PART D: OUTBREAK AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIETNAM WAR
Outbreak of War - Gulf of Tonkin Incident
● On 2 August 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the USS Maddox, an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin.
● Johnson announced to the US Congress that American ships were attacked by hostile forces, and it was necessary to take decisive action in reply.
● The US Congress reacted by passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving Johnson the power to 'take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression and achieve peace and security'.
● This time, US marines and combat troops, instead of advisers, were deployed to engage in battle in Vietnam.
● The Gulf of Tonkin Incident marked the escalation of American involvement in South Vietnam, which led to direct US military intervention 🡪 The incident escalated into a full-scale war, pitting American and South Vietnamese forces against North Vietnamese forces.
● On 8 March 1965, 3500 US marines, combat troops rather than advisers, came ashore at Da Nang. America was at war in Vietnam.
Strategies to Fight the Vietnam War (Viet Cong)
● In early 1965 the Viet Cong had about 170,000 soldiers.
● They were well supplied with weapons and equipment from China and the USSR, but they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned by the South Vietnamese forces and their US allies.
o The Communist forces were no match for the US and South Vietnamese forces in open warfare. In November 1965 in the La Dreng Valley, US forces killed 2000 Viet Cong for the loss of 300 troops.
- Guerilla Warfare
Ho Chi Minh changed tactics to guerilla warfare 🡪 believed that superior forces could be defeated by guerrilla tactics.
o Retreat when the enemy attacks; raid when the enemy camps; attack when the enemy tires; pursue when the enemy retreats.
● Guerrilla warfare was a nightmare for the US army.
o Guerrillas did not wear uniform.
o They had no known base camp or headquarters.
o They worked in small groups with limited weapons.
o They were hard to tell apart from the peasants in the villages.
o They attacked and then disappeared into the jungle, into the villages or into their tunnels
o The aim of guerrilla attacks was to wear down the enemy soldiers and wreck their morale.
o Very effective: US soldiers lived in constant fear of ambushes or booby traps.
- Support from Civilians
● Ho knew how important it was to keep the population on his side.
o The Viet Cong fighters were expected to be courteous and respectful to the Vietnamese peasants.
o They often helped the peasants in the fields during busy periods.
o BUT the Viet Cong could be ruthless - they were quite prepared to kill peasants who opposed them or who co-operated with their enemies.
o They also conducted a campaign of terror against the police, tax collectors, teachers and any other employees of the South Vietnamese government.
o Between 1966 and 1971 the Viet Cong killed an estimated 27,000 civilians.
- Commitment + Continuous Access to Supplies
● The greatest strength of the Viet Cong fighters was that they simply refused to give in.
o The Viet Cong depended on supplies from North Vietnam that came along the Ho Chi Minh trail. US and South Vietnamese planes bombed this constantly, but 40,000 Vietnamese worked to keep it open whatever the cost.
o The total of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese dead in the war has been estimated at 1 million - far higher than US losses 🡪 a price that Ho Chi Minh was prepared to pay.
o Whatever the casualties, there were replacement troops available.
Strategies to Fight the Vietnam War (USA)
- Bombing
● The USA stepped up its military presence in South Vietnam by increasing the number of troops deployed in Vietnam from 23,300 at the end of 1964 to 184,300 at the end of 1965.
● On 7 February 1965 the USA launched operation Rolling Thunder which lasted till 1972.
● Rolling Thunder involved extensive bombing raids on military and industrial targets in North Vietnam, transportation networks and ports to damage and disrupt North Vietnam's supply routes as well as towns and cities in North and South Vietnam.
● To some extent bombing was effective.
o Damaged North Vietnam's war effort and it disrupted supply routes.
o Enabled the USA to strike at Communist forces even when it was reducing US ground forces in Vietnam after 1969.
o From 1970 to 1972, intense bombing campaigns against Hanoi (North Vietnam's capital) and the port of Haiphong forced the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table.
● However, US air power could not defeat the Communists - it could only slow them down as the Viet Cong continued to operate its supply lines.
● Even after major air raids on North Vietnam in 1972, the Communists were still able to launch a major assault on the South.
- Use of Chemical Weapons
● The USA then changed their strategy to using chemical weapons and search-and-destroy raids as the war progressed.
● The US developed a powerful chemical weapon called Agent Orange – a sort of highly toxic 'weedkiller'.
o It was used to destroy the jungle where the Viet Cong hid.
o The Americans used 82 million litres of Agent Orange to spray thousands of square kilometres of jungle.
● Napalm was another widely-used chemical weapon.
o It destroyed jungles where guerrillas might hide.
o It also burned through skin to the bone.
o Many civilians and soldiers were also killed by these chemical weapons.
- Search and destroy
● The US commander General Westmoreland developed a policy of search and destroy.
● He established secure and heavily defended US bases in the south of the country and near to the coasts.
● From here, US and South Vietnamese forces launched search-and-destroy raids from helicopters.
● They would descend on a village and destroy any Viet Cong forces they found.
● Soldiers had to send back reports of body counts.
● Search-and-destroy missions did kill Viet Cong soldiers, but there were problems:
o The raids were often based on inadequate information.
o Inexperienced US troops often walked into traps.
o Innocent villages were mistaken for Viet Cong strongholds.
o Civilian casualties were extremely high in these raids. For every Viet Cong weapon captured by search-and-destroy, there was a body count of six. Many of these were innocent civilians.
o Search-and-destroy tactics made the US and South Vietnamese forces very unpopular with the peasants. It pushed them towards supporting the Viet Cong.
Morale of the American Troops
● The failure to defeat the PLAF and the long-drawn war affected the morale of the American troops.
o Soldiers were young.
o Soldiers cared little about democracy or communism.
o Soldiers were not fighting for their country unlike the Viet Cong.
o Plan to send soldiers for only 1-year backfired as they were sent back as soon as they gained experience.
● In the USA, public opinion began to turn against the war, as the American media broadcasted incidents of torture and killings of civilians in Vietnam.
o The images shocked the American public, as they did not expect the extent of brutality and destruction of American actions in Vietnam.
o Americans staged demonstrations to protest against the war as it was no longer perceived to be a fight to contain communism.
o The USA was also incurring high battlefield casualties and economic costs due to the war.
A Turning Point - The Tet Offensive 1968
● During the Vietnamese New Year Holiday (the Tet Holiday), the North Vietnamese and PLAF forces launched a massive surprise offensive throughout South Vietnam.
● Viet Cong fighters attacked over 100 cities and other military targets.
● One Viet Cong commando unit tried to capture the US embassy in Saigon.
● US forces had to fight to regain control room by room.
● Around 4500 fighters tied down a much larger US and South Vietnamese force in Saigon for two days.
● The American and South Vietnamese forces were able to launch an effective counter-attack and regained control of the cities, causing heavy casualties for the communists and the withdrawal of communist forces.
● The Tet Offensive also resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.
● In many ways the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the Communists.
o They hoped that the people of South Vietnam would rise up and join them but they didn't.
o The Viet Cong lost around 10,000 experienced fighters and were badly weakened by it.
Peace Movement in the USA
● The Tet Offensive proved to be a turning point in the war because it raised hard questions about the war in the USA.
o The American public and government began to raise questions about the effectiveness of the US forces and the chances of a lasting victory, since the vast amount of American economic ($20 billion a year) and military aid (500 000 troops) could not prevent this surprise attack.
o While US and South Vietnamese forces quickly retook the towns captured in the offensive, in the process they used enormous amounts of artillery and air power with many civilians were killed.
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Peace Movement in the USA
● Anti-Vietnam War feelings were mounting in the USA, forcing the American government to review its policies and actions in Vietnam (media war).
o Thousands of television, radio and newspaper reporters, and a vast army of photographers sent back to the USA and Europe reports and pictures of the fighting.
o Television showed prisoners being tortured or executed or women and children watching with horror as their house was set on fire.
o Instead of Vietnam being a symbol of a US crusade against Communism, it had become a symbol of defeat and confusion.
o Thousands began to 'draft dodge' - refusing to serve in Vietnam when they were called up.
o There were hundreds of demonstrations in universities across the USA.
o Horrors of My Lai Massacre
Withdrawal of US Forces
● The US government realised that its involvement and support for the South Vietnamese forces only served to prolong the war and could cost USA dearly in terms of loss of lives and economic resources.
● After the Tet Offensive President Johnson concluded that the war could not be won militarily.
● Johnson decided to withdraw from the war and leaves South Vietnam to fight against North Vietnam on its own.
● When Nixon became President in 1969, he worked carefully to end US involvement without explicitly declaring defeat or handing Vietnam to the communists.
o Improved relations with the USSR and China.
o Vietnamisation of the war effort.
o Peace negotiations with North Vietnam.
o Increased bombings.
● Even though Nixon had attempted to initiate peace talks in 1969, no concrete progress was made until the Paris Peace Accords of 1973.
The Paris Peace Accords (‘Peace with Honour’)
● The aims of the accords were to end the war and establish peace in Vietnam, end direct American military involvement and to establish a ceasefire between the North and South Vietnamese forces.
● The participants of the negotiations were representatives from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, the South Vietnamese revolutionaries and the USA.
● On 27 January 1973, the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam was signed by all the parties.
● Key Terms:
o A ceasefire would be instituted on 27 January 1973.
o American troops (and all other foreign soldiers) were to begin to withdraw from Vietnam. Withdrawal had to be completed within 60 days.
o American prisoners-of-war held by the North Vietnamese were to be released.
o Negotiations would take place between the Republic of Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam towards a political settlement 🡪 This would allow the South Vietnamese to decide their political future through free and democratic general elections.
o Unification of Vietnam was to be carried out gradually through peaceful means.
Reunification and independence of Vietnam
● According to the terms of the Paris Peace Accords, negotiations were to take place between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam, allowing South Vietnam to decide on its government through democratic general elections.
● However, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam sought to unify Vietnam by force and refused to hold general elections.
● By then, the South Vietnamese government no longer had military aid from the USA, nor the support of the majority of the population.
● The Democratic Republic of Vietnam took advantage of the situation and launched a major military offensive against South Vietnam.
● The capital, Saigon, eventually fell to the communists in April 1975.
● After 30 years of declaring its independence from French colonial rule, North and South Vietnam were finally unified to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.
The experiences of the Vietnamese during the Japanese Occupation led them to seek independence from French colonial rule 🡪 outbreak of the First Indochina War as the Vietnamese fought against French re-occupation after the end of World of War II.
General Vo Nguyen Giap was instrumental in leading the North Vietnamese nationalist forces to victory against the French. Despite facing a larger and better equipped French army, the strength and determination of the North Vietnamese Army eventually led them to victory in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. This decisive defeat of the French signalled the end of the First Indochina War.
CONCLUSION