VIETNAM 1950-1973

AMERICA SUPPORTS FRANCE

America’s involvement in Vietnam began in 1950, during the French Indochina War, the name given to France’s attempt to reestablish its rule in Vietnam after WWII.

Seeking to strengthen its ties with France and to help fight the spread of communism, the U.S. provided the French with massive economic and military support.

FRENCH RULE IN VIETNAM

From the late 1800s until WWII, France ruled most of Indochina, including Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

The Indochinese Communist Party, founded in 1930, staged a number of revolts under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh.

JAPANESE TAKE CONTROL OF VIETNAM

In 1940, the Japanese took control of Vietnam.

The next year, Ho Chi Minh returned home and helped form the Vietminh, a communist organization whose goal it was to win Vietnam’s independence from foreign rule.

When the Allied defeat of Japan forced the Japanese to leave Vietnam, that goal suddenly seemed like a reality.

On Sept. 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh stood in the middle of a huge crowd in the northern city of Hanoi and declared Vietnam an independent nation.

FRANCE BATTLES THE VIET MINH

France, however, had no intention of relinquishing its former colony.

French troops moved back into Vietnam by the end of 1945, eventually regaining control of the cities and the country’s southern half.

Ho Chi Minh vowed to fight from the North to liberate the South from French control.

In 1950, the U.S. entered the Vietnam struggle when President Truman sent nearly $15 million in economic aid to France.

Over the next four years, the U.S. paid from much of France’s war, pumping nearly $1 billion into the effort to defeat the communists.

THE VIETMINH DRIVE OUT THE FRENCH

In 1953, when President Eisenhower entered the White House, he continued the policy of supplying aid to the French war effort.

By this time, the U.S. had settled for a stalemate with the communists in Korea, which only stiffened America’s resolve to halt the spread of communism elsewhere.

Eisenhower began to explain the domino theory, in which he likened the countries on the brink of communism to a row of dominoes waiting to fall one after the other.

DIEN BIEN PHU

The French were forced to surrender in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu when the Vietminh forces overran them.

From May through July 1954, the countries of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the U.S., China, Laos and Cambodia met in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Vietminh and with South Vietnam’s anti-communist nationalists to hammer out a peace agreement.

The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17^th parallel:

The Communists and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, controlled North Vietnam from the capital of Hanoi.

The anticommunist nationalists controlled South Vietnam from their capital Saigon.

An election to unify the country was called for in 1956.

DIEM CANCELS ELECTIONS

South Vietnam’s President, Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to take part in countrywide elections because he knew he would lose to the popular Ho Chi Minh.

The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South.

Diem, however, failed to hold up his end of the bargain.

Diem brought in a corrupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind and offered little or no land distribution to peasants.

Diem was also a Catholic and angered the country’s majority Buddhist population by restricting Buddhist practices.

VIETCONG

In 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong (VC), had begun attacks on the Diem government, assassinating thousands of South Vietnamese government officials.

The political arm of the group would later be called the National Liberation Front (NLF), the U.S. continued to refer to the fighters as the Vietcong.

HO CHI MINH TRAIL

Ho Chi Minh supported the Vietcong/NLF and in 1959 began supplying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the borders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

As the fighters stepped up their surprise attacks, or guerrilla tactics, South Vietnam grew more unstable.

The Eisenhower administration took little action, however, deciding to “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem.”

KENNEDY AND VIETNAM

The Kennedy (JFK) Administration, which entered the White House in 1961, also chose initially to “swim” with Diem.

President Kennedy increased financial aid to Diem’s teetering regime and sent thousands of military advisers to help train South Vietnamese troops.

By the end of 1963, 16,000 U.S. military personnel were in S. Vietnam.

STRATEGIC HAMLET PROGRAM

Diem’s popularity plummeted because of ongoing corruption and his failure to respond to calls for land reform.

To combat the growing Vietcong presence in the South’s countryside, the Diem administration initiated the strategic hamlet program, which meant moving all villagers to protected areas.

Many Vietnamese deeply resented being moved from their home villages where they had lived for generations and where ancestors were buried.

DIEM STEPS UP HIS ATTACK ON BUDDHISM

Fed up with continuing Buddhist demonstrations, the South Vietnamese ruler imprisoned and killed hundreds of Buddhist clerics and destroyed their temples.

To protest, several Buddhist monks and nuns publicly burned themselves to death.

Horrified, American officials urged Diem to stop the persecutions, but Diem refused.

DIEM IS OVERTHROWN

It had become clear that for South Vietnam to remain stable, Diem would have to go.

On November 1, 1963, a U.S. supported military coup toppled Diem’s regime.

Against Kennedy’s wishes, Diem was assassinated.

A few weeks later, Kennedy, himself was assassinated.

Now Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) is the President of the U.S.

THE SOUTH BECOMES MORE UNSTABLE

Diem’s death brought more chaos to South Vietnam.

A string of military leaders attempted to lead the country, but each regime was more unstable and inefficient than Diem’s had been.

Meanwhile, the Vietcong’s influence in the countryside was growing steadily.

U.S.S. MADDOX FIRED UPON

On August 2, 1964, a North Vietnamese patrol boat fired a torpedo at an American destroyer, the U.S.S. Maddox, which was patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin off the North Vietnamese coast.

The torpedo missed its target, but the Maddox returned fire and inflicted heavy damage on the patrol boat.

2 days later, the Maddox and another destroyer were again off the North Vietnamese coast, the crews reported enemy torpedoes, and the American destroyers began firing.

GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

President Johnson launched bombing strikes on North Vietnam.

He asked Congress for powers to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the U.S. and to prevent further aggression.”

Congress approved Johnson’s request, with only two senators voting against it and called this the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

This gave the President broad military powers in Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder

In February of 1965, President Johnson used his newly granted powers in response to a Vietcong attack that killed eight Americans, Johnson unleashed “Operation Rolling Thunder,” the first sustained bombing of N. Vietnam.

In March of that year, the first American combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam.

By June, more than 50,000 U.S. soldiers were battling the Vietcong and the Vietnam War had been Americanized.

JOHNSON INCREASES U.S. INVOLVEMENT

When running for President in 1964, LBJ spoke constantly about how he was “not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”

However, in March of 1965, LBJ began sending tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to fight in Vietnam.

Most Americans supported this decision as shown in a 1965 poll that said 61% of Americans supported the U.S. policy in Vietnam, while only 24% opposed it.

Escalation

The President’s closest advisors strongly urged escalation, believing the defeat of communism in Vietnam to be of vital importance.

The Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, stressed this view in a 1965 memo to President Johnson where he said,

“The integrity of the U.S. commitment is the principal pillar of peace throughout the world. If that commitment becomes unreliable, the communist world would draw conclusions that would lead to our ruin and almost certainly to a catastrophic war. So long as the South Vietnamese are prepared to fight for themselves, we cannot abandon them without disaster to peace and to our interests throughout the world.”

TROOP BUILDUP ACCELERATES

By the end of 1965, the U.S. government had sent more than 180,000 Americans to Vietnam.

The American commander in South Vietnam, General William Westmoreland, continued to request more troops.

Westmoreland was not impressed with the fighting ability of the South Vietnamese Army or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

By 1967, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had climbed to about 500,000.

FIGHTING IN THE JUNGLE

The U.S. entered the war in Vietnam believing that its superior weaponry would lead it to victory over the Vietcong, but the jungle terrain and the enemy’s guerrilla tactics soon turned the war into a frustrating stalemate.

Because the VC lacked the high-powered weaponry of the American forces, they used hit-and-run and ambush tactics, as well as a keep knowledge of the jungle terrain, to their advantage.

Moving secretly in and out of the general population, the Vietcong destroyed the notion of a traditional front line by attacking U.S. troops in both the cities and the countryside.

Because some of the enemy lived amidst the civilian population, it was difficult for U.S. troops to discern friend from foe.

A woman selling soft drinks to U.S. soldiers might be a Vietcong spy. A boy standing on the corner might be ready to throw a grenade.

TUNNELS

Adding to the Vietcong’s elusiveness was a network of elaborate tunnels that allowed them to withstand airstrikes and to launch surprise attacks and then disappear quickly.

Connecting villages throughout the countryside, the tunnels became home to many guerrilla fighters.

LAND MINES

The terrain was also laced with countless traps and land mines.

Because the exact location of the Vietcong was often unknown, U.S. troops laid land mines throughout the jungle.

The Vietcong also laid their own traps, and disassembled and reused U.S. mines.

A WAR OF ATTRITION

Westmoreland’s strategy for defeating the Vietcong was to destroy their morale through a war of attrition, or the gradual wearing down of the enemy by continuous harassment.

Introducing the concept of the body count, or the tracking of Vietcong killed in battle, the general believed that as the number of Vietcong dead rose, the guerrillas would inevitably surrender.

Despite the growing number of casualties and the relentless pounding from U.S. bombers, the Vietcong—who received supplies from China and the Soviet Union—remained defiant.

Defense Secretary McNamara confessed his frustration to a reporter in 1966: “If I had thought they would take this punishment and fight this well….I would have thought differently at the start.”

The U.S. viewed the war strictly as a military struggle; the Vietcong saw it as a battle for their very existence, and they were ready to pay any price for victory.

THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS

Another key part of the American strategy was to keep the Vietcong from winning the support of South Vietnam’s rural population.

The campaign to win the “hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese villagers proved more difficult than imagined.

NAPALM AND AGENT ORANGE

U.S. planes dropped napalm, a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle.

They also sprayed Agent Orange, a leaf-killing toxic chemical.

The saturation use of these weapons often wounded civilians and left villages and their surroundings in ruins.

Years later, many would blame Agent Orange for cancers in U.S. veterans of Vietnam.

SEARCH-AND-DESTROY MISSIONS

U.S. soldiers conducted search-and-destroy missions, uprooting civilians with suspected ties to the Vietcong, killing their livestock, and burning villages.

Many villagers fled into the cities or refugee camps, creating by 1967, more than 3 million refugees in the South.

SINKING MORALE

Sinking Morale:

The frustrations of guerrilla warfare

The brutal jungle conditions

The failure to make substantial headway against the enemy

As the war continued, American morale dropped steadily.

Many soldiers, required by law to fight a war they did not

support, turned to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs.

Another obstacle was the continuing corruption and instability of the South Vietnamese government.

Mass demonstrations began and by May of 1966, Buddhist monks and nuns were once again burning themselves in protest against the South Vietnamese government.

South Vietnam was fighting a civil war within a civil war, leaving U.S. officials confused and angry.

FULFILLING A DUTY

Most American soldiers, however, firmly believed in their cause—to halt the spread of communism.

They took patriotic pride in fulfilling their duty, just as their fathers had done in WWII.

Most American soldiers fought courageously, particularly the thousands who endured years of torture and confinement as prisoners of war.

“GREAT SOCIETY” SUFFERS

As the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam continued to mount, the war grew more costly, and the nation’s economy began to suffer.

The inflation rate (an increase in prices or decline in purchasing power caused by an increase in the supply of money), which was less than 2% through most of the early 1960’s, more than tripled to 5.5% by 1969.

In August, 1967, President Johnson asked for a tax increase to help fund the war and to keep inflation in check.

Congressional conservatives agreed, but only after demanding and receiving a $6 billion reduction in funding for “Great Society” programs.

“Great Society” was LBJ’s plan to reduce poverty and racial injustice and to promote a better quality of life in the U.S.

THE LIVING ROOM WAR

Through the media, specifically television, Vietnam became America’s first “living-room war”.

The combat footage that appeared nightly on the news in millions of homes showed stark pictures that seemed to contradict the administration’s optimistic war scenario.

Quoting body-count statistics that showed large numbers of communists dying in battle, General Westmoreland continually reported that a Vietcong surrender was imminent.

Credibility Gap

The repeated television images of Americans in body bags told a different story though.

Over 16,000 Americans died between 1961 and 1967.

Critics charged that a credibility gap was growing between what the Johnson administration reported and what was really happening.

A “MANIPULATABLE” DRAFT

Most soldiers who fought in Vietnam were called into combat under the country’s Selective Service System, or draft, which had been established during WWI.

Under this system, all males had to register with their local draft boards when they turned 18.

All registrants were screened, and unless they were excluded—such as for medical reasons—in the even of war, men between the ages of 18 and 26 would be called into military service.

WAYS TO AVOID DRAFT

As Americans’ doubts about the war grew, thousands of men attempted to find ways around the draft.

Sought out sympathetic doctors to grant medical exemptions

Changed residences in order to stand before a more lenient draft board

Joined the National Guard or Coast Guard

Received a college deferment

Because university students during the 60’s tended to be white and financially well-off, many of the men who fought in Vietnam were lower-class whites or minorities.

80% of American soldiers came from lower economic levels.

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN VIETNAM

African Americans served in disproportionate numbers as ground combat troops.

During the first years of the war, blacks accounted for more than 20% of American combat deaths despite representing only about 10% of the U.S. population.

In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war and the irony that American blacks were dying for a country that still treated them as second-class citizens.

WOMEN IN VIETNAM

While the U.S. military in the 60’s did not allow females to serve in combat, 10,000 women served in Vietnam—most of them as military nurses.

Thousands more volunteered their services in Vietnam to the American Red Cross and the United Services Organization (USO), which delivered hospitality and entertainment to the troops.

THE ROOTS OF OPPOSITION

Even before 1965, students were becoming more active socially and politically.

As America became more involved in the war in Vietnam, college students across the country became a powerful and vocal group of protestors.

THE NEW LEFT

The growing youth movement became known as the New Left.

The movement was “new” in relation to the “old left” of the 1930’s, which had generally tried to move the nation toward socialism, and, in some cases, communism.

The “New Left” did not preach socialism openly, but wanted to move American society in that direction.

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY (SDS)

This organization was founded by Tom Hayden and Al Haber.

The group charged that corporations and large government institutions had taken over America.

The SDS called for a restoration of greater individual freedom.

Later, members from this group, led by Bill Ayers, founded the Weather Underground which the FBI classified as a domestic terrorist group.

The Weather Underground is a self-proclaimed communist revolutionary organization and in the 60’s and 70’s was responsible for bombing public buildings to protest the Vietnam War.

FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT

In 1964, the Free Speech Movement (FSM) gained prominence at the University of California at Berkeley.

The FSM grew out of a clash between students and administrators over free speech on campus.

Led by Mario Savio, a philosophy student, the FSM focused its criticism on what it called the American “machine,” the nation’s faceless and powerful business and government institutions.

CAMPUS ACTIVISM

Across the country the ideas of the FSM and SDS quickly spread to college campuses.

Students addressed mostly campus issues, such as dress codes, curfews, dormitory regulations, and mandatory Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs.

With the onset of the Vietnam War, students found an issue that they could all protest around.

THE PROTEST MOVEMENT EMERGES

Throughout the spring of 1965, groups at a number of colleges began to host “teach-ins” to protest the war.

In April of 1965, SDS helped organize a march on Washington, D.C., by some 20,000 protestors.

By November of that year, a protest rally in DC drew more than 30,000. Then, in February of 1966, the Johnson administration changed deferments for college students, requiring students to be in good academic standing in order to be granted a deferment.

Campuses around the country erupted in protest.

SDS called for civil disobedience at Selective Service Centers and openly counseled students to flee to Canada or Sweden.

Opposing War

Youths opposing the war did so for several reasons:

A belief that the conflict in Vietnam was basically a civil war and that he U.S. military had no business there.

The oppressive South Vietnamese regime was no better than the Communist regime it was fighting.

The U.S. could not police the entire globe and that war was draining American strength in other important parts of the world.

Some said all war as unjust.

Music

The antiwar movement grew beyond college campuses.

Small numbers of returning veterans began to protest the war, and folk singers such as the trip Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Joan Baez used music as a popular protest vehicle.

The #1 song in 1965 was “Eve of Destruction,” in which singer Barry McGuire stressed the ironic fact that in the 60’s an American male could be drafted at age 18 but had to be 21 to vote.

FROM PROTESTS TO RESISTANCE

By 1967, the antiwar movement had intensified, with no sign of slowing down.

In the Spring of 1967, nearly half a million protesters of all ages gathered in New York’s Central Park.

DRAFT RESISTANCE

Draft resistance continued from 1967 until President Nixon phased out the draft in the early 1970’s.

During these years, the U.S. government accused more than 200,000 men of draft offenses and imprisoned nearly 4,000 draft resisters.

Throughout these years, about 10,000 Americans fled, many to Canada.

In October of 1967, a demonstration at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial drew about 75,000 protesters.

After listening to speeches, approximately 30,000 demonstrators locked arms for a march on the Pentagon.

As hundreds of protesters broke past the military police and mounted the Pentagon steps, they were met by tear gas and clubs.

About 1,500 demonstrators were injured and at least 700 arrested.

WAR DIVIDES THE NATION

By 1967, Americans increasingly found themselves divided into 2 camps regarding the war:

Doves—those who strongly opposed the war and believed the U.S. should withdraw

Hawks—those who strongly supported the war and believed that the U.S. should unleash much of its greater military force to win the war

Despite the visibility of the antiwar protests, a majority of Americans in 1967 remained committed to the war.

A poll taken in 1967 showed that 70% of Americans believed the war protests were “acts of disloyalty”.

Responding to antiwar posters, Americans supported the government’s Vietnam policy developed their own slogans: “Support our men in Vietnam” and “America—love it or leave it.”

1968: A TUMULTUOUS YEAR

January 30 was the Vietnamese equivalent of New Year’s Eve, the beginning of the lunar new year festivities known in Vietnam as Tet.

Throughout the day, villagers—taking advantage of a weeklong truce proclaimed for Tet—streamed into cities across South Vietnam to celebrate their new year.

At the same time, many funerals were being held for war victims and accompanying the funerals were the traditional firecrackers, flutes, and, of course, coffins.

TET OFFENSIVE

The coffins, however, contained weapons, and many of the villagers were Vietcong agents.

That night the Vietcong launched an overwhelming attack on over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam, as well as 12 U.S. air bases.

The Tet Offensive continued for about a month before U.S. and South Vietnamese forces regained control of the cities.

TURNING POINT IN THE WAR

General Westmoreland declared the attacks an overwhelming defeat for the Vietcong.

The Vietcong lost about 32,000 soldiers during the month-long battle, while the American and ARVN forces lost little more than 3,000.

However, from a psychological—and political—standpoint, Westmoreland’s claim could not have been more wrong.

The Tet Offensive greatly shook the American public, which had been told repeatedly and had come to believe that the enemy was close to defeat.

The Johnson administration’s credibility gap suddenly widened to a point from which it would never recover.

TET CHANGES PUBLIC OPINION

In a matter of weeks, the Tet offensive changed millions of minds about the war.

A poll taken just before Tet showed that only 28% of Americans called themselves doves, while 56% claimed to be hawks.

After Tet, both sides tallied 40%.

The mainstream media, which had reported the war in a skeptical but generally balanced way, now openly criticized the war.

One of the nation’s most respected journalists, Walter Cronkite, told his viewers that it now seemed “more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.”

Following the Tet offensive, President Johnson’s popularity plummeted.

In public opinion polls taken at the end of February 1968, nearly 60% of Americans disapproved of his handling of the war and nearly half of the country felt it had been a mistake to send American troops to Vietnam.

The growing division over Vietnam led to a shocking political development in the spring of 1968, a season in which Americans also endured two assassinations, a series of urban riots, and a surge in college campus protests.

JOHNSON WITHDRAWS

In a televised address on March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a dramatic change in his Vietnam policy—the U.S. would seek negotiations to end the war.

The president then ended his speech with the announcement that he would not seek, nor would he accept the Democratic nomination for President.

VIOLENCE AND PROTEST GRIP THE NATION

The Democrats—as well as the nation—were in for more shock in 1968.

On April 4, America was rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just 2 months later, Robert Kennedy who had become a strong candidate in the Democratic primary for President, was assassinated after giving a victory speech in the California primary.

A TURBULENT RACE FOR PRESIDENT

The chaos and violence of 1968 came to a peak in August, when thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on the city of Chicago to protest at the Democratic National Convention.

Hubert Humphrey was the Vice-President to LBJ and he was set to accept the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for president.

As the delegates arrived in Chicago, so did 10,000 protesters.

Richard Daley, the Chicago mayor was determined to keep the protesters under control and mobilized 12,000 Chicago police and over 5,000 National Guard.

RICHARD NIXON WINS THE ELECTION

While the riots were going on outside the convention, inside the hall the democratic delegates bitterly debated an antiwar plank in the party platform.

The images of the Democrats—both inside and outside the convention hall—as a party of disorder became etched in the minds of millions of Americans.

Nixon, the Republican, won the election.

VIETNAMIZATION

When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, he announced the first U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

As President Nixon settled into the White House, negotiations to end the war in Vietnam were going nowhere.

The U.S. and South Vietnam insisted that all North Vietnamese forces withdraw from the South and that he government of Nguyen Van Thieu, then South Vietnam’s ruler, remain in power.

The North Vietnamese and Vietcong demanded that U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam and that the Thieu government step aside for a coalition government that would include the Vietcong.

VIETNAMIZATION

Nixon conferred with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on a plan to end America’s involvement in Vietnam.

Kissinger, a German emigrant who had earned three degrees from Harvard, was an expert on international relations.

Their plan, known as Vietnamization, called for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in order for the South Vietnamese to take on a more active combat role in the war.

By August of 1969, the first 25,000 U.S. troops had returned home from Vietnam and over the next 3 years, the number of American troops in Vietnam dropped from more than 500,000 to less than 25,000.

PEACE WITH HONOR

Part of Nixon and Kissinger’s Vietnamization policy was aimed at establishing what the president called a “peace with honor.”

Nixon intended to maintain U.S. dignity in the face of its withdrawal from war.

A further goal was to preserve U.S. clout at the negotiation table, as Nixon still demanded that the South Vietnamese government remain intact.

BOMBING OF LAOS AND CAMBODIA

Even as the pullout had begun, Nixon secretly ordered a massive bombing campaign against supply routes and bases in North Vietnam.

The president also ordered that bombs be dropped on the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, which held a number of Vietcong sanctuaries.

SILENT MAJORITY

Nixon began to appeal to the silent majority—moderate, mainstream Americans who quietly supported the U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

While many average Americans did support the president, the events of the war continued to divide the country.

MY LAI MASSACRE

In November of 1969, the New York Times reported that on March 16, 1968, a U.S. platoon under the command of Lieutenant William Calley, Jr. had massacred innocent civilians in the small village of My Lai.

Calley was searching for Vietcong rebels and finding no sign of the enemy, the troops rounded up the villagers and shot more than 200 innocent Vietnamese—mostly women, children, and elderly men.

The troops insisted that they were not responsible for the shootings because they were only following Lieutenant Calley’s orders.

25 army officers were charged with some degree of responsibility, but only Calley was convicted and imprisoned.

INVASION OF CAMBODIA

On April 20, 1979, President Nixon announced that U.S. troops had invaded Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese and Vietcong supply centers.

The president defended his action: “If when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations…throughout the world.”

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

College students across the country burst out in protest.

In what became the first general student strike in the nation’s history, more than 1.5 million students closed down some 1,200 campuses.

Disaster struck the hardest at Kent State University in Ohio, where a massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building.

In response, the local mayor called in the National Guard.

On May 4, 1970, the Guards fired live ammunition into a crowd of campus protesters who were hurling rocks at them, wounding 9 people and killing 4.

College students across the country burst out in protest.

In what became the first general student strike in the nation’s history, more than 1.5 million students closed down some 1,200 campuses.

Disaster struck the hardest at Kent State University in Ohio, where a massive student protest led to the burning of the ROTC building.

In response, the local mayor called in the National Guard.

On May 4, 1970, the Guards fired live ammunition into a crowd of campus protesters who were hurling rocks at them, wounding 9 people and killing 4.

THE PENTAGON PAPERS

Support for the war eroded when in June of 1971 former Defense Department worker Daniel Ellsberg leaked what became known as the Pentagon Papers.

The 7,000 page document, written for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1967-1968, revealed among other things that the government had drawn up plans for entering the war even as President LBJ promised that he would not send American troops to Vietnam.

Furthermore, the papers showed that there was never any plan to end the war as long as the North Vietnamese persisted.

For many Americans, the Pentagon Papers confirmed their belief that the government had not been honest about its war intentions.

“PEACE IS AT HAND”

By the middle of 1972, the country’s growing social division and the looming presidential election prompted the Nixon administration to change its negotiating policy.

Polls showed that more than 60% of Americans in 1971 thought that the U.S. should withdraw all troops from Vietnam by the end of the year.

Henry Kissinger, the president’s adviser for national security affairs, served as Nixon’s top negotiator in Vietnam.

On October 26, 1972, days before the presidential election, Kissinger announced, “Peace is at hand.”

THE FINAL PUSH

President Nixon won reelection, but the promised peace proved to be elusive.

The Thieu regime, alarmed at the prospect of North Vietnamese troops stationed in South Vietnam, rejected Kissinger’s plan.

Talks broke off on December 16^th.

2 days later the President unleashed a ferocious bombing campaign against Hanoi and Haiphong, the 2 largest cities in North Vietnam.

In what became known as the “Christmas bombings,“ U.S. planes dropped 100,000 bombs over the course of 11 straight days, pausing only on Christmas day.

At this point, calls to end the war resounded from the halls of Congress as well as from Beijing and Moscow.

Everyone, it seemed, had finally grown weary of the war.

The warring parties returned to the peace table, at the Paris Peace Accords and on January 27, 1973, the U.S. signed an “Agreement of Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam.”

Under the agreement, North Vietnamese troops would remain in South Vietnam, however Nixon promised to respond “with full force” to any violation of the peace agreement.

On March 29, 1973, the last U.S. combat troops left for home and for America, the war had ended.

Operation Homecoming

Following the Paris Peace Accords, U.S. prisoners of war were returned in Operation Homecoming.

591 POW’s were released to U.S. authorities.

THE FALL OF SAIGON

Within months of the U.S. departure, the cease-fire agreement between North and South Vietnam collapsed.

In March of 1975, after several years of fighting, the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion against the South.

Thieu appealed to the U.S. for help.

America provided economic aid but refused to send troops.

Gerald Ford who assumed the presidency after Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal, refused to send troops.

On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon and captured the city. Soon after that, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and now all of Vietnam was living under communism.

THE WAR LEAVES A PAINFUL LEGACY

The Vietnam War exacted a terrible price from its participants:

58,000 Americans were killed

303,00 Americans were wounded

North and South Vietnamese deaths topped 2 million

The war left Southeast Asia highly unstable, which led to further war in Cambodia.

AMERICAN VETERANS COPE BACK HOME

While families welcomed home their sons and daughters, the nation as a whole extended a cold hand to its returning Vietnam veterans.

There were no brass bands, no victory parades, no cheering crowds.

Instead, many veterans faced indifference or even hostility from an America still torn and bitter about the war.

Many Vietnam veterans readjusted successfully to civilian life, however, about 15% of the 3.3 million soldiers who served developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some had recurring nightmares about their war experiences, while many suffered from severe headaches and memory lapses.

Other veterans became highly apathetic or began abusing drugs or alcohol and several thousand committed suicide.

VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL

In an effort to honor the men and women who served in Vietnam, the U.S. government unveiled the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1982.

Many Vietnam veterans as well as their loved ones, have found visiting the memorial a deeply moving, even healing, experience.

FURTHER TURMOIL

The end of the Vietnam War ushered in a new period of violence and chaos in Southeast Asia.

In unifying Vietnam, the victorious Communists initially held out a conciliatory hand to the South Vietnamese, the soon the Communists imprisoned more than 400,000 South Vietnamese in harsh “reeducation,” or labor camps.

As the Communists imposed their rule throughout the land, nearly 1.5 million people fled Vietnam.

Also fleeing the country was a large group of poor Vietnamese, known as boat people because they left on anything from freighters to barges to rowboats.

Their efforts to reach safety across the South China Sea often met with tragedy; nearly 50,000 perished on the high seas due to exposure, drowning, illness, or piracy.

CAMBODIA

The people of Cambodia also suffered greatly after the war.

The U.S. invasion of Cambodia had unleashed a brutal civil war in which a communist group known as the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, seized power in 1975.

In an effort to transform the country into a peasant society, the Khmer Rouge executed professionals and anyone with an education or foreign ties.

During its reign of terror, the Khmer Rouge is believed to have killed at least 1 million Cambodians.

THE LEGACY OF VIETNAM

Even after it ended, the Vietnam War remained a subject of great controversy for Americans.

Many hawks continued to insist that the war could have been won if the U.S. had employed more military power.

They also blamed the antiwar movement at home for destroying American morale.

Doves countered that the North Vietnamese had displayed incredible resiliency and that an increase in U.S. military force would have resulted only in a continuing stalemate.

In addition, doves argued that an unrestrained war against North Vietnam might have prompted a military reaction from China or the Soviet Union.

THE WAR POWERS ACT

The war resulted in several major U.S. policy changes.

The government abolished the draft, which had stirred so much antiwar sentiment.

The country also took steps to curb the president’s war-making powers.

In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which stipulated:

The president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war.

The troops may remain there no longer than 90 days unless Congress approves the president’s actions or declares war.

The Vietnam War significantly altered America’s views on foreign policy as we now pause and consider possible risks to our own interests before deciding whether to intervene in the affairs of other nations.

The war also contributed to an overall cynicism among Americans about their government and political leaders that persists today.

Americans grew suspicious of a government that could provide as much misleading information or conceal as many activities as the Johnson and Nixon administrations had done.

• Americans in Vietnam: disunited, hard to beat guerrillas, too comfortable

• Home-front problems: protesters, the media, Congress uneasy, Tet, Johnson administration lost confidence

• The Vietnamese: hearts and minds not won, society damaged, bombing, military emphasis

• Communist determination, ARVN weak, Saigon unpopular

As an eager student delving into the complexities of the Vietnam War, it is fascinating to explore the multifaceted reasons behind the challenges faced by Americans in Vietnam. One key aspect was the disunity among American forces, which hindered their effectiveness against the resilient guerrilla tactics employed by the Viet Cong. Additionally, American troops often found themselves battling an enemy who was deeply entrenched in the rugged terrain, making it difficult to achieve decisive victories.

Moreover, the comfort and technological superiority of American soldiers sometimes worked against them, as they struggled to adapt to the unconventional warfare tactics utilized by the Viet Cong. This mismatch in tactics and strategies further compounded the challenges faced by the American forces on the ground.

On the home front, the Vietnam War sparked widespread protests and dissent, with the media playing a crucial role in shaping public opinion against the conflict. This growing anti-war sentiment put pressure on Congress and the Johnson administration, leading to a loss of confidence in the war effort.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the failure to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people proved to be a significant obstacle for the American forces. The relentless bombing campaigns and the heavy emphasis on military solutions damaged Vietnamese society and further alienated the population from the American presence.

Additionally, the determination of the communist forces, coupled with the weakness of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the unpopularity of the Saigon government, created a challenging environment for the American military intervention. The intricate web of factors at play in Vietnam highlighted the complexities and difficulties inherent in waging a war in a foreign land.