The Vietnam War

Origins of the Vietnam War• Indo-China was originally a French

colony (a country ruled by another more powerful country). It consisted of what are now three separate countries: Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

• In 1940 French Indo-China was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War.

• Opposition to French and then Japanese rule in Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh.

• He was a nationalist (someone opposed to foreign control of his country) and a Communist.

• Ho Chi Minh’s guerrilla force played a useful role in tying down and helping to defeat Japanese forces during the war.

Questions1. What reward do you think Ho

Chi Minh and his guerrilla forces were expecting after helping to defeat the Japanese?

2. What do you think the French expected would happen after the war was over and Japan had been defeated?

3. What do you think happened between the French and Ho Chi Minh?

The French War in Vietnam, 1946-54• Predictably war broke out in 1946

between the French, who wanted Vietnam back, and the Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to rule it themselves as an independent country.

Questions:

1. According the map, in which areas were the Vietminh (the nationalist guerrilla forces) stronger?

2. Who seemed to control the principal cities?

3. What does this tell you about the kind of people the Vietminh appealed to?

Early US involvement in Vietnam

• The United States provided the French with money and weapons (but not troops) to fight the Vietminh.

• The US was now worried by the gradual spread of communism throughout the Far East: first China, then North Korea, North Vietnam. Each one had fallen like a row of dominoes to communists. South Vietnam could be next, according to the Domino Theory

• The war between France and the Vietminh ended in 1954 with a French defeat: the North would stay communist under Ho Chi Minh but the south would have a non-communist government under Ngo Diem. The French had to leave.

The United States Steps In

• There were supposed to be elections in 1956 in both South and North Vietnam to elect a single leader but Diem refused to arrange them – he knew Ho Chi Minh would win.

• By 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong, begun attacks on the Diem government

• In 1959 Ho Chi Minh began a guerrilla campaign against the American-backed government of Diem.

• The Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of paths through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia supplied the Vietcong in the South

American Involvement and Escalation

• Starting in President Kennedy’s administration, the U.S. sent thousands of advisors

• After Kennedy’s assassination President Johnson ordered troops into Vietnam (1965-180,000 soldiers)

• He used an alleged attack by the North Vietnamese on the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin as a basis to request that Congress increase his powers to defend American interests in the region

• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution granted Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam

• General Westmoreland continued to request more troops• Throughout 1965, 1966, and 1967 American troops fought an elusive

enemy using weapons with napalm and agent orange-soldiers conducted “search-and-destroy missions”

• By 1968, troop moral was at an all time low

Images of the carnage reach most Americans in what was called

“the living room war”

While communists may have been dying, so too were Americans-over 16,000 between 1961-1967The repeated television images of American soldiers in body bags alarmed the nation

The Tet Offensive 1968• In 1968 the Communists

launched a surprise attack against over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam.

• It is called the Tet Offensive because it took place during the Vietnamese New Year or Tet holiday in January.

• By the end of 1967 the war had become deadlocked. The North hoped that this massive attack, involving 70,000 VC and NVA troops would shock and demoralise US public opinion and increase demands for a US withdrawal.

• For the first time, the war had come to the cities and towns.

What happened during the Tet offensive?

• In military terms, the offensive was a disaster for the Communists. The VC or National Liberation Front (NLF) forces lost 45,000 men killed out of the 70,000. The US lost just 1500 and the ARVN (S. Vietnamese army) 3000.

• Politically, however, it was a decisive victory for the Communists. US public opinion did come to the conclusion that the war could not be won and demands for a US withdrawal significantly increased.

• The US media, until now supportive of the US role, henceforth took a more critical line – especially Walter Cronkite, America’s most prestigious TV reporter.

This photo shows dead VC during the Tet offensive. What shocked US opinion was thefact that they belonged to a VC suicide squadwhich broke into the US embassy in Saigon. How could the US win this war when not evenits own embssy was safe?

1968- “A Turning Point”

• Therefore, the month-long Tet Offensive was the turning point of the war: the point when the public and political leaders realised that the war could not be won.

• In 1968, President Johnson shocked the nation when he announced that he would not seek a second term in office.

March 31, 1968

1968- President Nixon Promises Peace with Honor

• With President Johnson not running for reelection in 1968, the nation elects Richard Nixon

• President Nixon promised the American people “Peace with Honor”

• National Security advisor Henry Kissinger offered a plan to end American involvement –Vietnamization

• This plan called for gradual withdrawal of troops and the increased participation of South Vietnamese

The War Continues

• President Nixon appealed to what he called the silent majority (moderate, mainstream Americans) to support his war polices

• Nixon orders the invasion of Cambodia which caused massive protests across the nation’s college campuses

• Kent State University: National Guardsmen fire on students (2 dead, 12 injured)

• Support for the war eroded even further by 1971, and the Pentagon Papers exposed to the American people that the government had no intension of ending the war as promised

The End of the War

• In March of 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a massive attack, Nixon responds by ordering the bombing of North Vietnamese cities

• Nixon wins reelection in 1972 and the United States and North Vietnam sign a cease fire agreement

• The U.S. leaves Vietnam in 1973

• Within months, the war between the North and South Vietnamese continued

• By April of 1975, the South surrendered to North Vietnam

The Legacy of the Vietnam War• The War resulted in several

changes:

1. The government abolished the draft

2. Curbed the President’s war-making powers

-War Powers Act (president must warn Congress within 48 hours of after sending troops without declaration of war-troops could not stay more than 90 days)

3. The war contributed to the overall cynicism among Americans about their government