The Vietnam War – In Brief

Key Concepts / Terms

• The Vietnam War needs to be seen in the larger context of “the Cold War”…

• The Cold War (1945-1991) was an ideological struggle between the USSR (Soviet Union), along with their Communist allies, and the U.S.A., along with their democratic and non-democratic but anti-Communist allies, for global dominance.

Key Concepts / Terms (con’t)• During this time, the U.S. there were two fundamental

beliefs / cornerstones to U.S. foreign policy:

1. Domino Theory – the belief that if one nation “went Communist”, the surrounding countries would soon follow. China had become a Communist country in 1949 and North Korea soon after. Would Vietnam be next?

2. Containment – the spread of Communism had to be contained - by active intervention if necessary – to prevent “the dominoes from falling.”

Background on Indochina / Vietnam• French Indochina – prior to 1942, what we

now call Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were a French colony called Indochina.

• During the Second World War, with the French defeated in Europe, the Japanese invaded and occupied Indochina in 1942.

• With Japan’s eventual defeat in 1945, who and what type of government would rule in Indochina became an issue…

The End of French Indochina• After WWII, the French tried to reassert colonial control over

Indochina.

• They encountered heavy resistance from a communist faction, the Vietminh, in the northern part of Vietnam. This group proclaimed the north of Vietnam an independent country. They were led by Ho Chi Minh.

• The French suffered a huge defeat at their military base, Dien Bien Phu, in 1953 and surrendered to communist forces. A cease-fire of sorts is instituted and peace talks were held at the Geneva Conference of 1954. The Communists held the north (above the 17th parallel) and their capital was Hanoi.

End of French Indochina (con’t)

• The terms of the subsequent Geneva Accord were as follows:- 17th parallel set as the dividing line between the communist North and still yet to be determined south.- National elections to be held within two years to decide the fate of Vietnam re-unification.

Beginnings of Civil War in South Vietnam

• Alarmed at the prospect of Vietnam becoming fully communist, the U.S. refused to sign the Geneva Accord and instead decided to prop up a corrupt regime in the south of Vietnam. This regime was led by Ngo Dinh Diem.

• Resistance to this regime within South Vietnam came in the form of National Liberation Front (aka the Viet Cong) who were supported by the North Vietnamese and essentially for a number of years a civil war ensues in the southern part of Vietnam.

American Involvement• For the first phase of this civil war, the Americans

backed the South Vietnamese government and its forces financially and with military training.

• With the regime in South Vietnam faltering in 1964, the American government under Lyndon Johnson decided to escalate U.S. involvement in this conflict and become the main military force on the ground. All they needed was an excuse to increase this involvement…

Gulf of Tonkin Incident• On August 2nd, 1964, a U.S. naval vessel engaged

North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later, August 4th, another encounter allegedly occurred. This second encounter was eventually revealed as being false.

• Nonetheless, President Johnson used both “events”, one real one fake, to push the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through Congress = gave the President extraordinary powers to wage war in Vietnam and escalated the conflict to include North Vietnam.

The Vietnam War (post-1965)

• By 1965, the U.S. had taken over the major combat role in the South Vietnamese conflict.

• Johnson and his advisors believed that if they could cut the Viet Cong (the southern Communists) from the supplies they were getting from North Vietnam (through the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail), then they could defeat the southern Communist insurgents.

The Vietnam War (con’t)• The U.S. tried to get the North to stop supporting

the Viet Cong through negotiation on the one hand (peace talks in Paris would be ongoing during the latter part of the 1960s and into the 1970s) and massive bombing campaigns on the other.

• Neither proved to effective in helping the U.S. defeat the South Vietnamese Communists nor deterring the flow of weapons and supplies from North to South…