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Vietnam War (chpt 9) - Coggle Diagram
Vietnam War (chpt 9)
Developments of the Vietnam war
Impacts of Tet offensive and the shifting sentiments in US
Role of media
First televised war
Gruesome
Unwinnable
No filter/censorship
Rising Anti-War Sentiment
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)
Agreed to withdraw troops
Allow Vietcong to stay at their positions in SV
Save face/reputation
Fall of Saigon
Dec 1974: NVA launched a major offensive into Saigon
USA soldiers scrambling to retreat
Communist victory
The country finally merged and became Socialist Republic of Vietnam and aligned themselves closely with Soviet Union to continue to receive aid from them
Differences in NVA and USA
Support from Civillian population
USA: Search and Destroy Mission, defoliants,
napalm, My Lai Massacre were unpopular strats
USA: Vietnamese did not want foreigners running the country
Morale
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
Vietcong: motivated by liberation, win or die
Overall strategy
USA: Operation Rolling Thunder (mainly relying on bombing)
Vietcong: guerllia warfare, not wearing
uniforms (element of surprise)
Divided Vietnam
South Vietnam in the 1950s
A rigged referendum by Diem
July 1955, Vietnam wide elections not held in south
oct, rigged referendum to remove Bao Dai (previous leader)
Unpopular and Corrupted regime
Nepotism by Diem brothers
Pro-Catholic, so not popular with Bhuddist voters (self-immolation in protest of his rule)
Failure to introduce land reforms --> received support from rich landowners
Implement modernisation --> unis, expansion of agriculture
The south vietnamese insurgency
Opposition to Diem's regime
Bhuddist monks
Former members if Vietminh
Group 559 --> transport weapons, ammo
Vietcong (gurerlla warfare)
North Vietnam in the 1950s
Led by Ho
Practised land reforms
Decline in agricultural industry
Led to famines
Impact of the vietnam war
Damage to American Cold War Foreign Policy
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
Detente
Successful signing of Strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT)
Creation of ASEAN
Declared that Asia was a region of peace
Some fears that communism would infect the rest of SEA
Escalation of tensions between
north and south viet
Actions of local agents in causing an escalation
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)
Actions of foreign powers in causing an escalation
USSR
Support formation of Vietcong
Sino soviet split --> competition to see who would lead the communist bloc
Gave more modern weapons such as aircrafts and air surface missiles
China
strategic defensive reasons against the USA
Show support to communist state
Gave troops that could help to build infrastructure and defensive positions to support vietcong
USA
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