The Vietnam War

● Before WWII Vietnam had been part of the ​French​ Empire (called ‘Indochina’).
● During WWII it had been invaded by Japan. ​Ho Chi Minh​ was the leader of the ​Viet Minh​ - a
resistance army which fought for Vietnamese independence.
1945​: After WWII Ho Chi Minh captured ​Hanoi​ and declared Vietnam independent. The French tried
to take control against popular resistance. ​China ​offered Ho Chi Minh arms and training.
US lnvolvement - Harry Truman & John Kennedy
● Truman​ offered financial support and military advisers to the French (see ​Domino Theory​)
1954​: The French were defeated, and The Vietnamese ​despised​ the US for supporting the French.
The ​Treaty of Geneva ​agreed that Vietnam would be split along the 17th Parallel until
elections. The French were allowed to remain in the South. The elections were never held:
○ North Vietnam was a communist republic led by Ho Chi Minh - capital Hanoi.
○ South Vietnam was a capitalist republic led by Ngo Dinh ​Diem​ - capital Saigon.
Civil war ​in the South between communists (​Vietcong​) and Diem’s regime. Under the leadership of
Le Duan​, North Vietnam sends troops and supplies to support the Vietcong (​Ho Chi Minh Trail​).
1961​: Kennedy​ provided political, economic, and military support to Diem to fight the communist
Vietcong​,​ ​but he was reluctant to order a full-scale deployment of troops.
1962​: Kennedy launches the ​Strategic Hamlet Program
1963​: JFK recognised that the US is despised and will fail, but he feared not being reelected.
Diem persecuted Buddhists (monks burning themselves), and was overthrown in a coup.
Escalation, Defeat, Withdrawal - Lyndon Johnson & Richard Nixon
1964: As early as 1964 the US government recognised that military victory was impossible. The
South Vietnamese government was corrupt and unpopular, and the communists, backed by
China ​and the ​USSR,​ did not count their cost (​bombing​ / ​Search & Destroy​)
1965-68​: but president ​Lyndon Johnson​ (who ​assumed​ office after Kennedy’s assasination)
agreed to increase US military involvement in order to ‘​save face​’ hoping to force the North
to the negotiating table (but the North refused before ​bombing ​was stopped).
During Johnson’s term, the number of US military personnel increased from the ​16,000
‘advisors’ sent by Kennedy in 1963 to over ​half a million ​by 1967, the war was costing $77
billion a year, and 160 US lives a week...
1968​: The tone of ​media coverage​ had changed, and the US public grew weary of the war. The
​ acifist​ movement to the mainstream.
Antiwar Movement​ strengthened from fringe p
President​ Richard Nixon​ was elected on the promise of ending the war.
1969​: Nixon, determined to end the war quickly, kick started negotiations phased troop withdrawal.
1970​: Nixon announced the bombing and ground invasion of Cambodia and Laos. Antiwar protest
returns and ​Kent State Shooting​ kills 4 students
1973​: Conscription ends. The Paris Peace Accord is signed, allowing the remaining US troops to
leave (but without requiring the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South
to withdraw!), leaving the unpopular South Vietnamese government to fend for itself. There
was a brief truce, before fighting broke out again...
1975​: The North launched a major offensive, captured Saigon, and united the two halves in a
single Socialist Republic.
Reasons for US involvement in Vietnam
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US and Russia avoided direct confrontation. Insead, the conflict in
Vietnam was used as proxy; the Vietnam War was the greatest struggle of the Cold War era and the only
major military defeat in United States history. More than 50,000 Americans and 2 million Vietnamese lost
their lives.

The Domino Theory

The war between the French and the Vietnamese should have been recognised by the US as the
final chapter in the colonial era​. Instead it was seen in ​Cold-War terms​ as a battle between the
free-world and the evil communist dictatorships of China and the USSR. The US believed that if one
country fell to communism, it was likely that the neighbouring one would also fall. This had happened
in Eastern Europe after 1945. In 1949 China had become communist and was supporting the
Vietnamese communists and fighting against the US in Korea. The US was afraid that communism
would spread to Vietnam and then the rest of Asia.

The US was Despised for Supporting the Weak and Corrupt South Vietnamese Government

Although Diem succeeded in driving the French out of the South, he fixed the results of the elections
that followed, and imprisoned and executed communists without trial. Diem was a Catholic in a mainly
Buddhist country. He refused to enact land reform (give peasants land), and discriminated against
and persecuted Buddhists. As a result, South Vietnam’s population in rural and urban areas, which
was majority Buddhists, supported the communists. ​Popular protest​ against Diem’s regime is
epitomised ​by the ​public acts of scuicide​ of Buddist monks by burning. But the US supported Diem
to prevent the communist North taking over the South.

Civil war - 1958-1963

Despite the partition (and the migration of Catholics to the south communists to the north), hard-core
communists in the south remained and were determined to overthrow Diem. From 1958, Diem’s
regime came under increasing attack from communists in South Vietnam (initially the North did not
offer meaningful support).
By 1959 ​Le Duan​’s influence in the North Vietnamese politburo was growing, and he argued that the
north should do everything to support the south to remove Diem by force. Under Le Duan’s direction,
the communists in the south were re-organised as the National Liberation Front (​NLF, ​aka ​Viet
Cong​), and North Vietnamese fighters started to cross to the south (the beginning of the Ho Chi Minh
trail).
US politicians (inc. President Kennedy) believed that if Diem is defeated, then the US would be
humiliated and its reputation tarnished. Kennedy was also concerned that any ​public perception ​of
weakness would hurt his ​re-election prospects​. In 1963, Kennedy sent 16,000 military ‘advisers’ to
help the South Vietnamese army.
After Diem’s Government was overthrown in a coup, there was no strong capitalist government in
control of the South.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964

The North Vietnamese attacked the US Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident gave the USA the
excuse it needed to escalate the war.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution​ - US Congress granted President ​Lyndon Johnson​ the power to use
military force without having to ask for an official declaration of war.
Reasons for US failure in defeating the Vietcong

The USA was not able to defeat the Vietcong for a number of reasons:

The US used the same strategy used successfully in WWII and Korea
Initially the US believed that the same strategy that led to victory in WWII and Korea - bombing
campaigns, artillery and ground forces with superior training and fire power - would lead to victory in
Vietnam. The US was a ​prisoner of their own experience​.
US soldiers knew little about the country and the people they were meant to ‘liberate’. They called
the Vietnamese ‘gooks’, ‘slopes’ or ‘dinks’.

There was no ‘front’

Unlike in WWII and Korea, no ground was permanently won or lost. When a battle was won the
Vietcong retreated, but as soon as the US soldiers returned to their base, the ground was
re-occupied by Vietcong fighters. As a result, the only measure of ‘success’ was the number of
casualties - ​‘body count’​ - which encourages indiscriminate fire power, the counting of civilian
casualties as ‘enemy combatants’, and the ‘fudging’ of casualty numbers so that ‘victories’ appear
more impressive.

The US underestimated the resolve of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese government
Once it became clear - as early as 1963 - that the combination of ​bombing campaigns​ and ​search
and destroy ​missions were not leading to victory, the US shifted its strategy to ​attrition, ​with the
goal to reach the ​crossover-point​ beyond which the enemy would not be able to replace its
casualties with new recruits. The result was more bombing and artillery, and more emphasis on
‘body count’. ​But the enemy’s resolve was not dented, as ​Le Duan​ realised that while the US
public will grow weary of a costly war, the North ​would not count its cost​.
3 million tons of explosives were dropped on the Laos portion of the Ho Chi Minh trail alone - 1
million more tons than were dropped on the whole of Germany and Japan during all of WWII. The
trail was kept open by as many as 230,000 teanagers, more than half women, who kept filling bomb
craters and putting out fires.

Negative Sentiment towards the US

The US was despised by the Vietnamese for supporting the French colonialists. This Negative
sentiment was amplified after partition when the US backed the corrupt and Diem regime, who
persecuted the majority Biddhist population.
To prevent the Vietcong from hiding in villages, the ​Strategic Hamlet programme​ of 1962 forced
the peasants to leave their villages and settle in ‘strategic hamlets’, which were controlled by the
Americans. The peasants were opposed to this as they were forced away from their homes and their
ancestral burial grounds and their land. Local officials were corrupt further alienating the peasants,
who blames the government and its US backer for its inability to defend them.
The Vietcong, on the other hand, helped and respected the peasants, and ran underground political
infrastructure, with province chiefs, tax collectors, spies and teachers.
the US had no chance of ​winning the hearts and minds​ of the majority of Vietnamese, who turned
against them and gave their support to the Vietcong.
American military tactics was alienating the South Vietnamese
The US initially assumed that the untrained and ill-equipped Vietcong will be no match to its superior
weapons and fire power, but soon after fighting started it became clear that the guerilla warfare used
by the Vietcong was effective. Despite this realisation, the US continued with the same strategy -
just on a larger scale. Vietnamese civilians were constantly caught in the crossfire and US troops
became even more unpopular.

a. Operation Trail Dust / ​Ranch Hand - 1962

The Americans used chemical weapons Napalm (jellied petrol) and Agent Orange (superior
strength weed killer). This was used to clear foliage in the jungle which was the natural
hiding place for the Vietcong. They also wanted to expose and make the Ho Chi Minh Trail
visible to air bombing.
Napalm did clear much of the undergrowth but it also stuck to humans and caused horrific
injuries. Agent Orange also cleared the foliage but many innocent civilians’ farms and crops
were lost, and animals were killed.

b. Operation Rolling Thunder 1965-1968

The Amercians bombed strategic targets (oil facilities, ports, bridges) in North Vietnam to
stop the supply of troops and weapons to the South. US military command assured
President Johnson that intensifying the campaign would inflict a decisive blow on North
Vietnam and force them to the negotiating table.
However, although most of North Vietnam’s oil storage facilities were destroyed, new
underground facilities were built and oil kept flowing in from China and the USSR. Bomb
shelters were built to accommodate the entire 18 million population, and a million North
Vietnamese were working around the clock to undo bombing damage (e.g. pontoon bridges
were fashioned overnight to replace destroyed bridges).
Bombs often missed targets and hit schools and hospitals, and the North used these for
propaganda.
The North still refused to negotiate until all bombing were halted.

c. Search and destroy missions

Small scale
Working on intelligence (and defectors), US forces tried to weed out the Vietcong in the
Southern hamlets. They would drop in by helicopter, kill and burn huts of those they
considered Vietcong. Many innocent civilians were killed. In 1968, a mission to the
village of ​My Lai​ ended with the massacre of many innocent civilians, including women
and children.

large scale
Starting by dropping leaflets on a hamlet of 500,000, warning against resistance,
asking all non-combatants to leave and offering safe passage to any defectors,
following with large scale bombing, and then ground troops. The result was more than
3 million homeless, roughly a fifth of the South’s population.
Vietcong military tactics

Despite having no aircraft, tanks or artillery of their own, the Vietcong managed to hold out against the
US military might until the US left Vietnam in the 1970s. The Vietcong used a number of tactics:

Foreign support and support from the North

The Vietcong and North Vietnam were supported by China, who provided money, training and
more than 300,000 support personnel, and by the USSR, who provided weapons and equipment.
Le Duan’s regime declared that it ​would not count the cost ​of the war.

Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is the art of using knowledge of the landscape to avoid open battle with the
enemy and to launch raids and surprise attacks, before disappearing back into the undergrowth.
The Vietnamese gained experienced in this while fighting the French imperialists and the
Japanese in WWII. They had ​intimate knowledge​ of the terrain and the climate. They used the
Ho Chi Minh Trail, which stretched from North Vietnam to the South, to keep their forces supplied.
3 million tons of explosives were dropped on the Laos portion of the Ho Chi Minh trail alone - 1
million more tons than were dropped on the whole of Germany and Japan during all of WWII. The
trail was kept open by as many as 230,000 teanagers, more than half women, who kept filling
bomb craters and putting out fires.

Support from peasants

The Vietcong ​won the hearts and minds​ of the South Vietnamese peasants. Fighters would
offer to help peasants in their daily work and also promised them land, more wealth and freedom
under Ho Chi Minh and the communists.
It was difficult for American troops to know who was a Vietcong and who was not.

Tunnel systems and traps

The Vietcong had a hidden system of tunnels stretching over 200 miles. There were hospitals,
armouries, sleeping quarters, kitchens and wells underground. These tunnel systems could hide
thousands of Vietcong which helped them fight their guerrilla war.
It would be the job of US ‘tunnel rats’ to search these tunnels. However, they were often
booby-trapped with spikes and grenades.

The Tet Offensive - 31 January 1968

To silence criticism at home, Le Duan planned a ‘general uprising’ in which coordinated attack on
all major towns and cities in the south will defeat the South Vietnamese army, topple the regime
and force the US to withdraw. Le Duan purged those opposed to the offensive, and chose the first
day of the Vietnamese lunar celebration (Tet). Thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers and new
recruits slipped to South Vietnam to reinforce the Vietcong. The Vietcong captured 75% of main
towns in the South for a few hours, including the American Embassy in Saigon. The offensive
failed but had two important effects:
● The US realised that they could not win a war against such a dedicated and widespread
enemy. It would take more damage to civilians and US forces than the USA was prepared to
withstand.
● President Johnson stopped bombing North Vietnam in return for peace talks in Paris.
Changing views of the war in the USA

Another major reason why the USA could not win the war was the lack of support at home from the
American public. As the war dragged on, anti-war protest movement grew, and to counter it, a major
pro–war movement also started. Many veterans of the war called the anti–war protesters traitors and
communists. Activists on both sides believed that they are acting as patriots.
Initially the anti-war movement was a fringe pacifist movement, but in 1966, as more soldiers were
needed, drafting orders reached middle class students.
Some in the US administration believed that the anti-war movement was a communist conspiracy
directed by the USSR. The CIA, which is forbidden by law to operate within US borders, began to
infiltrate the anti-war movement, wire-tapping its leader and even inciting violence to undercut their
appeal.
Concealing extent and details from the American public
Every time US involvement has increased - from financial support to the French, to sending
‘advisers’ at first to train and then to fight along the South Vietmnamese army, to deployment of US
troops - Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon sought to ​conceal the extent​ of US involvement,
downplaying its importance and not revealing the true numbers of troops and bombing campaigns.
Moreover, for fear of appearing weak, the president and top officials did not make public their belief
that the war could not be won.
Media coverage
By early 1968 the media tone changed from generally supportive, reluctant to publish information
which would undermine the war effort, to generally sceptical of the government’s ​narrative ​and
chances of victory.
No restrictions were imposed on journalists to access battle zones and interview soldiers. Being the
first televised war, it was vividly reported by journalists who went to Vietnam in search of stories.
Shocking and graphic Images of innocent civilians being killed, maimed and tortured were displayed
on the TV and in newspapers, which ​polarised ​American public opinion.​ ​Those who supported the
war called for an even tougher approach; those who opposed it called for an immediate withdrawal.
Opposition to support for the South Vietnamese Government
The South Vietnamese Government, which the Americans were committed to defending, was
revealed as corrupt and anti–democratic. Many Americans questioned how their Government could
justify standing up for this oppressive regime. The USA was meant to fight to protect freedom and
democracy.
It became clear that the Vietnamese peasants did not welcome American troops. Many Americans
questioned why their country was involved if the local population did not want them there.
Opposition to the 'Draft'
The '​Draft​' was the conscription of American men into the US army and lasted from 1954-1973. As
sons, brothers and fathers went to war, people began to question whether it was worth it. Draft Law
hit African Americans hardest, and was fuelling the American Civil Rights movement.
Many middle-class Americans opposed the war because, by 1967, the death rate had increased to
160 per week.
Opposition from Civil Rights Movement
There was opposition to the war from civil rights activists, who were fighting for more rights for
African-Americans in the USA. Many African-Americans were drafted, and, because they were new
recruits, were often given the worst postings and assignments, so they suffered a disproportionate
number of combat deaths.
When Civil Rights leaders complained and the Defence Department made an effort to right the
balance and by 1969 it had succeeded. Muhammad Ali had his boxing title revoked for refusing to
fight in the war.
Opposition from youth
The main opposition came from students. In the 1960s, protest movements began in California but
spread to all the major cities and universities across the USA by 1968. Although the police and
national guard dispersed demonstrators using excessive force, opinion polls showed that more than
50% of the public supported their actions.
Demonstrations grew in size from 40,000, mainly students and pacifists, to ​700,000​ in the anti-war
protest of November 1969, which was the largest protest march in US history.
The Kent State Shooting ​- On 4 May 1970, during an anti-war rally at Kent State University
(against Nixon’s decision to attack Cambodia) four student demonstrators were shot and killed by
National Guardsmen. However, 58% of Americans thought the killing was justified, and the parents
of the dead students received a flood of hate mail.
By late 1960 even army ​veterans ​were turning against the war. In 1971 a group of nearly 1,000
veterans publicly discarded their service medals in Washington DC,
Pacifists
Many believed that war was morally wrong. There were mass protests across the USA, including in
Washington DC in November 1969 attended by Luther King. Singers wrote anti-war songs and
songs that criticised the Vietnam War itself. Bob Dylan wrote 'Masters of War' and John Lennon
wrote 'Give Peace A Chance'.
Political opposition
The American Government spent vast amounts of money on the war that could have been spent on
domestic problems. Some politicians who had supported the war to begin with, such as Robert
McNamara, began to turn against American involvement.

The end of the war in Vietnam

April 1969 marked the height of US military commitment.
June 1969 most Americans see the war as a mistake.
Nixon decided to end its involvement in Vietnam, but without admitting that it had been defeated.
Although the US believed that the South could not take on the communists alone, Nixon announced
(without consultation with the South Vietnamese government) that the South was now capable of
fighting the enemy without US support (the ‘Vietnamisation’ of the war) and started troop withdrawal.
The resignation of President Nixon also weakened US enthusiasm for involvement in Vietnam.
In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive and over-ran a series of South
Vietnamese strongholds. In May 1975 communist forces took Saigon. In 1976 the two halves of
Vietnam were united in a single Socialist Republic.
Impact of the war
Vietnam
● Approximately 500,000 civilians died (out of an estimated total of 2 million)
● Agent Orange caused birth defects in children and this chemical continues to have a negative
effect on Vietnam.
● The country was reunified after the communist takeover of the South in 1975.
● Before the war, Vietnam had been a major rice exporter. The destruction of land during the war
meant that the country could not produce enough food for the population.
● Many skilled and professional workers connected to the South Vietnamese regime left the
country in fear of being persecuted.
● The communist forces established concentration and ‘re-educatetion’ camps for enemies of
communism and supporters of the South Vietnamese Government.
USA
● The war was a turning point in the extent of public trust in the US government. Before the war the
American public believed what the US government said, but after the war that trust ​collapsed​.
● Across the world, the ​reputation ​of the US had been ​tarnished​. It was criticised for supporting
a corrupt government and for its military brutality.
● Approximately 58,000 American soldiers were killed and another 153,000 were wounded.
● During the Vietnam War, the USA spent $828 billion on its military. From 1965, it was spending
more than $50 billion per year. The additional spending to fund the USA's involvement in
Vietnam has been estimated at $111 billion.
Psychological effects
● Over 100,000 US troops lost limbs in the war and required treatment.
● ‘Draft dodgers’ were treated badly and some fled the country.
● American troops returning from the war were also subject to ill-treatment. Many civilians treated
them as brutal thugs who should be punished or avoided.
● The fact that the USA, the great superpower, had lost to a much smaller and less powerful
country was greatly demoralising. There was a loss of confidence in American military abilities.
Impact on international relations
● President Richard Nixon sought to reach a reduction of tension with the USSR in an attempt to
divide the two communist superpowers in their support of North Vietnam. Both the USA and the
USSR tried to distance themselves from China.
● The Nixon Doctrine - ​Nixon announced that the USA would not make any more military
commitments. Its allies would have to take care of their own security.
The Domino Theory (only partly confirmed)
Communism had spread to North Korea in 1948 and China in 1949. Laos and Cambodia had also
become communist after 1975, but it did not spread into the rest of South East Asia as was feared.
Although Eastern Europe had become communist after the war, it had not spread to Western
Europe. However, there were large communist parties in many European countries, so the threat
was ever-present. It was shown that communism may have spread to neighbouring countries but
this outcome was not guaranteed.