ush history ch.17

Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Vietnam War.

Vietnam.1963-1975.

French colony till 1941.

Japanese colony from 1941-1945.

Back to French in 1945.

U.S. helped France regain the colony in order to fight

communism.

We supplied money and arms.

Growth of Vietnamese Nationalism.

• A desire to control and rule ones own country.• Political parties and armed groups struggle to

rid your country of foreign control.• Ho Chi Minh was a communist nationalist.• He lead the fight to rid Vietnam of foreign

rulers. “Uncle Ho.”

Vietnam Declares Independence.1949.

• Vietnamese Nationalist fighters were called “Vietminh.”

• U.S. supported independence for colonies, EXCEPT if the country might go communist.

• Remember “Containment?”

• “Domino Theory.”

Guerrilla Warfare.Hard to know your enemy.

Make government look weak.

Only attack when certain of victory.

Retreat when over matched.

Return when enemy vacates territory.

Harass lines of communication and support.

TIME…..General Giap.

· In addition, it was verydifficult to identify whichSouth Vietnamese were ourallies and which weresupporting the Vietcong.

· Jungle warfare wasdifficult, and it was hard tolocate the enemy.

Video Clip: Platoon The Uncertain Enemy

Ex Vietcong showing secrettunnels, November 7, 2004

Dien Bien Phu. 1954.

• BLUNDER by French.

• Wanted to lure Vietminh out to open fight.

• Thought that airpower and artillery would defeat them.

• Vietminh surrounded fortress and crushed it. French leave Vietnam.

Geneva Accords 1956.

• Divided Vietnam into two countries-17th parallel.

• Vietminh controlled North. Ho Chi Minh.• U.S. Backed regime controlled South under

Ngo Dinh Diem. • Supposed to have elections to determine fate

of country. Never happened.

The Two Vietnams

· Vietnam, a former Frenchcolony, was divided into twosections in 1954.

· South Vietnam, led byNgo Dinh Diem, wasdemocratic and backedby the U.S.

· North Vietnam, led byHo Chi Minh, wascommunist and backedby the Soviet Union.

U.S. Involvement Deepens.

• Viet Minh become Viet Cong.

• American personal went from 2,000 in 1961 to 15,000 by 1963. “Advisors.”

• Diem, a Catholic, in a mostly Buddhist country discriminated them.

• The Buddhist monks protested.

Overthrow of Diem.

Kennedy said that Diem had to go! He was killed.

U.S./C.I.A. supported a coup to replace him with a military Junta.

The Military Junta wasn't very popular either.

Junta was corrupt and and poor administrators of country.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 1964.

• American ships fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.

• Americans outraged.

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave all war powers to the President to fight in Vietnam.

U.S. Bombing Begins.

• More bombs were dropped on Vietnam than U.S. dropped during WWII!.

• “Operation Rolling Thunder.”

• First combat troops ordered into Vietnam.

• By 1965-500,000 troops in Vietnam fighting.

Bloody Stalemate.

• Viet Cong used ambushes, booby traps, and guerilla tactics.

• Who is the enemy? Just like Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Viet Cong would also ”Hang on to our belt buckle” so that we could not bring our full power to bare.

American Tactics.• Body counts not territory.

• “Win the hearts and minds” of the people.

• Use overwhelming fire power. “Bomb them back to the stone age!”

• Napalm and Agent Orange.

• No precision weapons then.

This Pulitzer Prize winning photograph is of Kim PhucPhan Thi, center, running down a road near after a napalmbomb was dropped on her village by a plane of the VietnamAir Force. The village was suspected by US Army forces ofbeing a Viet Cong stronghold. Kim Phuc survived by tearingoff her burning clothes.

China and Soviet Union Help North Vietnam.

• These countries sent money, food, medicine, arms, and military advisors to North Vietnam.

• Without this help, North Vietnam could not have kept up the fight.

• Why didn’t U.S. invade the North?

Air Defense.

• U.S. relied on massive bombing raids on North.

• Soviets supplied North with the MOST sophisticated air defense system in the world.

• U.S. lost many pilots and planes over Vietnam.

• Senator John McCain.

Micro Managed War.

• Johnson and staff tries to micro manage the war.

• Long delays for battle field decisions.

• Important target off limits due to “Political” concerns.

• Haiphong Harbor never mined till END of war.

Divided Nation.

• At first 66 percent of U.S. supported war.

• General Westmoreland promised the war would be won soon.

• T.V. showed grim images of war every night. NO censorship like today.

• Credibility gap began.

Anti War Movement.

• Teach-ins begin.

• Anger at the Draft.

• Government not truthful about war.

• Hawks v. Doves.

Tet Offensive. 1968.

• Viet Cong launch massive country-wide attacks in South.

• The attack, after a lot of effort, is crushed by U.S. military.

• This was a military victory, BUT a political defeat for U.S.

• Why?

1968.

• Johnson does not run for reelection.

• Americans turn against war.

• Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinated.

• Nixon elected president.

Nixon Tries to End the War.• Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger to

negotiate an end to war.

• Nixon also tried to improve relations with China/Soviet Union. “Linkage.”

• Keystone of withdrawal: “Vietnamization” of war.

North Vietnam wasn’t negotiating.

• Spent month arguing about shape of table at Paris Peace Talks!

• Linebacker I and II. Massive bombing off North.

• Haiphong Harbor FINALLY mined.

• Wheat deal with Soviets?

Turmoil and Scandals.

• My Lai Massacre. At least 200 civilians murdered by U.S. soldiers. Men. Women, and children.

• Lt. Calley sent to prison. Nixon pardoned him.

Invasion of Cambodia. 1970.

• Military invades Cambodia to attack Viet Cong bases and Ho Chi Minh Trail.

• This sparks massive protests in U.S.

• Kent State tragedy. Four killed, nine wounded.

• 10 days later two African-Americans killed at Jackson State College.

Pentagon Papers.

• Daniel Ellsberg leaked secret documents to the NEW YORK TIMES.

• Several presidents lied to congress about war.

• Decisions made by presidents without consent of congress: Secret Cambodia bombings.

• This widened the “credibility gap.”

U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam.

• 1971 polls: 66 percent want OUT of Vietnam.

• Nixon defeats McGovern by a landslide.

• Nixon puts MORE pressure on North Vietnam.

• Xmas bombings.

• War ends for U.S. 1973.

South Vietnam Falls. 1975.• North Vietnam launches conventional

attack on North.

• The South falls in a couple of weeks.

War Powers Act. 1973.

• Inform congress within 48 hours of commitment of troops aboard.

• MUST withdraw them between 60-90 days unless congress VOTES to approve it.

· Many South Vietnamese distrusted Diem and joined theVietcong, a communist guerilla group supported by NorthVietnam.

Anexecutionof aVietcongprisonerFeb. 1,1968

· In August 1964, U.S. military officialsbelieved that the North Vietnamese hadtorpedoed an American ship in the Gulfof Tonkin.

· In response, the U.S. passed the Gulfof Tonkin Resolution , which allowedthe U.S. to begin bombing enemytargets within North and SouthVietnam.

The Tet Offensive:A Turning Point

· In January of 1968, theVietcong launchedsurprise attacks on citiesthroughout SouthVietnam.

· The American embassywas attacked as well in theSouth Vietnamese capitalof Saigon.

· The Tet Offensive proved to the world that no part of SouthVietnam was safe, even with the presence of half a millionAmerican troops.

· The attacks were known as the Tet Offensive because theyoccurred during Tet, the Vietnamese News Year ’s holiday.

The Tet Offensive: An Audio Description by NPR

· However, the U.S. continued tosend billions of dollars in supportof the South Vietnamese.

Peace Without Victory

· In January 1973, the U.S.reached a cease-fire agreementwith North Vietnam and broughttheir troops home.

· In April of 1975, the communists captured the SouthVietnamese capital of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City,and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag.

Video: People rush to leave Saigon as the city falls to theVietcong. April 30, 1975 (9 min.)

Civil War inCambodia

· The U.S. andSouthVietnamesebegan to secretlybomb communistbases inCambodia usedby the NorthVietnamese.

· The KhmerRouge werebrutal leaders,killingapproximatelytwo millionpeople in just afew shortyears.

· Cambodia soon fought a civil war, which was won by thecommunist Khmer Rouge in 1975, whereupon they changedthe name of the country to Kampuchea.

Cambodia: Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979 (2:55)

· Between 1961 and 1973 over 58,000 Americans died in theVietnam War.

Vietnam Balance Sheet

· During the same timeperiod, over 1,500,000Vietnamese died as well.

Vietnam War Memorial,Washington, D.C.