Vietnam War Study Materials

With VisualsSet 2 of 2

Americanization of the WarAmericans, p. 736-737; Alive! p.666

In August 1964, a US warship was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Following this attack, Congress passed the Southeast Asia Resolution which allowed President Lyndon Johnson to conduct military operations in the region without a declaration of war. On March 2, 1965, US aircraft began bombing targets in Vietnam and the first troops arrived. Commanded by General William Westmoreland, US troops won victories over Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces around Chu Lai and in the Ia Drang Valley that summer.

U.S. soldiers spent much of their time on patrol, seeking to engage the enemy.

They trudged through dense vegetation, swamps, and other difficult terrain,

carrying rifles, ammunition, and packs weighing 90 pounds or more.

The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) supported the Viet Cong in South Vietnam with troops and materiel. They also supplied military training to the largely peasant army of insurgents.

The Viet Cong built underground

tunnels to hide from U.S. troops and to serve as base camps for

their forces. These tunnel

networks were sometimes quite extensive, with

many rooms and passageways in all

directions.

The number of U.S. military advisers in Vietnam

continued to grow in the mid-1960s. By 1964, there were more than twice as

many advisers in the country as there were two

years before. The figure was more than 30 times the

number in 1959.

Even before the United States introduced combat troops to Vietnam in 1965, some U.S.

soldiers were dying in the conflict. This photograph shows war dead returning home in 1962. As the number of troops increased and

the death count rose, more Americans turned against the war.

Some critics of the Vietnam War believed that the conflict could not be

managed successfully. This cartoon shows President

Johnson clinging desperately to the tail of a tiger,

representing Vietnam, as it whips him through space. The cartoonist is implying that Vietnam could not be

controlled.

U.S. troop levels in Vietnam rose rapidly after the first soldiers arrived in 1965. Four months later,

the number of young men drafted into the armed

forces doubled, to 35,000 a month, to meet the

demand for new soldiers.

4. Operation Rolling ThunderAmericans, p. 775; Alive! p. 664

In early 1965, the Viet Cong staged an attack against a Marine barracks that killed eight and injured over a hundred. This was called the Pleiku Raid. President Johnson, using the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution as his authority, ordered the air force and navy forward in Operation Rolling Thunder to bomb. His hope was that the Viet Cong would realize America's resolve to win and stop it in its tracks. However, it seemed to have the opposite effect. This quickly led to further escalation as Johnson ordered more troops into the country. By 1968, there were more than 500,000 troops committed to fighting in Vietnam.

5. Tet OffensiveAmericans, p.748, 749 ; Alive! p.677

On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a major attack on the South during Tet, or the Vietnamese New Year. This was called the Tet Offensive. American forces were able to repel and seriously injure the attackers. However, the effect of the Tet Offensive was severe at home. Critics of the war increased and demonstrations against the war began to occur across the country.

In 1968, during the Tet holiday, Viet Cong and NVA soldiers launched a major

offensive across South Vietnam. Key battles took place in and around Hue and Saigon. Viet Cong guerrillas did most of

the fighting and suffered most of the casualties. Some were also captured. In

fact, after Tet, the NVA had to handle most of the combat in the war.

The Tet OffensiveAmericans, p. 748-749; Alive! p. 677-678

Following these defeats, the North Vietnamese avoided fighting conventional battles and focused on engaging US troops in small unit actions in the sweltering jungles of South Vietnam. In January 1968, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong launched the massive Tet Offensive. Beginning with an assault on US Marines at Khe Sanh, the offensive included attacks by the Viet Cong on cities throughout South Vietnam. Though the North Vietnamese were beaten back with heavy casualties, Tet shook the confidence of the American people and media who had thought the war was going well.

The Tet Offensive had a major impact on American views of the Johnson presidency and the Vietnam War. Public opinion polls taken after Tet showed that many Americans had lost faith in the president and his handling of the war.

6. Opposition at HomeAmericans, p.742-744 ; Alive! p.684-685

The Vietnam War caused a great division among the American population. Further, as news of the Tet Offensive became widespread, opposition to the war greatly increased. Many college students fought against the war through campus demonstrations. The most tragic of these demonstrations occurred on May 4, 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio. Four students staging a protest demonstration were killed by national guardsmen. Antiwar sentiment also arose in the media which further fed the demonstrations and protests. Many of the popular songs of the time were written in protest to the war such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and "Blowing in the Wind."

Violence erupted at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The police attacked antiwar protesters, and the

protesters fought back. During a violent clash on August 28, some 100 demonstrators were injured while 175 were arrested.

Ch. 52 - Facing Frustration in Vietnam• The United States decided to wage a limited war in Vietnam, with limited troop strength.

Fighting an elusive enemy on unfamiliar terrain frustrated U.S. soldiers. The South Vietnamese people themselves were unsure whom to support: the Saigon government or the communist-backed Viet Cong. As the war dragged on, American antiwar protests grew. Opposition to the war greatly affected the 1968 elections.

• War of attrition The U.S. military waged a war of attrition, hoping to wear down the enemy by inflicting heavy losses. Increasing the enemy body count became a key military goal.

• Opposing Vietnamese armies Regular troops of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) joined forces with Viet Cong insurgents. The United States trained the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to defend South Vietnam.

• New weapons of war The United States sprayed the herbicide Agent Orange to clear forest vegetation and expose the enemy. It dropped napalm firebombs that burned forests and buildings and caused widespread destruction. Both weapons had devastating effects on the Vietnamese population.

• Credibility gap The Johnson administration’s optimistic public assessments of the war did not match reality. This created a credibility gap, and many Americans lost faith in the president.

• Protest movement Antiwar protesters on college campuses and elsewhere held demonstrations and carried out acts of civil disobedience. The protesters called for peace negotiations and an end to the war.

• Tet Offensive Some 45,000 Viet Cong and NVA soldiers died after launching a major offensive in 1968. But the Tet Offensive also boosted U.S. opposition to the war and undermined the Johnson presidency, helping to pave the way for Richard Nixon’s election in 1968.

VietnamizationAmericans, p. 755; Alive! p. 682

As a result of Tet, President Lyndon Johnson opted not to run for reelection and was succeeded by Richard Nixon. Nixon's plan for ending US involvement was to build up the ARVN so that they could fight the war themselves. As this process of “Vietnamization” began, US troops started to return home. The mistrust of the government that had begun after Tet worsened with the release of news about US soldiers massacring civilians at My Lai (1969), the invasion of Cambodia (1970), and the leaking of the Pentagon Papers (1971).

In the My Lai massacre, U.S. troops slaughtered hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. Twenty or so

officers were later charged with crimes, but only the unit leader, Lieutenant William Calley, was

found guilty. He received a life sentence but won parole after serving three and a half years.

In March 1969, he had secretly ordered B-52s to

begin bombing Cambodia, a neutral nation on Vietnam’s western border. For the next

four years, U.S. bombers would strike communist base

camps and supply lines in Cambodia.

With Vietnamization, U.S. ground forces began focusing

more on intercepting supplies from the north and less on fighting guerrillas in

the south. Nixon also decided to give those ground forces

another mission. In April 1970, he ordered U.S. troops

to invade Cambodia.

Escalation of the Vietnam War prompted renewed protests across the nation. These protesters in Des Moines, Iowa, are calling for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Their posters also indicate a link

between antiwar protests and the civil rights movement.

In May 1970, construction workers staged various pro-war rallies in New York City. On May 20, more than 100,000 workers marched through the

streets. They carried American flags and voiced their support for President Nixon and the Vietnam War.

U.S. troop strength in Vietnam fell dramatically under President

Nixon. In place of U.S. soldiers, ARVN forces took up the battle against the insurgents. Better

training programs and equipment helped, but low morale and poor

leadership continued to hinder the South Vietnamese military.

Airpower played a huge role in the Vietnam War. By the war’s end, the United States had dropped nearly 8

million tons of bombs. This was more than three times the tonnage

it had dropped in World War II. Partly as a result of this massive bombing, more than 2 million Vietnamese died in the war.

7. Pentagon PapersAmericans, p. 757; Alive! p. 685

In June 1971, the New York Times published leaked top-secret Defense Department documents known as the Pentagon Papers. These documents showed that the government had lied in public statements about how the military involvement and progress of the war in Vietnam. This confirmed the worst fears of the anti-war movement. It also increased the amount of public outcry against the war. By 1971, over 2/3 of the American population wanted President Richard Nixon to order troop withdrawals from Vietnam.

8. Paris Peace AccordsAmericans, p. 752-759; Alive! p.682

During most of 1972, President Richard Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to negotiate a ceasefire with the North Vietnamese. A temporary ceasefire was completed in October 1972 which helped secure Nixon's reelection as president. By January 27, 1973, America and North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords which ended the war. This included the immediate release of American prisoners and the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam within 60 days. The Accords were to include the end of hostilities in Vietnam. However, soon after America left the country, fighting broke out again eventually resulting in victory for the North Vietnamese in 1975. There were over 58,000 American deaths in Vietnam and more than 150,000 wounded.

End of the War and the Fall of SaigonAmericans, p. 754; Alive! p. 688

The withdrawal of US troops continued and more responsibility was passed to the ARVN, which continued to prove ineffective in combat, often relying on American support to stave off defeat. On January 27, 1973, a peace accord was signed in Paris ending the conflict. By March of that year, American combat troops had left the country. After a brief period of peace, North Vietnam recommenced hostilities in late 1974. Pushing through ARVN forces with ease, they captured the Saigon on April 30, 1975, forcing South Vietnam’s surrender and reuniting the country.

Many South Vietnamese tried to flee Saigon during the evacuation of April 29, 1975.

Here, evacuees board a helicopter perched on a Saigon rooftop. Many others were

unable to escape. Several hundred people were left at the U.S. embassy, for example, waiting for helicopters that never arrived.

As South Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975, the United States tried to evacuate South Vietnamese who had worked for the U.S. government. Here, personnel on a U.S. aircraft carrier push a helicopter overboard to make room for more evacuation flights.

After the communist victory in Vietnam, many South Vietnamese sought to escape communism by fleeing the

country. Half a million left in boats. More than 50,000 boat people died at sea. The rest found refuge in other countries

or returned to Vietnam.

CasualtiesAmericans, p. 759 ; Alive! p. 689

United States: 58,119 killed, 153,303 wounded, 1,948 missing in actionSouth Vietnam 230,000 killed and 1,169,763 wounded (estimated)North Vietnam 1,100,000 killed in action (estimated) and an unknown number of wounded

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial attracts more than 4 million visitors a year. Jan Scruggs, a veteran who worked hard to get the memorial built, said he hoped it would remind visitors that the cost of war “has to be paid in human lives.”

Ch. 53 - Getting Out of VietnamIn 1969, President Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam, but the war continued throughout his time in office. He carried on peace talks with the North Vietnamese but also ordered massive bombing of North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. He faced ongoing protests from the antiwar movement and criticism from Congress. In 1973, the last U.S. combat forces came home. North Vietnam swept to victory over the South in 1975.

• Vietnamization Nixon’s Vietnamization of the war allowed for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and prepared South Vietnam to take over responsibility for the war.

• My Lai massacre In 1968, U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai. Reports of the massacre shocked Americans and increased antiwar protests.

• Kent State shootings The invasion of Cambodia in April 1970 sparked an increase in antiwar protests. The most violent one occurred the following month at Kent State University in Ohio, where National Guard troops fired into an angry crowd, killing four students.

• War Powers Resolution Congress reacted to Nixon’s activities in Cambodia by passing the War Powers Resolution. This resolution limits a president’s ability to send armed forces into combat.

• Pentagon Papers In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the press a top-secret study of the U.S. role in Indochina. This study, the Pentagon Papers, revealed secrecy and deceit on the part of U.S. presidents.

• Boat people The North Vietnamese defeated South Vietnam and took control in 1975. This prompted an exodus of refugees from Indochina, many of whom fled by boat.