The Vietnam War

1954-1975

I. The War Unfolds• Remember Containment?

– Resist Soviet attempts at spreading Communism

• President Eisenhower explains a reason to uphold containment:

• The Domino Theory- If one country falls to Communism, then others will fall, as well. – A Communist takeover of Vietnam could lead to

Communist takeovers of Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Thailand because of their close proximity

A. Background to the War• Vietnam had spent much of its 2,000 year history

resisting attacks from China

• Ho Chi Minh was head of the League for the Independence of Vietnam (aka the Vietminh)– Communist who fought for independence and aroused

nationalism against French control

• In 1954, the Vietminh defeated the French after a long siege at a fortress in Dien Bien Phu

1. A Divided Vietnam• The Geneva Accords was a peace treaty signed at a

meeting in Geneva, Switzerland that divided Vietnam into 2 separate nations in July 1954. (Set near the 17th parallel)

• Ho Chi Minh became president of the new Communist-dominated North and Ngo Dinh Diem became president of the anti-Communist South (he was an exile living in the U.S.) with its capital in Saigon– The South refused to hold elections claiming that the

North didn’t hold fair, free elections (also fear of losing)

2. United States Involvement• By 1950, U.S. provided economic aid to the

French to support containment

• After the French defeat, economic aid went to the anti-Communist South

• President Eisenhower pledged his support to South Vietnam’s Diem– By 1960, 675 U.S. military advisors were in South

Vietnam to assist

B. Kennedy’s Vietnam Policy• Determined to prevent the spread of Communism

(strengthen and protect South Vietnam)

• JFK sent LBJ to assess the situation– Diem told Johnson that South Vietnam needed more aid

if it were to survive– Kennedy sent 16,000 military advisors in response

• Diem lacked support of his own citizens. He was a corrupt official who imprisoned people who criticized his government and filled the government with his family members

1. Diem’s Downfall• Diem’s “Strategic Hamlets” program was extremely

unpopular as it called for relocating peasants to government-run farm communities– Wanted to keep Communist ideas from spreading to

South Vietnam’s farmers

• Also, Diem was Catholic in a largely Buddhist region and he expected his citizens to follow Catholic laws– A Buddhist monk burnt himself to death to protest

• JFK allowed South Vietnam to stage a military coup – Diem tried to flee but was assassinated

2. McNamara’s Role• Robert McNamara, JFK’s Secretary of Defense,

played a large role in creating the Kennedy Administration’s policy toward Vietnam

• Applied his business background by cutting costs while still modernizing the armed forces– Used the “flexible response” policy

• Under LBJ, McNamara pushed for direct involvement in the war, yet still questioned whether a complete withdraw might be better (1963)

C. Johnson Commits to Containment• The Viet Cong, Communist guerillas in the south,

and their political arm called the National Liberation Front gained control of great amounts of South territory and earned the support of many in South Vietnam– Ho Chi Minh aided the Viet Cong throughout the war

• LBJ, after being informed of his tough decisions to make about Vietnam by Henry Cabot Lodge, “I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the President who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went.”

1. Expanding Presidential Power• 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked

U.S. destroyers in international waters of the Gulf of Tonkin (30 miles from North Vietnam)– Details were sketchy, some doubted it occurred – LBJ used the incident to build U.S. support

• Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 416-0, 88-2 giving LBJ complete control over what the U.S. did in Vietnam, even without an official declaration of war from Congress

II. Fighting the War

• Nearly 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War

• Vietnam was thousands of miles away and the conditions were extremely different than at home

A. Battlefield Conditions• American forces had superior arms and supplies

• The Viet Cong, however, was familiar with the swamps and jungles and used Guerilla war tactics to strike and retreat (often across the border into Cambodia or Laos)– The local population often helped the Viet Cong– The American soldiers were trying to protect the freedom

of the South Vietnamese, but the residents seemed indifferent

– American soldiers never knew what to expect or who to trust

1. The Ground War• The Viet Cong lacked the sophisticated equipment

of the U.S. troops so they avoided head-on clashes

• Guerilla Warfare- working in small groups to launch sneak attacks and practice sabotage– They were able to hide in elaborate underground tunnels– They used booby traps such as:– punji trap-camouflaged pit filled with razor sharp stakes– land mines– grenades

2. The Air War• The U.S. used the B-52 Bomber to smash roads and

heavy bridges in N. Vietnam– Saturation Bombing was dropping thousands of tons of

explosives over large connected areas– Fragment Bombs threw pieces of metal casings in all

directions when they exploded– These bombs killed and maimed countless civilians

• Chemical weapons were also used by the U.S.– Agent Orange was a herbicide used on dense jungle

landscapes to expose Viet Cong hiding places – Napalm was a jelly-like substance that splattered and

burned uncontrollably. It burnt off flesh.

B. The Course of the War, 1965-1968

• LBJ started a gradual escalation (expansion) of the war soon after being elected in 1964– Devoted money and military personnel– Initially, just advisors– Eventually, took on the task of propping up the

South Vietnamese government led by Nguyen Cao Ky

1. Intensifying the War• By 1965, the Viet Cong were steadily expanding

within South Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh Trail- Allowed North Vietnamese troops and supplies to pour into the South– A supply route that passed through Laos and Cambodia

• LBJ raised American involvement from 25k to 184k in the year 1965 and began bombing North Vietnam– The war remained a stalemate from 1965-67– Operation Rolling Thunder- relentless bombing

campaign that continued almost 3 years destroying much land but not the enemy

C. The Tet Offensive: A Turning Point• Nguyen Van Thieu succeeded Ky as president of

South Vietnam – Both more effective than Diem but still authoritarian

• U.S. kept increasing troop involvement. 536k by ‘68

• Tet= Vietnamese New Year

• Tet Offensive- The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched this major offensive in 1968 that included surprise attacks on major cities and towns and American bases throughout the South– Attacked the American Embassy in Saigon

1. Communist Brutality• Communists were uncommonly brutal during the

Tet Offensive– Slaughtering anyone labeled an enemy

• In Hue, anyone who worked for Americans were ordered to report to special locations– 3,000 of 5,000 were killed and placed in a mass grave

2. Massacre at My Lai• American Soldiers also committed atrocities

• My Lai- a small village in South Vietnam– The town was supposedly sheltering 250 Viet Cong so a

U.S. infantry division moved in to clear out the village– Found women, kids, and old men instead– Rounded them up and killed more than 400 Vietnamese– Even more if a helicopter crew didn’t step in to stop it

• The massacre was ordered by William Caulley, Jr. – He was sentenced to life in Prison– Nixon reduced his sentence to 20 years– He eventually only served 3 years before getting out for

good behavior

3. Television’s Role • The Tet Offensive showed the North Vietnamese

and Viet Cong could launch a massive attack in South Vietnam

• Images of fighting flooded the television screens of Americans who began doubting and protesting the war– Many Americans actually supported a tougher policy

toward Vietnam than Johnson’s, despite all of the protesters of the time

III. Political Divisions

• As Vietnam unfolded, many patriotic Americans favored increasing the war effort to bring home a military victory

• Others believed that the war was morally wrong and urged immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops– Opposing viewpoints created deep divisions

A. Student Activism• College enrollment swelled as the Baby Boom

children began to graduate high school… in large part because of the prosperity of the 50’s

• Teens were not satisfied with the values of their parents and the early 60’s saw a widening of the generation gap– Rock n’ Roll, Beatniks, etc. of the 1950’s set the scene

1. Students for a Democratic Society• The Civil Rights Movement also became a

steppingstone to other movements for change

• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)- organized by several civil rights activists in 1960– Wanted change on issues that students felt were

important such as civil rights, education, and politics

• The New Left was a political movement that believed that problems such as poverty and racism called for radical change– SDS members often supported the New Left

2. The Free Speech Movement• University of California Berkeley 1964- Students

became angry when the administration refused to allow them to distribute civil rights leaflets outside the main gates of the campus– Argued their rights to free speech was being challenged– Students resisted, police came to arrest, and students

surrounded the police car to prevent it from moving– The University Board decided to press charges so

thousands of angry students took over the administration board

– More than 700 students were arrested, others went on strike and student activism spread

3. The Teach-in Movement • Students were among the first to oppose the

Vietnam War feeling it was imperialistic or just a Civil War that we should stay out of

• Teach-ins began to protest the war– University of Michigan 1965… 50-60 professors showed

up to teach/discuss the issues of the Vietnam War. – Several thousand students showed up to the night session

and made the evening a huge success. Both sides were represented, but antiwar voices soon dominated

4. Draft Resistance• The Draft was in place since 1951, but relatively

few were actually drafted in the early 1960’s.– Most were Conscientious Objectors (refused to fight on

moral or religious grounds)

• LBJ, however, rapidly increased the # of draftees

• College students had deferment which meant they could postpone their service – Most lower and some middle class students could not

afford college and claimed that the draft was not fair– Draft resistance swept the country starting in 1967

5. Continued Protests

• More than 200 major demonstrations erupted at colleges and universities in the first 6 months of 1968

• The University of Columbia combined Civil Rights issues and War issues in the same protest and several places followed

B. Johnson Decides Not to Run• Continuing protests and a growing list of American

casualties had steadily increased public opposition to Johnson’s handling of the war– LBJ ignored McNamara’s request to turn the fighting

over to the S. Vietnamese– A majority of Americans opposed the war after the Tet

Offensive (realized the role of TV)

• Antiwar candidates began gaining popular support – Including Robert Kennedy– LBJ gave a dramatic speech on television in March of

1968 that he would not be running for President

C. The Election of 1968

• A split was dividing the Democratic party on issues even before Lyndon Johnson decided to not seek re-election.

1. Democratic Convention• The Democratic party was in shreds by time the

Convention to nominate the President actually took place– The expected winner, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated

in June– The other candidates were either too radical or supported

the war in Vietnam which made them less attractive in the polls

• There was a major protest outside the Convention when it was announced LBJ’s VP would get the nomination – Police violently broke up the protesters on live TV

2. The Republicans and the Nation Choose Nixon

• Nixon was chosen to again represent the Republicans at the convention in August– Nixon backed law and order and boasted of a secret plan

to end the war in Vietnam– George Wallace, a lifelong Democrat, ran as a third party

candidate and took 9.9 million votes which mostly would have been Democrat

• The Republicans had gained the White House and would keep in w/ 1 interruption for the next 20 years– Middle America began to look again for stability

IV. The End of the War

• Nixon gave a speech to the nation often known as the “Silent Majority” speech where he told how he believed he should end U.S. involvement in Vietnam

• He believed in a gradual, periodic removal of troops as opposed to a one-time gigantic withdrawal

A. Nixon’s Vietnam Policy• Paris Peace Talks began in 1968 under LBJ but the

talks failed to produce an agreement

• Nixon claimed he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam and it helped him win the Presidency in ‘68

1. Withdrawing Troops• President Nixon announced a new plan known as

Vietnamization in 1969– Removing American forces and replacing them with

South Vietnamese soldiers.– By 1972, American troops numbered only 24,000

compared to 536,000 in 1968.

• Nixon still didn’t want to lose the war– He ordered secret bombing raids on major targets

throughout Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia including along the Ho Chi Minh Trail

2. The War Spreads to Cambodia

• Nixon widened the war beyond the borders of Vietnam– April 1970, Nixon publicly announced that the

U.S. was moving into neighboring country Cambodia

– Wanted to clear out communist camps that were being used to aid the Viet Cong

• Started a new wave of protests in the U.S.

B. Nixon Calls for Law and Order

• Campaigned to restore “law and order” in the country– SDS had turned violent in 1969… a subgroup

known as the Weathermen- named after a line in Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”

– Armed violence with pipes, rocks, clubs, chains, etc. against police officers in Chicago

1. The Silent Majority• Nixon recognized that student radicals, antiwar

protesters, and the counterculture never appealed to many Americans– These people just did not receive any press

• Nixon referred to the large group of non-protesting Americans as the “silent majority”– Gave a speech that called for the Silent Majority to “not

allow the vocal minority to prevail over the reason and the will of the majority”

2. Kent State • U.S. invasion of Cambodia in 1970 spurred more

protests around the nation

• At Kent State, students responded by breaking windows of businesses, burning the ROTC building (which was a hated symbol during the war)– In response, the governor ordered the National Guard to

Kent State and tension mounted– Students threw rocks at them and guardsmen loaded their

guns and put on gas masks… They hurled tear gas at the students, retreated to another position, then suddenly turned and fired upon the students

– 4 students died (2 bystanders, 2 protesters), 9 injuries

C. American Withdrawal• After extensive bombing of North Vietnam, a major

offensive by North Vietnam, and Nixon’s reelection, the U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a peace agreement in Paris– U.S. to withdraw forces within 60 days– All prisoners of war would be released– All parties would end military activities in Cambodia and

Laos– The 17th parallel would continue to divide North and

South Vietnam until the country could be reunited

D. Aftermath of the War in Asia• American involvement came to an end in 1973,

but the fighting between North and South Vietnam continued for 2 more years

• Vietnam proved Americans wrong– Americans believed they could defend the world from

Communism anywhere, any time, and that superior weapons and technology would always win out

1. South Vietnam Falls• South Vietnamese soldiers steadily lost ground to

their North Vietnamese enemies– The North launched several attacks against major cities

• The Fall of Saigon was the final part of the plan– The U.S. forces and CIA tried to launch a last-ditch

evacuation using helicopters to get Americans and South Vietnamese to aircraft carriers waiting offshore

– The Saigon government officially surrendered after 2 days of destroying the city and taking over the American Embassy and the Presidential Palace

– Vietnam was a single nation under a Communist Govt.

2. Southeast Asia After the War• Remember the Domino Theory

• Well… Cambodia and Laos did become Communist, as well

• The treatment of the non-communists in these countries was brutal– There were approximately 1.5 million murders in

Cambodia alone– There were forced “re-education camps”– Hundreds of thousands of refugees came to the U.S.

E. The Legacy of the War• More than 58,000 American deaths

• More than 300,000 wounded

• More than 2,500 POWs (Prisoners of War) and MIAs (Missing in Action)

• When soldiers returned home, their return was not a large celebration– Many veterans complained of not being

appreciated for their sacrifices

1. Counting the Costs

• Vietnam was the longest and the least successful war in American history– U.S. spent $150 billion, at least– More bombs were used on Vietnam than on the Axis

powers in WWII– Millions of Vietnamese died with countless civilian

casualties– The U.S. had a trade embargo on Vietnam until 1994

2. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial• A long, black granite wall cut down into the

ground with the name of every American who died in the war – It was erected in Washington, D.C. and completed in

1982 and ever since, Americans have left personal items at the wall adding to it

– The design came from a 21 year-old college student named Maya Lin who entered a contest that was designed to create the memorial