Vietnam war195? - 1975

Basic facts

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• The US never officially at war

• Just lending “military assistance”.

• 58,000 US soldiers killed.

• America’s national trauma – tore the nation in half.

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Decolonialisation

• First world – second world – third world

• Imperialism based on:1. European military/ industrial power2. The idea of European (racial) superiority

• Hitler made this idea unfashionable

• Britain dismantles her empire (India 1947, most of Africa by 1960)

• France doesn’t «get it»!

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(C) Haavard Pettersen

The origins

• 1946-1954: War of independence between France and Vietnamese nationalists (the Viet Minh).

• From 1949: Viet Minh gets weapons and support from communist China.

• The US supports the French forces with military aid

• “Containment”/ Truman Doctrine

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• 1954: France loses

• Vietnam partitioned – communist North (DRV) and non-communist South (RVN).

• Promised elections in 1956 did not take place – South feared communist victory.

• Both North and South brutal dictatorships.

• Insurgency in the South, by “Viet Cong” - communist guerillas against the South Vietnam regime.

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Increasing US involvment

Kennedy 1961: “We will support any friend, oppose any foe” in the fight against communism

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Increasing US involvment

• 1960: New president Kennedy promises to “support any friend, oppose any foe” in the fight against communism

• = Truman doctrine• Increasing number of “military advisors”• In 1964, 21,000 American “advisors” in

Vietnam.

Domino Theory

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(C) Haavard Pettersen

• 1963: President Kennedy assassinated.

• August 4 1964: “Gulf of Tonkin incident” – North Vietnam allegedly fires at an American ship (didn’t happen).

• August 7: “Tonkin Resolution”: President Johnson gets authority to conduct “military operations” without war declaration.

• Unconstitutional!

• Vietnam war starts for real but isn’t called a war!

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Justice in South Vietnam

Protest against pro-Catholic policies

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Escalation• 1965-1968: Operation “Rolling Thunder” –

bombing campaign against North Vietnam.• More bombs than on Europe during WWII!• Increased number of US personnel in

Vietnam: 1969: 553,000

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• Young men get “drafted” – a lottery picks out those who have to serve in Vietnam.

• Many men burn draft letter, refuse to go.• Antiwar movement, hippies, “make love

not war”

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Atrocities• My Lai – American troops massacre a whole

village – hundreds dead.• Napalm – sticky, burning fluid dropped from

planes – people burn to death.• Agent Orange – a chemical to remove leaves

from trees birth defects

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Children running after being sprayed with napalm

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Quagmire• US didn’t know what they meant by “winning”• “The body count”: success = killing Vietnamese• The images of the war was all over TV and

newspapers.• The war becomes deeply unpopular in the US.• 1968: Tet offensive – major Communist attack

on US and the South Vietnamese• = North Vietnam and VC were NOT beaten• ”We cannot stay, we cannot leave”

Who is VC??

• Guerrilla war – VC could hide among the ordinary farmers

• VC took “taxes” from about 80 % of all farmers in South

• War makes people in all Vietnam support the communists.

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•  "A conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerilla army wins if he does not lose."(Henry Kissinger, Secratary of State)

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(C) Haavard Pettersen

• 1969: New president Nixon vows to get ”peace with honour”.

• Vietnamization – wants to leave the war to the Vietnamese.

• 1973: US military presence ends.

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1975: North Vietnam invades South Vietnam, last Americans escape in helicopters.

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• US soldiers killed: 58,000• Mental problems, drug problems

• Vietnamese civilians killed: 400,000 - 2 million (Vietnam claims 4 million)

• Vietnamese soldiers killed (North and South): 700,0000 - 1.8 million

• US

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Different versions of reality

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USA North Vietnam

The war was about the fight against communism

The war was a war of liberation

The US was fighting for the freedom of South Vietnam

The US was fighting for imperialist power over Vietnam

North Vietnam and Viet Cong were part of a plan for world domination for communism, backed by the Soviet Union

The North Vietnam and Viet Cong were fighting for freedom and independence for the whole of Vietnam

The North Vietnamese were motivated by Communism

The North Vietnamese were motivated by nationalism