The Vietnam War

Origins

• Had its origins in broader Indochina wars of 1940s and 50s

• French was in Vietnam → French colony

• Chinese and Vietnamese fought a lot

• 1946: French is trying to reassert themselves in Vietnam, Vietnam resisted

  • Vietnamese ambushed the French and drove them out

  • US supported the French

• Vietnam was divided into two (much like Korea)

  • north was communist

  • south was non-communist

United States Involvement

• US worried about Domino Theory

• Eisenhower gave aid to South Vietnam to help defend themselves

  • k,leader of South: Diem

• Chinese and Russians were helping North Vietnam

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SATO)

• Created in response to Communist expansion and to aggressive actions of communists in Korea and Indochina

• Similar to NATO

Ngo Dinb Diem & Viet Cong

• Apparent that South Vietnamese army couldn’t hold back communist attacks

• US planned to increase aid to South Vietnam

• Viet Cong = Communist in South Vietnam

• Diem is a corrupt politician, but US supported him since he wasn’t communist

Kennedy and Vietnam

• Continued to send aid to South Vietnam

• Berlin Wall is starting to be built

• JFK is reluctant to put US troops in Vietnam, he continues to send them aid

Johnson and Escalation

• US Commanders report that their warship was fired upon by the north

• August 4, 1964: President Johnson escalated the war as he announced on TV that American ships had been attacked by North Vietnamese gunboats

• Johnson ordered airstrikes against Vietnam

• August 5, 1965: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed

  • resolution served as the authorization of the heightned US military involvement in the Vietnam War

  • resolution empowered the President as commander in cheif to take all measures to prevent any armed attacks against the US

• April 1965: US planes regularly bombed North Vietnam

  • Vietnam War was a guerrilla war

  • first televised war

War Breaks Out

• Unhappy with US troops in South Vietnam, the North invades

  • this begins a series of battles throughout the South

• Although US has superior power, the attacks can’t be put back into check

• US citizens call for an end of the fighting

The Tet Offensive

• By 1967: the number of Americans that were dissatisfied with the war was growing

  • many didn’t support it because of morals

• Campus protests became common

• Communist leadership was also becoming impatient with progress of war, and were aware that the US would not let up until they got victory

  • communists continued to pour more troops into Vietnam

• Summer 1967: communists decided on a bold stroke that would cripple the Saigon govnt and destory the American expectations of success

  • plan: launch simultaneous military attacks at cities, towns, and military instillations, combined with popular uprisings throughout the country

    • attacked 36/44 provincial capitals, 64 district capitals, 5/6 major cities, more than 24 airfields and bases

    • compund of US embassy was penetrated

• US and South Vietnamese troops may have recovered quickly, but was not true of Americans at home

• Tet Offensive sent shock waves throughout US, startling those who believed the White House’s claims that victory was near

• October: Soviets secretly informed Washington that N. Vietnam would halt their attacks across the DMZ and begin serious negotiaion with US and S. Veitnam is US stopped all bombing of the North

  • Johnson announced the cessation of bombing on the last day of October

Student Protests Occur

• College campuses became centers of political protest against the war

• Strongest anti-war group was Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), founded in 1960

  • anti-establishment: against government and big businesses

Protest Marches

• First huge march took place in DC in 1965

• 1967: around 300,000 Americans marched in NYC

• 1967: another 50,000 people tried to shut down the Pentagon

Draft Resisters

• Nations youth became divided on choosing whether to fight in Vietnam, while others sought postponements to go to college

• 1968: about 10,000 draft resisters fled to Canada

• A large number of minorities responded to the draft and went to Vietnam since they couldn’t afford college

• Attitude of American youth towards Johnson administration became increasingly hostile

1960s: Political and Social Upheavals

• 1960s was shaped by two movements

  1. civil rights movement

  2. anti-war movement

• Political turmoil of the decade helped to produce great social upheaval, especially among the nations youth

Cultural Changes

• Young people became disillusioned with traditional American values

  • thousands of Americans flaunted the use of illegal drugs

  • many young Americans referred to themselves as hippies

  • young Americans searched for a simpler, freer way of live through Communal living

• Civil rights movement and Vietnam War divided Americans

• Assassinations of Robert Kennedy and MLK heightned emotions

Nixon and Vietnam

• Nixon did not end the war right away since he wanted to ensure the survival of South Vietnam

• For a short time, he widened American military activites

• US began to attack North Vietnamese supply routes out of Laos and Cambodia

• The air attacks were meant to be kept a secret, but the story broke in NY Times in May

  • Nixon began a series of measures to plug “leaks” of information

    • became a part of illegal surveillance and burglary that eventually led to the Watergate scandal of 1972

“Vietnamization” Plan

• Plan to withdraw US ground forces from Vietnam

• Control of the war was turned over to South Vietnamese forces

• While supporting this policy, he continued to bomb neighboring Cambodia

  • Nixon claimed they served as a base for North Vietnamese guerrillas

  • these protests triggered a large student protest at Kent State Univeristy in Ohio

    • by the time the National Guard broke up the demostration, four students lay dead and another 9 wounded

Peace with Honor

• Nixon’s foreign policy advisor met in Paris with North Vietnamese officials seeking an end to the war

  • for several years, negotiations were deadlocked

• January 15, 1973: Nixon announded that “peace with honor” had been reached and that a cease-fire would soon take effect

• 1975: American forces withdrew from Vietnam

• July 2, 1976: the South fell to the North and the country was officially united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

War Casualties

• 3 million Vietnamese killed

• 58 thousand Americans killed

• 300 thousand Americans wounded

• $150 billion spent by US to fight the war

Positive Effects of the Conflict

• 26th Amendment is passed; 18-year-olds can now vote

• Nixon abolished the draft

• War Powers Act, 1973: restrained the president’s ability to commit US forces overseas

  • requred executive branch to consult with and report to Congress before involving US forces in foreign hostilites