Vietnam War

Vietnam War

Why did America send troops to Vietnam?
1. President Eisenhower was worried that the Communists would win national elections - supported anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem.
2. Diem's government was weak and need US support to survive.
3. During the Cold War, US policy was based on containment. USA had previously helped the French in Vietnam in the 1950s.
4. President Eisenhower and others believed in the domino theory - If one country fell, others would too. Thought USSR was trying to spread Communism
5. Military Industrial Complex - high ranking officers and weapons manufacturers wanted a war as it would increase profits.
  1. President Eisenhower warned of this in his last speech as President on January 1960.
US Tactics
1. Strategic Bombing
  1. Bombed Vietcong strongholds, supply lines and key cities in North Vietnam
  2. Disrupted Vietcong, damaged N. Vietnamese industry and military production
  3. Wasn't that effective as Vietcong still operated, Vietcong used a system of tunnels instead and the cost of bombing was huge
2. Chemical Weapons
  1. Used chemical weapons in the jungle of South Vietnam: Agent Orange (defoliant) and Napalm
  2. Very controversial since napalm was very flammable so many civilians suffered extensive burns
3. Search and Destroy
  1. Developed by US General Westmoreland: use helicopters to land near villages and kill the hiding Vietcong soldiers
  2. Did have positive results but Vietcong set traps, wrong villages were often attacked and civilians were killed
Why did USA withdraw from the Vietnam War?
1. Vietcong Tactics
  1. Vietcong had 170,000 troops vs. USA's 500,000 by 1968. No match - had to use guerrilla tactics (inspired by Mao Zedong)
    1. Retreat when the enemy attacks, launch surprise attacks, pursue the enemy, wear them down, use local terrain, camouflage and live amongst civilians
2. Low morale and inexperienced soldiers
  1. After 1967, soldiers were conscripted. Many just left school - were inexperienced and unmotivated in contrast to Vietcong.
3. Declining support for the USA in South Vietnam
  1. Diem's government was corrupt. He put relatives in power and was Catholic so persecuted Buddhists - made USA unpopular
4. Press and Media
  1. From 1964-8, they supported the war effort. After 1967, content of Vietnam began to change.
  2. By 1968, concern increased about the 500,000 US troops in Vietnam. Walter Cronkite of CBS, a famous reporter, publicly said the war was unwinnable
  3. Television took over from newspapers, showing the graphic and shocking violence
5. My Lai Massacre
  1. In March 1968, a group of US soliders on a search-and-destroy mission killed 400 civilians in nearly 4 hours.
  2. Only one officer, Lt. Willian Calley was found guilty. He was given a 20 year sentence but only served 3. Deeply shocked the American public.
6. Tet Offensive, January 1968
  1. Vietcong launched a major attack on 100 cities during the New Year Holiday. Lost 10,000 troops and a lot of power but rattled US morale
7. Protests
  1. Showed the inequality - 22.5% of casualties were black and 11% were white. Many blacks couldn't go to uni to avoid it.
    1. Further protests: 1970, Kent State University in Ohio - 4 students killed and 11 injured
The end of the Vietnam War
1. President Nixon succeeded President Johnson in 1968 - did the process of Vietnamisation (training the S. Vietnamese troops to get the US ones out)
Origins of Vietnam
1. Before WW2, Vietnam was occupied by the French.
2. In 1942, Japan invaded and occupied French Indochina and treated the Vietnamese brutally.
3. Ho Chi Minh led a strong Vietnamese resistance and defeated Japan in 1945.
4. But the French then reoccupied Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his supporters continued to fight - defeated French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.
Start of the Vietnam War
1. After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, President Johnson sent large numbers of combat troops to Vietnam.
2. From 1961, under President Kennedy, 16,000 US 'advisers' were sent to help the South Vietnamese Army.
3. August 1964 - North Vietnamese patrol boats fired on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Congress gave LBJ full power to retaliate (Tonkin Resolution).

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