Download War in Vietnam

War in Vietnam
1954 - 1975
Where is Vietnam?
Longest and Most Unpopular War
 The Vietnam War was the
longest and most unpopular
war in American history. During
the war:
 58,000 Americans lost their
lives.
 The oldest man killed was 62
years old; the youngest, 16.
 61% of the men killed were
21 or younger.
 304,000 were wounded.
 75,000 were severely disabled.
 The United States spent over
$200 billion dollars on the war.
War in Southeast Asia
 At the end of WWII Ho Chi Minh and the
Vietminh (the Vietnamese nationalist force)
took over the capital of Hanoi and declared
Vietnam independent
 French were unwilling to give up their claims in
Indochina because of the valuable resources like
tin, rubber, and rice
 Faced a formidable foe in Ho and the Vietminh who
did not want foreign rule
 War broke out in November 1946 when a French
ship shelled Haiphong
 French controlled most of the cities and the
Vietminh retreated into the countryside
 Vietminh practiced guerilla warfare
US Support for the French
 1950 – Truman agreed to send $20
million to aid the French
 Practices the policy of containment –
opposing communism wherever it
appeared in an effort to “contain” its
spread
 Over the next 4 years, the U.S. gave
a total of more than $2.6 billion to
the French
The Geneva Peace Accords
 May 1954, French defeated in
key battle of Dien Bien Phu
 Geneva Peace Accords
 Signed by France and Vietnam
in the summer of 1954
 Provided a temporary partition
of Vietnam at the 17th parallel,
with a promised national
election in 1956 to reunify the
country.
Why Did the United States
Fight a War in Vietnam?
1. Containment: to hold the line
against the spread of world
Communism.
 America paid for the war the
French fought against Communist
Vietnam as a part of the Truman
Doctrine (1947):
 “To help free peoples to maintain
their free institutions and their
national integrity against …
totalitarian regimes.”
 In the 1950’s, America became
involved again.
Why Did the United States
Fight a War in Vietnam?
2. Also, American policymakers developed the “Domino
Theory” as a justification for the involvement.
 Theory stated: If South Vietnam falls to the
Communist then…
 Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Pakistan
would also fall like dominos. The Pacific Islands and
even Australia could be at risk.
US Becomes Involved
 1956, representatives from the U.S.,
France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union,
China, Laos, Cambodia, and the Vietminh
agreed that Vietnam would be divided at
the 17th parallel and then reunified in 1956
after national elections
 The U.S. refused to sign the agreement for
fear that if South Vietnam became
communist, other nations of SE Asia would
do likewise (the Domino Theory)
The Two Vietnam Leaders
 Ho Chi Minh – Leader of the North
 But also many in South Vietnam look to him for
leadership
 Hero because he broke up large estates and
redistributed land to the peasants
 He had beaten the French
 Became leader of the Viet Cong (VC)
 Ngo Dihn Diem – Pawn of the US
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“Placed” into office by the US
Anti-Communist, Nationalist, Catholic
Corrupt govt that suppressed opposition of any kind
Offered little or no land distribution to peasants
Used $4 of every $5 on the military
Civil War
 Diem was expected to hold elections but in 1957 he
cancels elections with U.S. support
 Instead, he held a referendum in South Vietnam claimed 98% approval
 In Saigon he claimed 605,000 votes - only 405,000
registered voters
 Discontent among the peasants with Diem made it easy
for Vietminh to gain support in South Vietnam
 Vietminh and other groups in South Vietnam who oppose
Diem form the National Liberation Front (the Vietcong)
 Close ties with Ho Chi Minh, China, and the Soviet Union
The Kennedy Years
 Kennedy expands the
U.S. role in Vietnam
 Sends advisers and $
 Instead of using the $ for
schools, hospitals, and
land reform Diem pads
the pockets of corrupt
Saigon officials
 No significant military
victories over the
Vietcong
The Overthrow of Diem
 May 8, 1963 - Buddhists
gathered to protest a gov’t
ruling forbidding the display of
Buddhist flags and gov’t troops
fired on them
 A month later a Buddhist monk
immolated himself in protest of
the Diem regime
 Nov. 1, 1963 - South
Vietnamese army officers
seized control of the govt and
in the process Diem was killed
Johnson’s War
 Johnson did not want
Vietnam to fall to
communism like China
 Surrounded himself with
JFK’s foreign policy team
 Secretary of Defense –
Robert McNamara:
recommends the US send
more troops to Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 August, 1965 – LBJ announces that N. Vietnamese
torpedo boats had attacked two U.S. destroyers
patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin
 USS Maddox then C. Turner Joy two days later
 Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 “blank check” – Gave LBJ the authority to “take all
necessary measures to repel any armed attack
against the forces of the United States and to prevent
further aggression.”
 LBJ failed to tell the public that American warships
had been helping South Vietnamese commandos raid
2 North Vietnam islands the night of the attacks
The US in Vietnam
 By the end of 1965, 180,000+ Americans
were in S. Vietnam
 By the end of 1967, nearly 500,000 soldiers
had been sent to Vietnam
 At first, Americans were very optimistic of
ending the war quickly
 High VC body counts led many to believe the U.S.
was winning the war but they underestimated the
VC and North Vietnamese allies
 “You can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of
yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I
will win.” - Ho Chi Minh
The Air War
 Bombing cost fewer lives than ground
combat so the U.S. relied heavy on air
power
 108,000 bombing raids in 1967
 Bombed roads, railways, factories, and
homes in South Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia
 By 1967 the U.S. had dropped more bombs
on Vietnam than the Allies dropped during
WWII
 This is why the VC developed the network
of tunnels to begin with
Viet Cong Tunnel Complex
1967 – Operation
Cedar Falls: troops
uncover a massive
tunnel complex
used for guerrilla
raids by tunnel
rats
Escalation
 Operation Rolling Thunder
– an intense bombing of
N. Vietnam
 Main target: Ho Chi
Minh Trail
 A network of paths
used by the N. Vietnam
to transport supplies to
the Vietcong (VC) in S.
Vietnam
 Used phosphorous and
napalm bombs – the
latter causing dreadful
burns to thousand of
innocent civilians.
Operation Ranch Hand
 When this failed to break down the jungle
cover the USAF started “Operation Ranch
Hand” – the defoliation program, using Agent
Orange.
 This deadly chemical cocktail, containing dioxin, killed off
millions of acres of jungle to try to weaken the Vietcong –
but left a horrendous legacy in Vietnam.
 The dioxin got into the food
chain causing chromosome
damage to humans. There
were hundreds of cases of
children born with deformities.
The Ground War
 Miserable conditions: Suffocating heat,
mosquitoes, leeches, etc.
 Muddy trails through thick jungles
 Bouncing Betty’s – mines that would bounce
up to waist or head level then explode
 Booby traps and hidden tunnels
 Total War - Farmers by day, VC by night - did
not know who the enemy was
 As one marine said – “If they weren’t Vietcong
before we got there, they sure as hell were by the
time we left”.
The War in America
 The Vietnam War had a major
impact on everyday life in
America, and the Johnson
administration was forced to
consider domestic
consequences of its decisions
daily.
 Since there were not enough
volunteers to continue to fight
a protracted war, the
government instituted a draft.
Anti-War Sentiments
 As the deaths
mounted and
Americans continued
to leave for Southeast
Asia, the Johnson
administration was
met with the full
weight of American
anti-war sentiments.
Student Anti-War Protests
 Protests erupted on college campuses and
in major cities at first, but by 1968 every
corner of the country seemed to have felt
the war's impact.
 Kent State (4 killed) and Jackson State (2 killed)
shootings
The Paris Peace Agreement
 In early January 1973, the Nixon
White House convinced Saigon
that they would not abandon the
South Vietnamese army if they
signed the peace accord.
 On January 23, the final draft
was written, ending open
hostilities between the United
States and North Vietnam.
 The Paris Peace Agreement did
not end the conflict in Vietnam,
however, as Saigon continued to
battle Communist forces.
The Fall to Communism
 From March 1973 until the fall of
Saigon on April 30, 1975, the South
Vietnamese army tried desperately
to save the South from political and
military collapse.
 The end finally came when North
Vietnamese tanks rolled south along
National Highway One.
 On the morning of April 30,
Communist forces captured the
presidential palace in Saigon,
ending the Vietnam War.
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
1. They underestimated the
tenacity and organization of the
North Vietnamese
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
2. Despite dropping more
tonnage of high
explosive on Vietnam
than the whole of World
War II, the Americans
could not stop the
movement of troops or
supplies to the south
along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail.
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
3. The North Vietnamese conducted a
“Peoples war” in which everyone played
a part.
“If they weren’t Vietcong
before we got there, they
sure as hell were by the
time we left.”
– US Marine
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
4. At first, most Americans supported
the war. But by 1970, the Peace
Movement had support from all parts
of society and no government could
ignore it.
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
5. After 1969, there were
deep questions about the
efficiency of US troops.
• There was a serious drug
problem
• Desertion rates were high
and morale low.
• Many troops were “timeservers,” meaning they
counted the days until the
tour was over
•
Served because they had to
not because they believed in
the cause
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
6. The US never really
understood the culture
of the Vietnamese
people.
• Coca Cola, chewing
gum, ball point pens,
and ice cream cones
could not dislodge their
ancient beliefs.
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
7. America was not prepared to keep losing
high numbers of casualties for such limited
progress in a difficult jungle war, for which
they were not suited.
“You can kill 10 of my
men for every one I kill
of yours, but even at
those odds, you will
lose and I will win.”
- Ho Chi Minh
Why Did the United States
Lose the Vietnam War?
8. The strength and resourcefulness of
the NLF. For example, the highly
complex Cu Chi tunnel system the
U.S. never shut down.
Sources
 http://www.windom.k12.mn.us/Staff/Kuntz
.Steve/VietnamSection1.htm
 http://www.slideshare.net/Pirate22/vietna
m-overview-powerpoint-presentation
 Battlefield Vietnam: A Brief History
http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/hist
ory/index.html
 Vietnam Revision Guide
http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/vietnam/ust
actics.htm