Vietnam: Part I (1946-1968)

US History: Spiconardi

How did we get involved?

After WWII, the Truman administration rejected Vietnam’s independence in favor of French rule because…• US wanted Frances support in Cold War

• Vietnam’s rice could feed the rebuilt Japan

• Largest producer of natural rubber

• Strategic location near Philippines & Japan

• Ho Chi Minh was a communist• US believed he would aid Soviet expansion

Dienbienphu (1954)

Despite American aid ($), Ho Chi Minh is able to defeat French and end their colonial rule

Geneva Accords

The Path to War•A conference in Geneva divides Vietnam into a

communist north and non-communist south in 1954 at 17° Latitude North•Ho Chi Minh governs the north

•US and French backed government in the south

•By 1956 elections were to be held in order to reunite Vietnam, but…

Backing the Diem Regime

The US backed South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem prevents elections from taking place • US was fearful

communists would win elections and communism would spread through out SE Asia•Domino Theory

Backing the Diem Regime

Rebels in South Vietnam called the Vietcong plan to overthrow the government of Diem

Kennedy’s Escalation Kennedy sent 16,000

advisors to help Diem government fight Vietcong

To hinder Vietcong support, US rounds up peasants and puts them in barbed-wire compounds

Anti-Diem sentiments increase

Buddhist monks protest Diem regime by burning themselves alive

Johnson’s Escalation

US plans a coup to assassinate Diem and replace the government

New government was just as unpopular Vietcong and Ho Chi Minh become more

popular in South Vietnam Reassessment of situation called for

Diem and JFK’s assassinations •Lyndon Johnson vowed to prevent a

communist takeover of “this damn little pissant country.”

Johnson’s Escalation

August 4, 1964: Johnson announces to US on television that the U.S.S. Maddox had been attacked unprovoked by North Vietnam

• The Truth:• Two days earlier the Maddox was on an

intelligence finding mission

• On the day of the Maddox & another destroyer move towards North Vietnamese waters

• Report of torpedo attacks and start firing back

• Later informed Washington that reports of torpedo attacks were incorrect

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Johnson asks Congress to pass a resolution that authorizes the president: “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

• US NEVER DECLARES US NEVER DECLARES WARWAR

• Gives president extraordinary powers as Commander-in-Chief

The Vietnam War Begins US starts bombing Vietnam and

Laos• Laos, which had many communist

supporters, supplied Ho Chi Minh Vietcong controlled more than

half of South Vietnam by 1965 US begins Operation Rolling

Thunder• Drops more bombs on Vietnam that

American aircraft had dropped in World War II

• Bombing doesn’t work due to guerilla warfare

Guerilla Warfare

Vietcong fight a guerilla war• Hide in shelters underground

• No uniform

• Superior military technology of the United States is ineffective

Napalm & Assassination

To combat guerilla warfare• US uses napalm to

destroy jungles and locate tunnels

• Phoenix Program• CIA assassinates

over 60,000 Vietcong leaders

• US strategies kill thousands of civilians

My Lai Massacre US army unit enters

village of My Lai and for 4 hours rape, sodomized, & killed over 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians

Why?• Soldiers trained to kill

• Anticommunism• “I looked at communism

as a southerner looks at a Negro…It’s evil.”

Tet Offensive

During Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, Vietcong & North Vietnamese forces attack all across South Vietnam• Even penetrate the American embassy in

Saigon

• MAJOR TURNING POINT IN AMERICAN PUBLIC OPIONION ABOUT THE WAR

Tet Offensive

Made the following apparent• Vietcong and North Vietnamese could attack at will• Vietcong had homefield advantage• Vietcong & North Vietnamese will to fight harder than South

Vietnamese • If our tactic thus far haven’t worked, will anything?• War probably could not be won

Tet Offensive (1968)

Exhausted & realizing it was a losing battle, Johnson drops out of 1968 presidential race and announces that US stopped the bombing of most of North Vietnam and would begin peace negotiations

To be continued…