Vietnam Module

Background
• Until 1939 Vietnam had
been part of the French
Empire.
• At the start of World
War II the Japanese
invaded Vietnam and
the French left.
• Vietnamese freedom
fighters – Viet Minh
under Ho Chi Minh
began fighting against
the Japanese
Ho Chi Minh
• Ho Chi Minh was a
communist who fought
for a free and
independent Vietnam.
Studied Comm. In
USSR in 1920s
• He led the Vietminh, a
guerrilla army that
used hit and run
tactics.
1945: Japan
defeated
• When the Japanese were defeated in
1945, Ho had control of the north -
Hanoi.
• However, the French returned to
reclaim Vietnam.
• This was not what Ho Chi Minh and his
Viet Minh had fought the Japanese for.
• The Vietminh now began fighting
against the French.
Vietminh V the French
1946 - 1954

• The Vietminh
continued to use hit
and run tactics against
the French – 90,000
casualties from this
• After 1949 the
Vietminh received help
from Communist
China.
• The US supported the
French – 80% of
France’s war costs
paid by USA.
The French are beaten
• The French were
finally defeated at
the Battle of Dien
Bien Phu in 1954.
50k VM (+50k in
reserve) vs 15k Fr
• French – 3,000 dead,
8,000 POW die later

• Viet Minh defeated

French with modern
weapons from China
– Anyone is beatable
After French Withdrawal
 1954 - Geneva Peace Conference
divided Vietnam into Communist
North (under Ho Chi Minh)
capitalist South (under Bao Dai)
with a De-Military Zone

 GPC decreed that elections should

take place in 1956 and that
Vietnam become united under one
government.

• The US refused to allow elections in

the south. – Eisenhower – ‘80%
would vote Communist and have Ho
as their leader’
Reasons for Initial U.S
Involvement

1. Eisenhower’s 4. Did not wish

Belief in the Comm Domino the sacrifice of 34,000
Effect – Vietnam = 1st dom American lives in the
Spread will go as far as India Korean war to be in vain
2. Determination to stop the spread of
Communism - SEATO
During the ‘Cold War’ –
3. Military – Industrial complex.
Govt giving huge weapons
Contracts to businesses – Govt
Being pressured to start a war
Examples of initial Involvement
 Diem beat Bao Dai in a corrupt election in
1955 to become leader – US supported
him because he was anti-communist
 Eisenhower provided a small group of
military advisers to train South Viet army
 Launch propaganda against Communist
North and arrested opponents
 Diem sent the South Viet army into the
countryside and 65,000 suspected
Communists were arrested / 2,000 killed
 Helped Diem when he refused the 1956
election on basis his Government was not
involved in the Geneva agreement
 Why did support for Communists
increase in South Vietnam

Diem’s unpopular Actions of Diem and

Policies. eg USA led to the
• Communists still lived creation of VC -
in South Vietnam Vietcong in South
• He was landlord class Vietnam – 1960.
had no respect for peasants Vietcong took
• Diem was Christian and orders from Ho.
objected to Buddhism. Waged guerrilla
• Corrupt regime – had war against the
family and friends in power South using the
• Refused to hold elections Ho Chi Minh trail.
• USA gave Diem $1.6 billion Less than half of
but wasted it. Led to USA country under
helping with his removal - 1963 Diem’s control
Reasons for Increased U.S
Involvement 1960-64

New President - JFK 1963 – JFK sends 16,000

Dedicated to the Advisors (soldiers) to
Domino Theory – Sure vote fight 12,000 VC.
winner to be tough on Communism
 Examples of Increased
Involvement 1960-64
 Pacification – win the hearts and
minds of the people – a key issue
 Supported the ‘Strategic Hamlet’
Programme. – S H P - 1962
 S H P - Move civilians from the
countryside that can be
influenced by VC to new areas built
by the South.
• Issue – Families did not want to
leave their homes and the new
homes / towns were not built –
homeless - angered and returned
home to support VC
 Reasons for Increased
Involvement (1963-65)

JFK assassinated 1963

President Johnson S. Vietnam Stop the war becoming
also believed would not a nuclear world war
in Domino Theory. be able to with China / USSR
withstand VC
as only 40%
under South
control
 Gulf of Tonkin Incident
August 1964
 U.S destroyer Maddox on a spying
mission fired upon in the Gulf of Tonkin
on August 2nd 1964 by three North
Vietnamese patrol ships.
 Next day, Maddox returned + reported
being fired upon again, but then changed
message to say they were not sure.
Only 1st message accepted by Johnson.
 US Govt passed the ‘Gulf of Tonkin
resolution’ which meant Johnson can
take USA to full scale war with VC but
also used on North too – 1965 – 3,500
marines land in Da Nang – South Viet
DEFINITION OF
‘GUERILLA WARFARE’
• ‘Guerrilla – Spanish for ‘little war’
• VC copied tactics of Mao Zedong in China
• Idea of an outnumbered, lesser equipped forces
being able to take on a larger enemy
• Principles are:
• Retreat when the enemy attacks
• Raid when the enemy camps
• Attack when the enemy tires
• Chase when the enemy retreats
• GW = Destroys morale.
 Ho Chi Minh
Trail
• Jungle paths linking North and South
via Laos and Cambodia – USA cannot
go there as = wider war with China /
USSR
• Carried supplies and soldiers from
North Vietnam / USSR / China
• 1955-63 – China sent $100 million in
aid to VC
• 40,000 Vietnamese worked to keep
the trail open
• 1 mill VC / North killed in the war but
Ho did not care – had a cause
 Successful Features of VC
Guerrilla Tactics
• Strict code of behaviour to gain support of the
people. Respect and help when its harvest time
but punish traitors.
• 1966-71 – VC killed 27,000 South Viet govt
workers – teachers, police etc
• - surprise - use jungle, no uniforms and tunnels
to avoid bombing
• - ‘Hang on to USA belts’ – can’t bomb
• - cannibalise U.S and South Vietn weapons to
make booby traps
• - booby traps designed to maim and destroy
morale ‘Bouncing Betty’s’ = mines and pits with
bamboo stakes (poisoned with animal/human
waste)
AMERICAN TACTICS
 Operation Rolling Thunder

Involved
• Launched 1965 to destroy North Vietnamese economy but
Johnson decided to start the bombing on the North-South
Viet border to avoid wider conflict and not Hanoi.
• Then targets increased to bombing Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Supposed to last 3 months, lasted 3 years - 8 million tons
dropped 1965-72
• More bombs dropped on Vietnam than on Germany and
Japan in WW2
 Operation Rolling Thunder

Level of Success
• Bombing from 1970-72 on Hanoi led Ho
to negotiate peace terms
• Economy affected but VC still received
weapons from China / USSR.
• Bad publicity for U.S at home – Napalm,
Chemical weapons – innocent maimed
/killed –lost hearts & minds of the world
• USA lost 14,000 planes
• 1967 – USA American Life magazine –
• costs USA $400,000 to kill 1 VC fighter –
unsustainable – the cost included using
75 bombs and 400 artillery shells
Search and
Destroy
Involved
Launched 1965. Use helicopters to drop in soldiers
on villages to look for VC/tunnels

Kill everything and everyone – Zippo raids as named

after the soldiers lighters

A body count report had to be sent to HQ regarding

VC and innocent civilians
 Search and
Destroy

Level of Success
• Difficult to ‘spot’ – who is the enemy as all were peasants.
• Peasants resented disruption and destruction villages burnt –
supported VC even more.
• The raids were done on poor intelligence
• Inexperienced troops were walking into traps
• Innocent villages mistaken for VC bases
• VC moved back into the villages when US troops left
• Ratio of 1 VC killed = 6 innocent civilians – Hearts & Minds
• Also led to U.S massacres – frustration e.g. My Lai
Operation Ranch Hand
= Chemical Weapons
Involved
Used chemicals to destroy jungle (Agent
Orange – weed-killer – 82 million litres) and
destroy crops that could be useful to VC
(Agent Blue)
Also used NAPALM – burnt skin to the bone
1964 – 1970 -24% of South Vietnam was
sprayed with Agent chemical weapons
Level of Success
Population starving, Chromosomal damage,
Hurt U.S economy more - $900 million of
aircraft shot down. – Hearts & Minds = Anti
US feeling among peasants, USA and World
which led to peace protests – bad publicity.
 What problems did the
Americans face in Vietnam?
• After 1967 – men 18-26 were drafted (conscripted) – unpopular
• By end of the war – 650,000 soldiers had been drafted
• The average age of the American soldier was 19. They were
inexperienced as had just left school.
• The US soldiers did not have a true cause to fight for compared to the
VC and Ho
• Fragging occurred – 3% of US officer deaths was caused by their own
soldiers
• The US soldiers were not used to or trained for fighting in Guerrilla
warfare
• 18% of US casualties was not by combat but
by other ways – drug abuse / crashes
• 500,000 US soldiers deserted – led to the US
Commander – Westmoreland to make a 1 yr tour
of service – Issue – no determination to fight and
the veterans being replaced with new inexperienced
MY LAI
MASSACRE 1968
 500 women, children + old people massacred at My Lai, a small village
in 1968 by Charlie Company.
 Army tried to cover it up – Report said only 20 civilians were killed. The
story only broke in 1969 when Ronald Ridenhour sent a letter about the
massacre
 Life Magazine printed photos taken by the army photographer of
civilians killed in ditches – genocide – New Nazis – propaganda against
USA
 1969 - Lieutenant William Calley was put on trial for killing 109 people
– 1971- found guilty for 22 – justice?
 He was sentenced to spend 20 yrs in prison – did 3 under house arrest
and President Nixon pardoned him in 1974
 What it seemed to prove to the U.S public was that discipline + morale
was gone in the army / innocent people were being killed – Hearts &
Minds – war was lost.
Vietnam and
the Media
Early Stages of the war - 1963-66
•US media – pro-war
•US army created MACV – Military Assist Command Vietnam – the
journalists were allowed to go to the battlefields / interview army leaders
/ have copies of the reports BUT only allowed to print pro-war news
•Media companies did not want to print anti-war for being blamed if USA
lost or if it impacted on readers / viewers

Later Stages of the War – 1967-68

•TV‘s replaced newspapers – ‘Living Room War’
•Journalists had light-weight cameras to record scenes – shocked the US
people
•25% of reports on tv showed dead / wounded people
•Key journalist – Walter Cronkite – Johnson said – If I lose the support of
Cronkite I will lose the support of Middle America.
 The Peace
Movement in USA
 Action scenes on T.V screens – horror of seeing Vietnamese people + U.S soldiers
suffering. Atrocities like the execution of a VC suspect by South Vietnamese police chief
– Ngoc Loan in 1968, the Napalm girl, Tet Offensive and My Lai = anti-war

 U.S actions seen as cruel and unfair by increasing numbers in U.S + in other countries
eg: GB + Fr.

 Patriotic Americans no longer saw the Vietnam war as a crusade against the spread of
Communism – a war of confusion and defeat

 Student population – you could be exempt from the draft if went to college / uni –
mainly whites could afford this which led to further protests from Civil Rights groups

 1968 – 100 protests = 40,000 students who sang a mocking song to Johnson / burnt
the USA flag / Draft card / sit-ins / marches / refusal to go to class

 High profile demonstrations = bad publicity for U.S govt eg: Kent State University
Protest 1970 due to Nixon declaring war on Cambodia – led to 4 students being killed
by the National Guard – possibility of Civil War – Hard hat riot attacked anti-war
protestors that were demonstrating after Kent State shootings 1970.
 The Peace
Movement in
USA
 It was expensive ($2 million a day / $167 billion in total). Also money could have been
spent on Johnson’s Great Society pledge – to end poverty and bring social change was
only partially successful – Medicare – free medical care for the poor – only given to elderly

 Black Americans were unhappy within U.S. – fighting for Civil Rights and objected to being
sent to fight a “white mans war”.

 Pressure of high profile figures in popular media eg: Martin Luther King jr. and Muhammed
Ali who said – ‘No Vietnamese never called me Nigger’,

 30% of Black Americans drafted compared to 19% White Americans

 1967 – 100,000 anti-war protestors marched on Washington DC – media broadcasted it

live across USA to deter support for the war

 Overall social background of the 60’s large youth population – ‘hippie’ ideals. Of peace love
and free expression encouraged by music, poetry, art, drugs.


 Tet Offensive
• 1968 – NVA and VC do a diversion attack on Khe Sanh in the north of South Vietnam to keep
the US and South armies occupied
• The siege lasted 77 days until the US sent 6,000 troops + bombers = NVA defeated
• With US / South Vietnam‘s forces focused on Khe Sanh – led to VC / NVA launching a surprise
attack across all of South Vietnam – 26 cities =Tet Offensive
• Tet = Vietnamese New Year – South / USA soldiers partying or fighting at Khe Sanh
• One VC unit got into the US Saigon embassy – symbol of the war which the Americans had to
fight to regain -took 2 days to push VC out of Saigon
• Tet was a disaster for VC and Ho – lost 10,000 experienced soldiers / South-Vietnamese people
did not revolt to support NVA and VC
• However – turning point as led to questions being asked in USA eg:
• Walter Cronkite – Journalist for CBS news – ‘What the hell is going on.. I thought we were
winning this war‘ = the war is un-winnable – media = anti-war
• 500,000 troops in Vietnam, spending $20 billion a year – how did we not know about this
attack?
• US and South forces regained control of the towns and cities but at a price – ancient cities like
Hue was destroyed by artillery and bombing raids – Hearts & Minds lost.
• Tet offensive of January 1968 frightened the American public and U.S government- as the war
would still last many more years, draining America dry.
 Ending the War
in Vietnam
 1968- After Tet offensive - Johnson decided not to stand for re-
election – Admission of failure. Nixon replaced him on an
‘honourable peace’ promise – U.S withdrawal without looking as if
they’d lost to communism.

 Although promising to leave Vietnam - USA Govt still secretly

undermined VC – The Phoenix Programme – CIA agents sent to
assassinate VC leaders and infiltrate VC networks – used torture
to get information

 1971 – Fulbright hearings – investigated the Vietnam War –

hoping to give advice on how to end it.

 The more evidence people gave – clear that the US soldiers were
acting inhumanly – My Lai was not a 1 off.

 Impact – the committee believed the reason for going to war in

Vietnam was unjustified.
 Ending the War in
Vietnam
 1968 – 73 - Secret talks from 1970 between Nixon, Kissinger and
N.V foreign minister Le Duc Tho (South Vietnam not included in
the talks) and the Paris peace talks gradually led to U.S leaving
Vietnam.
 Nixon used strategies of:
 Vietnamization – providing financial and military training to create
a South Vietnam army that can protect its own country and allows
USA to withdraw troops with honour.
 Bombing Hanoi 1972-100,000 bombs in 11 days showed he was
not weak and declared war on Cambodia 1970.
 Nixon developed relations with USSR - 1970 and China – 1972 –
both nations can influence HO to stop the war
 Jan 1973 – NV and SV agreed peace terms in Paris
 Mar 1973 – Last USA troops leave Vietnam
Fall of Saigon
1973-75
• Nixon promised to send financial support to S.
Vietnam but congress refused.
• S. Vietnam – corrupt and unpopular with the people
• Nixon resigns in 1974 – Watergate
• New President – Ford did not get Congress support to
help South
• Dec 1974 – North attack the South and by April 1975
Saigon was captured
• Propaganda disaster – images of desperate
Vietnamese trying to escape Saigon on US
helicopters
• Saigon renamed to Ho Chi Minh City
Impact of War on
Vietnam Civilians
• Chemicals destroyed 5.4mill acres of
forest / wildlife
• 3 million Vietnamese suffered health
problems due to the Chemical weapons
• 3x higher levels of dioxin in their bodies
than normal due to Agent Orange
• Rivers were poisoned
• 5million South Vietnamese civilians
were displaced
Why did
USA lose?