2. The Three Stages
1. 1945-1964: Assistance to France
and then to South Vietnam
2. 1964-1968: Escalation—US
involvement goes from 15,000
military advisors to 500,000
soldiers under Pres. Johnson
3. Vietnamization: Nixon’s attempt to
achieve “peace with honor”
3. Background
Not a new area of the world in which the
USA held interests
After WWII the French wanted to regain
control over Indochinese peninsula
(Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand)
USA had been supplying Ho Chi Minh
against Japanese—at end of WWII Ho Chi
Minh declares independence for Vietnam,
but France with British aid send in a
military force to re-establish French rule
4. The “Communist Threat”
When France asked USA for help in
regaining colonial rule, Truman said
“no”
But then, the situation changed:
1. Soviet threat in Europe
2. Truman Doctrine
3. Mao Zedong in China
4. Korean War
5. American Involvement in Vietnam
Begins
1950: Truman gave the French $40
million in economic assistance and
military equipment
1950 to 1954: USA gave $2.6 billion
to French, accounting for half the
total cost of the war (400,000 French
troops are losing the war)
Spring 1954: knock out blow—The
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
6. Battle of Dien Bien Phu
10,000 Fr troops were
surrounded, cut off
and captured
Fr pleaded with Ike to
send in ground forces
but he refused on VP
Nixon’s advice
France is defeated and
the Geneva
Conference tried to
restore peace
7. Results of Geneva Accord, 1954
S Vietnam and USA did not sign
Acquiesced to the division of north and south at the 17th
parallel with UN supervision of the cease fire
Viet Minh in North under Ho Chi Minh
French forces in the South
450,000 refugees fled N to S—mostly Roman Catholic
(50,000 went S to N)
UN supervised elections were to be held in Vietnam in 1956
to unify Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh sure to win > USA got involved covertly
CIA supported govt of S Vietnam > Ngo Dinh Diem
Diem cancels elections
SEATO > South East Asia Treaty Organization created for
collective security of region included USA, UK, France,
Australia (no Indochinese states are included)
8. Initial American Involvement
Diem became President of S. Vietnam (Republic
of Vietnam)
Ho Chi Minh’s guerilla units (Viet Cong) began
infiltrating the South
Eisenhower continued to support the Diem
regime and provided equipment, weapons and
1000 US soldiers as advisors to arm, train and
mentor the army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN)
1957: Viet Cong (VC) began active operations in
S. Vietnam (controlling jungles and attacking
towns, cities and ARVN bases)
By 1959, VC had killed 2600 officials and
controlled large portions of countryside
9. Kennedy Administration
1961: 8000 more US
advisors are in SV
Ineffectual: ARVN
units were badly led,
poorly trained and
unmotivated
Without assistance
from USA, South
would lose
Foreign policy
nightmare for
Kennedy
10. Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Problems
Events undermined
Kennedy’s intentions
1961
1. Bay of Pigs fiasco
2. Berlin Wall
3. Commitment of more
forces to Vietnam
4. Sent VP Johnson on
a “fact finding
mission”
11. Result
US covert involvement in the
overthrow and murder of the
corrupt, authoritarian leader
of the South, Diem (ahhh!
Remember the USA had
originally supported him—
yikes!)
Historical debate about the
extent of Kennedy’s support
for actions in Vietnam
(remember the term:
plausible deniability)
USA had no choice but to
start escalation of its
involvement in Vietnam
When Kennedy is
assassinated in November of
1963 in Dallas, the course is
set
12. Escalation 1964-1968
August 1964: USS
Maddox was involved in a
sea battle with N.
Vietnamese torpedo boats
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution:
passed by Congress on
Aug 7 1964, authorized
President Johnson to use
conventional military
forces in Southeast Asia
without a formal
declaration of war
Americans were no longer
“assisting”; they took over
13. Operation Rolling Thunder
An air campaign to
bomb NV into
submission
Thousands of
missions; thousands
of tonnes of bombs
Ground war heated up
as well
Helicopters lifted
ground forces to
remote jungle regions
VC countered with
ambushes
14. Public Opinion Turns
Mounting casualties lead
Americans to question the
cost of this war
Media brought disturbing
images home to USA
“I can’t get out, I can’t finish
with what I’ve got, so what
the hell do I do?” Johnson
Tried to win the war before
the 1968 election
By June 1965, 3600 bombing
missions a month
By the end of 1966, 450,000
American ground troops
Whitehouse tells American
public they are winning
15. The Tet Offensive
January 1968
General Westmoreland had told
the US public that NV were being
“systematically ground down”
USA needed a major victory and
anti-war movement was gaining
momentum
Tet = Vietnamese New Year
During lull in fighting, 85,000 Viet
Cong infiltrated the major cities in
SV—attacked Jan 31
Seized control of key govt
buildings and US embassy in
Saigon
Saigon briefly fell to North
Took 2 weeks to expel invaders
and casualties were high
Westmoreland asked for 200,000
more troops
A turning point…
16. The Tide of War Turns
“The war was fought on many fronts.
At that time, the most important one
was American public opinion.”
General Vo Nguyen Giap (NV)
Americans wondered how a guerilla
army “on the verge of collapse” could
mount a siege of such magnitude
17. Johnson’s Decision
March 31, 1968
President Johnson
went on national
television and
announced:
"I shall not seek, and I
will not accept, the
nomination of my
party for another term
as your president," he
said on that night in
1968.
18. De-escalation and Vietnamization
Johnson suspended
bombing campaign,
opening the door to
negotiations
Nixon won the
November 1968
election (Rep)
Promised to bring
“peace with honor”
and an end to the war
“Vietnamization”: to
turn the war over to
the SV Army and
withdraw US forces
19. Results
Peace talks dragged on
Nixon authorized heaviest bombing raids of the
war as leverage
1970, he authorized secret operations in
Cambodia and Laos to disrupt the NV supply
routes on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Troop withdrawals between 1969-1972
Last US bombing raid was in Aug 1972
Paris Peace Accords signed Jan 1973
Brief ceasefire but fighting began again in 1975;
Saigon captured on April 30
Vietnam reunited under the Hanoi Government
Many refugees fled to escape Communist rule
20. Domestic Impact
Created heightened tensions in an American society that was
already under strain
The media’s role in the criticism of government policies increased
drastically
Encouraged Americans to reconsider their global image
Emergence of a counter culture that demanded social and political
reform
Clear racial and class divisions among those who had to serve and
those who escaped the draft
Reputation of the US army in tatters (Mai Lai Massacre-March
1968)
“It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience
of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate….But it is increasingly clear to
this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to
negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to
their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
…..Walter Cronkite
21. Overall Impact
1964-73: 2 million American served while 500,000 resisted
Divisive; optimism and pride shattered
Fall of the entire peninsula to Communism: Vietnam, then
Cambodia, then Laos
Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot killed approx. 1.5 million
Cambodians
Brought USA and USSR to negotiate SALT
Nixon opened relations with China
Trudeau condemned war and accepted draft dodgers
3 million civilians died
2 million military deaths: 1.1 million NV; 220,000 ARVN;
58,000 US; 2,000 SEATO forces
