his 360 lsn 34 vietnam the big war and the vietnam syndrome

7/29/2019 HIS 360 Lsn 34 Vietnam the Big War and the Vietnam Syndrome

1/39

Vietnam:

The Big War and the Vietnam

Syndrome

Lsn 23


2/39

ID & SIG

Abrams, Cambodia, Cronkite, Johnson,

Operation Junction City, Kent State,

search and destroy, Tet Offensive,

Vietnam Syndrome, Vietnamization


3/39

Search and Destroy

North Vietnamese

Settled in for protracted

struggle

Retreated to sanctuaries

Fought only when it was totheir advantage to do so

Targeted US will and South

Vietnamese weakness

US Concentrated on large-scale

search and destroy missionsagainst enemy base areas

To find and smash each

[enemy base camp], one byone, is an essential task, aprime object in conclusivelysuccessful campaigning. (DAPam 4525-2, 1967)

Often meant massive bombing

followed by ground troopssurrounding the area andhelicopter-borne troops flyingit to clear it


4/39

Search and Destroy

Search and destroyoperations were designedto find, fix, flush, and

finish the enemy They came to represent

the US trying to fight theBig War with large unitsstomping through the

jungle trying to findillusive small guerrillagroups who would fightonly on their own terms


5/39

Search and Destroy: Junction City

Feb 22 to May 14, 1967

Largest operation in

Vietnam to date Primary mission was to

search for and thendestroy the Central

Office of South Vietnam(COSVN) and Viet Congand North Vietnamese

Army installations


6/39

Junction City: Phase 1

Phase I began on 22February with five U.S.brigades forming ahorseshoe shaped cordonin the western half of War

Zone C. 25th Division would block on

the west along the Cambodianborder

1st Infantry Division (with the

173rd Brigade attached)would block along the borderon the north and on the eastalong Provincial Route 4


7/39


One task force

of the 173rd Bde

conducted anairborne assault

and two other

battalions

assaulted byhelicopter to

seal off the

Cambodian

border


8/39


On D plus 1 a brigade ofthe 25th Division and the11th Armored Cavalry

Regiment (attached tothe 25th), which hadpositioned themselves onthe southern edge of thehorseshoe the previous

day, attacked north intothe horseshoe.

The horseshoe forcesconducted search anddestroy operations in

their areas.


9/39


Simultaneous with

the search, a

Special Forces

and CivilianIrregular Defense

Group camp near

Prek Klok was

established forfuture interdiction

of enemy supply

and infiltration

routes in War

Zone C.

An airstrip capable of handling C-130's

would be constructed at the camp and a

second similar airfield would be constructed

in the vicinity of Katum. These facilities

would facilitate future operations in the

area.


10/39


During theoperation, particularattention wasdevoted tosearching suspectedlocations of thepolitical and militaryelements of theCentral Office of

South Vietnam. A thorough

interrogation of allpersonsapprehended was

conducted.

Stars and Stripesphotograph of a1st Infantry Div soldier in the

entrance of a tunnel leading to a

VC headquarters during Operation

Junction City.


11/39


During Phase 2, II Field Force elements focused

their attention on the eastern portion of War

Zone C, conducting search and destroy

operations against COSVN, Viet Cong, andNorth Vietnamese forces and installations.

The Saigon River was bridged at its

intersection with Route 246 west of An Loc.

At that site the Special Forces and Civilian

Irregular Defense Group camp with an airstrip

for C-130s was built.


12/39


In Phase 3, JunctionCity was reduced toa brigade-size

operation in thevicinity of Tay Ninhcity in the southernportion of War ZoneC

The operationalcontrol for this phasewas passed from IIField Force to the25th Infantry Division

CPT George Joulwan shows LTC

Alexander Haig radios and other material

found during Operation Junction City


13/39

Junction City: Results

North Vietnamese

2,728 enemy killed and 34 prisoners taken.

139 Chieu Hoiralliers and 65 detainees

100 crew-served weapons, 491 individual weapons,and thousands of rounds of ammunition, grenades,and mines captured

More than 5,000 bunkers and military structureswere destroyed

Over 810 tons of rice and nearly 40 tons of otherfood-stuffs such as salt and dried fish wereuncovered

Nearly one-half million pages of assorteddocuments were taken


14/39

Junction City: Results

US 282 killed and 1,576

wounded

3 tanks, 21 armoredpersonnel carriers, 12trucks, 4 helicopters,5 howitzers, and 2quad-.50 machine

guns and carriersdestroyed

But the objective ofdestroying theCOSVN forces was

not met


15/39

Reasons for COSVN Escape

The proximity of a privileged sanctuary to thereported locations of COSVN and Headquarters,9th VC Division.

The extreme difficulty of establishing a seal withsufficient troop density to deny infiltration routesto VC units thoroughly familiar with the dense

jungle terrain.

The difficulty of gaining complete surprise, as aresult of extensive repositioning of troops andlogistical support prior to D-Day, in spite of theefforts devoted to deception measures. Major General John Hay, CG 1st Infantry Division


16/39

Junction City

The official Army historyconcludes JUNCTION CITYconvinced the enemy commandthat continuing to base mainforce units in close proximity tothe key population areas wouldbe increasingly foolhardy. Fromthat time on the enemy madeincreasing use of Cambodian

sanctuaries for his bases,hospitals, training centers, andsupply depots.A turning pointin the war had been reached. Vietnam Studies: Cedar Falls-

Junction City: A Turning Point,

Rogers, 1989.

President Nixon during a

press conference on

operations in Cambodia

in 1970.


17/39

Tet Offensive

On January 30, 1968, theNorth Vietnamese

escalated to Phase III, the

War of Movement

Attack gained surprise bycoinciding with the

Vietnamese lunar new year

holiday

Designed to foster

antigovernment uprisings

against the South

Vietnamese


18/39

Tet Offensive

84,000 VietCong and NorthVietnameseattacked 36 of43 provincialcapitals, 5 of 6autonomous

cities, 34 of 242district capitals,and at least 50hamlets


19/39

Reasons for North Vietnams Lack of

Tactical Success in Tet By attacking everywhere, the

North Vietnamese had superior

strength nowhere (violation of

mass)

Inflexible Viet Cong command

and control system could not

respond to late announcements

of timings and objectives from

the North Vietnamese Army

(unity of command)

North Vietnamese wrongly

assumed South Vietnamese

were on the verge of a general

uprising (objective)

Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of

the director of the South

Vietnamese national police

executing a VC prisoner in Saigon

during Tet


20/39

Reasons for the U.S. Tactical

Success in Tet Technology gave the US a

strategic mobility that

allowed it to respond to

multiple threats (maneuver)

When the North

Vietnamese came out and

fought en masse in a

traditional war of movement,the US could bring to bear

its overwhelming firepower

in a strategy of annihilation

(mass)

Helicopters gave the US the ability

to cover all types of terrain,

maneuver over large areas, react

quickly to enemy attacks, reinforce

embattled units, and conduct raids

into enemy territory


21/39

Back to Insurgency Phase II Previously complacent South Vietnamese population

was for the first time made to feel involved in the war effort

Local insurgency movement suffered a devastating loss

when it surfaced to assume leadership of a general

uprising that never materialized Clandestine shadow government, years in the building,

was largely destroyed

Tactical military defeat for North Vietnam

By coming into the open, the enemy had exposed

itself to massive American firepower and lost 137,000

killed in the first nine months of 1968

Allowed US to practice the American way of war


22/39

Overall Results of Tet

Tactical defeat for NorthVietnam

North Vietnamese

32,000 killed and 6,000

captured

US and South

Vietnamese 4,000 killed

But a strategic victory

I thought we were

winning this war!(Walter Cronkite)

Dramatic shift in public

opinion in US

Returning from Vietnam after Tet, WalterCronkite reported, It seems now more

certain than ever that the bloody

experience of Vietnam is a stalemate

and then urged the government to open

negotiations with the North Vietnamese.


23/39

Domestic Issues


24/39

Societal Changes

Country Joe

McDonald at

Woodstock, 1969

Martin Luther King

delivers his I have a

dream speech in 1963

Gloria Steinem

helped found Ms

magazine in 1971


25/39

War Protests


26/39

President Johnson

President Lyndon B. Johnson

listens to tape sent by Captain

Charles Robb from Vietnam,

July 31, 1968.

Democratic delegates protest the

Johnson Administrations policies

in Vietnam at the 1968

Democratic National Convention

in Chicago.


27/39

President Nixon

Richard Nixon was electedpresident in 1968 campaigningfor peace with honor

Under Nixon the process ofVietnamization the gradual

transfer of primaryresponsibility of the war to theSouth Vietnamese thatJohnson had begun on a smallscale after Tet wasaccelerated

Nixons involvement inWatergate, his impeachment,and resignation hamstrung hisability to influence peacenegotiations through sustained

offensive operations

Nixon was succeeded by

Gerald Ford. By this point

the US was traumatized by

war-weariness and

economic recession. Ford

had almost no maneuver

room to help the South

Vietnamese.


28/39

My Lai

On March 16, 1968, aninfantry company enteredthe village of My Lai

They found no insurgentsbut, being psychologicallyprepared for battle and

poorly disciplined, theyproceeded to kill between347 and 504 mostly oldmen, women, and children

Word of the massacre didnot reach the American

public until November 1969when it then fueled nationaloutrage and furtherundermined support for thewar


29/39

Cambodia

On April 29, 1970,South Vietnamesetroops entered theParrots Beak whichextends into South

Vietnam to within 30miles of Saigon

Three days laterAmerican and SouthVietnamese forces

entered the FishHook, anotherpromontory furthernorth


30/39

Cambodia

President Nixon limited the depth of US penetrations to21 miles and specified that all US forces had to be out ofCambodia within 60 days

In all 31,000 US and 43,000 South Vietnamese troops

entered Cambodia The operation was a tactical and operational success

Many communists fled from their sanctuaries andwere denied the use of the important port atSihanoukville

More than 11,000 North Vietnamese were killedcompared to only 337 American deaths

However, it sparked anti-war protests in the US


31/39

Kent State and Jackson State

Four students were killed and nine wounded at Kent State

on May 4, 1970 and two students were killed at Jackson

State during protests against a number of issues to include

US operations in Cambodia


32/39

Defeat

The US concluded apeace agreement with the

North Vietnamese in

1973, but the South

Vietnamese continuedfighting until April 30,

1975 when the North

Vietnamese captured

Saigon

Throughout the 1970s and

1980s boat people fled

Vietnam

Some 823,000 found

refuge in the US

Americans and South Vietnamese

who had worked for the US are

evacuated from Saigon


33/39

Legacy and Lessons


34/39

Legacy and Lessons

Sophisticated weaponry and conventional

forces have limits in low intensity conflict

The restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs)

and political considerations of limited warhamper military operations

Domestic support is critical

You can win the battles and lose the war Vietnam syndrome effects military and

diplomatic operations until finally exorcised

by Desert Storm.

Well take about that in the Lesson 38.


35/39

Carl von Clausewitz(review from Lsn 2)

Used a trinitarian analysisconsisting of (1) primordialviolence, hatred, andenmity; (2) the play of

chance and probability;and (3) wars element ofsubordination to rationalpolicy

Often loosely expressedas the people, themilitary, and thegovernment government military

people


36/39

Vietnam and Clausewitzs Trinity

People Military Govt

US

NorthVietnam


37/39

Vietnam and Clausewitzs Trinity

People Military Govt

US Diminishingsupport

Conventionaland attrition

strategy

Limited war

NorthVietnam

Long-termcommitment

Guerrilla andexhaustion

strategy

Total war


38/39

Vietnam Today

Vietnam remains communist

However, since 2001, it has committed to

economic liberalization and is trying to

modernize the economy and to produce

more competitive, export-driven industries

An April 28, 2005 article in the Economist

was aptly titled America Lost, CapitalismWon


39/39

Next

Student Presentations

his 360 lsn 34 vietnam the big war and the vietnam syndrome

Documents