WILHITE
U.S. History
The Vietnam War
Background
I.
French Indochina
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Indochina is a peninsula of southeast Asia comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand,
Myanmar (Burma), and the mainland territory of Malaysia
before World War II, the French controlled Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
during the war, Japan occupied Indochina
 Ho Chi Minh led a group of resistance fighters called the Vietminh against the Japanese
occupation
 Japanese surrendered in August 1945
after the war, the French tried to move back in
Vietminh fought against the French
 Vietminh used guerrilla tactics that the French found difficult to counter
 1946 the Vietminh declared a Democratic Republic with its capital at the old Colonial Capital of
Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh as President
 1949 the French set up former Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai as ruler of Vietnam, with a capital
at the southern City of Saigon
US supported the French, who asked for American help in 1950
 US worried that the Vietminh will set up a communist government
 U.S. recognized the Saigon government, and sent military advisers to train the South
Vietnamese in the use of U.S. weapons
late 1953, both sides prepared for peace talks in the Indochina War
 French military commanders picked Dien Bien Phu, a village in northwestern Vietnam near the
Laotian and Chinese borders, as the place to pick a fight with the Vietminh
 the stronghold was located at the bottom of a bowl-shaped river valley, about 10 miles long
the French began to build up their garrison at Dien Bien Phu
most French troops and supplies entered Dien Bien Phu from the air -- either landing at the fort's
airstrip or dropping in via parachute
the size of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu grew to somewhere between 13,000 and 16,000
troops by March 1954
about 70 percent of that force was made up of members of the French Foreign Legion, soldiers from
French colonies in North Africa, and loyal Vietnamese
 heavy Vietminh bombardment closed Dien Bien Phu's airstrip
monsoon rains flooded the garrison
the French surrendered May 7, 1954
marked the end of over 80 years of French colonial rule in Vietnam
at least 2,200 members of the French forces died during the siege -- with thousands more taken
prisoner
of the 50,000 or so Vietnamese who besieged the garrison, there were about 23,000 casualties -including an estimated 8,000 killed
at the Geneva Conference several countries met to discuss the future of Vietnam
 the US, Great Britain, France, USSR, China, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam all send delegates
to Geneva, Switzerland
 Vietnam is "temporarily" divided at the 17th parallel
 elections to reunify Vietnam were to be held in 1956
 Ngo Dinh Diem became the leader of South Vietnam
 declared in 1955 that his government would not support the reunification elections
 Ho Chi Minh remained as the leader of communist North Vietnam
II. American Involvement - 1950s
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US supported South Vietnam
 Eisenhower is worried about the spread of communism
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 domino theory
from 1954-61, US sent $1 billion in economic and military aid to Diem's South Vietnamese
government
 Diem’s administration was corrupt
 pocketed U.S. funds
 imprisoned those who spoke against him
 US supported Diem because he was anti-communist
US sent military advisors to train South Vietnamese soldiers in the use of American weapons
1957 elections in Vietnam
 Ho Chi Minh canceled elections in North Vietnam
 US supported that decision because he would have won and US didn’t want Ho Chi Minh to
be able to say he was elected by the people
 in South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem held an election to demonstrate his support
 he got 605,000 votes and there were only 405,000 registered voters
Diem is Catholic and forced the largely Buddhist Vietnamese population to follow Catholic rules
 1963 several Buddhist monks set themselves on fire on public streets in protest
 included Thich Quang Duc, the oldest and most noble monk
civil war broke out in South Vietnam
 1957, Vietcong – South Vietnamese Communist Guerillas backed by Communist North Vietnam
– began attacks on U.S. Military installations
 began attacks on the Diem government in 1959
III. American Involvement Grows
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1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States
Kennedy increased US efforts to contain the spread of communism in Vietnam
 1961, President Kennedy sent a team to Vietnam to report on conditions in the South and to
assess future American aid requirements
 the report, now known as the "December 1961 White Paper," argued for an increase in military,
technical, and economic aid, and the introduction of large-scale American "advisers" to help
stabilize the Diem regime and crush the National Liberation Front (NLF)
 1961, the U.S. deployed 420 advisers in Vietnam
 by 1963, Kennedy had sent in almost 16,000 military advisers
Diem's government could not cope with unrest among Buddhists and other religious groups
August 1963, military led a coup and took control of government
 US supported coup
 Diem was killed (the US did not support this) and a weak new regime was established
Nguyen Van Thieu became the weak new leader
 communist ideas grew in South Vietnam
November 1963, J.F. Kennedy was assassinated
 Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) became President
 Johnson kept Kennedy’s foreign policy team
 Robert McNamara (Sec. of Defense)
 continued Kennedy's policy in Vietnam
I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia
go the way China went. ~ Lyndon Johnson
The War Begins
I. Gulf of Tonkin Incident
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August 1964, two US destroyers were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam
 President Johnson claimed that the North Vietnamese had fired on American ships in
international waters
 asked Congress to authorize the use of force in Vietnam
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 it said that the US could repel and prevent attacks
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it was NOT a declaration of war, but widened the scope of US involvement
 like “Grandma’s nightshirt - it covers everything”
 it was revealed years later that US destroyers were not innocent - they had been helping South
Vietnamese commandos raid North Vietnamese islands
a US base at Pleiku was attacked
II. The Air War
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early 1965, the U.S. began strategic bombing of North Vietnam, primarily using B-52 aircraft
 called Operation Rolling Thunder
US relied primarily on air power
 bombing cost fewer American lives than ground combat
US used saturation bombing (dropping a large concentration of bombs over an area)
seven million tons of bombs dropped in Vietnam (4 times the number dropped in WWII)
bombed military targets and supply routes at first
 eventually bombed roads, homes, factories
the air raids destroyed the landscape and killed thousands of civilians
in addition to bombs, US planes dropped Agent Orange and napalm
 Agent Orange was a herbicide used to expose Viet Cong hiding places
 napalm was a highly flammable chemical used in firebombing attacks
 used for the same purpose as Agent Orange and for ant-personnel reasons
these tactics did not have the effect U.S. expected
 strengthened the resolve of the North Vietnamese
 they responded with ingenuity - underground tunnels (some with shops and factories)
III. The Ground War Begins
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Johnson started a military escalation in 1964 after winning the election
US troops entered combat
 the first American combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrived in Vietnam to
defend the US airfield at Danang March 8-9, 1965
 the first conventional battle of the Vietnam war took place as American forces clashed with North
Vietnamese units in the Ia Drang Valley November 14-16, 1965
 US 1st Air Cavalry Division employed its newly enhanced technique of aerial
reconnaissance to finally defeat the NVA, although heavy casualties are reported on both
sides
 led by Lt. Col. Hal Moore
by the end of 1965 there were 184,000 soldiers in Vietnam
 by 1967, 500,000 American troops were in Vietnam
 reached a peak of 542,000 in January 1969
General William Westmoreland was the senior commander of American troops in Vietnam from 1964
to1968
 he devised and pursued an unsuccessful strategy of attrition
Tet Offensive - 1968
 in the early morning hours of January 31st, the first day of the Vietnamese New Year (Tet), North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) troops and commandos began a major offensive
 attacked virtually every major town and city in South Vietnam, including the capital of Saigon
 also attacked most of the important American bases and airfields
 violated the temporary truce they had pledged to observe around the lunar new year
celebrations
 the offensive was planned by planned by North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap
 shifted the war for the first time from its rural base into the new arena of South Vietnam's urban
areas
 nineteen VC commandos blew their way through the outer walls of the US Embassy in Saigon
 tried and failed to blast their way through the main Embassy doors with anti-tank rockets
 all nineteen VC were killed
 the biggest battle, however occurred at Hue
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ten NVA/VC battalions had overrun all of the city except for the headquarters of the South
Vietnamese Army
 Hue was a sacred city to the Vietnamese and had many historical buildings
 the main NVA/VC goal was the Citadel, an ancient imperial palace covering some two
square miles with high walls several feet thick
 the NVA/VC over ran the city and freed thousands of prisoners and thousands of "enemies
of the state" - government officials, sympathizers, and Catholics were rounded up and many
were shot
 after Hue was recaptured at the end of February South Vietnamese officials found mass
graves with over 2500
 the number of civilians estimated as missing after the Hue battle was nearly 6000
 US Marines and South Vietnamese Army pushed into the city
 the battle for Hue reminded many of the street-by-street fighting that occurred during World
War lI
 the fight for Hue ended by February 25th at a cost of 119 Americans and 363 South
Vietnamese dead compared to about sixteen times that number of NVA/VC dead
 another large battle occurred at an American base at Khe Sanh
 Khe Sanh was in the northwest corner of South Vietnam just below the DMZ and close to the
Laotian border
 Khe Sanh had been garrisoned by the French during the first Indochina war
 became an important US because of its proximity to the Ho Chi Minh Trail
 from Khe Sanh US artillery could shell the trail and observers could keep an eye on NVA
traffic moving south
 first attack began shortly before dawn on January 21st, when the NVA attempted to cross
the river running past the base
 siege at Khe Sanh, lasted from January until April
 Tet Offensive ultimately failed for the NVA/VC militarily
 NVA/VC dead totaled some 45,000 and the number of prisoners nearly 7000
 VC was severely crippled by Tet and, from then on, the North took on the main burden of the
war
effects of Tet
 the attack was demoralizing to the U.S. and South Vietnamese troops
 the shockwave of the battle finished Johnson's willingness to carry on
 led to the belief in the United States that the Vietnam War was un-winnable
 Westmoreland asked Washington for 206,000 troops to carry on the campaign in the South and
to make a limited invasion of North Vietnam
 Westmoreland was replaced by General Creighton Abrams, his deputy commander
 Westmoreland came home to become Army Chief of Staff
 Johnson went on TV and announced a bombing halt of the North and America's willingness to
meet with the North Vietnamese to seek a peace settlement
 Johnson then said that he was not a candidate for reelection under any circumstances and
spent the rest of his term in a search for peace in Indochina
 Tet was a major turning point
IV. How The War Was Fought
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ground forces would go on search and destroy missions
jungle warfare
 natural problems: heat, thick vegetation, hard to see the enemy, marshy, wet, humidity,
disease, insects, leeches, jungle rot (fungus that effects the skin)
 manmade problems: guerrilla warfare (ambush, hit and run, sabotage), land mines, carrying 60
pound packs
the enemy was difficult to determine because your ally and your enemy were both Vietnamese
 American soldiers were confused to discover that many South Vietnamese people did not
appreciate their efforts
advantages of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese
 could blend into the population
 had the support of many South Vietnamese peasants who wanted communism
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 knew the land
 had an elaborate tunnel systems
the Viet Cong received aid from North Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trial
 North Vietnamese supply line that passed through Laos and Cambodia
the US moved South Vietnamese peasants into cities or refugee camps to keep them from helping
the VC
 called Pacification Program
 made many South Vietnamese peasants mad at the US
V. Psychological Effects of the War
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the war continued for years and seemed endless and un-winnable
 Vietnam was the longest war in American history
many soldiers “snapped” under the pressure
the average age of soldiers in Vietnam was younger than any previous war
Vietnam had unclear war goal, an unclear enemy, and an unclear end
many soldiers tried drugs as an escape
 many had psychological damage (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder)
The War at Home
I. The Media and the War
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Vietnam was called the "living room war"
due to new satellite technology, the war was broadcast almost instantly on television
60 million people watched brutal, shocking images nightly
the press was uncensored by the military (800 reporters were practically side by side with soldiers in
battle)
 images of fighting on U.S. TV began to turn tide of opinion against war
the press was generally supportive of the war until the Tet offensive
after Tet, newscasters and reporters began openly questioning government policies
 support for the war went from 60% to 40% in a matter of a few months
 CBS Anchor Walter Cronkite, one of the most respected men in America, said the US was
"mired in a stalemate"
 President Johnson said, “If we have lost Walter, we have lost the country.”
images of fighting on U.S. TV began to turn tide of opinion against war
Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the
living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam.
--Marshall McLuhan, 1975
with TV coverage and the increasing number of U.S. troops in Vietnam in the 1960's many groups
joined the antiwar movement
there were many protests
II. Anti-war Protests
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Resisting the Draft
 all men 18 and older had to register
 college students got deferments (put off going to war until done with school)
 Vietnam became a “poor man’s fight”
 40% of all eligible draftees were in college
 many people thought this made the draft unfair
 1966, the government announced that college students with low grades would not receive
deferments
Conscientious Objectors
 claimed that war violated their religious or moral beliefs
 this was difficult to prove
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many protested the draft
 burned draft cards
 refused to register
 thousands fled the country
 many went to Canada
The Draft Lottery
 late 1969, the draft was modified with a lottery system
 the federal government said a lottery would make the draft more fair
 hoped it might stem the tide of young men who dodged the draft
 the government also believed that making the draft less controversial would decrease opposition
to the war
 men were assigned a number (1 to 366) based on their birth date
 each day of the year was given a number randomly
rd
rd
rd
 men in the lowest 3 were most likely going to war, middle 3 maybe going, last 3 , not
going
rd
 many men in the lowest 3 enlisted in order to get better assignments (OCS, coast guard,
etc.)
 this did not make the draft more fair because some people could still receive deferments;
however, it made the draft appear to be fair
anti-war protests increased with the escalation in Vietnam
 most protesters were baby boomers between 18-25
 many anti-war protests were organized by college students and took place on college campuses
 anti-war protesters were very vocal, but were the minority of college students
groups organized to oppose the war
 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
 formed at the University of Michigan in 1960
 became the core of the “New Left” movement
 wanted radical change
 one of the founders of SDS was Tom Hayden
 Hayden articulated the ideology of the SDS and New Left in the Port Huron Statement
(1962)
 said that citizens should have more voice in the government and that the government
should be more responsive to the people
 called for power to be rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity
 SDS organized chapters on college campuses all over the nation to protest the war
 one extremist faction of the SDS were called the weathermen
 they advocated violence sit-ins
 March 1970, three Weathermen were killed when a bomb they were building exploded
 Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE)
 October 1967, a huge demonstration at the Pentagon organized by MOBE drew 100,000
 late 1968, a MOBE-organized march drew 500,000 people to Washington, D.C., while
150,000 attended a march in San Francisco
Columbia University incident
 April 23, 1968
 war protesters and civil rights protesters joined together
 Columbia (in NYC) was doing military research which angered the anti-war protesters
 Columbia was planning to build a gym on top of a Harlem park which angered civil rights
protesters
 protesters took over 5 campus buildings (including the president’s office) and held them hostage
for a week
 the incident was ended by the New York City police
Chicago Seven
 violence surrounded the 1968 Democratic National Convention
 seven men (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Dave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Lee
Weiner, and John Froines) were arrested and charged with conspiracy to incite a riot
 February 18, 1970, a jury acquitted all seven defendants but found five of them guilty of crossing
state boundaries with intent to incite a riot - a violation of a recently enacted federal statute
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Judge Julius Hoffman sentenced the five to five years in prison and all seven and their counsel,
William Kunstler, to short terms for contempt of court
 all convictions on the federal count were overturned on appeal
Election of 1968
 Democrats nominated Hubert H. Humphrey
 Republicans chose Richard M. Nixon
 Nixon was elected, partly because of conflict within the Democratic Party
My Lai Massacre
 November 1969, journalists discovered that in March 1968, US soldiers had massacred 350
South Vietnamese civilians
 massacre was at the village of My Lai
 led by Lt. William Calley
 Calley was charged in March 1970, and would be court-martialed in 1971
 sentenced to life and later had the sentence reduced
 after the massacre became public knowledge, protests were held all over the nation
 President Nixon asked for the support of the “silent majority” (the people not protesting)
Kent State incident
 the invasion of Cambodia by U. S. and South Vietnamese forces in the spring of 1970 revived
the domestic antiwar movement in the United States and led to large demonstrations
 since 1967, the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia had been battling
Khmer Rouge (literally “Red Cambodia”) forces under Pol Pot
 1970, Right-wing General Lol Non seized control of Cambodia in a military coup, while
Prince Sihanouk was out of the country
 May 3, 1970, students protesting at Kent State University in Ohio burned the ROTC building
 May 4, the National Guard was called in to Kent State
 students taunted the guardsmen with insults and by throwing rocks and bottles
 the Guard responded with tear gas
 the Guard panicked and fired into the crowd
 four students were killed - two were protesters (nine wounded)
 a similar incident occurred at Jackson State in Mississippi (two killed)
some entertainers got involved in protest against the war
 Jane Fonda became known as “Hanoi Jane” because of a trip to North Vietnam in 1972
Counter Culture
 grew out of anti-war activism
 rejected most of conventional social customs
 questioned traditions and experimented with new ways of living
 promoted desires for greater self-fulfillment
 had permissive attitudes regarding sexual morality
 questioned government and other authority
 followed the example of the Beat Generation
 some Americans opposed the counterculture because they thought it threatened traditional
values
The War Ends
I. Ending the War
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Nixon developed a plan called "Vietnamization"
 build up South Vietnamese forces to replace American troops
 turned war over to the South Vietnamese
numbers of American troops in Vietnam began decreasing in 1969
 US resumed bombing raids on North Vietnam
Pentagon Papers
 June 1971 - secret defense documents leaked out
 revealed government officials had lied to Congress about the war
 Presidents had made secret policy decisions, such as giving military aid to France and
waging covert war against North Vietnam in the early 1960s
War Powers Act of 1973
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was passed mainly in response to concern that presidents Johnson and Nixon had involved the
military in combat without congressional approval
 Nixon vetoed it - Congress overrode his veto
 it restrained the president's ability to commit U.S. forces overseas by requiring the executive
branch to consult with and report to Congress before involving U.S. forces in foreign hostilities
 generally considered a measure to help prevent "future Vietnams"
Peace Talks
 attempted in 1968, but failed
 eb. Nixon sent Henry Kissinger
 tried “carrot and stick” method
 tempted VC with negotiations and threatened escalation
The War Ends
 January 1973 formal agreement signed in Paris
 US would withdraw
 prisoners would be released
 US and North Vietnam agreed that North Vietnamese troops could remain in South Vietnam
 South Vietnam unhappy
 Vietnam War for the US ended when American troops began withdrawing
 the last US troops are out in March 1973
 the cease-fire collapsed and North and South resumed fighting
 Vietnam War, ended in 1975 after the South Vietnamese troop withdrawal from the northern
provinces turned into a disorganized retreat
 April 1975, North Vietnamese troops marched into Saigon
 South Vietnam surrendered
 President Ford ordered an evacuation of American citizens and Vietnamese sympathizers
 more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees entered the United States and were resettled
throughout the country
 North Vietnam completed its conquest of South Vietnam
 Vietnam was unified under communist rule
 Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City and became the new capital
 refugees had been escaping throughout the conflict but the number escalated greatly after the
fall of Saigon
Costs of the War
 58,000 Americans died
 300,000 wounded
 2 million Vietnamese died
 $150 billion spent by US
 many soldiers suffered long-term psychological damage
soldiers came home to an unwelcome home front
US pulled out before the war ended and American backed side eventually loses - many Americans
see this as the first war loss in US history
1.5 million Vietnamese fled the country
1975,Cambodia fell to communist Khmer Rouge
 fanatical Pol Pot was the leader
 1.5 million killed by communist regime
 "the killing fields"
 early May the new Cambodian government seized an American ship, the cargo vessel
Mayaguez
 Ford ordered a limited Marine and air action to retrieve the ship and crew
 41 lives were lost in the recovery of the 39-member crew
Laos also fell to communism
1979 Vietnam Veterans Memorial recognized the courage of soldiers
 helped heal emotional wounds
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