Transcript The Vietnam War - my Class Website

• NO CLEAR BEGINNING OF U.S.
INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM
 SERIES OF STEPS 1950-1965
• REASONS WHY AMERICA GOT
INVOLVED
 VIETMINH, NATIONAL LIBERATION
FRONT AND NORTH VIETNAM’S
GOVERNMENT = ENEMY
 COMMUNISM AS ANTITHESIS
 Definition: the doctrine of the
conditions of the liberation of the
proletariat
 PROLETARIAT: A person who’s living
depends on the sale of their labor
o Everything depends on the
demand of labor
o Working class
 ASSISTING THE FRENCH
 DOMINO THEORY
 if one country in SE Asia fell to
communism surrounding countries
would also fall
• HOW THE U.S. SAW COMMUNISM
(CONTAGIOUS DISEASE)
 DID NOT WANT IT TO SPREAD TO OTHER
COUNTRIES

SCORNED DEMOCRAZY

VIOLATED HUMAN RIGHTS

MILITARY AGGRESSION

STATE ECONOMIES
• 1890 LEFT VIETNAM TO FRANCE
•
• VIET MINH
1920- FOUDING MEMBER OF THE
FRENCH COMMUNIST PARTY
•
•
• 1924 LEFT TO CHINA
•
•
TO ORGANIZE EXILED VIETNAMESE
COMMUNISTS
RETURNED TO VIETNAM IN 1941 AFTER
TRAVELING EXTENSIVELY
•
FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE
JAPAN AND FRENCH AGAINST
VIETNAMESE
•
• 1927 EXPELLED BY CHINA
•
VIETNAMESE GUERILLA ORGANIZATION
1945 JAPAN EXECUTED FRENCH
OFFICIALS IN VIETNAM
FIRST INDOCHINA WAR
•
MAO ZEDONG’S CHINESE COMMUNISTS AND
VIET MINH AGAINST FRENCH (AIDED BY U.S.)
AND ANTI-COMMUNIST VIETNAMESE FORCES
• 1954
• FRENCH SUFFERS HGUE DEFEAT
•
PROMPTS PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
AND DIVISION OF VIETNAM
•
• VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST
•
DECLARED VIETNAMESE
INDEPENDENCE AFTER JAPAN’S
SURRENDER IN WWII
•
“ALL MEN ARE BORN EQUAL: THE
CREATOR HAS GIVEN US INVIOLABLE
RIGHTS, LIFE, LIBERTY AND
HAPPINESS!”
17TH PARALLEL
• LATE 1950’S
• ORGANIZED COMMUNIST
GUERRILLA CALLED VIET CONG
NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (nlf)
“viet cong”
• Before the NLF was created in 1960
there were multiple group, without
leadership, that killed Diem
supporters
• When Ho unified all the group the
NLF was created
•
One leader- Hua Tho
• Needed to gain the support of the
south vietnamese
•
Not allowed to abuse the peasant
farmers
•
Took land from the rich and gave it
to the poor
•
Not allowed to steal or damage the
peasants property
• Promised to remove Diem from
power
• Introduce a government that
represented everyone
Ho Chi Minh
Division of vietnam
Viet minh
Viet cong
“Pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend…to assure the survival and success of liberty ”.
• Wanted to contain communism
• Lack of military/combat experience
•
•
Key Advisers were graduates or
teachers of ivy league schools
• Continue to support government
of Diem in South Vietnam
• Supported the “Domino Theory”
•
Foolish to get involved in another war in
Asia
•
Could not abandon American
involvement in preservation of noncommunist Vietnam
•
Harry Truman and losing China
•
“If I tried to pull out completely
now from Vietnam we would have
another Joe McCarthy red scare
on our hands”
• 1961
if one country fell to
communism surrounding
countries would also fall
• America should finance an
increase of size in south
Vietnamese army
•
150,000 to 170,000
• Send an additional 1000
American advisors
• Not made public because it broke
the Geneva agreement
• “Strategic Hamlet” program
• Separate the people from the
guerillas in the jungles
• Relocation of 500,000 farmers
to “New villages
•
•
Given provisions for five months
Supplies to build a new house
• The communists/guerillas
forced to come out of jungle for
food
• “New Villages” enforced entry
and exit
• Communists were given food
voluntarily by the villages
“New village”
South Vietnamese troops
watch demonstration by US
military group
Capture guerilla troop
• When the failure of the program
was made apparent Kennedy sent
more advisors to Vietnam
• 12,000
• 300 helicopters
• Told to avoid military combat
• Impossible to fulfill
• Buddhist monks
• Response to diem’s government
• Burned themselves to death
June 11, 1963 Rev. Quang Duc,
73, Public Suicide, Protesting
persecution of Buddhists
“If we quit Vietnam tomorrow we’ll be fighting in Hawaii and next week
we’ll have to be fighting in San Francisco.”
• Operation Plan 34b
• Also supported the “domino Theory”
• Support South Vietnam against NLF
• General Khanh told Johnson the
South Vietnamese could not handle
the NLF
•
Believed sending troops would be a
negative political move
•
Told Khanh he would not send
troops until the election of 1964
was over (Reelection)
• Sent Asian mercenaries to North
Vietnam
• Sent USS Maddox
•
Attacked by three north
Vietnamese torpedo boats
• If he did not respond to this he
would be seen as a weak president
• “Repeated acts of violence
against the armed forces of the
United States must be met not only
with alert defense, but with a
positive reply. That reply is being
given as I speak tonight.”
•
Congress supported his decision
After reelection:
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• February 24, 1965
• Bomb North Vietnam and the NLF
Territory in South Vietnam
• Supposed to last for eight
weeks
• Lasted 3 years
• NLF Began to attack US bases
• March 8, 1965
• Sent 3,500 Marines (combat
troops)
• His advisor said the US involvement
was hopeless
• Withdraw troops
• Nixon still had hope that they could
win
• 543,000 American soldiers 1969
• “Vietnamization”
• Gradual withdrawal of US
troops
• expansion of south Vietnamese
army
• American pilots dominate skies over
South and North Vietnam, Laos and
CAmbodia
• Tried to reach out to Soviet Union
and Communist China in hopes they
could persuade the north
Vietnamese to bargain
• My Lai
• Frustration from war led some
American Soldiers to seek
revenge on Vietnamese Civilians
• Covered up
• Seymour Hersh
• March 15, 1968
• Blamed civilians for aiding
enemy
• Murdered 400 civilians
• Men, women, children,
elderly
• Operation Menu
• Secret Bombing Campaign
• Troop Withdrawls
• 65,500-1969
• Border Regions of Cambodia
• 140,000-1970
• Leak
• 160,000-1971
• Illegal wire taps ordered
by Nixon to figure out
how leaked the secret
• Could be first step
leading to the Watergate
scandal
• Ho Chi Minh dies September 3, 1969
• Successors did not want to lose
• 157,000-1972
• Death
• 9,414-1969
• 4,204-1970
• 1,386-1971
• 300-1972
• Fall of 1972 Agreement
• Nixon delayed in signing agreement
•
Communists dropped insistance that
a new coalition governemtn must be
built in South Vietnam
•
South Vietnam believed the
agreement meant the US would no
longer help
•
America dropped demand that the
North Vietnamese from South
Vietnam
•
For reassurance Nixon sent arms
shipments
•
•
American Troops were pulled out
Launched Operation Linebacker
II
•
•
Bombing of Hanoi and
Haiphong
Late December 11 day
•
AKA Christmas Bombing
•
Heaviest Bomb raidings
Le Duc Tho of N. Vietnam
Henry Kissinger OF US
Meet to reach an agreement
Operation Linebacker
• January 27, 1973
• Paris Peace Accord signed
• Same terms that had been
outline before “Christmas
Bombing”
• Officially ended the war in
Vietnam
• No Celebrations
• Only an armed truce that
would not last long