Vietnam War (chpt 9)

Divided Vietnam

Escalation of tensions between
north and south viet

Developments of the Vietnam war

Impact of the vietnam war

South Vietnam in the 1950s

The south vietnamese insurgency

North Vietnam in the 1950s

A rigged referendum by Diem

Unpopular and Corrupted regime

Nepotism by Diem brothers

Actions of local agents in causing an escalation

Actions of foreign powers in causing an escalation

Led by Ho

Practised land reforms

Decline in agricultural industry

Led to famines

USSR

China

USA

Failure to introduce land reforms --> received support from rich landowners

Implement modernisation --> unis, expansion of agriculture

July 1955, Vietnam wide elections not held in south

oct, rigged referendum to remove Bao Dai (previous leader)

Pro-Catholic, so not popular with Bhuddist voters (self-immolation in protest of his rule)

Opposition to Diem's regime

Bhuddist monks

Former members if Vietminh

Group 559 --> transport weapons, ammo

Vietcong (gurerlla warfare)

NVA supported vietcong VS south Vietnamese army

Vietcong attacked soft Vietnamese bases and US supply bases

SV responded with strategic Hamlet (isolate population to prevent ppl from going to vietcong side)

strategic defensive reasons against the USA

Show support to communist state

Support formation of Vietcong

Sino soviet split --> competition to see who would lead the communist bloc

Gave troops that could help to build infrastructure and defensive positions to support vietcong

Gave more modern weapons such as aircrafts and air surface missiles

Committed to containment --> fear that communism will spread

Different leaders coming into office

JFK coming in 1961 (more cautious, military advisors in the form of MACV

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963) more prepared to be involved in Viet and also inferiority complex so wanna do more to compensate

Assassination of Diem made it more complicated/chaotic

Gulf of Tonkin incident -->NV patrol
boats attacked USS Maddox

direct US intervention

Impacts of Tet offensive and the shifting sentiments in US

Fall of Saigon

Communist victory

Differences in NVA and USA

Support from Civillian population

Morale

Overall strategy

USA: Operation Rolling Thunder (mainly relying on bombing)

Vietcong: guerllia warfare, not wearing
uniforms (element of surprise)

USA: Search and Destroy Mission, defoliants,
napalm, My Lai Massacre were unpopular strats

USA: High at first as heard stories from the past, but the bulk were young and inexperienced and were not seen as war heros when back in US

Role of media

Rising Anti-War Sentiment

Vietcong: motivated by liberation, win or die

USA: Vietnamese did not want foreigners running the country

First televised war

No filter/censorship

Gruesome

Unwinnable

My Lai Massacre

Caused Americans to rethink about why they started fighting in the first place

LBJ concluded that the war was unwinnable militarily --> keen on peace talks, announced not standing for reelection

Vietnamization of the war (allow SV to take over)

paris peace accords (1973)

Save face/reputation

Agreed to withdraw troops

Allow Vietcong to stay at their positions in SV

Dec 1974: NVA launched a major offensive into Saigon

USA soldiers scrambling to retreat

The country finally merged and became Socialist Republic of Vietnam and aligned themselves closely with Soviet Union to continue to receive aid from them

Damage to American Cold War Foreign Policy

Detente

US ideology is that communism is bad so the war/campaign against communism was a moral crusade

The atrocities commited (usage of chemical weapons) damaged America's reputation

Failed to enact containment on North Viet

Powers of President was reduced as president was able to have too much military power during war

Creation of ASEAN

Declared that Asia was a region of peace

Some fears that communism would infect the rest of SEA

Successful signing of Strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT)

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