Height of Tension - Vietnam War

The Vietnamese War

Background:

• Vietnam in the 19th century was colonised by the French Empire
• In 1940, the French were defeated by Germany, and the French empire collapsed around the world
• Japan occupied Vietnam from here; Japanese resistance movement emerges under leadership of Ho Chi Minh (communist and nationalist)
• He inspired the Vietnamese to liberate themselves from the Japanese; Vietnam was declared independent after the war
• After the war, France wanted to retain and rule Vietnam again
• 9 years of war followed; Viet Minh controlled the north and the French the south
• 1946-1954 - the French fought against the Viet Minh, but the Communist party in Vietnam was hard to wear down
• USA wanted a strong France to withstand communism in both Europe and Asia
• USA supported the French war effort in Vietnam by paying 80% of the costs
• 1954 - Vietminh defeated the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu ending French rule in the region
• 1954 Geneva Accord - recognised French withdrawal from Vietnam
• Partitioned Vietnam along the 17th parallel between North and South governments
• Recognised Laos and Cambodia as free independent states
• US refused to sign the accord

The US and the Vietnamese War

• Why did the US get involved?
• From 1949, Ho received support from communist China in terms of money, weapons and equipment
• Eisenhower acted for the US, funding the French war effort with $500 million a year
• Eisenhower was trying to stop the spread of communism, but the French pulled out in 1954
• A peace conference was held and Vietnam was divided North and South until elections could be held
• The US, fearing a take over of Vietnam by Ho's Communist Party, set up the Republic of South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem
• Diem was an anti-communist and deeply unpopular
• He led a corrupt government that gave jobs to family members and refused elections at local level
• Diem was overthrown in 1963, and more unpopular governments followed
• Some historians argue that the US wanted war in the first place due to the military-industrial complex
• The government gave huge budgets to military commanders
• This money was spent on weapons made by big US manufacturers
• The US gets drawn in:
• By the early 1960s, the South Vietnamese government was losing control of the countryside to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Viet Cong)
• Viet Cong - a communist led rebel movement attempting to overthrow Southern Vietnam regime
• The Viet Cong was supported by North Vietnam, China and the USSR
• USA supported the efforts of the Southern government but it remained corrupt
• The US was drawn in and Kennedy sent military 'advisers' to help the Southern regime
• Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, launched the Operation Rolling Thunder in February 1965
• This involved the bombing of North Vietnamese cities, factories and the Ho Chi Minh trail
• March 1965 - Johnson would order ground troops into Vietnam

US Tactics

• Johnson committed troops to Vietnam on the basis that the South Vietnamese government could not handle the Viet Cong. Further, he wanted to prevent a communist takeover.
• Bombing:
• Bombed Viet Cong strongholds and supply routes (Ho Chi Minh Trail)
• Bombing killed thousands of people and turned Vietnamese people against the US
• Search and destroy:
• US soldiers would surround villages and seek out Viet Cong forces
• Raids were based on poor information and often led to the killing of Vietnamese civilians
• Chemical weapons:
• There were two main types: agent orange (poisonous weed killer to defoliate the jungle) and napalm (would burn the jungle where the Viet Cong were located)
• 
• Caption: Napalm burning the Vietnamese landscape

US Attitudes to the War

• Changing attitudes: Tet Offensive January 1968
• In the Tet New Year (January 1968), the Viet Cong attacked over 100 cities and military targets
• US and SVA forces took back the captured towns; around 10,000 Viet Cong died and huge amounts of artillery were used
• The city of Hue was destroyed and 116,000 civilians made homeless
• US citizens began to question the war; 500,000 troops were in Vietnam at the cost of $20 billion a year
• The Media:
• After the Tet Offensive many claimed that the war would require greater effort and more troops to win
• Negative attitudes began to develop within US media outlets
• The My Lai Massacre:
• Reporting grew more critical after the Tet Offensive
• Life magazine in December 1969 reported the atrocity committed by American troops in the village of My Lai in March 1968
• US forces killed between 300-400 civilians
• Some civilians were gunned down and others shot in a ditch
• Initially, the troops and commanding officers were praised for their actions which made the situation worse in the eyes of the US public
• The My Lai massacre challenged the view that the US was fighting for a just cause in Vietnam

US Peace Movement

• 
• With the death of so many young Americans and events of the Tet offensive, public opinion turned against the war:
• Cost: Martin Luther King pointed out that the US government was spending $500,000 to kill one enemy soldier while spending $53 a year to help poor US citizens
• Social inequality: military drafting exposed social and racial inequality in the US. 30% of African-Americans were drafted compared to 19% of White Americans. Casualty rates were higher among African-Americans. This led civil rights activists to criticise the war
• Media outlets exposed the horrors of Vietnam demonstrating the casual violence that occurred daily. Vietnam was no longer seen as a justified fight against communism, it had become a symbol of defeat and moral corruption. Anti-war protests, led by civil rights leaders and students peaked during 1968-1970. The largest occurred in November, 1969, when 700,000 anti-war protesters demonstrated at Washington, DC.
• Caption: Protesting against the War in Vietnam

War Ends and Impacts

• End of the Vietnam War:
• After the Tet Offensive, Johnson realised the war would not be won by force and explored possible peace talks
• However, Richard Nixon came to presidency towards the end of the war in November 1968
• 1969-73: Nixon's security adviser, Henry Kissinger, worked to end US involvement in Vietnam
• Process of 'Vietnamisation' began - handing war responsibilities to the South Vietnamese and withdrawing US troops
• April 1969-December 1971, around 400,000 US troops left Vietnam
• In January 1973, all parties signed a peace agreement
• End of March 1973, the US troops all left
• South Vietnam soon fell to the communists
• Impacts of the War:
• US failed militarily and failed to stop the spread of communism
• US failed politically as Vietnamese neighbours Laos and Cambodia established communist governments in 1975
• US failed ideologically and its troops actions damaged its reputation
• Congress introduces the War Powers Act 1973 to limit the president's ability to go to war
• Relationship with Soviet Union enters period of détente
• In 1972 the US and USSR agree the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons being produced
• US foreign policy developed an new attitude; troops would only be involved in conflicts if it could be win quickly and convincingly