vietnam war

History of vietnam

French indochina: occupied by the french, colonized it in 1858, wanted it for resources, the french treat people poorly

Ho chi minh: led nationalist movement after wwI, marxist, educated in the west, flees to soviet china when the french condemn him to deat

Viet minh:  fighters in the nationalist movement, fight against japan after take over, used guerilla tactics to fight for the liberation of vietnam

Geneva accords: settles the french and vietnamese conflict

17th parallel: split vietnam in half. Soviets take top half and US takes bottom half. 

Fear of communism 

Domino theory: the north is communist and we’re trying to keep the south from also falling communist

Viet cong: communists living in south vietnam trying to overthrow

Support for south vietnam: 

Ngo dinh diem: leader of south vietnam, corrupt and authoritarfian, we supported him because he wasn’t communist 

Thich quang duc: buddhist, burns himself alive out of protest. After he lights himself on fire, CIA steps in and assassinates ngo dinh diem 

Presidents

Truman: supported france when they were fighting vietnamese, began military aid to the french to fight vietnam, took a stance against communism 

Eisenhower: supported south vietnam, domino theory, sent more military aid and advisors

JFK: continued increase in advisors, helicopter units, covert opperations, led coup against diem

Tonkin Gulf

August 2nd 1964: USS maddox  was attacked by vietnamese boats, unprovoked but the ship was not harmed

Tonkin gulf resolution:  both houses passed it, says the president can do whatever they want in vietnam

How did the conflict in vietnam change: it transitioned to a full war that lasted over a decade 

Increased involvement

- 3 previous presidents started involvement in vietnam, LBJ escalates it, in 1965 we had 180,000 troops in vietnam, this had started in 1964

General william westmoreland: wants more US troops in vietnam, unimpressed by the south vietnamese troops. We had increased to 500,000 troops by 1967. We were basically sending US troops to do a better job

Operation rolling thunder (65-68)

Goals: 

1: boost morale of south vietnamese troops

2: stop north vietnam from sending supplies/support to south vietnam

3: destroy north vietnams transportation/ industrial bases

4: stop north vietnamese supplies from reaching south vietnamese

War tactics

America: 

-belief:The US believed we had better weapons than north vietnam and we could wipe them out

-napalm:flammable jelly to set fire to jungles

-agent orange: deadly pesticide

-treatment towards vietnamese: uproot civillans/ harass

-zippo raids/ search and destroy missions: destroy villages with suspected communists

-”battle for the hearts and minds”:  gain support by providing resources

Vietnamese:

-insurgency: violent and armed rebellion using guerilla tactics

-hit and run: ambush and flee

-vietcong:live among civilian populations, hard to tell friend from foe

-tunnels: hard to attack someone underground, they hide in tunnels, essentially villages underground 

-booby traps and landmines

Sinking morale

Reasons for fighting: vietcong fighting to maintain their existence, US fighting for..?, jungles and rice paddies with difficult terrain. Progress was slow and lots of death 

Fracking: murdered each other, turned to drugs  and alcohol 

-thousands of americans taken as POWs

Early years at home

-inflation

-cuts to great society programs

combat footage shown nightly: shown on TV, very gruesome, shows reality of war

The draft:  

Qualification: man, 18-26,  mostly lower class

Exemptions: medical excuses, enroll in college to defer, go to national/coast guard instead because it was seen as safer

Civil rights and vietnam 

African American: served at a disproportionately higher rate, black people were dying for the country but still being treated as second class citizens

-mlk critisized 

-integrated platoons

-discrimination 

05/26

Protest movement

-new left: 

-led by students

-youth movement on campus

-port huron statement

- transmission of knowledge 

Why are we against this? :

- US has no business in vietnam

-vietnam doesn't care what they are so why try to stop it

-south vietnam isnt any better than north vietnam the only difference is they’re not communist

-US shouldn’t be the police of the globe, let countries do what they want to do

Students for a new democratic society:  

-4/1965

-leads march to DC

-drafted port huron statement

Federal government response:

-Feb 1966: LBJ requires students to be in good academic standing in college in order to defer going to the war

-people will just buy grades or buy a medical excuse 

1954 geneva accords:

-splits vietnam

-lets them hold elections and choose what they want to do

Resistance: 

Doves vs.Hawks:

-doves are for the war

-hawks are against the war

-draft-dodging (flee to canada)

-burning draft cards – doesn’t do anything just a protest

-100,000 march lincoln memorial → pentagon (military building)  to protest the military 

American perception: 

-70% of americans see protests as disloyalty to america in 1967 (67 is against) 

TET offensive 

TET= lunar new year = january 30th

truce: 

-week long - no fighting for TET

Surprise attack

-1968: vietcong break truce, launch surprise attack on american bases + embassy

-lasts about a month

-vietcong loses 32,000 troops

-US loses 3,000 troops 

Change in public opinion 

Before TET:

-doves 28%

-Hawks 56%

After TET:

-Both about 40%

Media criticism: 

-openly criticize the war and the government 

Clark Clifford: 

-secretary of defense - says the war is unwinnable, if the secretary of defense says this shows it isn't a good war

LBJ popularity: 

-Popularity plummets 

-really good at domestic policy

-isn’t handling the war well 

1968 democratic nominee

-LBJ: current president, losing popularity - LBJ drops out

-RFK: party favorite and american favorite, people love kennedys - ASSASSINATED 

-Eugene McCarthy: dove, running on an anti war platform

-hubert humphrey: current vice president

Withdrawal speech 

-3/31/68: LBJ delivers his speech

-withdrawl from the war

-plans to negotiate the end of the war and negotiate with the north vietnamese, we pull back and south vietnamese play a larger role

-withdrawl from the election

popularity plummeted:  decided his time was over and dropped out

Assassinations 

MLK: 4/4/68

RFK: 6/5/68 - assassinated by sirhan sirhan, after rfk showed support for israel (sirhan is a jordanian immigrant) 

1968 DNC & election 

DNC

-lots of fighting at the DNC

-no clear winner

-(refer to cronkite)

Election

-VP Hubert Humphrey supported LBJ’s policies

-Nixon: former VP, promised law and order, vague stance on vietnam which gained him support

-George Wallace: Alabama governor, ran on an anti-civil rights platform, anti vietnam war

-nixon wins the election and goes on a motorcade around chicago which was refreshing for american citizens to see

Vietnamization

Nixon takes office

-enters office with a plan to end the war

-we would slowly withdraw from southeast asia and give more responsibility to the south vietnamese people to ensure they were strong enough to avoid a communist takeover of saigon 

-this did basically nothing because protesters wanted a complete removal

Cambodia invasion

-temporary invasion of cambodia in spring of 1970

-cambodia was technically neutral but the Ho Chi Minh trails ran through there so nixon ordered the vietcong bases along the trail to be bombed

-this enraged peace advocates because they felt the war was increasing rather than decreasing

“Peace with honor”

-december 1972 nixon escalated the bombing of north vietnam

-ceasefire was eventually reached and remaining american combat troops were taken out 

Henry kissinger:

Helps develop the vietnamization plan with nixon 

North vietnam, cambodia, and laos

-nixon begins bombing attacks on all 3. Tonkin gulf resolution said the war effort could be conducted in vietnam, didnt say he could do it in laos and cambodia

-south vietnam wasnt strong enough to fight against north vietnam so april of 1975 north vietnam captured saigon and vietnam fell into one communist country 

-saigon was remanded ho chi minh city 

-cambodia and laos soon followed with communist regimes of their own 

-the us was fully out of vietnam and every country fell communist so all the efforts were for nothing

Campus violence

Kent state university 

-may 4th 1970

-students rioted because they felt as though Nixon was escalating the bombing after bombing of NV

-burned down the ROTC building on campus

-ohio governor sent national guard

-several soldiers fired rifles, killing 4 students and injuring others, this became known as the Kent state massacre

Jackson state:  

-10 days after kent state

-2 people die

Polls: 

-show that the people aren't happy

-americans support the national guard

-most americans don't like the protesting 

Cover ups leaked

My lai massacre

-1968

-american troops opened fire on women and children in a small village in my lai

-said US troops were tired, scared, and confused

-the lieutenant that had given the order, William L Calley Jr, was declared guilty of murder but the ruling later got overturned

-sparked anti war outrage because the US saw that US soldiers were killing innocent civillans and not being punished for it 

Pentagon papers

-NYT published excerpts from the pentagon papers, a top secret overview of government involvement in vietnam 

-a participant from the study, daniel ellsberg, believed that the american people deserved to know some of the secrets 

-papers revealed a high level deception of the american public by the johnson administration 

-many statement released were untrue

-led to more american distrust of the government 

Tonkin gulf resolution

-bombing of american naval boats

-congress repeals it december 31st 1970 because nixon failed to notify them about laos and cambodia 

Final push

1971 - polls: 60% of americans want to withdraw from vietnam 

Negotiations: 10/72 - US drops insistence that NV leave SV 

Christmas bombing: 12/18/72 - US begins bombings on vietnam (100,000 over 11 days) 

Final agreements: 1/27/73: US signed the end of war agreement, NV can stay in SV

Leaving vietnam: 3/29/73: final US troops leave vietnam 

Impacts of war

Death toll:

america: 58,000 killed, 303,000 injured

Vietnam: north and south vietnamese deaths topped 2 million 

Vietnam vets: weren’t welcomed home, some even faced hostility, many suffered PTSD (memory loss, headaches, nightmares), many turned to drugs and alcohol, several thousand committed suicide

Cambodian genocide: US invasion of cambodia unleashed a civil war with a communist group called Khmer rouge, led by pol pot, wanted to transform the country into a peasant society, executed anyone with foreign ties or an education. Killed approximately 1 million cambodians 

“Boat people”: poor vietnamese people who escaped on boats but often died

1973 - war powers act:  a president must inform congress within 48 hours of sending troops into a hostile area without a declaration of war. Also, the troops cant remain longer than 90 days unless congress approves it 

Fall of Saigon: US pulls troops out of south vietnam and north vietnam quickly captures saigon and unites into one singular communist vietnam