Download Vietnam War and the SALT Treaty

Vietnam War and the SALT Treaty
VUS.13 ~ What was the United States foreign policy since World War II?
~ What were the origins of the Cold War, the Truman Doctrine and the policy of
containment of communism, the American role of wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the role
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe?
~ What was the role of America’s military and veterans in defending freedom during the
Cold War?
When President John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, he pledged in his inaugural address that
the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any
foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” In the same address, Kennedy also said,
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
The Cold War made foreign policy a major issue in every presidential election between 1948 and
1992. In addition, the heavy military expenditures throughout the Cold War benefited Virginia’s economy
proportionately more than that of any other state. National defense spending especially helped the
economy of two areas in the Commonwealth: Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. Hampton Roads was
home to several large naval, army, and air force bases, as well as Newport News Shipyard. Northern
Virginia was the site of the Pentagon, important military bases, and numerous private companies that
contracted with the Department of Defense.
American involvement in Vietnam reflected the Cold War policy of containment of communism.
After World War II, Vietnamese nationalists in the French colony of Indochina fought for independence
from France. The leader of this Vietnamese independence movement was a communist named Ho Chi Minh.
Because of Ho Chi Minh’s communist beliefs, the United States supported France’s attempt to keep
Indochina as a colony after the war. After Ho Chi Minh’s forces defeated the French army, France
withdrew from Indochina and Vietnam was divided into communist North Vietnam and non-communist South
Vietnam. Reunification elections, scheduled for the mid-fifties, were cancelled because the Eisenhower
administration feared Ho Chi Minh would win and all of Vietnam would become communist.
Beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the early 1960s, the communist government of North
Vietnam attempted to install through force a communist government in South Vietnam. The United States
helped South Vietnam resist these North Vietnamese efforts. The Vietcong were southern revolutionaries
who formed the National Liberation Front and fought for the reunification of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh’s
rule. To counter North Vietnam’s efforts in the south, the Eisenhower administration sent massive
amounts of economic and military aid to the South Vietnamese government.
The American military buildup in Vietnam began under President John Kennedy. The Kennedy
administration increased the number of American military personnel in South Vietnam from 1,500 to
16,000. President Kennedy, a World War II veteran, was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas. This event
shook the nation’s confidence and began a period of internal strife (conflict within America) and
divisiveness, especially spurred by divisions over U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Vice President Lyndon B.
Johnson succeeded Kennedy as president. In 1965 President Johnson greatly escalated (increased) the
American military buildup in Vietnam from about 20,000 troops to almost 200,000 at year’s end. The scale
of combat in Vietnam grew larger over the course of the 1960s and by 1968 there were 540,000 American
soldiers in Vietnam. Although American military forces repeatedly defeated the North Vietnamese forces
in the field, they could not force an end to the war on favorable terms by fighting a limited war. The term
“limited war” referred to the American government’s decision to avoid any military action, which might
widen the war to include the Soviet Union or communist China on North Vietnam’s side. While the United
States was following the policy of containment in South Vietnam, it also wanted to avoid either a nuclear
conflict or a third world war.
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By 1968 the American people became bitterly divided on the issue of American involvement in
Vietnam. While many Americans supported the American military and the Johnson administration’s conduct
of the war, many other Americans opposed the war. Active opposition to American involvement in Vietnam
mounted (increased), especially on college campuses. After President Johnson declined to seek re-election,
the Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon won the 1968 presidential election. President Nixon was elected
on a pledge to bring the war to an honorable end. He instituted (started) a policy of “Vietnamization.”
“Vietnamization” was the Nixon administration’s policy of building up South Vietnamese forces while
gradually withdrawing American troops. Under “Vietnamization” President Nixon withdrew American troops
and replaced them with South Vietnamese forces, while simultaneously (at the same time) maintaining
(continuing) American military aid to the South Vietnamese government. Ultimately (eventually),
“Vietnamization” failed, when South Vietnamese troops proved unable to resist invasion by the Sovietsupplied North Vietnamese Army. In addition, the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign
from office in 1974. The Watergate scandal was the public exposure of a burglary and its cover-up by the
Nixon administration that eventually led to Nixon’s resignation in 1974. In 1975, while Gerald Ford was
serving as president, both North and South Vietnam were merged under communist control.
Unlike veterans of World War II, who returned to a grateful and supportive nation, Vietnam
veterans returned often to face indifference or outright hostility from some Americans who opposed the
war. It was not until several years after the end of the war that the wounds of the war began to heal in
America, and Vietnam veterans were recognized and honored for their service and sacrifices.
While the Vietnam War was raging (going on) in Southeast Asia, the Nixon administration added a
new wrinkle to the containment policy. By 1972 President Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger recognized that instead of being strong allies the communist nations of China and the Soviet
Union had become rivals for territory and diplomatic influence. In the 1970s Nixon tried to exploit (take
advantage of) this split in the communist world. By negotiating with each side, Nixon and Kissinger hoped
to play the two communist giants off against each other. In 1972 President Nixon began to establish
formal diplomatic relations with communist China and met with Mao Zedong in the Chinese capital of
Beijing. Later that same year he traveled to Moscow to meet with Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the
Soviet Union. Nixon and Brezhnev signed a treaty under which the two superpowers agreed to limit the
production of nuclear weapons. This treaty grew out of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). The
SALT talks were the Soviet-American discussions begun in 1969 to establish limits on the number of
strategic nuclear weapons held by both sides. Although the SALT Treaty contained many loopholes, it was
a crucial first step toward ending the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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