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Vietnam (part of Cold War 2) - Coggle Diagram
Vietnam (part of Cold War 2)
Origins of Conflict
vietnam had been ruled by China since late 19th century - BUT France was defeated by Germany in WW2 so Japan (Germany’s ally) took over control of main resources in Vietnam (coal, rice, rubber, railways, roads)
communist Ho Chi Minh inspired VIET MINH - communist movement. end of ww2 - viet minh controlled north of vietnam and wanted to take control of whole country
1945 - french wanted to rule vietnam again.
1946 - war broke out between french and viet minh. Ho chi minh stayed quiet abt his communist ideas so USA was sympathetic - the struggle was seen as a fight against colonialism of france
1949 - communists took over china + started helping Ho chi minh. USA feared spread of communism as they saw Viet minh as puppets of Mao Tse tung (chinese communist revolutionary) and chinese communists
USA spent $500 million a year helping the french set up a non communist gov in south vietnam
1946-54 - was continued- french generally controlled towns, viet minh the countryside.
vietminh used guerrilla tactics, tying 190,000 french troops in hit+run raids, causing 90,000 french casualties
french raids against peasant villages raised support for viet minh
1954- at Dien Bien Phu, a large well armed French paratroopers force was defeated:
french lost 3000 dead in battle, 8000 died in captivity
viet minh defeated french in open battle w/use of modern weapons from USSR + China
small asian state defeated rich european state (through determination e.g 40,000 viet minh soldiers were carried by hand by peasants)
1954- peace conference in geneva , country divided into north+south vietnam
Why was the USA in Vietnam?
domino theory
if vietnam fell to communism, laos, cambodia, thailand, burma + possibly even india might fall.
what did they do?
1955- helped Ngo Dinh Diem set up the Republic of South Vietnam
supported him bc he was anti communist, prepared to imprison/exile communists
very christian (didn’t understand buddhist faith of peasants), contempt for working class
he had corrupt political system - appointed members of his family to be in positions of power, refused to hold elections
americans didn’t like him much but claimed they knew no one better
USA supported him w $1.6 billion in 1950s
actions of anti communists raised support for communists, esp in working classes
dec 1960- viet cong set up, lots of communist north viet, some anti-gov south viet
viet cong followed orders of Ho Chi minh + started guerrilla war against south viet gov
used ho chi minh trail to ferry supplies to guerrila fighters who attacked south viet gov forces, officials+ buildings - countryside became unsafe for gov forces. they also attacked american air force + supply bases
1962- kennedy was sending military personnel (whom he called advisers) to viet cong
1963- kennedy assassinated. Lyndon Johnson (his successor) went for full scale conflict in vietnam to stop communism
1964 aug- north viet patrol boats opened fire on US ships in gulf of Tonkin. furious, US passed gulf of tonkin resolution. gave Lyndon power to do “all necessary” to prevent further aggression + achieve peace+security
march 1965- 3500 US marines, combat troops (not advisers) came to Da nang. america was at war w/ vietnam
Viet Cong + Guerrilla Tactics
early 1965 - Viet Cong had about 170,000 soldiers
soldiers were well supplied w/ weapons + equipment from China+USSR but were heavily outnumbered + outgunned by South Viet forces + their US allies
communist forces were no match for the US+South Viet forces in open warfare
Now 1965 - in the La Dreng Valley, US forces killed 2000 Viet Cong for the loss of 300 troops
Ho chi Minh had seen Mao Tse Tung (Chinese communist revolutionary) use Guerrila warfare to achieve communist victory there
Ho used these tactics against Japanese+French
principles of guerrilla warfare: retreat when enemy attacks, raid when enemy camps, attack when enemy tires, pursue when enemy retreats
guerrillas didn’t wear uniform, had no known base camp/headquarters. worked in small groups w/ limited weapons. they were hard to tell apart from peasants in village. they attacked + disappeared into jungle, villages, or their tunnels
aim of guerrilla attacks was to wear down the enemy soldiers + wreck their morale - very effective
US soldiers lived in constant fear of ambushes/booby traps
Ho knew how important it was to keep population on his side.
viet cong fighters were expected to be courteous + respectful, they often helped the peasants in the fields during busy periods
HOWEVER Viet cong could be ruthless, they were prepared to kill peasants who opposed them or who cooperated w/ their enemies.
they conducted a campaign of terror against the police, tax collectors, teachers + other employees of south viet gov
1966-1971 - Viet Cong killed approx. 27,000 civilians
Viet cong fighters refused to give in - they depended on supplies from north vietnam that came along Ho Chi Minh trail, US+South Viet planes bombed this constantly, but 40,000 vietnamese worked to keep it open.
total of viet cong+north viet dead in war is approx 1million - way higher than US. But Ho Chi Minh always had replacement troops available.
US Tactics in Vietnam 1965-1972
7 Feb 1965 - USA launched Operation Rolling Thunder
extensive bombing raids on military + industrial targets in North Vietnam
air offensive lasted until 1972
list of targets was soon expanded to include towns+cities in North+South Vietnam, sites in Laos, Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh Trail
more bombs were dropped on North Vietnam than in whole of WW2 in Germany+Japan
was bombing effective?
for
enabled USA to strike at communist forces even when it was reducing US ground forces in Vietnam after 1969
1970-1972 - intense bombing campaigns against Hanoi (North Vietnam’s capital) + port of Haiphong forced North Vietnamese to negotiating table
it damaged North Vietnam’s war effort + disrupted supply routes
against
US air power couldn’t defeat communists, only slow them down - 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
Communists shot down 14,000 US + South Viet aircraft
1967- American Life magazine calculated that it cost the USA $400,000 to kill one Viet Cong fighter, a figure that included 75 bombs + 400 artillery shells
chemical weapons
US developed powerful chemical weapon called Agent Orange - highly toxic ‘weedkiller’ - it was used to destroy the jungle where the Viet Cong hid
Americans used 82 million litres of Agent Orange to spray thousands of square km of jungle
Napalm was another widely-used chemical weapon - it destroyed jungles where guerrillas might hide, it burned skin to the bone, many civilians + soldiers were killed by chemical weapons
search and destroy
US commander General Westmoreland developed a policy of search + destroy
he established secure + heavily defended US bases in the south of the country + near to the coast
from here, US + South Vietnamese forces launched search+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
problems
raids often based on inadequate info
inexperienced US troops often walked into traps
innocent villages were mistaken for Viet cong strongholds
civilian casualties were v/ high - for every Viet Cong weapon captured by search+destroy, there was a body count of 6- many of these were innocent civilians
search+destroy tactics made the US+South viet forces v/ unpopular w/ peasants - pushed them toward supporting Viet Cong
Tet Offensive
1968- communists launched major offensive
during tet new year holiday- viet cong fighters attacked over 100 cities+military targets
one viet Cong commando unit tried to capture US embassy in Saigon
US forces had to fight to regain control room by room
approx. 4500 fighters tied down a much larger US+South Viet force in Saigon for 2 days
in some ways, Tet offensive was a disaster for communists
they hoped ppl of south vietnam wld rise up + join them but they didn’t. Viet Cong lost approx. 10,000 experienced fighters + were badly weakened
but Tet offensive was a turning point in war bc it raised qs abt war in US
approx 500,000 troops in Vietnam + USA was spending $20billion/year on the war - so why were communists able to launch a major offensive that took US forces completely by surprise
US+South Viet forces quickly retook the towns captured in the offensive, but used lots of air power+ artillery in the process. many civilians killed. ancient city of Hue was destroyed.
for such big war, US needed support of public but public opinion in US was turning against the war even before Tet Offensive
post war, many americans felt v/ uncomfortable abt what was happening in Vietnam
Vietnam war was a media war - thousands of tv, radio, newspaper reporters, photographers sent back to USA w/ reports+pics
tv showed prisoners being tortured/executed, or women+children horrifically watching their houses be set on fire. media showed crying children burned by american napalm bombs
ppl questioned that this was why 900,000 ppl were drafted to war - for this ???
vietnam no longer symbol of US crusade against communism, symbol of US defeat+confusion
anti war protests all over the country
students taunted Lyndon Johnson chanting “hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
ppl began to “draft dodge” - refusing to serve in Vietnam when called up
demonstrations in unis. most infamous - at Kent State Uni in Ohio, the National Guard broke up the demonstration, killing 4 students - public was horrified - vietnam war seemed to make US unstable
My Lai Massacre made it worse
MY LAI MASSACRE
March 1968 American soldiers called Charlie Company started a search and destroy mission in Quang Ngai south Vietnam
Told that in the My Lai area there was a Vietcong headquarters and 200 Viet Cong guerrillas.
Soldiers had been ordered to destroy all houses, dwellings, livestock as people had left for markets on Saturday
Many were under the impression that they had been ordered to kill everyone
Early in the morning of 16th March Charlie Company had arrived in my Lai and in the next four hours between 300 and 400 civilians were killed- women, children, old men and ppl that were working were mowed down by machine gunfire as they were headed into an irrigation ditch (for safety); others were shot
no Viet Congs were found in the village
only three weapons were recovered
At the time army treated it as a success 20 noncombatants had been killed by accident but the rest were Vietcong; officers and men were praised
A year later a letter arrived in the offices of 30 leading politicians and government officials in Washington- written by Ronald Ridenhour, American soldier
September 1969 he was charged with murdering 109 people; 10 others were also charged but they placed all responsibility on Calley and denied that Calley was acting under orders
in March 1971 Calley was found guilty of the murder of 22 civilians and in August he was sentenced to 20 years of hard labour
in November 1974 he was released
This shocked American public
November 1969, 700,000 anti-war protesters demonstrated in Washington DC - largest political protest in American history
“Of something rather dark and bloody” as he phrased it occured in My Lai or pinkville. Life magazine published photographs of the massacre triggering an investigation that ended in trial for mass murder of Lieutenant William Calley- he was an officer in Charlie Company and shot many of the people in the irrigation ditch
Ending war
After the Tet Offensive Preston Johnson said that war could not be won militarily
He reduced the bombing campaign against North Vietnam and instructed his officials to begin negotiating for peace with Communists
March 1968 a peace conference began in Paris
he announced that he would not be seeking re-election as president-failure
in the election campaign both Republican and Democrat candidates campaigned to end US involvement in Vietnam
the anti-Vietnam feeling was so strong that their if they had supported to continue the war they would have had no chance of being elected
November 1968 Richard Nixon was elected president
from 1969 to 1973, he and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger worked to end US involvement Vietnam
STRATEGIES USED
peace negotiations with north Vietnam- From early 1969 Kissinger had meeting with the chief Vietnamese peace negotiator Le Duc Tho
VIETNAMISATION- Nixon began the Vietnamisation of the war effort, building up South Vietnamese forcing and withdrawing US troops. Between April 1969 and the end of 1971 almost 400,000 US troops left
BOMBING- Nixon increased bombing campaigns against North Vietnam to show he was not weak. Invaded Viet Cong bases in Cambodia, causing outrage across the world and even in USA
PRESSURE ON USSR + CHINA in 1969 USSR and China fell out and could have a war in 1969- both tried to improve relations with the USA + in 1970 Nixon began strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) w USSR limiting nuclear weapons. Asked Moscow to encourage North Vietnam to end the war. In February 1972 Nixon was invited to China and asked them to pressure North Vietnam to end war
In 1972 the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive but were unable to conquer South Vietnam + In Paris in January 1973, Le Duc Tho, Nixon and the South Vietnamese President Thieu signed a peace agreement and Nixon described the agreement as “peace with honour” + By 29th March 1973 the last American forces had left Vietnam
fall of south vietnam
Within two years the peace agreement was meaningless and South Vietnam had fallen to the communists. Nixon had promised continuing financial aid and military support to Vietnam but congress refused it as they didn’t want to waste money
The evidence was that the South Vietnamese region was corrupt and lacked the support of majority of the population
Nixon himself was in big political trouble with the Watergate scandal
1974 Nixon was forced to resign over a Watergate
the new President Gerald Ford also failed to get the backing of Congress over Vietnam
without US air power or military back up and without the support of the population South Vietnamese government could not survive
December 1974 the North Vietnamese launched a major military offensive in South Vietnam
the capital Saigon fell to Communist forces in April 1975
There are many images of the Vietnamese men, women, children trying to clamber aboard American helicopters taking off from US Embassy- bleakest symbols of American failure
Communist forces swarmed through Saigon and after 30 years of conflict, Communists won
policy of containment
The American policy of containment was in tatters failed militarily the war showed that even the USA’s vast military strength couldn’t stop spread of communism
Failed politically - not only did the USA fail to stop South Vietnam going Communist it had heavily bombed Vietnam’s neighbours Laos and Cambodia which helped the communist forces to win support
by 1975 both Laos and Cambodia had Communist governments + the domino effect sped up
It was also a propaganda disaster
Americans had always presented their campaign against communism as a moral crusade
both atrocities committed by American soldiers and chemical weapons ruined USA‘s reputation + the campaign was flawed + gov didn’t have any support
Americans tried to improve their relations with China until on China gained membership of the UN+ president made visits to China
They got on better with USSR and China than they did w each other
Americans became very suspicious of involving the troops in any other conflict
this was an attitude that continued to affect American foreign policy in the 21st-century
consequences of vietnam war
Effects on the environment - chemical warfare damaged crops- food shortages + destroyed 5.4 million acres of forest areas and animals and plants living there + poisoned streams and rivers
Effect on Vietnamese citizens - chemical warfare meant that the South Vietnamese citizens had levels of dioxin three times as high as US citizens + large numbers of unexploded mines and bombs caused death and injury to adults and children for years to come + Napalm caused horrific burns which killed or disfigured victims
Effect on US troops - drug addiction as hard drugs were easily and cheaply available from neighbouring Laos and Cambodia in Vietnam -heroin use increased by 30%
confusion + bitterness- US forces were not welcome in the same was ww2 troops + hard to adjust to civilian life
Many had PTSD+ Many got Cancer from Agent Orange
Effects on Vietnamese society
morals - fighting drove thousands of peasants into shanty towns near US bases- poverty, prostitution, drug abuse were common+ US forces were supplied with vast amounts of luxuries as well as military supplies- created a huge black market with corrupt South Vietnamese government officials + Buddhist priests protested about the effects of American presence in Vietnam in 1960s
refugees - around 5 million South Vietnamese were displaced from their homes Towns and villages in North and South Vietnam were devastated by bombing and ground fighting+ Vietnam took more than 20 years to start recovering from war+ poverty, Communist policies and the hope of a better life led people to become “boat people” in the late 1970s they tried to sail in makeshift boats + around 1 million refugees escaped to the west + at least 50,000 were drowned or murdered by pirates + in mid-1990s the USA finally ended its trade ban with Vietnam and the World Bank was allowed to invest in the country