1965 - 1969: North Vietnamese-USA struggle (The Strategies)

US Strategies:Force North Vietnam to give up warMake North Vietnam agree to a settlement acceptable to USProtect South Vietnam and win support of South Vietnamese

South Vietnam government’s strategiesRemove Viet Cong from villagesDefend South Vietnam from invasion Rely on US money and support to achieve objectives

North Vietnam and Viet Cong Strategies:Convince the people of South Vietnam to get rid of their governmentDestroy the morale of the ARVN (South Vietnam army)Inflict enough damage on US troops to convince it to withdrawFight until full national liberation and unification of Vietnam was achieved

1965 - 1969: North Vietnamese-USA struggle (The Tactics)

USA/ ARVN

• 7 Feb 1965: USA launched ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’: - Widespread aerial bombing using cluster bombs and Chemical weapons (‘Agent Orange’ and Napalm used)

• Search and Destroy missions on enemy units (used airmobility to move troops)

• Bomb and cut off supply routes from North Vietnam to Viet Cong

• Win hearts and minds (build trust) with South Vietnamese

North Vietnam/ Viet Cong • Build support base among local

population in South Vietnam. • Avoid open battles with enemy

– use of guerrilla tactics• Booby traps, ambushes and

mines• Attack at night• Use local population to gather

information about troop movements

• NB: 31 January 1968 Viet Cong launched an attack on over 100 towns and cities in the south during New Year (or Tet) holiday

The Tet Offensive – 31 January 1968 (A turning point in the war)

• Viet Cong launched an attack on over 100 cities in South Vietnam (BBC)

• Some historians now argue that this offensive was a disaster for the Viet Cong and that after Tet it was largely the North Vietnamese Army which led the struggle in the south.

• USA also claimed a US victory. BUT… US public were horrified that Viet Cong could launch such an attack which included seizing the US embassy in Saigon.

• ‘What the hell’s going on here? I thought we were winning this war?’ (TV journalist Walter Conkite)

1965 - 1969: North Vietnamese-USA struggle

• By 1968 it was clear that the USA was not winning the war. (Stalemate?)

• March 1968: President Johnson rejected the US army’s request for more troops to be sent to Vietnam + announced he would not stand for re-election.

• January 20, 1969 - Richard M. Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th U.S. President. He pledged "peace with honor.”

1969 to 1975 – USA withdrawal from Vietnam

• 1969: ‘Nixon Doctrine’ stated that US would help those who helped themselves – ‘Vietnamisation’ phase of war began.

• 1970: Congress revoked the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution• Nixon’s bombing raids into Cambodia led to

intensification of anti-war protest within USA.• Reduced US combat from 543,000 in 1968 to 24,200

by 1972.• 27 January 1973 ceasefire agreed. Required

unilateral withdrawal of all US troops from Vietnam.

The Civil war continued until March 1975 when North Vietnam took control of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam was re-united.

“From 1964-1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny peasant country – and failed”.

(H. Zinn, A People’s History of the USA, (New York, 1980, p460)

WHY?

Activity: Essay Plan

Work in groups of 3 at your tables. 1. Use the images and text from the powerpoint presentation and the ideas conveyed in the You Tube footage to identify the main reasons why a small country like Vietnam was able to defeat the powerful USA. Write these key ideas in the first set of boxes on your Essay Planning Tool. 2. For each ‘General Idea’ identify a few ‘Specific Examples’ which could be used to substantiate the point you have made. Write these in the appropriate boxes.

Extract from the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence – 1945

… for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, have violated our fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice…we, members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the right to be free and independence country…The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilise all their physical and mental strength to sacrifice their lives and property to safeguard their independence and liberty.

Deforestation caused by USA spraying Agent Orange (TCDD Dioxin)

The Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that up to three million Vietnamese have suffered health effects from dioxin exposure, of whom 150,000 are children with

birth defects

Ten year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked down a street having torn off her burning clothes after an American Napalm attack. The US dropped over 400,000 tons of napalm on Vietnam during the war. (Napalm is a form of petroleum jelly which sticks to anything and burns through houses, forests, human skin…

Women and children shot dead by American soldiers lie in the road at the village of My Lai, 1968.

We huddled the villagers up. We made them squat down. I poured about four clips into the group. The mothers were hugging their children. While we kept on firing . (An extract from the evidence of Paul Meadlo who was a US soldier at My Lai.)

The Massacre at My Lai -16 March 1968.Two US platoons responsible for the rape and massacre of c.347 unarmed civilians.

Conscripted Soldiers: ‘Cherries’• Of the 3 million

Americans involved in Vietnam war – about two-thirds were conscripts (‘cherries’)

• Average age of conscript = 19 years

• 12 month – ‘tour of duty’

• Anti-conscription campaign in USA

A student (illegally) burns his draft card during an anti-war demonstration. Over 200,000 young men dodged the draft.

A Soviet cartoon mocking the large number of US casualties in Vietnam. c. 1968