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7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome
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Vietnam:
The Big War and the Vietnam
Syndrome
Lsn 23
7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome
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ID & SIG
Abrams, Cambodia, Cronkite, Johnson,
Operation Junction City, Kent State,
search and destroy, Tet Offensive,
Vietnam Syndrome, Vietnamization
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Search and Destroy
North Vietnamese
Settled in for protracted
struggle
Retreated to sanctuaries
Fought only when it was totheir advantage to do so
Targeted US will and South
Vietnamese weakness
US Concentrated on large-scale
search and destroy missionsagainst enemy base areas
To find and smash each
[enemy base camp], one byone, is an essential task, aprime object in conclusivelysuccessful campaigning. (DAPam 4525-2, 1967)
Often meant massive bombing
followed by ground troopssurrounding the area andhelicopter-borne troops flyingit to clear it
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Search and Destroy
Search and destroyoperations were designedto find, fix, flush, and
finish the enemy They came to represent
the US trying to fight theBig War with large unitsstomping through the
jungle trying to findillusive small guerrillagroups who would fightonly on their own terms
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Search and Destroy: Junction City
Feb 22 to May 14, 1967
Largest operation in
Vietnam to date Primary mission was to
search for and thendestroy the Central
Office of South Vietnam(COSVN) and Viet Congand North Vietnamese
Army installations
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Junction City: Phase 1
Phase I began on 22February with five U.S.brigades forming ahorseshoe shaped cordonin the western half of War
Zone C. 25th Division would block on
the west along the Cambodianborder
1st Infantry Division (with the
173rd Brigade attached)would block along the borderon the north and on the eastalong Provincial Route 4
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Junction City: Phase 1
One task force
of the 173rd Bde
conducted anairborne assault
and two other
battalions
assaulted byhelicopter to
seal off the
Cambodian
border
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Junction City: Phase 1
On D plus 1 a brigade ofthe 25th Division and the11th Armored Cavalry
Regiment (attached tothe 25th), which hadpositioned themselves onthe southern edge of thehorseshoe the previous
day, attacked north intothe horseshoe.
The horseshoe forcesconducted search anddestroy operations in
their areas.
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Junction City: Phase 1
Simultaneous with
the search, a
Special Forces
and CivilianIrregular Defense
Group camp near
Prek Klok was
established forfuture interdiction
of enemy supply
and infiltration
routes in War
Zone C.
An airstrip capable of handling C-130's
would be constructed at the camp and a
second similar airfield would be constructed
in the vicinity of Katum. These facilities
would facilitate future operations in the
area.
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Junction City: Phase 1
During theoperation, particularattention wasdevoted tosearching suspectedlocations of thepolitical and militaryelements of theCentral Office of
South Vietnam. A thorough
interrogation of allpersonsapprehended was
conducted.
Stars and Stripesphotograph of a1st Infantry Div soldier in the
entrance of a tunnel leading to a
VC headquarters during Operation
Junction City.
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Junction City: Phase 2
During Phase 2, II Field Force elements focused
their attention on the eastern portion of War
Zone C, conducting search and destroy
operations against COSVN, Viet Cong, andNorth Vietnamese forces and installations.
The Saigon River was bridged at its
intersection with Route 246 west of An Loc.
At that site the Special Forces and Civilian
Irregular Defense Group camp with an airstrip
for C-130s was built.
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Junction City: Phase 3
In Phase 3, JunctionCity was reduced toa brigade-size
operation in thevicinity of Tay Ninhcity in the southernportion of War ZoneC
The operationalcontrol for this phasewas passed from IIField Force to the25th Infantry Division
CPT George Joulwan shows LTC
Alexander Haig radios and other material
found during Operation Junction City
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Junction City: Results
North Vietnamese
2,728 enemy killed and 34 prisoners taken.
139 Chieu Hoiralliers and 65 detainees
100 crew-served weapons, 491 individual weapons,and thousands of rounds of ammunition, grenades,and mines captured
More than 5,000 bunkers and military structureswere destroyed
Over 810 tons of rice and nearly 40 tons of otherfood-stuffs such as salt and dried fish wereuncovered
Nearly one-half million pages of assorteddocuments were taken
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Junction City: Results
US 282 killed and 1,576
wounded
3 tanks, 21 armoredpersonnel carriers, 12trucks, 4 helicopters,5 howitzers, and 2quad-.50 machine
guns and carriersdestroyed
But the objective ofdestroying theCOSVN forces was
not met
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Reasons for COSVN Escape
The proximity of a privileged sanctuary to thereported locations of COSVN and Headquarters,9th VC Division.
The extreme difficulty of establishing a seal withsufficient troop density to deny infiltration routesto VC units thoroughly familiar with the dense
jungle terrain.
The difficulty of gaining complete surprise, as aresult of extensive repositioning of troops andlogistical support prior to D-Day, in spite of theefforts devoted to deception measures. Major General John Hay, CG 1st Infantry Division
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Junction City
The official Army historyconcludes JUNCTION CITYconvinced the enemy commandthat continuing to base mainforce units in close proximity tothe key population areas wouldbe increasingly foolhardy. Fromthat time on the enemy madeincreasing use of Cambodian
sanctuaries for his bases,hospitals, training centers, andsupply depots.A turning pointin the war had been reached. Vietnam Studies: Cedar Falls-
Junction City: A Turning Point,
Rogers, 1989.
President Nixon during a
press conference on
operations in Cambodia
in 1970.
7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome
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Tet Offensive
On January 30, 1968, theNorth Vietnamese
escalated to Phase III, the
War of Movement
Attack gained surprise bycoinciding with the
Vietnamese lunar new year
holiday
Designed to foster
antigovernment uprisings
against the South
Vietnamese
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Tet Offensive
84,000 VietCong and NorthVietnameseattacked 36 of43 provincialcapitals, 5 of 6autonomous
cities, 34 of 242district capitals,and at least 50hamlets
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Reasons for North Vietnams Lack of
Tactical Success in Tet By attacking everywhere, the
North Vietnamese had superior
strength nowhere (violation of
mass)
Inflexible Viet Cong command
and control system could not
respond to late announcements
of timings and objectives from
the North Vietnamese Army
(unity of command)
North Vietnamese wrongly
assumed South Vietnamese
were on the verge of a general
uprising (objective)
Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of
the director of the South
Vietnamese national police
executing a VC prisoner in Saigon
during Tet
7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome
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Reasons for the U.S. Tactical
Success in Tet Technology gave the US a
strategic mobility that
allowed it to respond to
multiple threats (maneuver)
When the North
Vietnamese came out and
fought en masse in a
traditional war of movement,the US could bring to bear
its overwhelming firepower
in a strategy of annihilation
(mass)
Helicopters gave the US the ability
to cover all types of terrain,
maneuver over large areas, react
quickly to enemy attacks, reinforce
embattled units, and conduct raids
into enemy territory
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Back to Insurgency Phase II Previously complacent South Vietnamese population
was for the first time made to feel involved in the war effort
Local insurgency movement suffered a devastating loss
when it surfaced to assume leadership of a general
uprising that never materialized Clandestine shadow government, years in the building,
was largely destroyed
Tactical military defeat for North Vietnam
By coming into the open, the enemy had exposed
itself to massive American firepower and lost 137,000
killed in the first nine months of 1968
Allowed US to practice the American way of war
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Overall Results of Tet
Tactical defeat for NorthVietnam
North Vietnamese
32,000 killed and 6,000
captured
US and South
Vietnamese 4,000 killed
But a strategic victory
I thought we were
winning this war!(Walter Cronkite)
Dramatic shift in public
opinion in US
Returning from Vietnam after Tet, WalterCronkite reported, It seems now more
certain than ever that the bloody
experience of Vietnam is a stalemate
and then urged the government to open
negotiations with the North Vietnamese.
7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome
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Domestic Issues
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Societal Changes
Country Joe
McDonald at
Woodstock, 1969
Martin Luther King
delivers his I have a
dream speech in 1963
Gloria Steinem
helped found Ms
magazine in 1971
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War Protests
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President Johnson
President Lyndon B. Johnson
listens to tape sent by Captain
Charles Robb from Vietnam,
July 31, 1968.
Democratic delegates protest the
Johnson Administrations policies
in Vietnam at the 1968
Democratic National Convention
in Chicago.
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President Nixon
Richard Nixon was electedpresident in 1968 campaigningfor peace with honor
Under Nixon the process ofVietnamization the gradual
transfer of primaryresponsibility of the war to theSouth Vietnamese thatJohnson had begun on a smallscale after Tet wasaccelerated
Nixons involvement inWatergate, his impeachment,and resignation hamstrung hisability to influence peacenegotiations through sustained
offensive operations
Nixon was succeeded by
Gerald Ford. By this point
the US was traumatized by
war-weariness and
economic recession. Ford
had almost no maneuver
room to help the South
Vietnamese.
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My Lai
On March 16, 1968, aninfantry company enteredthe village of My Lai
They found no insurgentsbut, being psychologicallyprepared for battle and
poorly disciplined, theyproceeded to kill between347 and 504 mostly oldmen, women, and children
Word of the massacre didnot reach the American
public until November 1969when it then fueled nationaloutrage and furtherundermined support for thewar
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Cambodia
On April 29, 1970,South Vietnamesetroops entered theParrots Beak whichextends into South
Vietnam to within 30miles of Saigon
Three days laterAmerican and SouthVietnamese forces
entered the FishHook, anotherpromontory furthernorth
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Cambodia
President Nixon limited the depth of US penetrations to21 miles and specified that all US forces had to be out ofCambodia within 60 days
In all 31,000 US and 43,000 South Vietnamese troops
entered Cambodia The operation was a tactical and operational success
Many communists fled from their sanctuaries andwere denied the use of the important port atSihanoukville
More than 11,000 North Vietnamese were killedcompared to only 337 American deaths
However, it sparked anti-war protests in the US
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Kent State and Jackson State
Four students were killed and nine wounded at Kent State
on May 4, 1970 and two students were killed at Jackson
State during protests against a number of issues to include
US operations in Cambodia
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Defeat
The US concluded apeace agreement with the
North Vietnamese in
1973, but the South
Vietnamese continuedfighting until April 30,
1975 when the North
Vietnamese captured
Saigon
Throughout the 1970s and
1980s boat people fled
Vietnam
Some 823,000 found
refuge in the US
Americans and South Vietnamese
who had worked for the US are
evacuated from Saigon
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Legacy and Lessons
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Legacy and Lessons
Sophisticated weaponry and conventional
forces have limits in low intensity conflict
The restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs)
and political considerations of limited warhamper military operations
Domestic support is critical
You can win the battles and lose the war Vietnam syndrome effects military and
diplomatic operations until finally exorcised
by Desert Storm.
Well take about that in the Lesson 38.
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Carl von Clausewitz(review from Lsn 2)
Used a trinitarian analysisconsisting of (1) primordialviolence, hatred, andenmity; (2) the play of
chance and probability;and (3) wars element ofsubordination to rationalpolicy
Often loosely expressedas the people, themilitary, and thegovernment government military
people
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Vietnam and Clausewitzs Trinity
People Military Govt
US
NorthVietnam
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Vietnam and Clausewitzs Trinity
People Military Govt
US Diminishingsupport
Conventionaland attrition
strategy
Limited war
NorthVietnam
Long-termcommitment
Guerrilla andexhaustion
strategy
Total war
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Vietnam Today
Vietnam remains communist
However, since 2001, it has committed to
economic liberalization and is trying to
modernize the economy and to produce
more competitive, export-driven industries
An April 28, 2005 article in the Economist
was aptly titled America Lost, CapitalismWon
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