Vietnam

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Vietnam

• Part 1 1954-1968

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Background

• Existed for 2000 years
• China had always wanted to control it
• France colonizes Vietnam in the 1800s
• Struggle for independence from France starts
  while Japan occupies Vietnam during WW II
• Ho Chi Minh becomes leader of Vietminh
• League for the Independence of Vietnam
• French opposed Vietminh, gave independence to a
  Republic of Vietnam headed by Bao Dai (emperor)
• Vietminh and France fight a civil war, France
  defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu

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Divided Vietnam

• Geneva Accords in 1954
• Divided Vietnam into 2 nations at the 17th
  parallel
• Ho Chi Minh becomes president of communist North
  Vietnam
• Ngo Dinh Diem becomes president of anti-communist
  South Vietnam
• Geneva Accords called for elections in 1956 to
  unify the country
• South Vietnam refuses to participate

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US involvement starts

• Truman Doctrine aid to any country fighting
  communism
• Offered aid to France to defeat the Vietminh
• France loses, US then starts to support South
  Vietnam
• Eisenhower sends advisors to South Vietnam
• By 1960, there are 675 US military advisors there
• Kennedy agreed with supporting South Vietnam

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US involvement

• Diem convinces Kennedy to send more aid
• 1963 16,000 US advisors in Vietnam
• Diem was a problem for Kennedy, however
• Diem was Roman Catholic, most Vietnamese were
  Buddhist Diem persecuted Buddhist monks
• Also forced peasants to relocate so they wouldnt
  be influenced by communists
• Kennedy realizes Diem isnt reliable, orders his
  removal from office
• Diem is assassinated as South Vietnamese army
  stages a coup in Saigon

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Robert McNamara

• Secretary of Defense
• One of the few Republicans Kennedy really trusted
• Changed Pentagons focus from worrying about
  nuclear war to creating a modern, flexible army
• At first wanted to stay out of Vietnam, but then
  felt we had no choice
• Escalates US involvement under President Johnson

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South Vietnam

• Military leaders who took over after Diem turned
  out to be incompetent
• Communist guerillas (Viet Cong) and their
  political organization (National Liberation
  Front) in the south become stronger
• Ho Chi Minh in the north starts actively
  supporting Viet Cong
• Johnson worried about Domino Effect and didnt
  want to be the guy who loses southeast Asia to
  communism
• Campaign to make Vietnamese struggle resonate
  among Americans

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Gulf of Tonkin

• August 1964 Johnson claims North Vietnam
  attacked a US ship in waters off coast of North
  Vietnam
• Used this to persuade Congress to pass a
  resolution allowing the President to take all
  necessary measures to repel an armed attack
  against the forces of the US and to prevent
  further aggression
• Congress passes this by a vote of 416 to 0 in the
  House, and 88 to 2 in the Senate.
• Johnson long sought after a resolution that
  covered everything i.e a blank check
• Turns out the attack never happened

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All out war

• Ground war
• Viet Cong had the jungle as their advantage
• Massive system of underground tunnels aided them
  - some even had hospitals and stores
• Land mines used by Viet Cong impossible for US
  soldiers to find
• American soldiers couldnt distinguish Vietnamese
  peasants from Viet Cong results in huge numbers
  of civilians being killed

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All out war

• Air war
• April 1966 B-52 bomber introduced
• Saturation bombing destroyed much of North
  Vietnam
• Fragmentation bombs threw pieces of their
  casings in multiple directions maiming thousands
• Agent Orange used to kill all vegetation so US
  troops could spot Viet Cong
• Napalm Jellylike substance dropped from
  airplanes that set on fire upon impact
• Both Agent Orange and Napalm maimed or killed
  thousands of civilians

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War intensifies

• Ho Chi Minh trail secret network of trails,
  tunnels and river routes that allowed the North
  to help the Viet Cong
• US goal was to destroy it
• Start of 1965 25,000 US combat troops in
  Vietnam
• End of 1965 184,000 US troops
• Relentless bombing campaign all over Vietnam but
  nothing really changes
• Media continues to portray American involvement
  as a success

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Tet offensive

• End of 1966 385,000 US troops
• 1967 485,000
• 1968 536,000
• Turning point in January 1968 - Tet (Vietnamese
  New Year)
• Viet Cong launches massive attacks on US all over
  South Vietnam
• Saigon almost overrun by Viet Cong

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Tet

• Viet Cong as brutal as the US anyone labeled an
  enemy was executed doctors, teachers
• In Hue, Viet Cong ordered anyone who had worked
  for the US to a special location
• 5000 executed and buried in mass graves,
  discovered by Americans when Hue was recaptured
• Not only were the Viet Cong brutal

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My Lai

• March 1968
• Rumors that the village of My Lai was hiding Viet
  Cong
• Lt. Calley orders all villagers rounded up
  (mostly women, children and elderly)
• Orders all prisoners executed
• 400 villagers executed, but could have been worse
  if not for an American helicopter
• Pilot of helicopter lands between Calleys men
  and fleeing villagers
• Orders his gunner to fire at any American soldier
  shooting at a villager

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My Lai

• Calley goes on trial, sentenced to life in prison
  in 1971
• Later President Nixon reduced his sentence to 20
  years, and set him free 3 years later for good
  behavior
• Helicopter crew was awarded the Soldiers Medal
  in 1998
• Bottom line even though the US won the Tet
  offensive, it polarized Americans even more and
  divided the country

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Politics of 1968

• Protest movements grow stronger
• Resistance to the draft thousands of young men
  flee to Canada to avoid being sent to Vietnam
• Students take over parts of Columbia University
  in NYC
• Riots, violence, cities burning, losing the war
  in Vietnam all drive Johnson to announce hell
  not seek another term

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Politics of 1968

• McCarthy, Kennedy frontrunners
• Kennedy assassinated on June 4th
• Hubert Humphrey becomes Democratic frontrunner
• Party is divided (Humphrey supported finishing
  the war in Vietnam)
• Massive riots break out at Democratic convention
  in Chicago

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Nixon

• Divided Democrats
• Alabama Governor George Wallace, a very
  conservative Democrat, runs as an independent
• Wallace draws votes away from Humphrey who had
  been running close to Nixon in polls
• Nixon appeals to the law-and-order silent
  majority
• Nixon wins 43.4 of popular vote, Humphrey 42.7
  but
• Nixon gets 302 electoral votes to Humphreys 191
• Middle America makes a switch to Republican
  party for the next 20 years

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Nixon tries to end the war

• Silent Majority Speech in 1969 felt most
  Americans quietly supported his efforts to win
  but to also withdraw ASAP
• Vietnamization making the war the
  responsibility of the South Vietnamese, not the
  Americans
• By 1972, only 25,000 US troops left
• In April 1970, US and Vietnam invade neighboring
  Cambodia to flush out Viet Cong
• Doesnt look like the war is ending

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Violent reaction to Nixon and Cambodia

• Student protests increase dramatically
• Kent State University in Ohio
• Students trash the center of town and destroy the
  ROTC headquarters, symbolic of Nixons war in
  Cambodia
• Governor orders the National Guard to get
  involved
• Tear gas, clubs then turn to bullets as the
  Guardsmen fire on the students - 4 killed, 9
  wounded
• Similar thing happens at Jackson State University
  in Mississippi 2 dead, 11 wounded
• At the same time, 100,000 construction workers in
  New York stage a march in support of Nixon

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Kent State
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Seattles reaction
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1972

• Nixon runs for re-election, claims that North
  Vietnam has backed out of peace talks
• Orders massive bombing of North Vietnam in
  response to attacks on Saigon
• Sec of State Kissinger claims Peace is at hand
  but they all knew this was not true
• Finally in 1973 North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the
  US and the Viet Cong sign a peace treaty

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End of the war

• US takes all troops out in 60 days
• All prisoners of war released
• All troops out of Cambodia and Laos
• Country was to be reunified somehow
• By March 1975, Viet Cong had overrun most of the
  country
• April 29, 1975 the US embassy in Saigon is the
  site of a massive airlift of South Vietnamese who
  needs to flee.
• 1000 Americans and 6000 Vietnamese flown out in
  round-the-clock helicopter flights
• April 30, 1975 Saigon falls, Vietnam reunified
  under one communist government

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Fleeing Saigon
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Viet Cong take over Saigon
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Legacy of the war

• Cambodia and Laos fall to communism as well
• 58,000 American dead
• 300,000 wounded
• 2,500 POW and MIA many still unaccounted for
• Vietnamese dead and injured 2 to 3 million
• Treatment upon return home was terrible no
  parades, no adulation
• War cost 150 billion led to economic crisis of
  the 1970s