Vietnam War:Containment in Southeast Asia

I. The origins of the Vietnam War.A. our involvement in

Vietnam rested in our belief in

the Domino Theory.

B. Direct U.S involvement starts with the Truman admn. and his containment policy.

FYI: The Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, tried as early as 1919 to gain support from Pres. Wilson to gain “self-determination” from France. We were sympathetic but didn’t help.

FYI: After WWII, Southeast Asian leaders became more pro-communist as the US became more anti-communist. The Indo-China War was fought from 1946 – 1954. The US spent $1 billion a year to support the French government against the spread of communism, and began to send in non-combat troops (advisors).

C. In 1954 France decided that they could no longer control “French Indochina” (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) and pulled out.

D. The Geneva Accords granted French Indochina their independence, and Vietnam was divided at the 17 parallel.

1. North Vietnam: communist Leader: Ho Chi Minh Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Capital: Hanoi

2. South Vietnam: non-communist Leader: Ngo Dinh Diem Republic of Vietnam Capital: Saigon

5. SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Org.) was formed in 1954 and was designed to be a Southeast Asian version of NATO (U.S. was a member)

FYI: It was primarily created to block further Communist gains in Southeast Asia., and it was dissolved on June 30, 1977.

6. Kennedy’s Administration: saw an increase in “advisors/troops” being sent to 16,000.

FYI: The South Vietnamese Pres., Diem, was initially supported by the U.S, was a devout Roman Catholic, but he waged “war” against any political rivals, which included Buddhist. His harsh policies against the Buddhist, as well as, their televised suicides, had drawn national attention to South Vietnam, and over the years had created a backlash against him in South Vietnam.

FYI: Kennedy and his advisors realized that Diem may not be the man to fight communism. It was agreed by all parties concerned, that the U.S. would no longer support Diem.

As a result, a coup d'état took place on November 2, 1963, and Diem and his brother were executed. By all accounts it was reported that Kennedy was shocked by the assass., and before he could ensure a smooth transition with a new regime, Kennedy was assass.

II. Johnson’s Presidency: A. Once Lyndon Johnson took over, a policy of escalation was started.

B. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident: 1. On August 2, the U.S.S. Maddox was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, and then again on August 4, 19642. The second attack was always questionable, and many believe that it did not take place.3. Johnson created his “Pearl Harbor”

moment, and the Vietnam War was on.

4. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the President the power to take “all necessary measures.”

FYI: Since war was never declared, Johnson never had to operate within the guidelines of a real war. So Johnson kept sending more, and more troops into South Vietnam.

5. The controversy over the legality of the war caused two groups to arise:

A. HAWKS: Supported the war.

B. DOVES: Were against the war.

FYI: In February of 1965, in Pleiku, the VC or Viet Cong (National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam or NFL ) attacked United States military base killing 7 marines. Lyndon Johnson ordered aerial bombings in the north and two battalions of marines were sent to Da Nang in South Vietnam (the beginning of the ground war).

FYI: After Pleiku, President Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, which were prolonged air attacks on targets in North Vietnam, so that they would stop supporting the VC. By the end of 1965, over 184,000 troops were in Vietnam. By 1967, the United States had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam and in 1969 there were over 540,000.

6. The major problem confronting the U.S. soldier were the Viet Cong, or VC.

a. South Vietnamese communist.

b. Almost impossible to fight because the U.S. soldiers

didn’t know who they were.

7. The Tet Offensive(1/30/68 – 6/8/68) :

a. In January 1968, on the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, or Tet, the VC and North Vietnamese launched an all out surprise attack on all military bases in South Vietnam.

B. The United States counterattacked and

was victorious, but not before the American people decided that we were losing the “war”.

FYI: What led the U.S. to believe we were losing the war.

FYI: And to make matters worse, the South Vietnamese blew a VC leaders brains out in front of photographers and a film crew. This really disturbed the American people.

8. Vietnam was called or the “5 o’ clock war”, because it was the first war that Americans were seeing the war almost first hand. Every night in the United States, citizens could watch the horrors of war.

a. One such horror was the My Lai Massacre

1. Small S. Viet. village which was believed to be housing 250 VC.

b. Troops moved into the village and killed between 175 to 400 Vietnamese.

c. No VC were found in the village.

FYI. The My Lai Massacre was brutally criticized by American journalist because many of the 175 to 400 killed were elderly, women and children.

9. March 31, 1968, LBJ told the country he would not seek re-election.

FYI. Lyndon Johnson was advised to add 200,000 more troops after The TET Offensive. Johnson had turned against escalation and chose not to send more troops. Johnson realized that the war was a very unpopular war in the United States and realized that the protest against the war had ruined his political career.

FYI: 1968 was one of the most violent years of protest in American history. For example, there were major protest, murders and race riots that occurred in 1968. Many citizens protested against the TET Offensive. Many voters protested because President Johnson choose to not seek re-election, while others celebrated.

FYI: Protest broke out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and many people were injured and arrested. The American people are ready for a change, and Nixon is elected as president. (MLK, Robert Kennedy were assassinated this year).

• Napalm/agent orange: used to kill the vegetation, so that the VC could not take cover.

 

• Ho Chi Minh Trail: supply route of the VC that went into neighboring Laos and Cambodia.

Lottery system: a new method of drafting soldiers base on their birthday; all 366 days of the year were put into a “hat” and drawn. Young men were drafted in the order that their birth date was pulled.

* Prior to the lottery system (1969), draft exemptions were common. If a draftee was in college, graduate school or worked in a certain field (ministers, rabbi’s etc.), he could be exempt.

“If you have the dough, you don’t have to go”. This gave the perception (accurately…?) that the war was only being fought by the poor and working class young men of the U.S. who could not afford college. BUT the lottery system stopped draft exemptions. If a draftee was in college, he had only to the end of his current semester before he had to report. A senior could finish out the year.

III. Nixon’s Presidency• Nixon win’s the election of 1968, and in July

of 1969, implements the Nixon Doctrine, (build up the armed forces of America's allies until they could take responsibility for their own defense). When this doctrine was applied to Vietnam, it became known as Vietnamization, which slowly turned the war over to the South Vietnamese military, and began pulling troops out of Southeast Asia.

• Bombing of Cambodia (Operation Menu): The U.S. began to secretly bomb Cambodia between March of 1969 thru May of 1970. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was the supply routes for several factions that were fighting against the U.S., ran through Cambodia, and the U.S. was suffering severe casualties along the Vietnamese and Cambodian border. When the bombings became public, protests broke out around the country, and on college campuses.

• Most notably:

• *Kent State: On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on protestors, killing four, and wounding 9.

• *Jackson State University: On May 14, 1970, students were protesting, and local and state police were called out. 2 people were killed.

• The Pentagon Papers (1971): the Pentagon Papers was actually a report compiled on U.S./Vietnam relations from 1945 up until the present. If the Pentagon Papers were accurate, it appeared as if the U.S. government had misled the American people from almost day one.

We didn’t get pulled into Vietnam, but rather we instigated and initiated our way into the War. The Papers were leaked, and Nixon tried to stop newspaper(s) from running the story. The U.S. Supreme court allowed the stories to run.

• To ensure that a leak that huge never happened again, Nixon created “The Plumbers”, who were in charge of “stopping leaks”. (They will be the ones to break in the Watergate Hotel, which is what brought Nixon down).

• The 26th amendment is ratified in 1971, and it grants suffrage to those eighteen years of age and older. It had been set at 21, but people began to complain that if an 18 year old can be sent around the world to fight a war, then he should have a “voice” on election day.

• October Peace Talks was when Henry Kissenger, National Secretary Advisor under Nixon, went to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese representative and discuss the ending of the Vietnam War.

• Kissinger thought he had negotiated a reasonable solution, but when he informed South Vietnam of the conditions, they didn’t like them, and made extensive changes. The North Vietnamese got little ticked off, and they broke off negotiations for a ceasefire.

• So Nixon decided that if he bombed them, they would be ready to negotiate, which they were. The bombings were carried out between December 18 – 29, 1972. The bombings were called Operation Linebacker II, but were unofficially called the Christmas Bombings.

• January 1973: a ceasefire is implemented, and U.S. troops are pulled out. (the war is over for the U.S.)

• 1975: N.V. invaded S.V., Saigon fell, and communism became the law of the land.