Vietnam War

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Vietnam War

• 1957-1975 The longest war in U.S. history

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Background

• 1800s- French established themselves as the new
  colonial power in Vietnam
• In 1945, Ho Chi Minh, a communist sympathizer,
  declared independence from France.

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French and Ho Chi Minh

• War continued between the French and the
  Vietminh, followers of Ho Chi Minh, until 1954.
• In 1954 the French were defeated at Dien Bien
  Phu.
• World powers held the Geneva Accords in July 1954
  where they decided to divide Vietnam into two
  nations North (communist) led by Minh and South
  (anti-communist) led by Diem
• 1956 the Accords called for elections to help
  reunite the country. The South refused claiming
  that the North would not have fair elections.

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The U.S.

• The U.S. followed their dominant policy, the
  domino theory, which referred to the idea that if
  one South East Asian country fell to communism
  others would fall.

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Truman Doctrine

• Under the Truman Doctrine (1948) the U.S.
  promised aid to anyone fighting communism. We
  gave the French aid to fight Ho Chi Minh. After
  the French loss in 1954 we continued to give aid
  to the anti-communist government in South
  Vietnam.This is how we became involved in the
  Vietnam War!

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Kennedy and Diem

• Diem claimed that he needed more aid to fight
  communism
• Diem was a corrupt and cruel leader
• He insisted that Buddhists follow Catholic laws
• Kennedy said it would be okay if Diem was
  overthrown he was assassinated and military
  leaders took control

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• On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist
  monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam,
  burned himself to death at a busy intersection in
  downtown Saigon, Vietnam.. Eye witness accounts
  state that Thich Quang Duc and at least two
  fellow monks arrived at the intersection by car,
  Thich Quang Duc got out of the car, assumed the
  traditional lotus position and the accompanying
  monks helped him pour gasoline over himself. He
  ignited the gasoline by lighting a match and
  burned to death in a matter of minutes.

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Johnson

• He favored a policy of containment in S.E. Asia
• Communist guerillas in the south, the Vietcong,
  gained control of territory and earned the
  loyalty of many south Vietnamese.
• Ho Chi Minh sent aid to the Vietcong
• Johnson feared how the world would look at the
  U.S if we pulled out of Vietnam

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Gulf of Tonkin

• August 1964- Johnson reports that A U.S. ship was
  attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin
• This never happened but Johnson uses this to
  deepen American involvement in Vietnam.
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave Johnson the
  authority to take all necessary measures to
  repel any armed attack against the forces of the
  U.S. and to prevent further aggression.

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Johnsons Plan Escalation

• Johnson began a gradual escalation of the war
• By July 1965, he doubled the men that could be
  drafted.
• Men were drafting using the lottery system based
  on birthdays.

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The Draft

• Some 2.2 million men were drafted during the
  Vietnam war, to serve for two years. But most of
  those who served in Vietnam were volunteers.
• There were plenty of opportunities to a deferment
  from the draft and avoid service.
• Minor physical problems would often do it.
• If you had kids, that would often work.
• The most controversial exception was for
  those enrolled in college

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• Socioeconomic status76 of the men sent to
  Vietnam were from lower middle/working class
  backgrounds 75 had family incomes above the
  poverty level 23 had fathers with professional,
  managerial, or technical occupations.
• Ethnic background 88.4 of the men who actually
  served in Vietnam were Caucasian, 10.6 (275,000)
  were black, 1.0 belonged to other races 86.3
  of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasian
  (including Hispanics) 12.5 (7,241) were
  black. 1.2 belonged to other races.

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Johnsons Goal and Reasoning

• Lyndon Baynes Johnson, speech (July 28,1965)
• Its goal is to conquer the south, to defeat
  American power and to extend the Asiatic
  domination of Communism ... Our power, therefore,
  is a very vital shield. If we are driven from the
  field in Vietnam, then no nation can ever again
  have the same confidence in American promise or
  protection . . We did not choose to be the
  guardians at the gate, but there is no one else.

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Welcome to the Jungle

• Poor leadership and lack of military training and
  technology in South Vietnam meant that the U.S.
  fought the war.
• Yet, since the Viet Cong were masters at jungle
  warfare the U.S. could not drive them out of the
  South.

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Tet Offensive

• Tet is the name of the Vietnamese New Year This
  offensive was launched by the Viet Cong and the
  North Vietnamese in 1968.
• It included surprise attacks on major cities
  and military bases in South Vietnam.
• After this offensive many in America,
  including President Johnson, did not believe
  America could win this war.

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My Lai Massacre
Lack of public support for the war intensified as
evidence of the full awfulness of the war effort
mounted. In March of 1968 an American unit was
patrolling the village of My Lai in Central
Vietnam. They had suffered recent losses, were
frustrated by their inability to find the enemy
and anxious for revenge. They rounded up unarmed
women, children, and elderly civilians, raped the
women, then opened fire. The killed over 300
Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children.
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A Soldier Speaks about My Lai

• We huddled them up. We made them squat downI
  poured about four clips several hundred bullets
  into the groupthe mothers were hugging their
  childrenwell we kept right on firing. They was
  waving their arms and beggingI still dream about
  it. About the women and children in my sleep.
  Some days, some nights, I can't even sleep.

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My Lai Massacre in Pictures
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Soldiers Life

• The war was tough on American GIs for several
  reasons. The South Vietnamese regime was unable
  to build extensive popular support. Ordinary
  people living in South Vietnam were often
  supporters of the NLF. So the war was fought not
  against a clearly defined enemy, but against an
  amorphous, shifting enemy that was literally
  everywhere. American bombings, and the slash and
  burn approach to ground operations US forces
  often took, made ordinary Vietnamese in the
  countryside hostile to Americans--acts of
  sabotage were common, as were hidden bombs,
  sniper attacks, and booby traps. It became
  difficult for Americans to tell North and South
  Vietnamese people apart, and after a while they
  stopped caring.

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Drugs and Nam

• idleness and the declining troop morale led to
  escalating drug use that reached crisis
  proportions, but only in the last few years of
  the war (1972-73).
•  In 1969, a Defense Department study showed
  that 20 percent of US soldiers in Vietnam were
  using marijuana either occasionally or
  frequently. By 1969, military police were
  arresting 1,000 soldiers per week for possession.
  Heroin use also spread within a small group of
  soldiers and was readily available for only 2-3
  dollars per dose. However, the majority of the
  soldiers did not use drugs as popular myth may
  suggest.

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Student Response at Home

• The country was split some favored escalation
  so that the U.S could get a military victory
  while others were morally opposed to the war.
• The countrys youth, the ones dying in the line
  of fire, began demanding answers to Americas high
  profile presence in Vietnam. They wanted to know
  why peace talks were organized and continually
  failed. They wanted to know what they were
  fighting for.

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Nixon

• He won the election of 1968 easily because
  Johnson did not run again
• He promised peace negotiations in Vietnam
• The Paris Peace Talks failed to produce an
  agreement.
• He struggled with how best to end the war

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Nixon and Vietnam

• Vietnamization
• This was Nixons major policy in Vietnam. This
  called for replacing U.S.soldiers with South
  Vietnamese. By 1972, only 24,000 American troops
  were left .
• He did not want to lose the war, so as he
  withdrew troops he also sent secret bombing raids
  on major targets.
• He also expanded the war into Cambodia in 1970,
  the cause of the Kent State Riot.

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Kent State May 4, 1970

• Protests erupted at Kent State University,
  located in Ohio, in response to the U.S. invasion
  of Cambodia.
• Students broke windows and burned the army ROTC
  building.
• The governor sent in the national guard.
• They hurled tear gas ordering students to
  disperse.
• From the top of a hill, the guarsdmen began
  firing on the crowd.
• Four were dead, only two were protestors, and
  nine were wounded.

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The U.S. Withdraws from Vietnam

• Finally, in January 1973 a peace agreement was
  reached.
• The provisions of the peace included
• U.S withdraw all forces in S. Vietnam in 60 days.
• All prisoners of war needed to be released.
• 3. All military activities must end in Cambodia
  and Laos.
• 4. The 17th parallel would continue to divide
  Vietnam until the country could be reunited.

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Legacy of the War

• In 1975, the South fell to the North and Vietnam
  was united as one, Communist nation
• More than 58,000 Americans died and over 300,000
  were wounded.
• The Vietnam was the longest and least successful
  war in American history.
• The U.S. spent at least 150 billion on the war
• The U.S. did not restore trade with Vietnam until
  1994.

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Vietnam Wall Memorial

• A contest was held in 1979 for designing the
  Vietnam Memorial to honor all the soldiers who
  gave their life for their country during the
  Vietnam War.
• The winner was a 21 year old college student
  named Maya Ying Lin.
• The Wall was completed in 1982.