Zusammenfassung der Ressource
History Revision - Vietnam War
- Origins of Conflict
- 1939 - Vietnam was part
of French Indo-China
- Included Laos and Cambodia as well
- French rule was harsh
- 1930's - Uprisings led by
Nationalist Party of Vietnam
- Attempts crushed by French
- 1940 - Japan invades and
occupies Indo-China
- Ideal opportunity for Vietnamese to gain independence
- Overthrow French
- 1941 - Leading Vietnamese communists : Ho Chi Minh and
Nguyen Vo Giap set up League for independence of
Vietnam/Vietminh
- Aim: Establish independence from French and
Japanese rule
- US intelligence helped train and equip Vietminh
- 1944 - Ready to begin guerilla operations against
the Japanese in North Vietnam
- Small scale attacks
- Successful
- Gained support for Vietminh
- August 1945 - The Vietminh had 5000
guerilla fighters
- Japanese defeated in WW2
- Forced to evacuate all conquests
- Including Vietnam
- September 1945 - Ho Chi Minh
occupied Hanoi and Saigon
- Claimed Vietnam to be independent
- Democratic republic
- At first US didn't want to see restoration of old colonial empires
- Sympathised with Ho Chi Minh and idea of an independent Vietnam
- New independent republic was short lived
- Weeks later French moved 50000 troops into Indo-China
- Quickly restored control over South Vietnam
- Vietminh were not strong here
- Drove Ho Chi Minh and followers
into jungles of the North
- Next 5 years Ho Chi Minh would establish guerilla warfare against the French
- 1949 - Chinese Communist
Party won its civil war
- Led by Mao Zedong
- Established comunist government
- Led to 2 major developments in Vietnam
- Mao supported Vietminh
- Gave them military supplies
- USA now feared communism
sweeping across Asia
- Switched support to helping French
- 1950 - US President Truman sent
French $15 million of supplies
- Over 4 years USA gave French $3 billion
- 1951 - Vietminh moved away from guerilla warfare and
moved to bigger attacks on well defended French positions
- Battle for Vietnamese independence
took place in the French garrison
- Dien Bien Phu
- French had tried to trap Vietminh by camping at Dien Bien phu
- Vietminh surrounded camp and set up gun positions of hills nearby
- Prevented French from getting supplies
- May 1954 - French Surrendered
- Two months later an armistice was signed
- French agreed to leave Indo-China
- 165000 French troops had been at Dien
Bien Phu, only 3000 survived
- USA Involvement
- During the 50's the USA became
more involved in Vietnam
- Part of their policy of containment
- Stopping the spread of communism
- Geneva Agreement
- After Bien Dien Phu USA, Britain, France,
USSR, China and Vietnam met in Geneva
- In Switzerland, neutral territory
- Decide the fate of Vietnam
- Points that were agreed
- Vietnam to be temporarily divide along the
17th parallel into North and South Vietnam
- North Vietnam would be ruled by Ho Chi Minh
- South Vietnam would be ruled Ngo Dinh Dien
- Vietnam forces would pull out of the South
- French forces would pull out of the North
- There would early elections in July 1956
- Elect government for the whole of Vietnam
- Reunite Vietnam
- The Domino Theory
- President Eisenhower
believed in this theory
- Wanted to stop the
spread of communism
to South of Vietnam
- Feared joint elections
- Didn't want Ho Chi Minh to win
- He was a communist
- His popularity had grown in the South
- Fears shared with China
- If Vietnam became communist, so would
Laos, Cambodia and other coutries
- Support for Ngo Dinh Dien
- Eisenhower determined to
maintain South Vietnam set up
- This meant that they would need to prop Ngo Dinh Dien
- He was elected official
president of South Vietnam
- Elections were rigged
- 65000 people from Saigon
voted for Ngo Dinh Dien
- Saigon only had a
population of 45000
- USA knew that the elections
were rigged but did nothing
- They needed Dien as president
- No intention to sticking to the Geneva agreement about a reunification vote
- Dien refused the election in the South because he knew that he had the support of the USA
- As long as he stopped the spread of communism
- USA sent said and military advisers to train the South Vietnamese
- Unpopular Dien Government
- Dien had served in the French administrarions
- Because of this he was
unpopular and a bad president
- He was a Catholic and most
Vietnamese were Buddhists
- Persecuted Buddhists
- Stopped them from flying the Buddhist flag on Buddha's birthday
- In protest, Quang Duc a Buddhist, set himself on fire against Dien's religious policies
- Madame Nhu, Diem's sister, said she wished there would be more of these "barbecues"
- Filled government with Catholic landowners
- His government was harsh and ruled as a dictator
- His main focus was to hunt down Vietminh supporters
- Send them to prison camps and "re-educate" them
- Those who would not change would be executed
- Eisenhower encouraged him to give land to the peasants
- He did the opposite
- He took the land from the peasants and gave it to his followers
- The few peasants that did have land had to pay for it in installments
- He'd make them pay higher taxes and work for free during some parts of the year
- Methods used by the Vietcong
- Manly used guerilla
tactics in the south
- Strength of US resources
and equipment
- NVA and Vietcong no match for
USA and ARVN in open warfare
- Support from peasants in South
- Essential supplies coming from the North
- Ho Chi Minh triail
- 40000 Vietnamese worked on trail
- Knowledge of jungles in the South
- Guerilla tactics
- Ho Chi Minh studied
these from Mao Zedong
- 1930's and 1940's
- Successful struggle against Chinese Nationalist Party
- Used against Japanese during WW2
- Against French in years after
- Retreat when attacked
- Raid when the enemy camps
- Attack when the
enemy tires
- Pursue when the enemy retreats
- Attacks dependent on
peasantry support
- Vietcong expected to be nice to villagers
- Would often help peasants during busy times
- Contrasts "search and destroy" tactics
- Could be ruthless when necessary
- Kill peasants when they opposed them
- Tax collectors, police, teachers and other South Vietnamese government officials
- Between 1966 - 1971 Vietcong estimated to have killed 27000 civilians
- Effectiveness of guerilla attacks
- Aim : wear down enemy
soldiers and wreck their morale
- Very effective
- US troops lived in constant fear of
ambushes and booby traps
- 11% of deaths caused
by booby traps
- Cheap and easy to make
- Sharpened bamboo stakes hidden by
leaves and twigs easily pierced boots
- Vietcong almost impossible to detect
- Didn't wear uniforms
- No bases or headquarters
- Worked in small groups and not easily
distinguishable from peasants and villagers
- Attacked and disappeared into the jungle
- Villages
- Underground tunnels
- Importance of the underground tunnels
- Vietcong feared US bomb raids
- Dug deep tunnels around Saigon
- 320 kilometers
- Self contained
- Had booby traps
- refuge from bombs and guerilla fighters
- Death trap to US
and ARVN
- Vietcong's stengths
- Almost unlimited supply of soldiers
- North Vietnam used conscription
- Each year Hanoi sent 100000 troops to South
- Fought for 2 causes
- Communism
- Wanted to fight for liberation in the South
- Reunification of Vietnam
- Prepared for a heavy body count
- Between 500000 and 900000 died in the war
- Knew the terrain
- Skilled in guerilla warfare
- And jungle warfare
- Won support from peasants in the south
- Alienated by government and
US search and destroy tacticts
- Supplied by USSR and China
- Necessary equipment for war
- USSR provided 8000 anti aircraft guns
- 200 anti aircraft missile sites
- Total assistance between
both the countries = $2 billion
- Between 1965 and 1968
- Vietcong bases were well hidden
- Booby trapped to harm US soldiers
- Vietcong weakness
- Not everyone in North Vietnam
backed the idea of war
- There had always been hostility
between the North and South
- Lack of air power and military resources
- Compared to US