VIETNAM , 1946-75 (the 10, 000 Day War )

1. VIETNAM, 1946-75 (the 10, 000 Day War)

2. Where is Vietnam?

3. PHASE 1 - A WAR OF COLONIAL INDEPENDENCEAGAINST THE FRENCH • Vietnam had been a French colony under the name of French Indochina (along with Cambodia and Laos) • Vietnam began to fight for its independence from France during WWII (when France was preoccupied with European conflict) • Vietnamese revolutionary leader was Ho Chi Minh, a leader of an independent, communist Vietnam • Ho received support from both the USSR and “Red” China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-sNSiY8Vc

4. Colonial war raged 1946-54 • Culminating in the French defeat at DienBien Phu • France decided it wanted out and called a peace conference in Geneva, Switzerland (attended by France, Vietnam, the US, and the USSR) • Decision – partition(17th parallel) Vietnam into a communist North led by Ho and a “democratic” South Vietnam led by Ngo DinhDiem • Settlement was an outgrowth of basic Cold War tensions between the Americans and Soviets and clearly reflected the US policy of containmentwith respect to Soviet communist expansionism • US had come to see South Vietnam as a “domino” that they couldn’t afford to lose

5. Containment Policy in Action • In 1950, the U.S. established the U.S. Military Advisory Group-Indochina. In the same year, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China officially recognized the DRV and sent aid to Ho Chi Minh. • From 1950-52, the U.S. spent $50 million in military and economic aid to support nation-building and fight the communists in South Vietnam.

6. Bell Ringer Vietnam War Under Johnson Use the excerpt below to answer the following question. According to this document, what are tworeasons President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Vietnam?

7. PHASE 2 – AMERICAN ESCALATION AND MILITARY INVOLVEMENT • Phase originated with “Ike” and JFK but was intensified under Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) • The U.S. never formally issued a declaration of war • Gulf of Tonkin Incident- 2 American destroyers were apparently fired upon by the North Vietnamese • Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions (August 1964) - hereCongress gave LBJ their support in sending American personnel and materiel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah1IXMy8VCM

8. AdministrationDateMilitary Forces Kennedy (Democrat) 1961 3,200 Kennedy 1962 11,300 Kennedy 1963 16,300 Johnson (Democrat) 1964 23,300 Johnson 1965 184,300 Johnson 1966 385,300 Johnson 1967 485,600 Johnson 1968 536,100 Nixon (Republican) 1969 475,200 Nixon 1970 334,600 Nixon 1971 156,800 Nixon 1972 24,200

9. Gulf of Tonkin Timeline • French colonialism in Vietnam: 1800s-1941. • Japan took over Vietnam during WWII, but when Japan was defeated in 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence. • But French came back in and tried to take over again; U.S. supported French. The French lost in 1954. • 1954: Geneva Convention split the country into North and South, with the idea that there would be free elections in the near future. • (U.S. DID NOT sign Geneva Accords, for fear that Communists would win the general elections). • U.S. supported South Vietnam leader, Diem. But Diem turned out to be oppressive and unpopular. He canceled elections, repressed Buddhists; caused major discontent in South Vietnam.

10. Gulf of Tonkin Timeline • U.S. feared that Diem’s unpopularity will push more South Vietnamese to support Communists. So they supported a coup and Diem was overthrown and assassinated—Nov. 1, 1963. • JFK assassinated only weeks later. LBJ inherited the problem in Vietnam. • Under new weak South Vietnam government, support for Communism grew • North Vietnam smuggled weapons into South Vietnam to support Communist insurgents through a network of trails through Laos and Cambodia (Ho Chi Minh trails). • Aug. 2, 1964- North Vietnamese attacked U.S.S. Maddox; Aug. 4. –another attack provided grounds for Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (second attack turned out to be fake—never happened). • President Johnson asked Congress to pass Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave him authorization to use military force in Vietnam (not a declaration of war).

11. Ho Chi Minh Trail • In spite of ongoing escalation throughout the 1960s, the US experienced a lack of success against the Vietnamese guerrilla forces in S. Vietnam (the Vietcong) as the US Army was unprepared for their tactics and mentality • The US was also never entirely successful in shutting down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply line that ran between North and South Vietnam via difficult jungle terrain, often underground and through neighboring nations like Cambodia and Laos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poE_nNW9-yk

12. Quagmire and Attrition • In 1965, General Westmoreland began to implement a search-and-destroy strategy that sent U.S. troops out into the field to find and kill Viet Cong members • War of attrition—a strategy of extended combat meant to inflict so many casualties on the enemy that it could no longer continue • U.S. commanders were instructed to begin keeping body counts of enemy soldiers killed • Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics frustrated and demoralized U.S. troops

13. Vietnam on TV • War definitely turned against the US in 1968, when the NVA’s General Giap began the Tet Offensive • Tet Offensive - surprise offensive by North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong - attacking nearly thirty U.S. targets and dozens of other cities in South Vietnam at once. • US casualties and losses saw an increase inanti-war sentimenton the American Home Front • Vietnam was a TV Warwhere American audiences saw the brutality of war firsthand • Backlash again LBJ’s Americanization of the war

14. American atrocities at My Lai -1968 • TV audiences witnessed the usage of weapons that devastated the environment • Morale among U.S. troops also hit an all-time low after Tet Offensive • Frustrated U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a small village • napalm (a highly flammable jellied substance)and • Agent Orange(herbicide defoliant) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69nExfUh34 (21:40 – 32:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSKA_Ce4lBg (5:20-8:05)

15. Counterculture • Gathered momentum (Hippies, Flower Children, etc.), protests became widespread and began to polarize the nation • This was intensified after the Kent State Massacre • National Guardsmen opened fire on student protestors in Ohio, killing four students • Senator William Fulbright’s (Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee) admission that the war was a “mess” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K94oOhUcvHE

16. Johnson - Nixon • Increasingly the American people came to perceive the “Credibility Gap”, i.e. they no longer believed that LBJ was telling them the truth about events in the war • War cost = estimated $3 billion a month • 1968- LBJ chose not to run for president • Republican Richard M. Nixon was elected on a platform of “Peace with Honor”

17. Vietnamization • President Richard M. Nixon, declared that a “silent majority” of Americans still supported the war • Nixon wanted the South Vietnamese to play a greater role in the war, a policy he labeled Vietnamization -promising to withdraw U.S. troops gradually and hand over management of the war effort to the South Vietnamese • Nixon continues carpet bombing Hanoi and orders a secret invasion of Cambodia and Laos (without Congressional approval) • He relied on the diplomacy of Henry Kissinger to achieve peace and/or an American withdrawal

18. Pentagon Papers • U.S. newspapers in 1971 • Papers revealed that the U.S. Army, as well as presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, had authorized a number of covert actions that increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam unbeknownst to the American public • Supreme Court ruled in New York Times v. U.S. that the government must prove an immediate threat to national security to censure the papers.

19. The Cease-fire and the Fall of Saigon • After secret negotiations between U.S. emissary Henry A. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Le DucThoin 1972, Nixon engaged in diplomatic maneuvering with China and the USSR—and stepped up bombing of North Vietnam—to pressure the North Vietnamese into a settlement. The Paris Peace Accords were finally signed in January 1973, and the last U.S. military personnel left Vietnam in March 1973. • Nixon pledged to withdraw all remaining military personnel from Vietnam and allow the tens of thousands of NVA troops in South Vietnam to remain there, despite the fact that they controlled a quarter of South Vietnamese territory. • However, Nixon promised to intervene if North Vietnam moved against the South. In exchange, North Vietnam promised that elections would be held to determine the fate of the entire country. Although Nixon insisted that the agreement brought “peace with honor,” South Vietnamese leaders complained that the terms amounted to little more than a surrender for South Vietnam. • The U.S. government continued to fund the South Vietnamese army, but this funding quickly dwindled.

20. PHASE 3 – VIETNAMESE CIVIL WAR 1973-75 • President Nixon became embroiled in the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation in August 1974. • He was in essence a “lame duck”! • North Vietnamese forces stepped up their attacks on the South and finally launched an all-out offensive in the spring of 1975. • On April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, who reunited the country under Communist rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, ending the Vietnam War. • The US abandoned its embassy in Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in the newly unified and communist Vietnam

21. Troop Reductions by Nixon AdministrationDateMilitary Forces Kennedy (Democrat) 1961 3,200 Kennedy 1962 11,300 Kennedy 1963 16,300 Johnson (Democrat) 1964 23,300 Johnson 1965 184,300 Johnson 1966 385,300 Johnson 1967 485,600 Johnson 1968 536,100 Nixon (Republican) 1969 475,200 Nixon 1970 334,600 Nixon 1971 156,800 Nixon 1972 24,200

22. The War Powers Resolution • Restricted presidential powers during wartime by requiring the president to notify Congressupon launching any U.S. military action abroad • Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified in 1971 to lower the U.S. voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, on the grounds that the young men serving in Vietnam should have a say in which politicians were running the war. • Congress also ended the draft in 1973 and stipulated that the military henceforth consist solely of paid volunteers (Stopped Anti-War Protesters)