Bacon S Vietnam War Review

Vietnam War Review

How the US got involved

During the Second World War, South-East Asia had been under Japanese control, but, in 1945, the French re-occupied Indo-China, which had been a French colony before the war.

During the war the Japanese had been opposed by a Vietnamese nationalist group called the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh. The Vietminh, however, had been fighting for their independence, and not to reinstate the French Empire, so now they tried to drive out the French. In 1954, the Vietminh surrounded and wiped out the French army at Dien Bien Phu.

The French realized they would have to leave, and over the next 20 years, America was dragged into fighting a costly and disastrous war in Vietnam.

How the US got involved

At the Treaty of Geneva in 1954, Indo-China was divided into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, although it was agreed to hold elections in 1956 to unify the two parts of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem, the ruler of South Vietnam, refused to hold elections.

Ho Chi Minh was a communist, who was supported by China. In 1960, he set up the National Liberation Front (NLF) in South Vietnam, which started a guerrilla war to take over South Vietnam from Diem and his American backers.

The Americans called the NLF guerrillas the Vietcong, and supported Diem with military advisers and money.

Diem's government was made up of rich Christian landowners. It was corrupt and unpopular and persecuted the poor Buddhist peasants. By 1963, most of South Vietnam's rural areas were under Vietcong control - the ARVN (South Vietnamese army) could not defeat them.

In 1963, the US supported a military coup, which murdered Diem and put a military government in South Vietnam. In August 1964, sailors on the American warship USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin claimed they had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, allowing the American President Lyndon B. Johnson to take direct military action in retaliation.

In February 1965, the Vietcong attacked American air bases and killed American soldiers. President Johnson declared war against North Vietnam.

Why did the US get involved?

1. Containment

 China had fallen to communism in 1949, and America had fought in Korea in 1950-53 to contain the spread of communism.  The US president, Lyndon B. Johnson, said: "I am not going to be the president who saw South-East Asia go the way China went."

2. Domino theory

 Americans believed that, if South Vietnam fell, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand - and then Burma and India - would follow.  President Johnson said: "If you let a bully come into your garden, the next day he'll be in your porch, and the day after that he'll rape your wife."

3. ARVN's weakness

 It was obvious the South Vietnamese could not resist communist infiltration by the Vietcong without help.  In 1963, the American commander reported that the ARVN - the South Vietnamese army - were "ill-equipped local militia who more often than not were killed asleep in their defensive positions".  US advisers believed that good government and an efficient, large-scale war would defeat the Vietcong.

4. The US was attacked

 The North Vietnamese had attacked the USS Maddox in August 1964, and then killed US soldiers in February 1965.  Johnson became convinced that action in South Vietnam alone would never win the war: "We are swatting flies when we should be going after the manure pile." The war in Vietnam

The Vietnam War did not seem like a fair match. The Americans, under their president, Lyndon B. Johnson, had a huge army, money and technology at their disposal - the Vietcong were an underground army, which used underground tactics.

So why couldn't the Americans defeat the Vietcong?

The war in Vietnam

- In February 1965, President Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder - a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam. - He sent US troops - 500,000 by 1969 - to fight in Vietnam.

- In November 1965, General William Westmoreland, the US commander, lured the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) to attack a force of American troops at Ia Drang, then destroyed the attackers with a massive air strike.

- In 1968, the CIA started Operation Phoenix, arresting, interrogating and killing suspected Vietcong activists. - Despite this, the Americans could not succeed in driving the Vietcong out of the rural areas.

- In January 1968, the NVA launched the Tet Offensive, capturing a number of towns in South Vietnam. - The North Vietnamese lost 58,000 men, including many officers. Their morale was damaged - the offensive proved that they could not defeat the Americans by direct attack. - It took the Americans a month to recover the towns. Their confidence was badly shaken. They won the Tet Offensive, but realized that they would never defeat the Vietcong. Vietcong and American tactics

The Vietcong's tactics

 They fought a guerrilla war, ambushing US patrols, setting booby traps and landmines, and planting bombs in towns. They mingled in with the peasants, wearing ordinary clothes. The Americans couldn't identify who the enemy was.  They were supplied with rockets and weapons by China and Russia. They used the Ho Chi Minh Trail - a jungle route through Laos and Cambodia - to supply their armies. The Americans couldn't attack their supply routes without escalating the war.  Their tactic was "hanging onto the belts" of the Americans - staying so close to the Americans so they could not use air or artillery backup without killing their own men.

The Americans' tactics

 They fought a hi-tech war, using B52 bombers, artillery, helicopters, napalm and defoliants (Agent Orange). This killed many innocent civilians, and failed to stop the Vietcong guerrillas.  They forced the peasants to leave Vietcong-controlled areas and made them live in defended strategic hamlets in loyal areas. This created immense opposition, and allowed Vietcong infiltrators into loyal areas.  American troops were sent on patrols, then supported by air and artillery when attacked. This demoralized the soldiers, who realized they were being used just as bait.  Search and destroy patrols went out looking for "Charlie", as they called the Vietcong. But the patrols were very visible, and easy to ambush. This led to atrocities such as "zippo raids" to burn villages, and the unprovoked massacre of peaceful villagers at My Lai in 1968.

The US gets out

The Americans didn't leave Vietnam until 1973 - by which time 58,000 US soldiers had lost their lives. Vietnam had been a total disaster for America - financially, politically and morally.

The US gets out of Vietnam

- In 1968, the US president, Lyndon B. Johnson, ordered an end to American bombing of North Vietnam. - There were increasing problems in the American army in Vietnam. - There was increasing opposition to the war in America. - Richard Nixon, who became US president in 1969, began Vietnamization - pulling US troops out but giving financial support to the South Vietnamese army (the ARVN). - On occasions, the US escalated the war, launching attacks into Cambodia (1970) and Laos (1971) to pursue the Vietcong who were hiding there. - In October 1972 Henry Kissinger worked out a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese. - Nguyen Van Thieu, the president of South Vietnam, refused to sign (he thought the Americans were going to abandon him), so the North Vietnamese pulled out of the talks.

- Richard Nixon mounted huge bombing raids on North Vietnam until the North Vietnamese were forced to sign. - Nixon told Thieu he had to make peace whether he agreed with it or not, so Thieu was forced to sign too. - January 1973: the Paris Peace Agreement was signed, and the Americans left Vietnam.

Why did America lose the war?

Take a look at this table highlighting the differences between the Americans and the Vietcong.

Americans Vietcong The American hi-tech tactics continually killed The Vietcong's guerrilla tactics were the wrong people and demoralized their own appropriate to the nature of the conflict. troops. The US was trying to supply a war 8,000 miles The Vietcong were supplied with weapons by from America. China and Russia. The South Vietnamese regime was weak, brutal The South Vietnamese peasants supported and corrupt. and sheltered the Vietcong. The Vietcong had been continuously at war Their short (one-year) tour of service meant that since they resisted the Japanese during the American troops were always inexperienced. Second World War. The morale of Americans soldiers was rock The Vietcong were fanatically determined to bottom - they took drugs, shot their officers drive out the Americans, whatever the cost. ('fragging') and deserted. The war became very unpopular in the US, and The North Vietnamese were motivated, lost public support. fighting at home to unite their country. Why did the war arouse so much opposition in America?

1. 58,000 Americans - average age 19 - were killed. 2. It was hard for Americans to believe that they were defending America by fighting in a war 8,000 miles away. 3. Extensive media coverage brought all the failures and horrors of the war into US homes. 4. Atrocities such as the massacre at My Lai undermined the moral authority of the US to continue the war. 5. The cost of the war meant that the US president Lyndon B. Johnson had to cancel his Great Society program of reform. 6. The war was opposed particularly by Martin Luther King and by America's black community (because wealthier white men could avoid the draft by going to university or to Canada, and young black men were twice as likely to be killed).

The Vietnam War memorial in Washington DC

After the Vietnam War

In 1975, two years after the Americans left, South Vietnam was united with the North - it was now a communist state.

What was the lasting effect of war on America and Vietnam?

Results of the Vietnam War

Vietnam united - Although the Americans left Vietnam in 1973, they continued to support the South Vietnamese army - the ARVN - with financial and military aid. - In April 1975 the South Vietnamese regime collapsed and Vietnam was united. The impact on Vietnam - The North Vietnamese army - the NVA - massacred thousands of South Vietnamese after the Americans had left. Many people tried to flee South Vietnam (eg the "boat people"). - The Vietnamese had to fight wars against Cambodia and China before their independence was secured. - Vietnam was ruined - its infrastructure was destroyed, thousands of its people had been killed, and its farmland was polluted by American chemical warfare. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The impact on America - 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. - The war had cost so much that President Johnson's Great Society program of social reform had to be cancelled. - Loss of confidence: America had failed to "contain" communism. In 1973, Nixon announced that America was abandoning the Truman Doctrine. It was nearly 20 years before America again intervened militarily in world affairs. - The domino theory was proved to be wrong. The fall of South Vietnam to communism was not immediately followed by a similar effect in other countries. - News of atrocities such as the killings at My Lai lost the US its claim to moral superiority, and its status as the world's defender of freedom and right. - 700,000 Vietnam veterans suffered psychological after-effects.