Vietnam Death Tolls
• More than 58,000 US troops died or remain missing
• 1 million Vietnamese died according to a study conducted by Charles
Hirschman, Samuel Preston, Vu Manh Loi
• However, other sources estimate between 1 million and 3 million died
State Actors in this War
• South Vietnam: State Of
Vietnam (1949 – 55), Republic of
Vietnam (1955- 75)
• US
• France
• North Vietnam: Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, Viet Minh
• China
• USSR
Vietnam War (US Involvement)
• August 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• March 1965- Operation Rolling Thunder,
First US combat troops were sent to
Vietnam
• 1968 – Tet Offensive, My Lai massacre
• 1968 - Peace talks Begin in Paris
• 1973 – Ceasefire signed in Paris, last US
troops left Vietnam
• 1974 – Renewal of war
• 1975 - Saigon falls
First Indochina War
• September 1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares
independence for Vietnam
• October 1945 – French soldiers arrive to restore
colonial rule
• March 1949 – French install Bao Dai as puppet
head of state in South Vietnam
• 1954- Geneva Accords signed, French pull out
of Vietnam
• 1956 - South Vietnam breaks the accord
• 1960 – North Vietnam declares war
Key Actors
• Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam)
• Nguyen Van Thieu (South Vietnam)
• Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam)
• John F. Kennedy (USA)
• Lyndon B. Johnson (USA)
Ho Chi Minh
• President of North Vietnam from
1945 till his death in 1969
• Charismatic nationalist, led fight for
independence from France after
WWII
Ngo Dinh Diem
• President of the Republic of Vietnam
1955 to 1963
• Overthrown in military coup
• Harsh ruler, ousted emperor
• Modernized South Vietnam
Nguyen Van Thieu
• President of South Vietnam 1965 to
1975
• Resigned office a few days before the
fall of Saigon
John F. Kennedy
• President of the United States 1961
to 1963
• Refused to commit combat troops to
Vietnam
• Strictly advisors at 16,000
• Assassinated 20 days after Ngo Dinh
Diem
Lyndon B. Johnson
• President of the United States 1963
to 1969
• Fought for commitment of US combat
troops to Vietnam
• 16,000 to over 500,000
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by Congress
Theories
• Realist
• Marxist
• Hegemonic
• Incrementalism
• Deathwatch
• Stimulus-Response
Realist Theory
• Claim: War perpetrated by large, powerful states
• US, USSR, China
• National Role Conception
• Domino Theory: Eisenhower, Kennedy, McNamara and Johnson believed
US was responsible for protecting the rest of the world from falling like
dominos to Communism
• Counter: Neglects political factors and role of beliefs between North
and South Vietnam
Marxist Theory (1)
• Claim: War is the result of "class conflict“ and “violent revolution”
• South Vietnam= Agreement to do elections was broken because the
government was not popular among the majority of the population. This
break from the accord led to the Vietnam War.
• Who supported the Southern Government?
• Elites that did not want to redistribute their wealth. The Southern
Government was careful not to anger the elites because they were
the only real support they had.
• Who supported the Northern Government?
• What Marx describes as the "proletariat" - poor peasants.
Hegemonic Theory (1)
• Claim: the international system is more likely to remain stable when a
single nation-state is the dominant world power, or hegemon.
• Soviet Union and the United States are competing to be the dominant
power
• Vietnam War= proxy war
• By the end of the 1960s, the Soviet Union overtook China as the primary
supplier of economic and military aid to North Vietnam.
• The Soviet Union also provided propaganda support to the regime,
condemning American actions and hailing national liberation movements
in the fight against capitalism.
• Throughout the conflict, the Soviet Union refused to serve publicly as a
mediator between North Vietnam and the United States.
Hegemonic Theory (2)
• Neorealist
• Claim: Archaic system creates power hungry states
• US and USSR were trying to increase their influence
• Counter: Was the US really trying to increase influence?
• The motivation for the US could have been fear of the
spread of communism rather than desire to increase
influence. Domino theory is a product of this fear
mongering
Hegemonic Theory (3)
• Neoliberal
• Claim: Unregulated economy is the best for everyone. This means war will happen between countries
utilizing/advocating for unregulated economies against those who don’t support regulated economies. In
this theory unregulated economies are associated with democratic states and regulated economies are
associated with communist states.
• North Vietnam and the USSR are communists
• South Vietnam and the US are democratic capitalists
• Counter: Was South Vietnam really that democratic?
• Evidence of Diem (the president of South Vietnam) mistreating minorities, even allowing them to killed by his military during protests
• Classical Liberal
• Claim: Hegemons act in "enlightened self-interest" and attempt to take on all the costs because it is good for all
the actors in the system
• US was trying to create a system that was best for all the actors, which was a world without Communism
• Soviet Union was trying to create a system that was best for all the actors, a world with Communism
• Counter: Were the US and Soviet Union really acting to "save" these countries? Or were they attempting to
protect themselves?
Deathwatch Theory
• Claim: This war is caused by the US wanting to take advantage of an
unstable Vietnam
• Internationalization of a civil war
• US would have a lot to gain geopolitically
• Counter: This only explains when the US would have intervened in
Vietnam
• Possible that the US could have attacked Vietnam in the early
stages of war but instead did not.
Stimulus – Response Theory
• Claim: Wars fought in response to arms races and increased hostility in
actions and behaviors made by states.
• US vs USSR in arms race
• Increase in defense can lead to perception of increase in defense
• Eisenhower's "security dilemma"
• Realist in ideology
• Counter: Doesn’t completely explain why North Vietnam invaded South
Vietnam
• Assumes that spiral of events leads to spontaneous conflict
Incrementalism
• Claim: Government decision making is based on not deviating from the
status quo. Extreme decisions are avoided because they are harder to
predict.
• The US entered Vietnam because each administration leading up to US
intervention made incremental decisions that eventually lead to war
• 1945: Truman supported the French in the 1st Indochina War
• 1954: Eisenhower supported South Vietnam
• 1961: Kennedy increased military advisors in Vietnam
• 1965: Johnson starting bombing Vietnam and sending troops
• Counter: Describes how the US got involved in the war rather than why
Questions for further discussion:
• Do you agree with the theories we have mentioned? Can you think of
other theories?
• We mentioned Hegemonic Theory of War, as did the last presentations
on their wars, do you think this is a root cause of war?
• If so, are we ever going to be able to avoid war?
Work Cited
• US death tolls: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/anderson.htm
• Vietnamese death tolls:
http://faculty.washington.edu/charles/pubs/VietnameseCasualtiesDuringAmerican.
pdf
• http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~lorenzo/Jian%20China%20Involvement%20Vietnam.p
df