USA had?

• Their actions in the war were exposed widespread on TV and press coverage.

• Images of the South Vietnamese peasants being brutalised caused an anti-war campaign in the USA.

• It divided US society and damaged Johnson’s war effort.

What is Vietnamisation?

Nixon’s policy to withdraw combat troops gradually and giving responsibility for fighting the ARVN.

What were Nixon’s aims with Vietnamisation?

• Reduce US casualties and domestic oppositions.

• Maintain US credibility by avoiding a sudden withdrawal.

• Strengthen ARVN with modern weapons, training and air support in exchange for troop reductions.

How does Vietnamisation work?

• US troops are withdrawn in stages.

• ARVN are rearmed with US equipment.

• Continued US bombing and air support in exchange for troop reductions.

• Nixon calculated that Americans cared more about US casualties than war brutalities.

Why was Vietnamisation controversial?

• War prolonged by 4 years.

• ARVN lacked morale and effectiveness.

• Nixon secretly escalated bombing in Cambodia and Laos to pressure North Vietnam.

• Critics saw it to avoid Nixon being blamed for losing Vietnam.

What was Operation Menu?

It was a bombing campaign against parts of Cambodia where the North Vietnamese were.

What were the aims of Operation Menu?

• Sever the supply lines based on the Ho Chi Minh trail.

• Pressure North Vietnam into agreeing to an acceptable peace settlement for South Vietnam.

• Compensate for the planned Vietnamisation programme and so retain the confidence of South Vietnam.

What were the achievements of Operation Menu?

• Viet Cong supplies and equipment destroyed.

• Nixon announces that 150,000 troops would leave South East Asia by 1971.

• Nixon attacked Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos in 1972 by arming the South Vietnamese.

What were the failures of Operation Menu?

• North Vietnamese soldiers were killed.

• No land was under US control.

• 20,000 US soldiers were sent during the operation.

• Protests broke out.

What were Nixon’s approaches to ending the Vietnam war?

• Linkage strategy.

• Détente.

• Paris peace talks.

What was the Linkage strategy and how was it used to end the Vietnam War?

Nixon and Kissinger aimed to use improved relations with USSR and China to pressure Vietnam. If Moscow and Beijing reduced arms with Hanoi, peace would follow.

What is Détente and how was it used to end the Vietnam War?

• Nixon visited China and the USSR in 1972 to build leverage.

• Soviets and Chinese urged Hanoi to compromise but continued supplying arms.

What was the Paris Peace talk and how was it used to end the Vietnam War?

• Secret talks starting in 1969 and a formal agreement was signed January 1973.

• Ceasefire and US troop withdrawal.

• South Vietnam will remain temporarily independent.

What was the reality of Nixon’s approach to ending the Vietnam War?

• North Vietnam refused to abandon the goal of reunification.

• Nixon achieved only a “decent interval” before South Vietnam fell in 1975.