vietnam war

Vietnam had immense French and Chinese influence

They were French Indochina for a while

The Japanese in ww2 invade Vietnam, however guereilla war breaks out and Vietnam fights back

Theres now a communist north and a ‘democratic’ south because of the Geneva convention

The Vietcong was a south Vietnamese rebel communist group fighting against the south Vietnamese government

However, a separate group from the North Vietnamese Army

They lacked weapons and aircraft but waged an effective guerreilla war

The Tonkin Incident, which occurred in August 1964, involved two separate confrontations between U.S. naval forces and North Vietnamese boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The first incident on August 2 involved the USS Maddox exchanging fire with North Vietnamese torpedo boats. A second, more controversial incident allegedly occurred on August 4, though evidence later suggested it may not have happened. The incident led to the U.S. Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to escalate U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, marking a major turning point in the Vietnam War.

There was a domino effect fear, where in which the rest of South east Asia will also eventually collapse, with India being the last domino to fall

Operation Rolling Thunder is when president Johnson authorised bombing raids on North Vietnam from March 2 1965 until 1967

Aim was to disrupt their supply lines so much that they were forced into negotiating peace

3500 US marines landed in Vietnam just days after bombing began, they were the first active US troops in Vietnam

Australia’s involvement in Vietnam

-          Australia being part of SEATO (fear of communism and sense of unease about south east Asian stability), introduced a form of conscription called ‘national service’ in November 1964

-          The first “nashos” were deployed to Vietnam in June 1965

Battle of Long Tan

-          18 august 1966

-          Australian soldiers killed 250-800 Viet cong, 18 Australians were killed

-          Began in response to a viet cong mortar attack on an Australian Base at Nui Dat

-          Images and videos was sent back home immediately, public mood around the war was beginning to shift   

The Tet Offensive

-          By the beginning of 1968, 500k US troops were in Vietnam, as well as 800k south Vietnamese, 7.8k Aussies and several thousand new Zealanders, south Korean, Filipinos and Thais

-          News reports to these countries were overly positive congratulating many victories

-          Many believe that war would be over soon and that north Vietnam and viet cog would collapse ssoon (they were wrong)

-          On Jan 31 (Tet festival) the viet cong launched a series of coordinated attacked across key cities of south Vietnam catching their opponents completely offguard

-          Viet Cong were able to breach the wall of the US embassy, soldiers had to be helicoptered to retake embassy

-          Viet Cong saw this as a failure because their goal was to inspire south Vietnam to rebel and join the North

-          However now to the public it was clear the war wasn’t going as planned as theyd be told

Pictures in living rooms

-          Vietnam war was unique inhistory as journalists were given frontlines access for the 1^st time

-          People saw footage at home

-          This was also a downside because it meant it was fully televised so people could see

The My Lai Massacre

-          In response to  tet offensive, the us army launched “search and destroy” mission into the countryside (look for viet cong supporters)

-          It was mentally taxing and frustrating for soldiers

-          In march 1968 US Army Charlie Company reached My Lai

-          Believing it was Viet Cong stronghold, the us troops began to kill members of the village indiscriminately

-          Many of the 350-500 victims were elderly, women and children

-          US soldiers also tortured and raped victims before killing

-          No evidence of viet cong activity was found

-          US army actively covered up the events, it was only when journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story in November 1969 which released it to the public

-          This event shattered the American “good guys” narrative, led to huge anti war sentiment

The shooting of nguyen van lem

-          Another infamous image was execution of viet cong officer nguyen van lem by Saigon chief of police

The anti war movement

-          By 1968/69, due to ongoing casualties, massacres and a sense of dis trust towards the gov, public opinion in  US and Aus about the war had shifted significantly

-          Large groups of people protested against the war in city across the world, including 100k in Melbourne on may 8 1970

-          Many protests ended in violence and tragedy

Thee end of Vietnam war

Richard Nixon – key person

-          He starts his campaign saying “we will have an honourable end to the war in Vietnam”

-          Was sword in as president Jan 20 1969, he was elected to the promise of peace in Vietnam

-          Nixon began withdrawing troops as early as mid-1969

-          Australian troops would start leaving in 1970’s

Vietnamisation

-          A policy which slowly handed over American responsibility of the war to the south Vietnamese

-          Nixon also began extensive, often delayed peace talks with north Vietnam

-          Peace talks were tricky as US wanted to maintain a non communist south Vietnam but the north wanted a full communist reunification

-          Meanwhile bombs still fell on north Vietnam

Further de escalation

-          End of 1971, US only had 140k troops in Vietnam

-          To supplement this, US increased bombing campaigns, so much that the North Vietnamese agreed to return to negotiations in August 1972

-          Any time peace talks stalled the US would bomb North Vietnam

Paris Peace Accords

-          January 1973 after years of back and forth negotiations, the Paris Peace accords were signed

-          This formalized the US withdrawal from Vietnam and left South Vietnam alone to face the communist north

It consisted of:

-          US ceasfire to take effect in January 28^th 1973

-          US armed forces to withdraw completely

-          The NVA to remain in areas of South Vietnam it controlled at the time of ceasfire

-          All foreign forces to leave Cambodia and laos

-          Elections aimed at reunifying Vietnam

-          All US prisoners of war to be returned by North Vietnam

-          US mines off the coast of North Vietnam to be cleared by US minesweepers

-          North Vietnamese to revognise Sotuh

-          An international commission for control of supervision consisting of hungary Poland Indonesia and canada

The fall of Saigon

-          Despite paris peace accords being signed, Vietnam remained Unstable

-          The NVA now unopposed by the US marched into Saigon (southern capital) on April 30 1975

-          Vietnam would be unified as a communist nation, where there was widespread panic and a rush for the last foreigners to leave