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Vietnam Unit. Why did the Vietnam (Indochina) War happen? How could it have been avoided? What was its effect on U.S. government and social institutions? How are we still seeing the effects of the war today?. Indochina and Vietnam Spans 5 presidents and 30+ years of history of involvement
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Vietnam Unit • Why did the Vietnam (Indochina) War happen? • How could it have been avoided? • What was its effect on U.S. government and social institutions? • How are we still seeing the effects of the war today?
Indochina and Vietnam • Spans 5 presidents and 30+ years of history of involvement • Truman • Eisenhower • Kennedy • LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) • Nixon • The Truman Doctrine • Eisenhower Doctrine • Containment Policy
Vietnamese opium den--French wanted to raise tax money to pay for administering the colony
Literacy declines, landlessness grows under French rule • 5000 French administered a colony of 25 million. • Literacy before French rule was perhaps 80%. By 1925 only one school-age child in ten was receiving schooling. • Millions of peasants became landless, working for French plantations and mines • French priests convert many Vietnamese to Catholicism (This will be result in schisms within Vietnamese society later on.)
Ho Chi Minh (NguyễnÁiQuốc or NguyễnTấtThành) at Versailles He wants more autonomy for Annam At Communist Party meeting in 1920 (
WWII and its aftermath • Japanese occupied Indochina during WWII • Viet Minh established themselves as anti-Japanese guerrillas • After WWII, British (Indian) troops occupied the south; Chinese (nationalist forces) occupied the north • British returned control of the southern part of Vietnam to the French • Fighting occurs between the Vietminh and British, French, and Japanese soldiers in the south
Growing crisis in Southeast Asia • US public mostly unaware • US foreign policy…DOMINATED by Indochina • After the French loss, Americans believe they can form and support a strong noncommunist govt. in the South. • Help place Ngo Dinh Diem in power "If Indochina goes, several things happen right away. The Malayan peninsula, the last little bit of the end hanging on down there, would be scarcely defensible … all of India would be outflanked. Burma would certainly, in its weakened condition, be no defense.“ –Dwight D. Eisenhower
Origins • French fought for control for the next 10 years • No money, no moral, no local support = defeat • At Dien Bin Phu, Vietnamese lay siege to French base for months • French suffer humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu
Domino Theory • The fear that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to communism, they would all fall like dominoes.
Three U.S. Presidents during the Vietnam era discussing the Domino Theory “If we withdrew from Vietnam the Communists would control Vietnam. Pretty soon, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia would go.” President Kennedy, 1960-63 “If this little nation goes down the drain and can’t maintain their independence, ask yourself what is going to happen to all to all the other little nations.” Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-68 “If the U.S. now were to throw in the towel and go home, and the Communists took over South Vietnam, then all over Southeast Asia, all over the Pacific, in the Mid east, in Europe, in the world, the U.S. would suffer a blow. And peace, because we are the great peacekeeping nation in the world today because of our power, would suffer a blow from which it might not recover.” President Nixon, 1968-74
America gets involved in Vietnam • Truman Doctrine- We will aid countries resisting communism (1949) • Containment- Only allowing communism to exist where it currently existed (no spread) • Domino Theory- If Vietnam falls to communism other Asian countries would follow & possibly the world • In 1955, Eisenhower sends first advisors to Vietnam to train South Vietnam Soldiers • Kennedy- Supports containment • By 1963 there are 16,000 advisors
Brief history of Vietnam’s Historical Struggle for Freedom • 1946-1954- French Indochina War- Ho Chi Minh leads a guerrilla war against the French. 75% of the war is funded by America to aid in the containment of communism. • Embarrassing defeat for the French @ Dien Bien Phu • Geneva Accords- • Peace treaty to end war • Split Vietnam @ 17th Parallel • National unification election scheduled for 1956
Terms • National Liberation Front (NLF) aka “Vietcong” • Vietcong aka “VC” or simply “Charlie” • ARVN, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) • Napalm—jellied gasoline
The Vietminh and The Vietcong • Vietminh rebels who defeated the French begin fighting against South Vietnamese and Diem. • The National Liberation Front is formed, becomes The Vietcong (Vietnamese Communist) goal of over throwing Diem and expelling US. • Both groups consisted of non-professional fighters, men, women, old and young. • Ho Chi Minh saw many similarities between Vietnam and American’s Revolution. (both were for freedom)
Suggested Discussion Topics: Vietnam, the early years • Was the U.S. involvement in Vietnam inevitable? • At what points could the U.S. have changed the course of the wars? What was its best chance? • Why was the U.S. so fixated on the “Domino Theory?” • How did the U.S. misread or not understand what was going on in Vietnam? • What as driving Kennedy to become more involved in Vietnam. Was it personal or political? • How would you characterize Kennedy’s role in Vietnam? • How would you characterize his conflict over Vietnam?
Diem and the Buddhists • Ho Chi Minh looked like he was going to win the Geneva elections, so Diem with US approval, blocked the elections • US supports Ngo Dinh Diem, the non-communist leader in South Vietnam • Diem is seen as corrupt • He is a Catholic in a Buddhist majority country • Doesn’t make good on promised social & economic reforms • Repressive tactics against enemies • Civil Turmoil- Verge of Vietnamese Civil War • Buddhists, knowing Americans are watching began protesting Diem’s government and unite the country against him (and the US).
Overthrow of the Diem government • Kennedy OKs a coup against Diem’s government • Nov, 1963, group of generals carries out the coup. Diem and Nhu are killed • Kennedy regrets that they are assassinated and in such a brutal way • Three weeks later-11/22/63) Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lyndon Johnson becomes president
LBJ-ultimately a tragic figure • “I knew from the start if I left the woman I really loved – the Great Society – in order to fight this bitch of a war (Vietnam) on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes…All my dreams.”
Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution • Gulf of Tonkin Incident- US ship is said to have been attacked • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution- Allowed LBJ to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the US. • Enables the escalation of the War- • Send more troops and bombs to Vietnam • Bomb North Vietnam • Americanizing the War- March 8, 1965 first US combat troops enter Vietnam
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution August 1964 • No votes against it in the House of Reps. • Senate votes 88-2 for it. (Morse and Gruening vote no) • Johnson’s popularity soars
Battle of IaDrang Valley: Nov 1965 Use of helicopters to insert U.S. troops and kill the enemy. “Kill ratio” of ~10-1
American Strategies in Vietnam • Rolling Thunder- Relentless bombing of North Vietnam. Sought to stop support flowing into South Vietnam. More bombs dropped on N. Vietnam than in Europe (WW2) • Search and Destroy- American strategy of finding and killing NVA and VC • Agent Orange- Chemical sprayed on the dense jungles of Vietnam. Meant to kill the jungle and push peasants into the cities/strategic hamlets.
Tet Offensive Jan-Feb 1968: Turning point in the war • The war turned against the US in 1968, when the NVA began the Tet Offensive, a surprise offensive on a major Vietnamese holiday that saw attacks all over the country, including in Saigon itself • Attack by ~ 70,000 NVA and VC troops. Saigon and 75% of provincial capitals assaulted • VC Commandos reach the U.S. embassy in Saigon • Major attack on KheSanh base was a diversion • Largest battle was in the city of Hue
Largest battle was in HueMajor fighting in Saigon, Tan Son Nhut airbase, U.S. embassy hit, widespread destruction
Iconic Tet Photo: Execution of a suspected Viet Cong by the Chief of Police of Saigon 2/1/68.
Tet: both sides “won” and “lost” United States • Gen. Westmoreland’s assurances that the war was going well proved untrue • U.S. public turns against the war • Contributes to LBJ withdrawing from the presidential race two months later • U.S. inflicts huge casualties on NVA and VC • ARVN troops fought well North Vietnam + Viet Cong • Suffered huge casualties • There was not a general uprising of the South Vietnamese people
Cronkite I Mr. CRONKITE: (Reading) Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout but neither did we. Then, with as much restraint as I could, I turned to our own leaders whose idea of negotiation seemed frozen in memories of General McArthur's encounter with the Japanese aboard the Battleship Missouri. We've been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders...
Cronkite 2 (Reading) Both in Vietnam and Washington to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. For it seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
Ho Chi Minh Trail • Path through Cambodia and Laos used by North Vietnam to bring supplies to Viet Cong in South Vietnam. • Although mostly in Laos and Cambodia the US • Bombed and attacked the supply route
Meanwhile a Secret War in Laos • Turned out the U.S. had been bombing heavily for years to stop supplies from reaching the Vietcong and NVA. • In fact, Laos is the most heavily bombed nation per capita in the history of the world! The U.S dropped as many as 4 times the amount of explosives in Indochina as in all of World War II
Laos: The bombing http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/laos-vietnam-war-us-bombing-uxo The U.S. made nearly 600,000 bombing runs over Laos 1964-1973 and dropped 2.5 million tons of explosives—more than the U.S. dropped on Germany and Japan in WWII. About a ton for every man, woman and child in Laos
The Sorrow of War Bao Ninh served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade – of the 500 who set out in 1967, he was one of only ten survivors. He wrote The Sorrow of War, an extremely moving—and controversial---account of the Indochina War from the point of view of a North Vietnamese soldier. Bao Ninh was one of the soldiers who attacked Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon on the day the former capital of South Vietnam fell.
The Irony of “Search and Destroy” U.S. Captain after artillery and bombing had killed perhaps 1,000 people
Eve of Destruction (performed by Barry McGuire) • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I98KeKV_F9g
Norman Morrison, a Quaker, burns himself to death outside the Pentagon in November 1965
Alice Herz, who burned herself to death in Detroit in March 1965, said in her good-bye letter that LBJ was using his military power "to wipe out whole countries of his choosing". Roger LaPorte burned himself to death outside the United Nations in November 1965. When asked why he had burned himself, LaPorte calmly replied, "I'm a Catholic Worker. I'm against war, all wars. I did this as a religious action..."
