vietnam war

Early Involvement

• Containment*(Truman)--> Massive Retaliation (Ike) → Flexible Response (JFK and LBJ)

• Domino Theory= communism in one nation would spread communism into neighboring nations

• Vietnam is a proxy war

• France controlled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia(“french Indochina”) since 1880s

• Communist revolution in Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh in 1941; declared Vietnam to be independent, communist country in 1945

• War for independence (1946-1954)- ended with the French defeat and French withdrawal from Vietnam

  • 9 year war to kick the french out

  • Wasn’t originally communism but later became one

  • The french didn’t handle this and left

• Geneva Accords )July 19154) spilt Vietnam at the 17th parallel

  • North Vietnam -ruled by HO Chi Minh’s communist gov

  • South Vietnam- ruled by anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem(until assassination)

• Eisenhower and then JFK sent military advisors and CIA operatives to protect pro-US government in South Vietnam (16,000 by 1963)

  • Sent money and cia(helping people) to vietnam(no boots on ground though)

Think of rotating rulers(pick one then die by assassinated ; repeat)

1955-61- We have invested in 1 billion into south vietnam

Gulf of Tonkin

• Alleged attacked on USS Maddox by North Vietnamese torpedo boats (Aug. 1964)

• LBJ described it as unprovoked attack in international waters

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution =Congress authorized President Johnson “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force” to repel armed attack against U.S.

  • This caused LBJ to bring boots on the ground and found out it was a lie but was too deep in and can’t get out

    • Called the “blank check”

    • Congress run the war- take wtv you want and do it

US Strategy in Vietnam

• The enemy = North Vietnamese Army + Vietcong guerilla fighters(gave the most problems)

• Issues with jungle fighting

  • They don’t know who are fighting

  • Vietnamese created tunnels (massive)

• “Drop and go” and “bomb and burn”

  • Use napalm catches everything on fire

  • Killed thousands of people, soldiers, and civilians, and our troops as well.

  • Drop AgentOrange- defoliate trees- everything on trees die; has the same effects on human(lots of human health effects)

Getting land on measurements

• Body counts determine success and how we win

3 million vietnamese died and 50 thousands of american died

• Operation rolling thunder (March 1965 to October 1968)

  • Sustained aerial bombing of North Vietnamese military and infrastructure targets

  • Designed to force NVA to accept non communist South vietnam and weaken viet cong

• “Peacetime”draft continued after Korean War (1954-1964)

• During Vietnam War era (1964-1973), the US military drafted 2.2 million American men (about ⅓ of all who served in Vietnam)

  • Draft inequities in early years (vast majority of draftees were poor or working class class)

  • Draft lottery began in 1969 (based on birth dates)

Tet Offensive (Jan. 1968)

• Coordinated surprise attacks by NVA and Viet Cong on populated areas with major US troop presence

• US and South Vietnamese successful counterattack

• Impact= American public opinion increasingly anti-war (role of TV) and heightened Credibility Gap!

  • Credibility Gap- the people no longer believed the government or the leaders
    

Election of 1968

• Hawks(no matter what the gov) VS. doves(no the war is fundamentally wrong)

• Democratic national convention in Chicago (Aug. 1968)

  • LbJ decided not to run

  • RFK assassinated (June 1968)

  • Democratic candidates for nomination: Eugene McCarthy (anti-war) vs. Hubert Humphrey (LBJs VP)

  • Protestors + increased police presence → violent clashes

• Hubert Humphrey (D) vs. Richard Nixon (R.) 

• Independent party- Geroge Wallace- racist

• Nixon won and inherited Vietnam

  • But doesn’t getting majority 57% against him

  • Promised “peace with honor”and “law and order

  • Vietnamese army

  • Nixon Doctrine = US will continue to support South Vietnam financially, but not with troops

Nixon and Vietnam

• Involvement inCambodia

  • Operation Menu= covert (secret)tactical bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia (March 1969 to May 1970)

  • Designed to destroy Ho Chi Minh Trail- used by NVA to move supplies and troops

  • Ordered invasion of Cambodia by ground troops (April 1970)

    • Send troops boots on ground in Cambodia where they don’t even have war(no business in there)

    • Result→ destabilized the government of Cambodia→ which allowed Pol Pot khmer and come to power

      • Cambodia genocide(many killings)

      • ¼ of Cambodia people

• My Lai Massacre

  • Over 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers murdered by US troops

  • Mass murder occurred in 1968, but public did not find out until 1970

• Kent State Shootings (May 1970)

  • Ohio National Guard shot unarmed college students who were protesting the war

  • Four students were killed and nine other wounded

Pentagon Paper

• History of US policy in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967 ordered by DOD Secretary Robert McNamara- released by Daniel Ellsberg

• Released June 1971

Last US troops left Vietnam in March 1973

• North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam two years later with no American response

• Fall of Saigon (April 1975) and Vietnam unified under communist control

Legacy of Vietnam War

• Veterans returned to hostile nation

• Increased credibility gap

• Cost

  • 100 billion

  • 56,000 US troops killed 

  • Over 3 million North and South Vietnamese people killed

  • Destabilization of Asia(cambodia)

  • Refugees from SE Asia