Chapter 20: War in Vietnam

Section 1: Origins of the Vietnam War

Text Notes

• The easternmost country of Southeast Asia, Vietnam covers about 130,000 square miles of mostly hills and dense forest. It is bordered on the north by China and on the west by Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam’s population is centered around the Red River Delta.

Le Loi

• Used guerilla warfare to defeat Chinese invaders in the 1400s

• Became new Emperor.

Text Notes

• Vietnam lost its independence during a surge of European imperialism in the mid 1800s. This time the invaders were French. In 1883 the Vietnamese were forced to give the French complete control of their country. France later combined Vietnam with Laos and Cambodia to form French Indochina.

Ho Chi Minh

• Lead the Vietnamese fight for independence.

• Communist.

Vietminh

• The League for the Independence of Vietnam.

France and the Vietminh

• 1946 France and Vietminh were locked in battle.

• Truman refuses to help Vietnam because Ho Chi Minh is communist.

Dien Bien Phu

• A military base in Northwest Vietnam

• Vietminh trapped a French garrison here and cut all supply lines.

• The French surrendered on May 7, 1954

Domino Theory

• The theory that said if one country fell to communism in Asia then they all would.

• Eisenhower warned this.

• JFK agreed with this as well.

Text Notes

• Vietnam was temporally divided at the 17th parallel. Vietminh forces withdrew to the North.

Text Notes

• America channeled aid to South Korea in different ways. In 1954 they formed SEATO, which was designed to help stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

Ngo Dinh Diem

• A former gov’t official under the French.

• Leader of South Vietnam.

Vietcong

• Vietnamese Communists

• Used Guerilla warfare.

• Trying to overthrow Diem in the South,

Text Notes • JFK who became president in 1961, fully agreed with the

domino theory. He sent special forces troops to Vietnam in 1961 to advise the Army of the Republic of Vietnam on more effective ways to fight the communist forces. Although, US advisors fought bravely, Diem continued to alienate South Vietnamese citizens. By late 1963, his regime was in shambles. Buddhists protested his restrictive policies, occasionally by setting themselves on fire. The Kennedy administration concluded that South Vietnam needed new leadership.

Diem’s Overthrow

• US officials quietly encouraged Diem’s overthrow.

• November 1963 Diem and his brother were murdered.

• US advisors were upset b/c they planned to fly Diem out of the country.

Robert S. McNamara

• Secretary of Defense

• Advised LBJ that he would have to increase US military containment South Vietnam to prevent a communist victory.

Text Notes • In 1964 President Johnson faced his first crisis in

Vietnam. On August 2, North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the American destroyer USS Maddox as it patrolled the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. The Maddox was not hit and it returned fire. President Johnson promptly responded to the attack. “aggression by terror against peaceful villages of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression in the high seas against the United States of America”

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Passed by Congress• Gave the president

authority “ to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the US.

Chapter 20: Vietnam WarSection 2: US Involvement Grows

Escalation

• LBJ called for a buildup of military forces in Vietnam

• April 1965 13,700 draftees were notified.

Text Notes

• The most vivid images of the war show soldiers facing the hardships and terrors of battles. Some confronted the enemy in well-defined battles. Others cut their way through the jungles, where they heard, but seldom saw the enemy. Still others waded through rice paddies and searched rural villages for the enemy. Most Americans who went to Vietnam served in support positions. No one was safe. Enemy rockets could and did strike at any time.

Women in Vietnam

• Some 10,000 servicewomen filled noncombat positions, mostly as nurses.

• Nurses faced the horror of battle on a daily basis.

Operation Rolling Thunder

• A bombing campaign against military targets in the North.

• The goal was to weaken the enemy’s will to fight.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

• A network of jungle paths. • The Vietcong used this

trail to bring weapons and supplies to the South.

• The North repaired quickly and built underground shelters.

Defoliants • Chemicals that were

sprayed to strip the land of vegetation.

• Agent orange

• Many veterans still experience side effects from this chemical.

Text Notes

• Sheer numbers were not enough to defeat an enemy who seemed to be everywhere. Aided by the regulars of the North Vietnamese army, the Vietcong struck at US patrols or gov’t held villages and then melted back into the Jungle. Vietnamese peasants who seemed peaceful by day sided with the Vietcong at night.

Search-and-destroyMission

• An attempt to drive the Vietcong from their hideouts.

• Ground patrol would locate the enemy and call air support to kill them.

Pacification

• US policy of moving villagers to refugee camps and then burning their villages.

Text Notes

• By the end of 1967 more than 16,000 Americans had been killed in Vietnam. Thousands more had been injured or disabled. American television news programs showed gruesome images of terrified Vietnamese civilians and dead soldiers. Some Americans demanded that the military be allowed to do whatever it took to win. Others wanted the U.S. to pull out of Vietnam.

Hawks and Doves

• Doves-people who opposed the war

• Hawks- people who supported the war’s goals.

Students for a Democratic Society

• Student group that actively protested the Vietnam War.

• Anti-war protesters made up a small percentage.

J. William Fulbright

• Sharply criticized the Johnson administration of being too extreme.

Chapter 20: The Vietnam War

Section 3: The War Divides America

Text Notes

• During the war more than 2 million Americans served in Vietnam. In the beginning most were professional soldiers who were already enlisted in the armed forces. As the demand for troops grew, more and more draftees were shipped to Vietnam. One out of four young men who registered for the draft was excused from service for health reasons. The other 30% non health related deferments.

Text Notes

• January 30, 1968, marked the start of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. In the past years the holiday had been honored by a lull in fighting. However, late that night, as most South Vietnamese and their allies slept, Vietcong guerillas and North Vietnamese troops struck. They crept from their jungle camps and city hideouts to execute a planned strike.

Tet Offensive

• North Vietnam expected to bring down South Vietnam.

• The north was disappointed when more than 40,000 communist soldiers lay dead.

William Westmoreland

• Commander of the US forces in Vietnam.

• He described the offensive as a Vietcong defeat.

• However the Vietcong remained strong in places.

Text Notes

• The political effect of the offensive was stunning. It shook US confidence by revealing that no part of South Vietnam was secure.

• Walter Cronkite• “ I thought we were winning the war, what the

H*** is going on?”

Text Notes

• After the Tet offensive, three out of four Americans disapproved of President Johnson’s conduct of the war. With the presidential election nearing, Johnson was under attack from all sides.

Eugene McCarthy

• Senator (Minnesota)

• A critic of the war who challenged Johnson in the upcoming election.

Bobby Kennedy

• He challenged Johnson for the democratic nomination in the upcoming presidential election.

Text Notes

• Shaken by the division in his party, President Johnson made a shocking announcement to the nation on March 31, 1968. Physically and emotionally exhausted, Johnson declared that he would not seek re-election. He explained that he wanted to spend his last months in office trying to end the war.

California Primary 1968

Sirhan Sirhan

• Shot Bobby Kennedy in California at his victory party.

• Palestinian• Kennedy has just

won the California primary a crucial state.

Text Notes

• Democrats meet in Chicago to decide who their nomination was going to be. They settled on Vice president Humphrey. Meanwhile, 10,000 anti-war protesters had massed in the city and rallied in Grant Park.

Richard Daley

• Chicago’s mayor who ordered helmeted police to clear out the protesters.

• The police clubbed protesters and used tear gas.

Richard Nixon

• Won 1968 election.

• Said he had a plan to end the war.

Henry Kissinger

• Nixon’s key foreign policy advisor.

Vietnamization

• Kissinger and Nixon’s plan to end the war.

• Involved Turing over the fighting to the South Vietnamese while gradually pulling out US troops.

Text Notes

• Secretly President Nixon planned to expanded the war into neutral Cambodia to cut off the North Vietnamese supply lines. Early in 1969 Nixon ordered the widespread bombing of Cambodia. He wanted to show them the US was still willing to use force. Congress did not even know about this. Once again the war was intensified.

Chapter 20: Vietnam

Section 4: The War Ends

Text Notes

• By 1968, many soldiers had been killed or injured by Vietcong posing as civilians.

My Lai

• March 16 1968• Lt. William Calley’s unit

opened fire and killed unarmed civilians.

• 400-500 Vietnamese civilians were killed.

• Lt. Calley was convicted by a military court for his actions.

Text Notes

• In August 1969 Hennery Kissinger and Vietnam's Le Duc Tho meet secretly in Paris to begin negations aimed at finding a way to end the war.

Kent State University May 4, 1970

• Demonstrators threw rocks & bottles at members of the National Guard.

• One guardsmen thought he heard a sniper’s shot and fired his rifle.

• This prompted other National Guardsmen to discharge a volley of fire into a crowd of protesters.

• 4 people were dead.

Pentagon Papers

• New York Times

• Reveled that American leaders involved the US in Vietnam w/o fully informing the American people and occasionally even lied to Congress.

Twenty Six Amendment

• Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

• 1971• Gave many who

were drafted into Vietnam the right to vote.

Text Notes

• October 1972 • North Vietnam offered a peace plan that

would end the war and pull U.S. troops out of Vietnam.

• Thieu South Vietnam’s current president and the U.S. rejected the plan.

• Nixon responded by ordering round the clock bombing.

1972 Presidential Election

• Nixon won by a landslide.

Paris Peace Accords

• January 27, 1973• Negotiators in Paris called for a cease fire. • US troops would be pulled from Vietnam. • U.S. pledged to help rebuild Vietnam. • South Vietnam’s gov’t would remain in power.

Text Notes

• Two years after U.S. forces withdrew, South Vietnam’s gov’t collapsed. In January 1975, North Vietnamese troops overran the northern part of South Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally.

Text Notes

• One of the most visible tragedies of the war was the fate of its veterans. No parades celebrated the return of soldiers from Vietnam. Veterans often became targets for anger, guilt, or shame of fellow citizens frustrated by the war. The public’s negative reaction enraged and demoralized many veterans.

Vietnam Veterans

• More than 2 million Americans were involved in the Vietnam war.

• More than 58,000 died. • More than 300,000 were wounded.• About 2,500 were missing in action.• Medical advances meant that many soldiers

were paralyzed or severely disabled.

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial

• 1982• More than 58,000

names of those who died in Vietnam are inscribed in the wall.

Maya Lin

• Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

War Powers Act

• 1973• Restricted the

president’s war making powers.

• Had to report to Congress within 48 hours before committing American troops.