Transcript The Vietnam War

VIETNAM
A MODERN DAY AVOIDABLE
DISASTER
WAS GEORGE KENNON RIGHT?
A VERY INTERESTING POINT ABOUT
LONDON ARE THE ‘BLUE PLAQUES’
BUT NOT ALL ARE WELL KNOWN
Ho Chi Minh
"It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me."
General Giap
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Hồ Chí Minh was born in 1890
During his childhood he developed a sense
that the Vietnamese were not treated well by
the French colonizers and the monarchist
government. Ho also received a modern
secondary education at a French-style lycee
in Hue
1911 he travelled to France working as a
kitchen helper. Rejected by the French
Colonial Administration School.
1912 to 1913, he lived in New York and
Boston, where he worked at the Parker
House Hotel
Between 1913 and 1919, Hồ lived in
London.
1919-1923, again living in France, Hồ
embraced Communism. Following WWI he
petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of
the Vietnamese at the peace talks, but was
ignored.
Linguist: Highly Traveled: Educated: Skilled
Insurgent War Organizer: Nationalist
• 1921, became a founding member of the Parti Communiste Français
and spent much of his time in Moscow, becoming the principal
theorist on colonial warfare.
• In 1923, China. He stayed there in Hong Kong. In June 1931, he
was arrested and incarcerated by British police until his release in
1933.
• He then made his way back to the USSR, where he spent several
years recovering from TB.
• In 1938, he returned to China and served as an adviser with
Chinese Communist armed forces.
• In 1941, Hồ returned to Vietnam to lead the Viet Minh independence
movement. He oversaw many successful military actions against the
Vichy French and Japanese occupiers.
• Supported closely but clandestinely by the United States Office of
Strategic Services. He was treated for malaria and dysentery by
American OSS doctors.
FOR FRANCE: COLONIES WERE NOT JUST
ECONOMIC, THEY WERE PLACES TO RECEIVE
FRENCH CIVILIZATION
• Many colonies were treated in
administration terms as if they
were part of Metropolitan
France.
• Also in comparison the British
did not tend to ‘Make a Stand’
when events went against
them.
• Having been beaten by the
Nazis France decided that in
1945 it must reassert its
position as a Great Power
even though its economy was
in ruins.
• This would lead to two
disasters: VIETNAM ALGERIA
LE PETIT JOURNAL 1911 Justifying
Tougher Control of Morocco by Bringing
‘Civilization’
• MARIANNE
• Top RH a saluting
Moroccan takes orders.
• France brining civilization
and prosperity to the
colonies.
• Moroccans look in awe as
gold spills out of the horn
of plenty carried by
Marianne
RAPID SPREAD OF CONTROL IN INDOCHINA PARTICULARLY AFTER 1871
FRENCH EXHIBITION OF THE
COLONIES IN PARIS 1931
Sept.1940 Japanese Forces
Overwhelm Indo-China
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France signed an armistice with Germany
on 22 June 1940, leading to the Vichy
government in the unoccupied part of
France. Vichy also controlled most of
French overseas possessions, including
Indochina, one of the last access points for
China to the outside world.
Sept. 1940, Japan and Vichy Indochina
signed an accord.
NOTE: the Vichy colonial government could
continue to rule Indo-China as long as they
did what Japan wanted.
For Nationalists joint control was an
economic nightmare. The country's wealth,
exploited by the French, was now bled dry
by the Japanese in order to finance their
military effort. But politically it provided an
opportunity undreamed of as the French and
Japanese began to compete for the affection
of the Vietnamese.
AMERICA BECOMES INVOLVED
• After the fall of France American diplomats faced a
problem. They had no fondness for the pro-Nazi Vichy
government in France but did not want to do anything
that would weaken France's hold on its colonies and
pave the way for a German occupation. The U.S. thus
recognized Vichy and encouraged the government in its
attempts to resist Japanese demands.
• On the eve of WW2 the USA depended upon Indochina
for 50 percent of its raw rubber. Japanese control
deprived the U.S. of its major source of this strategic
resource. The U.S., acting in concert with Britain and
Holland, retaliated by cutting off Japan's oil supplies. In
negotiations that took place in the fall of 1941 with
Japan, the United States made several demands,
including the evacuation of Vietnam by Japanese forces.
The Japanese response to the American proposals was
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
U.S. supports Ho Chi Minh
Ho, Giap and American OSS
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Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh were happy
to receive the support of the U.S. mission in
China especially from the forerunner of the
CIA, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
When U.S. policy makers finally decided
after World War II that Ho Chi Minh was an
enemy, the extent of OSS assistance
became a matter of controversy. OSS
officials, perhaps fearful of accusations that
they had aided Communists, insisted that
only a few side arms had been given.
They also disputed how much help the
Vietminh had given in lighting the Japanese.
Bartholomew-Feis study hints that, had
America continued to champion the anticolonials and their quest for independence,
rather than caving in to the French, the USA
might have been spared our long and very
lethal war in Vietnam.
The Vietminh Prepare To Strike
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With the French defeated, the
Vietminh moved consolidate their
position.. In April 1945 the Vietminh
began to plan for a national liberation,
placing the Vietnam Liberation Army
under the command of Giap.
Vietminh contact with American
intelligence officials also intensified.
Meanwhile, the British had established
their own commando operations in
Vietnam's northern mountains.
After the capitulation of the Japanese
in August 1945 Japanese troops still
occupied Indochina. But they
surrendered to the Vietminh and
Britain rather than to French
forces.
A provisional partition of Vietnam was
set up in 1945 with British troops in
temporary control in the South.
DECLARATION OF VIETNAMESE
INDEPENDENCE
• On February 16th, 1945 Ho Chi Minh wrote a letter to
President Truman asking for American assistance in
gaining Vietnamese freedom. The letter closed with the
remarks:
• “We ask what has been graciously granted to the
Philippines. Like the Philippines our goal is full
independence and full cooperation with the UNITED
STATES. We will do our best to make this
independence and cooperation profitable to the
whole world.”
• I am dear Mr. PRESIDENT,
• Respectfully Yours,
• Ho Chi Minh
• The letter was not declassified until 1972.
President Ho Chi Minh delivered
this address in Hanoi on 2 September 1945.
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"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness"
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of
the United States of America m 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All
the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to
live, to be happy and free. ---------In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists violated Indochina's
territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French
imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed over our country
to them.
Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the
French and the Japanese. ---------We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Tehran and San Francisco
have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of
nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam.
A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than
eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against
the Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and
independent.
AS AMERICA SMASHES JAPAN IN 1945
THE VICHY COLONISTS THINK AGAIN
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The impending Japanese defeat was
not lost on the French population
remaining in Indochina.
Many of them had openly supported
the Vichy government in collaborating
with the Japanese.
The Japanese, too, were aware of this
change in attitude. March 1945,
Japan ended nearly one hundred
years of French rule in Indochina
NOTE True to their promise to aid any
Frenchman willing to fight Japanese
aggression, the Vietminh cared for
many Frenchmen, helping them
escape into China.
BUT FRANCE IS TRYING TO GET
BACK AS A COLONIAL POWER
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France had returned after the defeat of
Japan and sought to re-establish
colonial control.
France’s actions provoked open
warfare with Viet Minh forces—led by
Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap—which in 1946
launched a broad armed uprising
against the French. In October 1949,
China’s communists won their own
civil war and started sending aid
southward.
“Total Destruction”
The Viet Minh prepared for all-out war.
Giap sought not mere victory but “the
total destruction of French forces.”
BUT: This was a guerilla war adapted
from Ho’s experiences in China.
France, like the USA later, wanted to
fight a ‘set piece’ war
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President Eisenhower deplored France’s
colonial agenda. Moreover, in late 1953 had
a bleak view of France’s military situation. In
his memoirs, he recalls that “France’s move
into Dien Bien Phu raised eyebrows among
soldiers “who were well-acquainted with the
almost invariable fate of troops invested in
an isolated fortress.”
Eisenhower was not sure there was a way to
win in Vietnam, and he was wary of getting
the US involved.
Yet America already was involved. President
Harry S. Truman reluctantly had provided
military aid to French forces in Vietnam, and,
now, the US was picking up as much as 75
percent of the cost of France’s adventure
in Indochina.
According to biographer, Stephen E.
Ambrose, the President ruled out use of US
ground troops. “This war in Indochina would
absorb our troops by divisions.”
LEADS TO ONE OF THE DECIDING
BATTLES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
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In early 1953, France had roughly
200,000 troops in the field. Some
200,000 Vietnamese troops fought
with them as allies. French forces held
delta areas and towns but they did not
control the back country and
highlands.
The commander of French forces in
Indochina was Gen. Henri Navarre.
His plans called for the deployment to
Vietnam of roughly half a million
French troops by the end of 1954.
With such a large force, he thought, he
would be able to subdue the Viet Minh
once and for all.
In the fall of 1953, Navarre took a bold
step. He sent French forces to seize
and fortify the town of Dien Bien Phu,
an outpost nestled in a deep valley. In
Navarre’s view, establishing the
fortress served two purposes.
Dien Bien Phu
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The 1954 battle sucked US
airmen into Indochina and helped
set the stage for the Vietnam War.
Note: Also added to French
incomprehension of the US
decision over Suez two years
later.
The French strategy was to
make the 15,000-man garrison a
strong point and draw Giap’s
forces into battle in the valley.
Navarre ringed Dien Bien Phu
with artillery outposts These
positions were deeply buried
and buttressed to withstand
artillery fire.
Tables Turned
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“The French had thrown down the
gauntlet, but, because the jungle
country concealed troop
movements, it took some time for
them to realize that Giap had
picked it up.”
Giap had in place in January 1954
more than 200 heavy artillery
pieces, including the fearsome
“Stalin Organs,” Soviet-built
Katyusha rocket launchers.
Dien Bien Phu would never be the
stronghold the French wanted.
Instead, it had become a trap.
The attack that formally began the
siege of Dien Bien Phu was
launched March 13, 1954.
OPERATION ‘VULTURE’
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The French—with the
encouragement of some US
officials based in Saigon—pressed
hard for the US to launch an
overwhelming air strike to save
Dien Bien Phu.
Operation Vulture was to be a type
of massive retaliation with
airpower. The target was to be the
Viet Minh forces arrayed around
Dien Bien Phu. This was the first
time that US leaders had seriously
contemplated a major military
intervention with airpower alone.
The plan included an option to
use up to three atomic weapons
on the Viet Minh positions.
WITHOUT US GROUND TROOPS
THAT LEFT US AIRPOWER
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United States Air Force B-26s loaned to
France sit on the ramp at Tourane,
Vietnam—later known as Da Nang. They
still wear the nose art they carried in
Korean. American airpower was the last
hope for the French in Indochina.
French forces had borrowed and were using
a US Navy aircraft carrier, 10 US Air Force
B-26s, several C-47s and C-119s, and
hundreds of US Air Force personnel.
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It was impossible to miss the
significance of the American
deployment. “For all Eisenhower’s
emphasis on reduced numbers and a
definite date for withdrawal,” he had
sent the first American military
personnel to Vietnam.”
‘Boxcars’ flown by Americans.
MAY 07 1954
• Dien Bien Phu fell
• Six weeks later, on July 20-21,
1954, the US, France, Britain,
and the Soviet Union met in
Geneva. Out of this conference
came measures that were
supposed to end the Indochina
war.
• The conference agreed to a
partition of Vietnam into north
and south. Partition was to be
temporary, with unification to
come after national elections in
1956. Elections never came.
GENEVA CONFERENCE
THE FLAWED PEACE
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The U.S., immediately after Geneva, viewed
the Settlement's provisions for Vietnam as
"disaster," and determined to prevent, if it
could, the further extension of communist
government over the Vietnamese people
and territory
The truce of 1954, in fact, embodied three
serious deficiencies as a basis for stable
peace among the Vietnamese:
A)--It relied upon France as its executor.
B)--It ignored the opposition of the State of
Vietnam.
C)--It countenanced the disassociation of
the United States.
These turned partitioned Vietnam into two
hostile states, and brought about an
environment in which war was likely,
perhaps inevitable.
A nominally temporary "line of demarcation"
between North and South at the 17th
parallel was transformed into one of the
more forbidding frontiers of the world
FRANCE WITHDRAWS
1954-1956
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France had agreed to full
independence and tested anew in
Algeria, abandoned its position in
Southeast Asia
France had signed and
guaranteed the Geneva accords
but felt itself shouldered aside in
South Vietnam by the United
States over:
A) US policy towards ‘new Tito’
Ho.
B) France opposed Diem the US
sponsor for the South.
C) Saw the USA and UK enforcing
anti-French de-colonialization.
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“We are not entirely masters of the
situation. The Geneva Accords on the
one hand and the pressure of our
allies on the other creates a very
complex juridical situation. . . . The
position in principle is clear: France is
the guarantor of the Geneva Accords .
. . But we do not have the means
alone of making them respected.”
Professor Hans Morgenthau
• “Actually, the provision for free elections
which would solve ultimately the problem
of Vietnam was a device to hide the
incompatibility of the Communist and
Western positions, neither of which can
admit the domination of all of Vietnam by
the other side. It was a device to disguise
the fact that the line of military
demarcation was bound to be a line of
political division as well....”
THE QUESTION IS WHY?
• US policy was to stand by in 1948 when the
great prize of China was taken by the
communists.
• Yet, with a much smaller Asian country it was
identified in the national interest of the US.
• The Suez crisis in 1956 would come back to
haunt the US in a search for allies.
• Exploded a stance of being against neocolonialism in regard to the non aligned world.
• Korea was a ‘proxy’ war with Russia: this would
be a war against Vietnamese nationalism.
WHAT ABOUT THE PACIFIC
CONTAINMENT POLICY?
• PPS 28/2 March 05 1948.
Conversation Kennon
with Gen. Douglas
MacArthur.
• Strategic boundaries of
the USA at Eastern edge
of the Pacific.
• U Shaped area of
Aleutians, Midway,
Japan, Philippines,
Okinawa.
• Japan to be restored-no
USA bases in Japan.
ANTI-COMMUNISM IN THE USA
House Un-American Activities Committee
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National crisis of the Communist
menace in American society.
Sen. Joseph Mccarthy
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
Fear and purges (but quite a bit of
actual detection)
THE DOMINO THEORY
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America had paid for the war the
French fought against Communist
Vietnam as a part of the Truman
Doctrine (1947) “to protect free
peoples…” Even though it
supported an unpopular and
corrupt colonial government
against the ideology of the USA.
By the late 1950’s the “Domino
Theory” became a justification
for the involvement. This theory
stated, “If South Vietnam falls
to the Communist, Laos,
Cambodia, Thailand, Burma,
India and Pakistan would also
fall like dominos. The Pacific
Islands and even Australia
could be at risk”.
Eisenhower April 1954
“You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling
domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes, you knock over the first one, and what
will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could
have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences”.
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We now know that Soviet Power was nowhere near as dominant as first thought.
Soviet objectives were in Europe not Asia.
Asia was liberating itself from colonialism.
China was already splitting from the Soviet Union after Korea.
Vietnam had always had enmity with China.
The primary evidence against the domino theory is the failure of communism to take
hold in Thailand, Indonesia, and other large Southeast Asian countries after the end
of the Vietnam War, as Eisenhower's speech warned it could.
Critics of the theory charged that the Indochinese wars were largely nationalist in
nature (such as the Vietnamese driving out the French), and that no such monolithic
force as "world communism" existed.
There was indeed fracturing of communist states at the time, beginning with the
rivalry between the Soviet Union and China, known as the Sino-Soviet split, in the
1950s led to tensions between Vietnam and Cambodia, since Vietnam had affiliated
itself with the USSR and Cambodia with China.
This led to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, which lasted from 1975 to 1989, and
reached its apex in 1979, when Vietnam overthrew the Khmer-Rouge and took
control of Cambodia. This in turn led China to attack Vietnam in 1979 in the brief
Sino-Vietnamese War.
CONLUDING THOUGHTS
VIETNAM
• A COLONY OF FRANCE: USA AGAINST
COLONIALIZATION
• OCCUPIED BY JAPAN WITH FRENCH
ADMINISTRATION
• FREED THE COUNTRY WITH US HELP FROM THE
JAPANESE
• WANTED FRIENDSHIP WITH USA.
• USA BUILDS UP JAPAN: RUTHLESS OCCUPIER
• USA SUPPORTS FRANCE IN INDO-CHINA: ANOTHER
RUTHLESS OCCUPIER
• USA PLACES A PUPPET REGIME IN HALF OF
VIETNAM
• USA NOW EVEN WORSE THAN FRANCE OR JAPAN
CONLUDING THOUGHTS
FRANCE
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Supported by USA in a colonial
adventure in which the USA had
no strategic advantage.
Considered the USA just wanted
to take over Vietnam
Two years later let down badly by
USA/UK at Suez in a vital
strategic area.
Now concentrated in a bloody war
in Algeria
Dropped out of Nato
Developed own Atomic weapon
Pushed hard for European
community to counter-balance the
USA
• Algeria brought De-Gaul to
power who pulled out of the
country in 1962.
(Day of Jackal)
• De-Gaul leader of Free French
in WW2 when the USA had
recognized Vichy France
CONLUDING THOUGHTS
UNITED STATES
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Costliest war they had fought:
dropped 3X bombs than on
Germany.
Economic effects felt for 10 years
Ruined America’s reputation in
non-aligned world and
encouraged nationalists.
Seen as another colonial power.
Severely strained relations with
natural allies.
No economic advantage to USA
from Vietnam
Military threat from S.E. Asia nonexistent.
China already splitting from USSR
Vietnam wanted USA’s help
against China
SORES THAT STILL DIVIDE THE
COUNTRY
• The Vietnam War was the
longest military conflict in U.S.
history. The hostilities in
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
claimed the lives of more than
58,000 Americans. Another
304,000 were wounded.
• During the conflict,
approximately 3 to 4 million
Vietnamese on both sides
were killed, in addition to
another 1.5 to 2 million Lao
and Cambodians who were
drawn into the war.
SO PERHAPS THESE ARE NOT QUITE
THE DEFINIATIVE THOUGHT?