Vietnam War

Vietnam War

1. The First Vietnam War was against the French

   • in the 19th Century, Vietnam was ruled by the French
     • During WW2, a communist party, Viet Minh, were formed ---- they wanted Vietnam to become independent
       • Between 1946 and 1954, the Viet Minh (named after their leader Ho Chi Minh), fought the French for independence
         • The USA supported France because they viewed it as a war against communism. They were also working under the 'Domino Effect' - if Vietnam became independent, then communism would spread across Asia
         • By 1954, the French hoped to draw the Viet Minh into battle, and defeat them once and for all. But they underestimated their strength, because after the Viet Minh had attacked, and after 2 weeks of fighting, the French were defeated and left Vietnam
           • The country was split into two
             • North Vietnam was communist - declared Ho as the leader
             • they were split across the line called the 17th parallel
             • South Vietnam was pro-western, anticommunist, and was ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem (corrupt, but still the president)

2. The US had given military help to France already

   • after the split, the US supported Diem, despite him being corrupt. The US provided him with financial help and political and military advise
     • in 1960, the National Liberation Front (also known as the Viet Cong) was formed in opposition to Diem's government.
       • Kennedy, determined to stop the spread of communism, sent financial aid, military equipment, and over 12000 military advisors to South Vietnam
         • After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson became president.
           • In 1964, US ships were attaked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. This lead to full-scale war in Vietnam. Johnson sent aircraft to attack North Vietnam and ground troops to South.
             • By 1965, Johnson had increased the number of ground troops to 125,000
               • By 1968, there were 500,000+ US troops in Vietnam
               • The US troops found it hard to fight the Vietcong in the jungle - so they used heavy bombing and chemical weapons instead
                 • in 1968, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched an all out attack on the South
                   • called the Tet Offensive
                     • was a victory for the US, but it had taken them by surprise. This made many Americans oppose the war.
                     • after Tet, the president, Nixon, promised to withdraw US troops and negotiate peace treaties
                   • Although the US recovered most of their losses after 3 days, fighting continued for several weeks. Eventually the Us defeated the Vietcong and NVA forces

3. Warfare

   • the Vietcong used guerrilla warfare
     • used when small military units want to avoid an open battle with a larger, better armed opponent
       • such as ambushes or raids
     • the Vietcong was very experience in guerrilla warfare.
     • hoped that the guerrilla fighting would exhaust the US troops, lower morale, encourage desertion and encourage South Vietnamese soldiers to defect. The Vietcong wanted the Americans to leave so that they could unify Vietnam as an independent country.
     • they worked in small groups, launched surprise attacks.
     • the Vietcong knew the land well, so they could choose the best place and time to attack
     • in the jungle, the Vietcong used hidden traps to kill soldiers
     • the Vietcong hid in tunnels, where there were even barracks and hospitals
     • blended in with Vietnamese villagers, making it difficult for the US to identify Vietcong soldiers
     • the Vietcong returned to areas where the US had driven them out. The US army seemed to be making little progress

4. Ho Chi Minh Trail

   • was a North Vietnamese supply route
     • passed through Laos and Cambodia
   • allowed soldiers, supplies and weapons to be sent from North Vietnam to support the Vietcong in South Vietnam
   • used throughout the war and it kept the Vietcong fighting
   • US tried to bomb it but never managed to break it. It was difficult to bomb paths in the jungle because new routes could easily be created.
     • also, the trail was a system of rails which were often added to , and some trails were just decoy routes to confuse the Americans

5. US military operations against the Vietcong

   • Operation Rolling Thunder
     • huge bombing campaign against North Vietnam which ran from March 1965 until 1968. Targeted North Vietnam's industry, and supply routes from communist China.
     • the US hoped that if North Vietnam was weakened, the Vietcong could not be supplied
     • wasn't successful
       • Vietnam's economy relied on farming not factories, so it wasn't badly affected. Plus, supplies from China continued to arrive
   • 'Hearts and Mind'
     • the US wanted to win South Vietnamese hearts and minds, so they wouldn't help the Vietcong
     • did this by providing free healthcare and training programmes for Vietnamese villagers
     • wasn't successful
       • because South Vietnamese civilians had been badly affected by USA's search and destroy tactics and chemical weapons
         • US also unpopular because it supported the corrupt South Vietnamese government
         • controversial search and destroy tactics
           • search and destroy was a tactic which focused on killing enemy troops. Instead of securing territory, the troops would just hunt the Vietcong and kill them, or clear them from villages. Villagers suspected of supporting the Vietcong were often killed. Afterwards, the troops would move to the next village.
           • My Lai massacre
             • in March 1968, a search and destroy mission in the village of My Lai led to the murder of over 300 unarmed civilians, including women and children
             • at first the US army tried to cover up the incident - early reports claimed that 20 civilians had been accidentally killed
               • But the massacre was revealed by the media in autumn 1969. The news horrified the public and led to a high profile investigation
         • Chemical weapons
           • Napalm was a burning chemical jelly which stuck to people and objects. It was used to destroy targets and burn areas of jungle.
             • caused many civilian casualties, and was widely criticised
           • Agent Orange was a chemical which destroyed trees and plant life. The US used it to try to remove big parts of the jungle where the Vietcong hid. It was also used to destroy food supplies. It was used on trees and crops, but it was very harmful, and cause cancer and birth defects.

6. TV and Media Coverage

   • the presence of the media in Vietnam meant that the US public could see what the war was really like
   • During the 60s, more and more people owned TVs. A lot of Americans watched news about the war every night, so they knew that the death toll was rising
   • reporting was fine - until the Tet offensive. Footage of the Tet offensive and of the Vietcong inside the walls of the US embassy made many people think that the US was losing the war
   • a photo of a South Vietnamese police chief shooting a handcuffed Vietcong solider in the street made many people think that the US and the South Vietnamese were just as brutal as the enemy
   • a respected news reporter (Walter Cronkite) reported that the situation in Vietnam was at a 'stalemate', making some citizens pessimistic about the war
   • Tokin Incident was exaggerated by the media
     • two days after Tonkin, there were supposed attacks on other ships
       • no proof of this
       • Johnson announced these attacks, and the story was printed in papers, and Johnson made the attacks seem very serious to get more public and political support to fight.
         • Congress then passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving Johnson permission to use all necessary steps to prevent further aggression
           • in the late 1960s, it was revealed that the second attacks did not take place, and Americans felt that they'd been tricked into the war
   • My Lai was released in the press
     • Photographs of the incident were printed in the media in 1969
       • Public opinion was divided
         • many Americans were horrified by the massacre, and the news increased the anti-war feeling
         • others believed that the massacre was consequence of the war
     • In the early 1970s, several of the soldiers were tried, but only one officer, Lieutenant Willam Calley was convicted, and was released in 1974

7. Antiwar protests

   • 500 arrests in Chicago, in 1968, after the Democratic Party held its convention in Chicago
     • citizens thought that the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, would continue in Johnson's Vietnam policies
   • VVAW protest
     • Vietnam Veterans against the war
     • 1000 veterans threw their medals and toy guns on the steps of the Capitol
     • the veterans wanted the war to end
       • mixed reactions about the protest
         • unpatriotic
         • worth listening to
   • Kent State University protest
     • Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia sparked several student protests
     • in May 1970
     • the Governor of Ohio used the National Guard to deal with the protestors. Students then became angry that soldiers were being used, and so violence broke out
       • The National Guard used tear gas and when this didn't disperse the students, they opened fire, killing four students
         • this outraged many people and provoked riots at other universities across the US.
           • opinions
             • some believe that the protestors were to blame, and that the soldiers were just doing their job
             • some were outraged because they had a right to protest
   • Fulbright Hearings
     • media sensation
     • in 1971, senator Fulbright organised a series of hearing from people who supported and opposed the war
       • one of the most important testimonies came from John Kerry
         • he talked about the Winter Soldier Investigation, and in this, several veterans had admitted to rape, torture, destruction of villages, killing of innocent people, in Vietnam
         • covered in the news

8. Trying to end the war

   • Tet
     • the biggest attack of the war by Vietcong and the NVA
       • 80,000 troops attacked US bases throughout South Vietnam, including the capital Saigon
       • Vietcong wanted South Vietnamese to join them and help force the US out of Vietnam
         • the South Vietnamese did not support the Vietcong, and the Vietcong and NVA were pushed back after 3 days
           • Vietcong practically destroyed
           • clear victory for the US. The General Westmoreland believed that the US could soon finish the job
             • however, the attack had taken the US by surprise. The public saw images of mass destruction and death - the Tet made the Vietcong seem strong
               • when General Westmoreland requested 200,000 more troops, it was very unpopular, as Americans wanted the war to end
   • Johnson did not run for re-election, promising that he would devote the rest of his term to ending the war
     • Nixon promised to end the war. He wanted peace, without it looking like the US was admitting defeat
       • Vietnamisation
         • withdrawing US troops from Vietnam, so the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) would fight NVA alone.
           • the US invested money in the ARVN to recruit more troops and provide training and weapons
   • Peace
     • Cambodia campaign
       • in 1969, Nixon began a bombing campaign in Cambodia to try to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail and pressure North Vietnam to make peace
         • sent 30,000 ground troops to destroy communist bases and supplies
       • caused more anti-war demonstrations
         • led Congress to cut military spending and cancel the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (making it difficult for Nixon to carry on fighting the war)
     • Laos campaign
       • in 1971, the ARVN attacked the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos
         • Us troops couldn't enter Laos, but they provided air support
         • although many communist supplies were destroyed, the ARVN was quickly driven out of Laos
     • Peace Talks
       • began in Paris 1968, under Johnson
         • continued in secret by Nixon in 1969, but both unsuccessful
       • North Vietnam in no hurry to make peace, and it refused to withdraw its troops from the South. The North Vietnamese believed that anti-war protests in the US and military spending cuts would soon force Nixon to make peace
       • on the 27th January 1973, both signed the Paris Peace Accords.
         • the President of South Vietnam, General Thieu, could stay in power
         • the NVA could stay in areas of South Vietnam which it already controlled
         • all US prisoners of war would be released
         • all US troops would leave Vietnam in 2 months
       • why both sides wanted a deal
         • North Vietnam
           • the US had improved relations with China and USSR, and these were North Vietnam's allies, who encouraged them to make peace
           • in December 1972, the Christmas Bombing of North Vietnam made them eager for the US to leave
           • The North Vietnamese government wanted a chance to recover and rebuild, and then mount a final assault on South Vietnam
         • US
           • hard to finance due to Congress cutting military spending
           • war becoming unpopular in the US
           • seemed like the war would drag on for a long time

9. a failed peace

   • By 1974, the US had withdrawn all it troops, and Congress had stopped all financial help to the country as well - South Vietnam was left to defend itself
   • in late 1974, the North Vietnamese advanced against the weak and disorganised South Vietnamese forces.
   • in Apri 1975, they took control of Saigon