The Vietnam War

(1957-1975)

Participants

Us United States South Vietnam

RVN = Republic of Vietnam

Thailand Australia New Zealand South Korea Philippines

Participants

Them North Vietnam

NLF

National Liberation Front

South Vietnamese opposition movement with guerrilla military

AKA Viet Cong

USSR

Participants UK and Canada

refused to participate

Laos and Cambodia officially neutral Ho Chi Minh Trail

Network of roads built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to provide supplies for Viet Cong and NVA

US could not block because of neutrality status

Terminology “Charlie”

Viet Cong Vietnam Cong San Vietnamese Communist

“Victor Charlie” Military phonetics

A = alpha B = bravo C = charlie

DMZ-Demilitarized Zone Separated North and South Vietnam an officially recognized area from which

all soldiers, weapons, and military installations have been removed after an agreement to stop fighting

Terminology

Domino Theory If South Vietnam fell, other nations would follow

Fear that caused support for the war

Conscription- Mandatory military service The Draft- (1969 to 1972) thousands of American

soldiers were selected through a lottery.

Citizens were expected to go fight in the Vietnam War.

Location

Ground war fought in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

Bombing campaign in North Vietnam

Why did it start?

North Vietnam was communist and very agriculturally successful

US afraid communism would spread, that South Vietnam would give in to pressure from North Vietnam

Fighting through Vietnam would allow US and Russia to battle without the threat of nuclear weapons (or direct conflict)

US Involvement

Escalation (gradual process)

Involvement began with Eisenhower, through Kennedy’s administration, and increased dramatically with Johnson’s administration

Involvement sustained, then decreased through Nixon’s administration

No formal declaration of war

Lyndon B. Johnson

Expanded and transformed US involvement

Sent “military advisers” to Vietnam, not troops

Because of his handling of the war and the public’s response, he did not seek a second term in 1968

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

August 7, 1964 Gave Johnson support to escalate US

involvement in Vietnam “as the President shall determine”

Johnson justified sending troops because he said situation was the same as in Berlin, Korea, Lebanon, and Cuba (very threatening); this was not true

The First Troops March 8, 1965 3500 Marines became the first American

combat troops to land in South Vietnam Added to 25,000 “military advisers”

already in place By the end of July, Johnson announced

an increase in the number of troops (from 75,000 to 125,000)

August 18, 1965: Operation Starlite First major American ground battle

End of 1965: 184,000 troops in Vietnam August 1966: 429,000 troops in Vietnam

Tet Offensive Misleading the public

Johnson, Gen. William Westmoreland (US Army Chief of Staff) told American public we were winning, that the enemy was on the verge of collapse

January 30, 1968 Named after the most important Vietnamese holiday North Vietnam had declared a ceasefire for the holiday A series of major attacks by communist forces in the Vietnam

War. Nearly every major city in South Vietnam was attacked 1100 US dead Turning point in the war

Tet Offensive

American people began to believe they were being misled Westmoreland replaced

Had evaluated missions based on body count

General Creighton Abrams

More open with the public

Tactics more successful in Veitnam

Too late to sway public opinion

The Draft Deferment

College (had to attend to age 26 to avoid draft)

Marriage Medical exemptions Peace Corps Draft deemed unfair

because often poor, those without connections were drafted

To make the draft more random, draft lottery was imposed in 1970; birthdays chosen randomly (if born on that day, you were drafted)

Draft dodgers Canada and Sweden

Richard Nixon

Elected 1968 Began process of

slow disengagement Wanted to build up

South Vietnamese army to fight the war on their own

Vietnamization Nixon Doctrine

Fewer troop deaths, more bombs dropped than during Johnson’s administration

The end of the war

January 15, 1973: Nixon announced suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam

January 27, 1973: Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict

Returning soldiers not treated as heroes

Aftermath

War Powers Resolution 1973: curtailed President’s ability to

commit troops to action without first obtaining congressional approval

1975: North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and quickly consolidated the country under its control July 2, 1976: Socialist Republic of

Vietnam created Vietnam is still communist today

Aftermath continued

Death toll Vietnamese

2 million civilians 1.1 million fighters

Americans 58,226 killed or

missing in action 153,303 wounded

Vietnam is still recovering One of the poorest

countries in the world