The Vietnam War By: Amber Cyrankowski. About the Vietnam War The Vietnam war was also known as the...

The Vietnam War

By: Amber Cyrankowski

About the Vietnam War• The Vietnam war was also known as

the Second Indochina War, it was a Cold war military conflict that occurred in three countries

1. Vietnam

2. Laos

3. Cambodia

• This war lasted from November 1, 1955- April 30, 1975 when Saigon fell.

About the Vietnam War

• The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment.

• Capture of Saigon1. April 1975 2. Marked the end of the Vietnam war.3. North and South Vietnam were

reunified the next year.

Background 1949

• 1888, the area of the current-day nations of Cambodia and Vietnam was made into the colony of French Indochina.

• During WW2 Colonial authorities became Vichy French, allies of the German-Italian Axis powers.

1. French collaborated with the Japanese forces.

2. Collaborated after their invasion of French Indochina during 1940

3. The Japanese had ultimate power!

Background 1949

• This situation continued until the German forces were expelled from France and the French Indochina colonial authorities started holding secret talks with the free French.

1. Feared they could no longer trust the French• During 1944-1945, a deep famine struck northern

Vietnam because a combination of poor weather and Japanese exploitation.

1. Out of a population of 10 million in the affected area.

2. Urged the population to ransack rice warehouses and refuse to pay their taxes.

Background 1949

• August 1945, Japanese defeated and surrendered unconditionally.

1. Power vacuum created.• The United Kingdom belonged to the

French.• French did not have

1. Ships

2. Weapons

To retake Vietnam

Exit of The French, 1950

• Created Military assistance (requests for)1. Weapons 2. Expertise3. Laborers• They wanted to send 60 B-29’s from US

bases in the region.1. 150 fighters launched 2. Seventh fleet carriers 3. Bomb commander- Vo Nguyen Giap’s

position

Transition Period

• Civilians were given the opportunity to freely move between two states, for a 300-day period.

• Northerners feared persecution by the communists.

• The North created a “Land Reform”

1. 8,000 “class enemies” were executed

Transition Period

• Their were no free elections

• Ngo Dinh Diem said

1. “How can we expect ‘free elections’ to be held in the communist North?

Diem

Rule

• 1955, Diem launched the “Denounce the Communists” campaign

1. Communists and anti-government elements were

• Arrested

• Imprisoned

• Tortured

• Or executed

Insurgency in the south,1956

• Four hundred government officials were murdered in 1957 alone.

• Terror 1. Aimed at local government officials • Soon symbols1. Schoolteachers2. Health workers3. And agricultural officials.

Insurgency in the south,1956January 1959, the North’s Central

Committee issued a secret resolution authorizing an “armed struggle”.- (irregular warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes.)

1. This authorized the Southern communists to begin large-scale operations against the South Vietnamese military.

• North Vietnam supplied troops and supplies in dear, and the infiltration of men and weapons from the North began along

1. The Ho Chi Minh Trail

During John F. Kennedy’s Administration, 1961-1963

• He won the 1960 U.S presidential election.• Ambitious pledge1. Pay any price 2. Bear any burden3. Meet any hardship4. Support any friend5. Oppose any foe• In order to assure the survival and success

of liberty.

• Kennedy believed that the forces such as Green Berets would be effective in a “brush fire” war in Vietnam.

• He faced a three-part crisis1. The failure of The Bay of pigs invasion2. The construction of the Berlin Wall3. The Pathet Lao communist movement• He thought it would ruin U.S credibility and

his own reputation.• Kennedy drew a line in the sand to prevent

a communist victory in Vietnam.

The South Vietnamese military

• They remained poor1. Bad leadership 2. Corruption3. Political promotions• These 3 things all played a part in

emasculating (remove the testicles of a male) the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

• Caused a major crisis.

The Major crisis they faced

• Kennedy increased military assistance• U.S-South Vietnamese program tried to resettle the

rural population into fortified camps.• The aim was to set apart the population from the

insurgents, provide1. Education2. Health care 3. Strengthen the governments hold over the countryside.• The government refused to undertake land reform, so

it left farmers paying high rents to a few wealthy landlords.

Coup and assassinations

• Buddhists were protesting against the ban on the Buddhist flag.

• This resulted in mass protests against politics that gave privileges to the catholic church and its adherents.

• United States would no punish generals by cutting off aid.

Lyndon B. Johnson expands the war in 1963-1969.

• Became president after Kennedy died.

• Took over Kennedy’s plan to expand the war.

• The attacks that he encountered led to relating air strikes.

Escalation and ground war

• U.S air Force needed more protection

• Vietnamese could not provide security

• When the U.S Marines were sent away to South Vietnam, that’s when the American ground war started.

• South Vietnamese forces were defeated.

There were 3 phases

1. Phase 1- Commitment of U.S (and other free world) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965.

2. Phase 2- U.S and allied forces mount major offensive actions to seize the initiative to destroy guerrilla and organized enemy forces.

3. Phase 3- If the enemy persisted, a period of 12-18 months following phase 2 would be required for the final destruction of enemy forces remaining in remote base areas.

• Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to contribute troops.

1. Australia2. New Zealand 3. The Republic of Korea4. Thailand5. Philippines• All agreed to send troops.• Canada and the United Kingdom declined his

troops request.

Tet Offensive

• When they lured General Westmoreland’s forces into the hinterland at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri Province, in January 1968, the NVA and NLF broke the truce that had traditionally accompanied the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

• They launched the surprise Tet offensive in the hope of sparking a national uprising.

• Over 100 cities were attacked, with assaults on General Westmoreland’s headquarters and the US Embassy, Saigon.

Tet Offensive

• General Westmoreland had become the public face of the war.

• He was featured on the cover of time magazine three times and was named 1965’s Man of the year!

• On May 1968, despite low expectations, peace talks began between the U.S and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Vietnamization, 1969-1972

• Propaganda leaflets urging the defection of NLF and North Vietnamese to the side of the Republic Of Vietnam.

• On October 10, 1969, Nixon ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace in order to convince the Soviet Union that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam war.

Vietnamization, 1969-1972

• The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the U.S

• Nixon attracted to the “silent majority” of Americans to support the war.

• In 1970, American troops were being taken away from border areas where much more killing took place and instead put along the coast and interior.

Operation Menu: the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos

• Main article: Operation Menu

• The ostensibly neutral Laos had long been the scene of a secret war.

• ARVN forces fled along roads littered with their own dead.

Operation Menu: the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos

• As peace protests spread across the U.S, illusions grew in ranks.

1. Drug use increased

2. Race relations grew tense

3. The number of soldiers disobeying officers rose.

Opposition to the Vietnam War: 1962-1975

• Unilateral withdrawal would contribute to a lessening of

1. Tensions in the region

2. Less human bloodshed

• Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U.S anti-communism

1. Imperialism

2. Colonialism

• Anti-war protests ended with the final withdrawal of troops after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.

Exit of the Americans: 1973-1975

• The U.S began drastically reducing their troops support in South Vietnam during the final years of “Vietnamization”.

• U.S military forces withdrew from South Vietnam and prisoners were exchanged.

• Oil price shock of October 1973

• Caused great damage to the South Vietnamese economy.

• Gerald Ford took over as U.S president on August 9, 1974, after President Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal.

Gerald Ford and Nixon

• On December 13, 1974 north Vietnamese forces attacked Route 14 in Phuoc Long province.

• At the start of 1975 the South Vietnamese had 3 times as much artillery and twice the number of tanks and armoured cars as the opposition.

Campaign 275

• On March 10, 1975 general Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery.

• On March 31, after a battle, Hue fell.

• VPA troops were poised to attack the suburbs.

Final North Vietnamese offensive

• At the time of the peace agreement the U.S agreed to replace equipment on a one-by-one basis.

• By the end April, the army of the Republic of South Vietnam had collapsed on all fronts.

• Thousands of refugees streamed southward, ahead of the main communist onslaught.

Fall of Saigon

• On April 30, 1975, VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing key buildings and installations.

• A tank crashed through the gates of the presidential palace, and at 11:30 a.m local time the NLF flag was raised above it.

Peoples Republic of China

• In 1950, the peoples republic oh china extended diplomatic recognition to the Viet Minh’s Democratic republic of Vietnam and sent weapons, as well as military advisors.

South Korea

• On the anti-communist side, South Korea had the 2nd largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam after the U.S.

• About 5,000 South Koreans were killed and 11,000 were injured during the war.

Australia and New Zealand

• They were both close allies of the U.S and members of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, sent ground troops to Vietnam.

• Australia began by sending advisors to Vietnam, and combat troops were committed in 1965.

Philippines

• Troops were primarily engaged in medical and other civilian pacification projects.

Soviet Union

• They supplied North Vietnam with medical • Supplies• Arms• Tanks• Planes • Helicopters• Artillery• Anti- aircraft missiles• And other military equipment.

North Korea

• North Korea sent weapons, ammunition and 2 million sets of uniforms to their comrades in North Korea.

Canada and the ICC

• Canadian, Indian, Polish troops formed the International Control Commission, which was supposed to monitor the 1954 ceasefire agreement.

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Taiwan also provided military training units for the South Vietnamese diving units, later known as the Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai or Frogman unit in english.

Effect on the United States

• American struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention.

• U.S secretary of state Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to president Gerald Ford that they could not help draw the conclusion that their armed forces were not suited to this kind of war.

• More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam. By war’s end 58,193 soldiers were killed, more than 150,000 were wounded, and at least 21,000 were permanently disabled.

Chemical Defoliation

• The chemicals changed the landscape, caused diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain.

• The defoliants, which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands, included the “Rainbow Herbicided”

• Agent pink• Agent green • Agent purple• Agent blue• Agent white • And agent orange which included dioxin.

Casualties

• In 1995, the Vietnamese government reported that its military forces, including the NLF, suffered 1.1 million dead and 600,000 wounded.

• Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing in operation rolling thunder range from 52,000-182,000.

• The U.S military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war.