Download The French War

The French War
While peace came to most of the world in 1945 with the end of World War II, it did not come to Vietnam
(Indochina). However the people of Vietnam, a former French colony, wanted to be free of French colonial rule.
The French tried to re-establish their control over the area once the war was over, but they were opposed by the
communist dominated Viet Minh. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of this communist revolutionary army. The
French were able to control the cities (Hanoi and Saigon), but were never able
to control the Vietnamese countryside. The French and the Viet Minh struggled to control Vietnam for ten years.
The French did not give up until May 7, 1954 when in the remote village of Dien Bien Phu, they suffered a
massive defeat after a 55 day siege. After this defeat, the French surrendered. Then, the Americans, fearing the
spread of communism across Southeast Asia, decided to become actively involved in Vietnam (Fischer, 1986).
The Buddhist Uprisings
U.S. involvement in Vietnam has been called a “slippery slope” of good intentions and false optimism. At the
time of the Buddhist uprising South Vietnam was ruled by Ngo Van Diem and his family. The country had many
problems, including corruption and poverty. In an attempt to stem the spread of the communist Viet Minh, Diem,
a Catholic in a strongly Buddhist country, engaged in repressive actions against the people. He hoped a strong
central government would prevent communist subversion from within and
from North Vietnam. The Buddhists majority resented Diem’s attempts to impose Catholicism on the population.
Buddhist monks began to engage in acts of selfimmolation as protests against Diem. These events gained
attention around the world. The United States government, led by President Kennedy, found itself in the position
of defending and supporting Diem’s weak and corrupt government. As communist successes mounted, more and
more U.S. armed forces were required to defend the South
from Ho Chi Minh’s forces (Fischer, 1986).
Gulf of Tonkin
The USS Maddox was in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin (off the coast of North Vietnam) when it was
fired upon by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats on August 2, 1964. The destroyer and a small number of
U.S. jets returned fire. The next day, another U.S. ship reported being fired upon. However, the circumstances
were unclear. President Johnson professed deep anger over these events and ordered “air action against gunboats
and certain support facilities” in North Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin
incident became a lightening rod for the Johnson administration. Johnson used this event to get Congress to give
him wide-ranging powers to deal with the crisis in Vietnam. These wide-ranging powers would later hamper
Congress’ ability to influence events in Vietnam (Fischer, 1986).
Laos and Cambodia
Because of their proximity to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia found themselves involved in the war in Vietnam.
Vietnamese communist ran supply routes through both countries (the Ho Chi Minh trail passed through parts of
both countries) and they used the rural terrain of both countries as safe havens. Consequently, the Americans and
the South Vietnamese decided to bomb and conduct raid into both countries. Over time, both sides in the war
attempted to influence the internal affairs Laos and Cambodia in order to protect own interests in Southeast Asia.
Because of the difficult position each country
found itself in, neutrality was impossible. In the countryside and in the capital cites of Vientiane, Laos and
Phnom Penh, Cambodia chaos resulted. As bad as it was in Laos, the situation in Cambodia was a disaster. Pol
Pot’s Khmer Rouge engaged in genocide killing approximately 1/3 of the country’s citizens. In 1978 the Vietnam
army invasion Cambodia and became, ironically, the target of guerrilla warfare during the occupation (Fischer,
1986).
Fire Power
The task of adapting to a small-scale struggle against guerrilla fighters was a task the US found difficult to
achieve. With a huge arsenal of tanks, aircraft, conventional, and nuclear weaponry, the US military was
designed to deter, or fight, a large-scale conventional (or nuclear war) against the Soviet block in Eastern Europe.
The military never completely adapted to the small-scale war in Vietnam. Additionally, General
Westmoreland, commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam, found himself fighting a war that was as much about
politics as it was military tactics. There were no clear boundaries; no designated battlefields or war zones. The
war zone was anywhere the communists wanted to attack. To counter this reality, the Americans engaged in
“search and destroy” missions, searching out and destroying the enemy. Helicopters were critical to the success
of this military strategy (Fischer, 1986).
Anti-War Demonstrations
The horrors of the Vietnam War were presented nightly on American television. Opposition to the war increased
dramatically after the Tet offensive in 1968. Opposition was especially strong on college campuses around the
country. During the 1968 presidential elections the Vietnam War was the central topic of concern. Nixon was
able to win the war in a landside, in part, because of his promise to the American people. Nixon promised to
reduce America’s involvement in the conflict through an official
policy of “Vietnamisation” of the ground war and through the use of massive bombardments of North. In
addition to bombing North Vietnam “back to the stone age,” Nixon believed that bombing Laos and Cambodia
would be successful. Protests of these bombings erupted on college campuses across the United States. At Kent
State University (OH) national guardsmen shot and killed four students when the protests got out of hand. The
military, made up mostly of draftees was in a state of near chaos. Drug abuse, mutiny, and even massacres
resulted. Massacres in the tiny villages of My Lai and Son
My shocked the nation (Fischer, 1986).
My Lai Massacre
In 1968, Richard Nixon was elected president. Public outrage over the war in Vietnam continued to mount in
Nixon’s first year as president. In late 1969, journalist Ronald Ridenhour revealed that U.S. forces had
massacred the village of My Lai in 1968. On March 16, 1968, 30 American soldiers under the direction of
Lieutenant W.L. Calley stormed My Lai and fired on the defenseless villagers, killing over 200 women, children,
and old men. Calley was eventually court-martialed for the murders of 109 My Lai villagers.
President Nixon and Vietnamization
Vietnamization was President Nixon’s policy for winding down the war. It called for the training and equipping
of South Vietnamese military to replace American forces. In 1969, 60,000 U.S. ground troops were withdrawn
from Vietnam. By 1972, only 24, 200 U.S. troops remained in Vietnam. In 1969, Nixon ordered secret
bombings of neutral neighboring Cambodia. In 1970, U.S. ground troops invaded Cambodia. Also in 1970,
Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia continued. President
Nixon hoped to achieve “Peace with Honor” regarding the situation in Vietnam. In the summer and fall of 1972,
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with the North Vietnamese to arrange a cease-fire agreement. The Paris
Accords was the peace agreement that ended the war on January 27, 1973. The cease fire was arranged along
with the release of several hundred American prisoners of war by the North Vietnamese. On March 29, 1973 the
last U.S. combat troops left the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. Finally, in August 1973, Nixon stopped the
bombing of Cambodia in accordance with congressional prohibition. The U.S. war in Vietnam had officially
ended.
Fall of Saigon
When American ground forces withdrew from Vietnam, the South Vietnamese army was not able to stand up to
the communist insurgency for very long. In 1972, the North Vietnamese army invaded the South and things
looked very bad for the South. However, American airpower was still available and this airpower was able to
stem the tide of communist aggression in the South. Just has had been done before in World War II, the United
States used its airpower against the economy and military capacity of the North.
Hanoi and other northern cities were bombed on a regular basis. Many in the United States believed that airpower
could relieve communist pressure on the South. But the belief was wrong. Events in the United States, in
particular the Watergate scandal which rocked the Nixon administration, shifted the US's focus away from South
Vietnam. When the North launched a new offensive in 1975, South Vietnam crumbled. Refugees from villages
and the countryside poured into Saigon and other cities in the South. It was
a crisis the Republic of South Vietnam could not survive. In April 1975 Saigon fell and
the Republic of South Vietnam was no more (Fischer, 1986).
Impact of the Vietnam War
By 1975, Communist forces overran South Vietnam and occupied Saigon, the capital city of the South. Vietnam
was reunited under communist rule. U.S. involvement in Vietnam resulted in the deaths of 1.2 million
Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was funded by the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Fund and completed in 1984. The wall was designed to be reflective, harmonize with its surroundings,
contained the names of those who had died and are still missing, and make no political statement about the war.
The War Powers Act was passed in 1973. It required the president to report use of military force to Congress
within 48 hours and directed the end of involvement within 60 days unless Congress declared war.
Reference: Fischer, J. (1986). Images of War. Boston Publishing Co.: Boston, MA.
Handout #2
(1956 - 1975)
Directions: Complete each statement after the corresponding section of Handout #1.
1. The French War was important because the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954
made the Americans feel that it was their job to save Vietnam and SE Asia from
communism.
2. The Buddhist Uprisings were important because _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was important because ___________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
4. Tet Offensive was important because ______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. The expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos was important because ________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
6. Firepower was important in Vietnam because _______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
7. Anti-War Demonstrations were important because __________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. The Mai Lai Massacre was important because_______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
9. President Nixon’s Vietnamization was important because _____________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
10. Firepower was important in Vietnam because ______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
11. The Fall of Saigon was important because _________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
12. The Impact of the Vietnam War is important because ______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
The French War (Indochina)
Years
Events
Ideas People Involved
1945 – 1954
End of World War II
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Domino Theory
Viet Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Eisenhower
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
The Buddhist Uprising
Years
The Gulf of Tonkin
Years
Tet Offensive
Years
Laos and Cambodia
Years
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
Fire Power
Years
Anti-War Demonstration
Years
Mai Lai
Years
President Nixon and Vietnamization
Years
Events
Ideas People Involved
Events
Ideas People Involved
Fall of Saigon
Years
Agenda: The Vietnam War
Theme: Conflict; Cold War
Aim: Should the United States have become involved in Vietnam?
I) Geneva Conference:
A) Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel into two nations North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
i- The division reflected Cold War ideology
ii- North Vietnam: Communist/Dictatorship (Ho Chi Minh- leader)
iii- South Vietnam: Capitalist/Democracy
(Ngo Dinh Diem- leader)
II) The Vietcong
A) Communist guerillas in South Vietnam who believe that South Vietnam and North Vietnam should be
united under Communist rule
i- Ho Chi Minh recognized the Vietcong
III) President Eisenhower and President Kennedy promoted the domino theory
A) They believed that if one nation in South east Asia fell to communism other nations in the region would
like a row of dominos.
B) The Vietcong began to mobilize in South Vietnam hoping to overthrow Diem’s government.
IV) President Kennedy’s policy in Vietnam
A) Kennedy sent in military advisors to South Vietnam to help train and arm the South Vietnamese so they
would be able to suppress the Vietcong.
i- By 1963 there were 17,000 “American advisors”
ii- 1963 489 Americans were killed in Vietnam
V) Diem was unpopular
A) Diem was considered to be disengaged and corrupt by many of the South Vietnamese.
A) President Kennedy’s opinion of Diem changed when Buddhists monks engaged in acts of self-immolation
(burned themselves alive) to protest Diem’s rule. Kennedy began to pull his support.
B) On November 2, 1963 the South Vietnamese military overthrew Diem.
C) Kennedy stated he would begin to withdraw American support, however nobody knows what would have
happened because Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
VI) President Kennedy’s vice president Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the next president.
VII) The Golf of Tonkin Resolution
A) On August 4, 1964 President Johnson escalated the war after the North Vietnamese attacked the USS
Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.
A) Guerilla war
i- At first, the United States Military leaders expected that the nation’s superior military technology would
guarantee victory. However, they soon found themselves bogged in a guerilla war.
ii-The enemy did not wear uniforms, and no clear battlefront emerged.
iii-Lyndon B Johnson dramatically increased the number of soldiers in Vietnam
* Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war. However, each President acting as commander in chief
of the military ultimately led the United States into the Vietnam “War”.
VIII) President Lyndon B Johnson made the decision not to run again in 1968.
I)
Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968
A) Vietnamization
i-Nixon’s plan to win Vietnam was Vietnamization.
ii- Vietnamization called for the training and equipping of South Vietnamese military to replace the war.
Basically to make the war a Vietnam war, not an American war. He promised to gradually withdraw
American troops from Vietnam until all of them were gone
iii-On March 29, 1973 the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam.
iv- Over 1.2 million Vietnamese died
v-Over 58,000 Americans died in an undeclared war
B) War Powers Act was passed in 1973. It requires the president to report use of military forces within 48
hours and directed the end of involvement within 60 days unless Congress declares war.