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The Vietnam War
By: Amber Cyrankowski
About the Vietnam War
•
The Vietnam war was also known as
the Second Indochina War, it was a
Cold war military conflict that
occurred in three countries
1. Vietnam
2. Laos
3. Cambodia
• This war lasted from November 1,
1955- April 30, 1975 when Saigon fell.
About the Vietnam War
•
The United States entered the war to
prevent a communist takeover of
South Vietnam as part of their wider
strategy of containment.
• Capture of Saigon
1. April 1975
2. Marked the end of the Vietnam war.
3. North and South Vietnam were
reunified the next year.
Background 1949
•
1888, the area of the current-day nations of
Cambodia and Vietnam was made into the
colony of French Indochina.
• During WW2 Colonial authorities became
Vichy French, allies of the German-Italian
Axis powers.
1. French collaborated with the Japanese
forces.
2. Collaborated after their invasion of French
Indochina during 1940
3. The Japanese had ultimate power!
Background 1949
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1.
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1.
2.
This situation continued until the German forces
were expelled from France and the French
Indochina colonial authorities started holding
secret talks with the free French.
Feared they could no longer trust the French
During 1944-1945, a deep famine struck northern
Vietnam because a combination of poor weather
and Japanese exploitation.
Out of a population of 10 million in the affected
area.
Urged the population to ransack rice warehouses
and refuse to pay their taxes.
Background 1949
•
August 1945, Japanese defeated and
surrendered unconditionally.
1. Power vacuum created.
• The United Kingdom belonged to the
French.
• French did not have
1. Ships
2. Weapons
To retake Vietnam
Exit of The French, 1950
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1.
2.
3.
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Created Military assistance (requests for)
Weapons
Expertise
Laborers
They wanted to send 60 B-29’s from US
bases in the region.
1. 150 fighters launched
2. Seventh fleet carriers
3. Bomb commander- Vo Nguyen Giap’s
position
Transition Period
•
Civilians were given the opportunity
to freely move between two states, for
a 300-day period.
• Northerners feared persecution by the
communists.
• The North created a “Land Reform”
1. 8,000 “class enemies” were executed
Transition Period
• Their were no free elections
• Ngo Dinh Diem said
1. “How can we expect ‘free elections’ to be
held in the communist North?
Diem
Rule
•
1955, Diem launched the “Denounce the
Communists” campaign
1. Communists and anti-government
elements were
• Arrested
• Imprisoned
• Tortured
• Or executed
Insurgency in the south,1956
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1.
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1.
2.
3.
Four hundred government officials were
murdered in 1957 alone.
Terror
Aimed at local government officials
Soon symbols
Schoolteachers
Health workers
And agricultural officials.
Insurgency in the south,1956
January 1959, the North’s Central
Committee issued a secret resolution
authorizing an “armed struggle”.(irregular warfare and combat in which a
small group of combatants use mobile
military tactics in the form of ambushes.)
1. This authorized the Southern
communists to begin large-scale
operations against the South Vietnamese
military.
•
North Vietnam supplied troops and
supplies in dear, and the infiltration of
men and weapons from the North began
along
1. The Ho Chi Minh Trail
During John F. Kennedy’s
Administration, 1961-1963
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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He won the 1960 U.S presidential election.
Ambitious pledge
Pay any price
Bear any burden
Meet any hardship
Support any friend
Oppose any foe
In order to assure the survival and success
of liberty.
•
Kennedy believed that the forces such as
Green Berets would be effective in a “brush
fire” war in Vietnam.
• He faced a three-part crisis
1. The failure of The Bay of pigs invasion
2. The construction of the Berlin Wall
3. The Pathet Lao communist movement
• He thought it would ruin U.S credibility and
his own reputation.
• Kennedy drew a line in the sand to prevent
a communist victory in Vietnam.
The South Vietnamese military
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1.
2.
3.
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They remained poor
Bad leadership
Corruption
Political promotions
These 3 things all played a part in
emasculating (remove the testicles of a
male) the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam.
Caused a major crisis.
The Major crisis they faced
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1.
2.
3.
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Kennedy increased military assistance
U.S-South Vietnamese program tried to resettle the
rural population into fortified camps.
The aim was to set apart the population from the
insurgents, provide
Education
Health care
Strengthen the governments hold over the countryside.
The government refused to undertake land reform, so
it left farmers paying high rents to a few wealthy
landlords.
Coup and assassinations
• Buddhists were protesting against the ban
on the Buddhist flag.
• This resulted in mass protests against
politics that gave privileges to the catholic
church and its adherents.
• United States would no punish generals by
cutting off aid.
Lyndon B. Johnson expands the
war in 1963-1969.
• Became president after Kennedy died.
• Took over Kennedy’s plan to expand the
war.
• The attacks that he encountered led to
relating air strikes.
Escalation and ground war
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U.S air Force needed more protection
Vietnamese could not provide security
When the U.S Marines were sent away
to South Vietnam, that’s when the
American ground war started.
South Vietnamese forces were defeated.
There were 3 phases
1. Phase 1- Commitment of U.S (and other free
world) forces necessary to halt the losing trend
by the end of 1965.
2. Phase 2- U.S and allied forces mount major
offensive actions to seize the initiative to
destroy guerrilla and organized enemy forces.
3. Phase 3- If the enemy persisted, a period of
12-18 months following phase 2 would be
required for the final destruction of enemy
forces remaining in remote base areas.
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1.
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Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to
contribute troops.
Australia
New Zealand
The Republic of Korea
Thailand
Philippines
All agreed to send troops.
Canada and the United Kingdom declined his
troops request.
Tet Offensive
• When they lured General Westmoreland’s forces
into the hinterland at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri
Province, in January 1968, the NVA and NLF
broke the truce that had traditionally
accompanied the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.
• They launched the surprise Tet offensive in the
hope of sparking a national uprising.
• Over 100 cities were attacked, with assaults on
General Westmoreland’s headquarters and the
US Embassy, Saigon.
Tet Offensive
• General Westmoreland had become the
public face of the war.
• He was featured on the cover of time
magazine three times and was named
1965’s Man of the year!
• On May 1968, despite low expectations,
peace talks began between the U.S and
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Vietnamization, 1969-1972
• Propaganda leaflets urging the defection
of NLF and North Vietnamese to the side
of the Republic Of Vietnam.
• On October 10, 1969, Nixon ordered a
squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear
weapons to race to the border of Soviet
airspace in order to convince the Soviet
Union that he was capable of anything to
end the Vietnam war.
Vietnamization, 1969-1972
• The anti-war movement was gaining
strength in the U.S
• Nixon attracted to the “silent majority” of
Americans to support the war.
• In 1970, American troops were being
taken away from border areas where
much more killing took place and instead
put along the coast and interior.
Operation Menu: the secret
bombing of Cambodia and Laos
• Main article: Operation Menu
• The ostensibly neutral Laos had long been
the scene of a secret war.
• ARVN forces fled along roads littered with
their own dead.
Operation Menu: the secret
bombing of Cambodia and Laos
•
As peace protests spread across the
U.S, illusions grew in ranks.
1. Drug use increased
2. Race relations grew tense
3. The number of soldiers disobeying
officers rose.
Opposition to the Vietnam War:
1962-1975
•
Unilateral withdrawal would contribute to a
lessening of
1. Tensions in the region
2. Less human bloodshed
•
Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite
groups opposed to U.S anti-communism
1. Imperialism
2. Colonialism
• Anti-war protests ended with the final
withdrawal of troops after the Paris Peace
Accords were signed in 1973.
Exit of the Americans: 1973-1975
• The U.S began drastically reducing their
troops support in South Vietnam during
the final years of “Vietnamization”.
• U.S military forces withdrew from South
Vietnam and prisoners were exchanged.
• Oil price shock of October 1973
• Caused great damage to the South
Vietnamese economy.
• Gerald Ford took over as U.S president on
August 9, 1974, after President Nixon
resigned due to the Watergate scandal.
Gerald Ford and Nixon
• On December 13, 1974 north Vietnamese
forces attacked Route 14 in Phuoc Long
province.
• At the start of 1975 the South Vietnamese
had 3 times as much artillery and twice the
number of tanks and armoured cars as the
opposition.
Campaign 275
• On March 10, 1975 general Dung
launched Campaign 275, a limited
offensive into the central Highlands,
supported by tanks and heavy artillery.
• On March 31, after a battle, Hue fell.
• VPA troops were poised to attack the
suburbs.
Final North Vietnamese
offensive
• At the time of the peace agreement the
U.S agreed to replace equipment on a
one-by-one basis.
• By the end April, the army of the Republic
of South Vietnam had collapsed on all
fronts.
• Thousands of refugees streamed
southward, ahead of the main communist
onslaught.
Fall of Saigon
• On April 30, 1975, VPA troops overcame
all resistance, quickly capturing key
buildings and installations.
• A tank crashed through the gates of the
presidential palace, and at 11:30 a.m local
time the NLF flag was raised above it.
Peoples Republic of China
• In 1950, the peoples republic oh china
extended diplomatic recognition to the Viet
Minh’s Democratic republic of Vietnam
and sent weapons, as well as military
advisors.
South Korea
• On the anti-communist side, South Korea
had the 2nd largest contingent of foreign
troops in South Vietnam after the U.S.
• About 5,000 South Koreans were killed
and 11,000 were injured during the war.
Australia and New Zealand
• They were both close allies of the U.S and
members of the Southeast Asia Treaty
Organization, sent ground troops to
Vietnam.
• Australia began by sending advisors to
Vietnam, and combat troops were
committed in 1965.
Philippines
• Troops were primarily engaged in medical
and other civilian pacification projects.
Soviet Union
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They supplied North Vietnam with medical
Supplies
Arms
Tanks
Planes
Helicopters
Artillery
Anti- aircraft missiles
And other military equipment.
North Korea
• North Korea sent weapons, ammunition
and 2 million sets of uniforms to their
comrades in North Korea.
Canada and the ICC
• Canadian, Indian, Polish troops formed the
International Control Commission, which
was supposed to monitor the 1954
ceasefire agreement.
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Taiwan also provided military training units
for the South Vietnamese diving units,
later known as the Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai or
Frogman unit in english.
Effect on the United States
• American struggled to absorb the lessons
of the military intervention.
• U.S secretary of state Henry Kissinger
wrote in a secret memo to president
Gerald Ford that they could not help draw
the conclusion that their armed forces
were not suited to this kind of war.
• More than 3 million Americans served in
Vietnam. By war’s end 58,193 soldiers
were killed, more than 150,000 were
wounded, and at least 21,000 were
permanently disabled.
Chemical Defoliation
• The chemicals changed the landscape,
caused diseases and birth defects, and
poison the food chain.
• The defoliants, which were distributed in
drums marked with color-coded bands,
included the “Rainbow Herbicided”
• Agent pink
• Agent green
• Agent purple
• Agent blue
• Agent white
• And agent orange which included dioxin.
Casualties
• In 1995, the Vietnamese government
reported that its military forces, including
the NLF, suffered 1.1 million dead and
600,000 wounded.
• Estimates of civilian deaths caused by
American bombing in operation rolling
thunder range from 52,000-182,000.
• The U.S military has estimated that
between 200,000 and 250,000 South
Vietnamese soldiers died in the war.