The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War
By Dorothy Delerme
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Background on the Vietnam War

1. Known as-Vietnam Conflict or the Second Indochina
   War.
2. Cold War military conflict.
3. Location-Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
4. Duration-November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975 when
   Saigon fell.

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Belligerents

1. Communist-Viet Cong
2. North Vietnam- supported by communist allies

• Anti-Communist- North Vietnamese
• South Vietnam- supported by the United States and
  other anti- communist nations.

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The Viet Cong

1. Lightly armed communist controlled common front.
2. Fought guerilla war against anti-communist forces.

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Viet Cong
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North Vietnamese Army

• Vietnam People's Army
• Engaged in conventional war
• U.S and South Vietnamese forces relied on
• Air superiority
• Overwhelming fire power to conduct search and
  destroy operations

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Vietnam People's Army
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Vietnam After WWII

• Vietnam-French colony 1.French grow rich
• 2.People do not accept French rule
• Ho Chi Minh- Communist leader
• 1. declare independent Democratic
  Republic of Vietnam
• 3) WWII Allied Victors-
• 1. believed Vietnam belong to French
• 2. French try to regain control
• 3. Minh- look for peaceful solution

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Ho Chi Minh
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Us Involvement in the War

• US enter war- 1960s
• To prevent communist takeover of South
  Vietnam-master plan of containment
• Increased involvement during- Tet Offensive
• US- forced to withdraw due to Vietnamization

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French Departs

• September 1950- US create Military Assistance and
  Advisory Group (MAAG)?
• To screen French requests for aid, advise on
  strategy
• 1954 US supply- 300,000 small arms
• Spent 1 billion US dollars
• Shoulder 80 of war
• US intelligence skeptical of French success

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Operation Vulture

• Proposed plan
• send 60 B-29s from US bases in the region
• supported by as many as 150 fighters
• launch from US Seventh Fleet carriers
• To bomb Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap's
  position

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• 1) VP- Richard Nixon (hawk) on Vietnam
• Suggest to put American boys in war
• Pres. Eisenhower looked for Britain to support
  idea
• London opposes

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Viet Minh

1. Receive support from Soviet Union and PRC
2. Border Campaign of 1950
3. Allow supplies to come from PRC into Vietnam

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Battle of Dien Bien Phu

• Mark end of French involvement in Indochina
• May 7, 1954 French Union garrison surrendered
• Geneva Conference
• French negotiate ceasefire agreement

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Transition Period
1)Vietnam partition at 17th parallel 2)Minority
Catholics- flee south 1) fear of persecution by
communists 3)US Propaganda 1) The Virgin Mary
headed south 4) Us funded 93 million relocation
program 1) ferrying refugees with seventh fleet
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Diem Era 1955-1963

1. Domino Theory-
2. argue that if one country fell to communist
   forces then all of the surrounding countries
   would follow
3. proposed as policy by Eisenhower

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Ngo Dinh Diem

1. Devout Roman Catholic
2. Fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and
   socially conservative
3. Represented narrow and extremist nationalism
   united with autocracy and nepotism

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Diem

• 1955 launch Denounce the Communists campaign
• Communists and other anti-government elements
  were arrested, imprisoned, tortured or executed.
• 12,000 suspected opponents of Diem killed
• 40,000 jailed

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Insurgency in South- 1956

• Sino-Soviet spilt- led to reduction of PRC
• Truong Chinh- N.Vietnam's pro-PRC party first
  secretary- demoted
• Hanoi- authorize communist to begin low level
  insurgency
• Insurgency- response to Diem's Denunciation of
  Communists campaign
• Hanoi- authorize creation of NLF (National
  Liberation Front) as common front controlled by
  communist in the south

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During Kennedy Administration 1961-1963

1. John F. Kennedy- won 1960 US presidential
   election
2. Stressed long-range equality with Soviets
3. Interested in using special forces for
   counterinsurgency warfare in Third World
   countries threatened by communist

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Kennedy's Struggle

• Kennedy faces three-part failure crisis
• Bay of Pigs invasion
• Construction of Berlin Wall
• negotiated settlement between pro-Western gov. of
  Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement
• Kennedy believed another failure on US part to
  gain control and stop communist expansion would
  damage US credibility and ruin JFK reputation

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Kennedy and Diem

• Kennedy's policy rested on
• Assumption that Diem and his forces defeat
  guerrillas
• 2)Kennedy against deployment of US combat troops

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Army of Republic of Vietnam

• A Played in emasculation of army
• Poor
• Bad leadership
• Corruption
• Political promotions

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1. Kennedy advisers-
2. Maxwell Tyler and Walt Rotsrow- ask Kennedy to
   deploy troops as flood relief worker to Vietnam-
   Kennedy refuses
3. 1963 South Vietnam- 16,000 military personnel

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Strategic Hamlet program

• Plan by US and South Vietnam gov. to combat
  Communist insurgency by popular transfer

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Coup and Assassinations

1. Battle of Ap Bac- small band of Viet Cong beat
   well equipped S. Vietnam army
2. US- conclude Diem incapable of beating communist
   and might make a deal with Minh

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Hue Phat Dan Shootings

1. Unarmed Buddhist shot a hands of gov. forces of
   Diem

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Coup and Assassination of Diem

1. CIA contact gen. to remove Diem
2. Diem overthrown over and executed
3. Kennedy- not approved of Diem's murder

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After Deim's Murder

1. Vietnam- chaos ensue
2. Hanoi- take advantage
3. South Vietnam-period of extreme political
   instability
4. US military embedded at every level of
   S.Vietnamese

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• US Commander of US forces in S.Vietnam-Gen. Paul
  Harkins 1)Predict victory by Christmas
  1963
• CIA- less optimistic
• CIA Special Activities Division-
• Trained and led Hmoung tribesmen in Laos into
  Vietnam
• Conducted-action missions

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Johnson's Administration 1963-1969
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Lyndon Johnson Expands War

1. Took over after assassination of Kennedy
2. Initially did not consider Vietnam as priority
3. More concerned with Great Society

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1. Johnson reverse Kennedy disengagement policy in
   withdrawing 1,000 troops
2. Military revolutionary council-
3. 12 Countries
4. Headed by- Gen. Duong Van Minh
5. Regime overthrown in Jan.1964 by Gen. Nguyen Khanh

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USS Maddox USS Turner Joy

• Aug.2 1964- fired upon and damage torpedo boats
  in Gulf of Tonklin
• Second attack- USS Turner Joy and Maddox
  1) murky attack

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USS Maddox
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USS Turner Joy
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Gulf of Tonklin Resolution

1. Second attack led- to air strikes
2. Prompt congress to approve Resolution
3. Gave president power to conduct military
   operations in Southeast Asia without declaring
   war
4. Johnson pledged that he was not ... committing
   American boys to fighting a war that I think
   ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help
   protect their own land

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Armies Strength

1. Viet Cong-
2. 1959- 5,000
3. 1964- 10,000
4. People's Army-
5. 1961-1964 850,000 to nearly a million
6. US-
7. 1961- 2,000
8. 1964- 16,500

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Bombing Campaign

1. National Security Council-recommend three stage
   escalation of the bombing of N.Vietnam
2. Operation Flaming Dart, Operation Rolling Thunder
   and Operation Arc Light- commence
3. Lasted 3 years

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Reason for bombing

1. Force N.Vietnam to cease support for NLF by
   threatening to destroy N.Vietnam's air defense
   and industrial infrastructure

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Escalation and ground war

1. US Air Forces- need protection
2. Mar.8.1965- 3,500 US Marines dispatched to
   S.Vietnam
3. Marked beg. Of US ground war

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Marines in Vietnam

1. Defensive
2. Deployment increase
3. US commanders unsuited to a defensive mission

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ARVN

1. Suffered heavy loses in- battle of Binh Gia
2. Battle that both sides viewed as watershed
3. Communist forces utilized hit-and-run guerrilla
   tactics
4. Defeat AVRN with conventional warfare

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1. Gen. William Westmoreland inform Admiral Grant
   Sharp that the situation was critical
2. Westmoreland- convinced US troops can take fight
   to NLF
3. Westmoreland- advocating aggressive departure
   from America's defensive posture

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Westmoreland Three-Point Plan

1. Phase1 commitment of US and other forces
   necessary to halt losing trend by end of 1965
2. Phase2 US and allies mount major offensive
   actions to seize the initiative to destroy
   guerrilla and organized enemy forces.
3. Phase3 If enemy persisted, a period of twelve to
   eighteen months following phase2 would be
   required for the final destruction of enemy
   forces remaining in remote base areas

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1. Plan approved by Johnson
2. Mark profound departure from previous
   administration's insistence that the gov. of
   S.Vietnam responsible for defeating guerrillas
3. Westmoreland- predict victory end of 1967

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Allies Help

1. Washington- encourage SEATO to contribute troops
2. NATO nations Canada and UK- refuse
3. US and allies mounted complex operations

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Tet Offensive

1. Military campaign
2. Purpose-to strike military civilian command
   control centers throughout S.Vietnam and spark
   general uprising among population that would
   topple the Saigon gov. thus ending the war in a
   single blow.
3. Trumped Westmoreland predictions
4. Political victory and ended career of Johnson

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Nixon Administration and Vietnamization1969-1972
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Nixon Doctrine

1. Was to build up the AVRN so that they could take
   over defense of S.Vietnam

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Vietnamization

1. Result of Tet offensive
2. Purpose-expand, equip, and train S.Vietnam's
   forces and assign to them an ever-increasing
   combat role,at the same time reducing the number
   of U.S. combat troops

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Opposition to War1962-1975

1. Groups united who opposed to US anti-communism,
   imperialism and colonialism
2. Shooting of four anti-war protesters at Kent
   State University
3. Riots broke out at 1968 Democratic National
   Convention

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Paris Peace Accord

1. Between N.Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Duc Tho
   and US Sec. Of State Henry Kissinger and
   S.Vietnamese Pres. Thieu
2. US military withdrew from S.Vietnam and prisoners
   exchanged
3. N.Vietnam allowed to continue to supply
   communist troops in South

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Gerald Ford1974-1975
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Ho Chi Minh Campaign

1. Called for capture of Saigon before May.1
2. Two bloody weeks of fighting
3. April.21 garrison surrendered
4. Pres.Thieu resign same day

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Fall of Saigon

1. Pres. Ford gave a speech on April.23 declaring
   end to war
2. April.29.1975- evacuation of Saigon by helicopter
   of last US diplomatic, military, and civilian
   personnel
3. April.30 last of US Marines evacuate embassy
4. VPA troops capture key buildings and
   installations
5. 1130 am NLF flag raised
6. Pres. Duong Van Minh surrendered

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Chemical Defoliation

1. Rainbow Herbicides
2. Agent Pink
3. Agent Green
4. Agent Purple
5. Agent Blue
6. Agent White
7. Agent Orange

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Casualties

1. NLF- 1.1 million dead
2. 600,00
3. US-200,000
4. South Vietnamese-250,000
5. Civilians- two million