WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Chapter #15 – Section #4

Indochina After World War II

The Eastern part of mainland Southeast Asia, or Indochina, was conquered by the French during the 1800s.

The Japanese overran Indochina during WWII, but face fierce resistance in Vietnam, from local guerillas, small groups of loosely organized soldiers making surprise raids.

- The guerillas were determined to be free from all foreign rule.

- Many guerillas, inspired by communists, turned their guns on European colonists who returned after WWII.

After the Japanese were defeated, the French set out in 1946 to re-establish their authority in Indochina.

- In Vietnam, they faced guerilla forces led by Ho Chi Minh, a nationalist and communist who had fought the Japanese.- Ho Chi Minh fought the French in the First Indochina War, winning a surprising victory at the bloody battle of Dienbienphu in 1954. This battle convinced the French to leave Vietnam. - Meanwhile, Cambodia and Laos gained their independence separately.

Vietnam is Divided

North Vietnam South Vietnam

Leader

Government

Supporters

1. In 1954, who decided to divide up Vietnam? Was this division suppose to be temporary or long-term? Explain.

America Enters the Vietnam War

American foreign policy planners saw the situation in Vietnam as part of the global Cold War.

- They developed the domino theory – the view that a communist victory in South Vietnam would cause noncommunist governments in Southeast Asia to fall to communism, like a row of dominoes.

Ho Chi Minh remained determined to unite Vietnam under communist rule.

- He continued to aid the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, the communist rebels trying to overthrow South Vietnam’s government.

- At first, the United States sent only supplies and military advisors to South Vietnam. Later it sent thousands of troops, turning a local conflict into a major Cold War conflict.

The Gulf OF Tonkin Resolution

August 1, 1964, South Vietnamese commandos conducted raids on North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.

-The following day, North Vietnamese attacked a nearby U.S. Navy destroyer, the Maddox, which they mistakenly believed had assisted the South Vietnamese raids.

-Three days later, sailors on the Maddox thought they were attacked for a second time, although it was heavy seas and faulty radar and sonar equipment.

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson reported the attacks to Congress without mentioning the South Vietnamese raids or the doubts about the second attack.

Congress believed the attacks were unprovoked by the North and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7th.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

After the Resolution The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized the President

to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression in Southeast Asia.

After the resolution passed, the U.S. began bombing targets in North Vietnam.

More than 500,000 U.S. soldiers were sent to war. Both the Soviet Union and China sent aid, but no troops to

help North Vietnam. During the Vietnam era, young American men were

required to register for the military draft (80% from lower economic class).

Men were than selected for the draft in a random lottery.- Many saw fighting for their country as their patriotic duty.

- Some men avoided the draft by leaving the country.

Quick-write

The Truman Doctrine of containing communism guided U.S. policy during the Cold War.

Do you think President Johnson was right for NOT disclosing the entire events in the Gulf of Tonkin in order to use military force in communist North Vietnam?

Do you think Congress should have been told the entire sequence of events before being asked to vote on authorizing the President to use force?

Guerrilla War

American forces faced a guerrilla war, as Viet Cong rebels tended to be like local peasants.

They knew the countryside much better than their American soldiers.

Villagers often gave the Viet Cong a safe haven against American troops.

Vietnamese villages turned into military targets because of the close connection between the Viet Cong and the local villagers.

Supplies from North Vietnam came through the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a route through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia.

In response, American troops crossed the border of these nations, drawing them into the war.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

U.S. Response to Guerrilla War

Some of the tactics the Americans used to battle the Viet Cong also harmed much of the rural population.

In an attempt to expose Vietcong tunnels and hideouts in South Vietnam, U.S. planes dropped napalm, a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle.

American planes also sprayed Agent Orange, a leaf-killing toxic chemical that devastated the landscape.

Attempts to control villages caused U.S. soldiers to conduct search-and-destroy missions, uprooting villagers with suspected ties to the Viet Cong, killing their livestock, and burning their villages.

Most villagers fled into cities and refugee camps creating more than 3 million refugees in South Vietnam.

Napalm

Viet Cong Tunnels

Sinking Morale

As the war continued, American morale dropped steadily, as many soldiers turned to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs.

A few soldiers even murdered their superior officers by “fragging” them, an action in which a soldier lobbed a fragmentation grenade (no fingerprints) at an officer during battle.

Continuing corruption of the South Vietnamese government caused Buddhist monks to set themselves on fire.

The Tet Offensive

In 1968, guerilla forces came out of the jungles and attacked American and South Vietnamese forces in cities all across the south.

The assault was unexpected because it took place during Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

The communists lost many of their best troops (32,000) and did not hold or capture any cities against American counterattacks.

The Tet Offensive did mark a turning point in public opinion against the war in the U.S.

Many Americans no longer believed the Johnson administration as they witnessed the Viet Cong attacks happening everywhere on T.V.

The Vietnam War Ends

Civilian deaths by the bombing of North Vietnam, growing American casualties sparked more antiwar protest in the U.S.

Growing numbers of American troops were prisoners of war-(POWs), or missing in action- (MIAs).

America became deeply divided over the war as many Americans continued to support the war, while a growing number of young Americans protested against it.

President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for a second term as president. Richard Nixon was elected president and came under pressure to end the war.

Nixon agreed to the Paris Peace Accord in January 1973, establishing a ceasefire, and withdrawing U.S. troops. North Vietnam agreed to not send any troops in the south.

North Vietnam Wins the War

Two years after American troops had withdrawn from Vietnam, the North Vietnamese conquered South Vietnam.

The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

The North Vietnamese capital, Hanoi became the capital of the reunited nation.

To this day, Vietnam remains communist.

Southeast Asia After the War

After American withdrawal from Vietnam, some dominoes did fall to communism: Cambodia and Laos.

In 1970, the U.S. bombed supply routes in Cambodia and briefly invaded the country.

Afterwards, the Khmer Rouge, a force of Cambodian communist guerillas, gained control of Cambodia and overthrew the government.

Led by the brutal dictator, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge unleashed a reign of terror, forcing people from the cities to farming in fields.

- They slaughtered, starved, or worked to death more than a million Cambodians (about 33% of the population).

In the end, a Vietnamese invasion drove out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and ended the genocide.

Boat People

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

Vietnam Under Communists

In the newly reunited Vietnam, the communist victors imposed harsh rule in the south.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled their country, most in small boats.

Many of these “boat people” drowned. The survivors landed in refugee camps in neighboring

countries, and some settled in the United States. Vietnam was slow to recover due to a lack of resources

and an American-led embargo, or blockage of trade. For years the country struggled in poverty.

Famous Vietnam Photographs