Ch. 16

1
Origins of Vietnam

• Ch. 16
• 11.9.3

2
vocabulary

• Ho Chi Minh
• Domino theory
• Dien Bien Phu
• SEATO
• Vietcong
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• William Westmoreland
• Napalm
• Hawks and doves
• SDS
• Tet Offensive
• Eugene McCarthy
• Robert Kennedy

3
More vocabulary

• Vietnamization
• Kent State
• My Lai
• Pentagon Papers
• Paris Peace Accords
• War Powers Act

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The Vietnam War

• Longest war in American history 1959-1975
• Over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War
• Never a declared war technically a conflict
• First televised war
• The Vietnam War escalates during the
  decade known as the turbulent 1960s
• Vietnam soldiers are the sons daughters
  of the WWII generation
• The Vietnam War bitterly divided the country
• Many Americans took out their frustrations over
  American involvement in Vietnam on
  the U.S. soldiers themselves

6
The Vietnam War

• Background
• U.S. Military Involvement
• Presidents
• End of the War
• The American Soldiers Experience in Vietnam
• American Women in Vietnam
• Aftermath of the Vietnam War
• The Vietnam Veterans
  Memorial

7
I. background France in Indochina

• Vietnam wasFrench Indochina
• colonial period
• France ruled Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the
  1800s
• Colonists taxed the people , took over large
  amount of land and controlled the mineral wealth

8
France and Vietnam

• Oh the French any story that begins with the
  French is bound to end badly
• Occupied Indochina in 1800s
• French colonized Vietnam
• Ruled stringently
• Ho Chi Minh rebel fighter that wanted to rid
  Vietnam from its foreign invaders
• US will spend millions of dollars, thousands of
  lives to prevent Vietnam from becoming communist

9
Backlash

• Some Vietnamese began to rebel in the 20th
  century
• Ho Chi Minh was educated in Europe and lived
  abroad for 30 years
• He returned to Vietnam and rallied for revolution
• Minh became a staunch communist

10
WWII

• Japan undermined French control in Vietnam
• Japan came in and try to take over
• WWII strengthened nationalist movements
• Vietnam wanted all foreigners out!

11
Nationalism v. Communism

• Same story different country
• Same story as in Turkey/Greece and China
• Truman supported the nationalists
• 1950-1954 2.6 billion

12
U.S. Military helps Ho Chi Minh challenge
Japanese occupation

• During WWII, the U.S. Office of Strategic
  Services, precursor of the CIA, trained Ho Chi
  Minhs forces in the jungles of North Vietnam
• Lt. Col. Peter Dewey of the OSS, assigned to
  Saigon in 1945, was accidentally killed in a
  Vietminh ambush
• Dewey - first American to die in
  Vietnam

13
American Foreign Policy During the Cold War

• Cold War intense rivalry between the U.S. and
  the Soviet Union that began after WWII carried
  on by political and economic means instead of
  direct military action.
• Containment U.S. foreign policy developed toward
  the Soviet Union during the Cold War in which
  the U.S. committed itself to stopping the spread
  of communism
• Truman Doctrine announced by President Truman in
  1947. Said the U.S. would support free peoples
  anywhere in the world who were resisting communism

14
Ho Chi Minh Appeals to the U.S.

• Ho Chi Minh asked the U.S. for help against the
  French in 1945 at the end of WWII
• U.S. refuses to support Vietnams independence
  from French control
• Reasons
• Vietnam not a priority. in 1945
• U.S. alliance with France important to the
  security of Western Europe
• Ho Chi Minhs communist convictions contradicted
  Americas new Cold War policies
• Foreign policy determined through lens of CW
  goals

15
The Theory Behind Containment During the Cold War

• Pres. Eisenhower continued Truman policies
• Developed the idea of Domino Theory
• If one country falls to communism in Southeast
  Asia, they all will
• theory formed the basis of U.S. policy in
  Vietnam

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Leadership in Vietnam

• SEATO goes to aid Vietnam
• Same goal containment
• US supported South Vietnam leader Ngo Dinh Diem
• The Vietcong joined the fight
• But hated both Minh and Diem

17
Vietmihn

• Ho Chi Minhs Vietminh, challenged the French
  attempt to reassert authority in Vietnam
• Vietminh received substantial aid from Soviet
  Union communist China
• The United States supported
  France by helping to finance French
  War costs, sending arms and
  military advisors

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Who is who?

• Vietminh- communists that supported Ho Chi Minh
• Vietcong- National Liberation Front fought
  against the Vietminh and wanted a united Vietnam
• South Vietnamese lead by Diem we support this
  side

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Democratic side - Diem

• Diem bad leader
• He Catholic, but passed anti-Buddhist legislation
• Made him unpopular in South Vietnam
• Only the US kept Diem in power (until he was
  assassinated)

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U.S. Support of French Occupation of Vietnam

• 1950 1954
• August 3, 1950 U.S. Military
  Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) of
  35 men arrived in Vietnam
• August 10, 1950 First shipload of U.S. arms aid
  arrives in Vietnam
• By 1954 French position in Vietnam is in serious
  jeopardy

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Geneva Accords

• Est. a temp. division of Vietnam along the 17th
  parallel
• North of the 17th parallel governed by Ho Chi
  Minh his followers
• South of the 17th parallel governed by an
  anti-communist regime tied to the West
• Democratic elections were planned for 1956 to
  determine terms for uniting Vietnam

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U.S. rejects the Geneva Accords

• French withdrew from Vietnam, America increases
  its own involvement
• President Eisenhower prefers a partition of
  Vietnam over a reunification under a communist
  government
• Fearing the Vietminh would win any election in
  Vietnam, the U.S. does not sign the Geneva Accords

23
U.S. Supports South Vietnam

• 1955 1960 is known as the Early Advisory
  Period
• February 12, 1955 President Eisenhower sends
  first U.S. advisors to train S. Vietnamese Army
• October 21, 1957 Capt. Harry Cramer, Jr. dies in
  a munitions handling accident in Vietnam
• October 22, 1957 U.S. military personnel suffer
  first casualties of the Vietnam War
• 13 Americans are wounded in Saigon

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The Republic of Vietnam

• U.S. helps establish a pro-American government in
  South Vietnam headed by Ngo Dinh Diem capitol is
  Saigon
• With U.S. support, Diem refuses to permit
  promised elections and begins trying to
  consolidate his power
• The North Vietnamese
  government of
  Ho Chi Minh refuses
  to accept the division
  of
  Vietnam

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The Final Events that lead to the Vietnam War

• By 1958, supporters of Ho Chi Minh organized and
  began a new civil war in South Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh, based in Hanoi, North Vietnam,
  encouraged the civil war and sent supplies
• In 1960 the National Front for the Liberation of
  Vietnam (NFL) was organized
• The NFL was known by its
  opponents as the Viet Cong
  (Vietnamese communists)
• As the Viet Cong increased its challenge to the
  Diem regime, South Vietnam appealed to the U.S.
  for more help

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2. U.S. Military Involvement Overview

• During WWII (19411945) U.S. trained Ho Chi
  Minhs forces in the jungles of North Vietnam
• After WWII (1945 1954) U.S. supported French
  occupation of Vietnam with finances, weapons and
  military advisors
• After French occupation (1955 1960) Early
  Advisory Period U.S. supports new government of
  South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) with weapons
  and military advisors

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U.S. Military Involvement The Vietnam War Era
begins

• In 1959, President Eisenhower responds to Diems
  request by sending weapons and about 650 military
  advisors
• 1959 1965 U.S. military personnel are
  considered advisors.
• Purpose is to train and support South
  Vietnams war against the
  communists

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President Kennedy 1961 - 1963

• The situation in South Vietnam grew steadily
  worse in the early 1960s.
• The South Vietnamese govt had little success
  fighting the Viet Cong, nor could it secure its
  leadership over the unstable and factionalized
  country
• President Kennedy increases military advisors in
  South Vietnam to more than
  15,000 by 1963

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Kennedy and Vietnam

• JFK got more aggressive
• In 1961 sent in special forces to advise the
  South Vietnamese army
• 1963 15.000 troops in Vietnam

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President Johnson Inherits the Vietnam Conflict

• Nov. 1, 1963 South Vietnamese President Diem and
  his brother assassinated.
• One coup after another follows, weakening South
  Vietnams war effort
• Nov. 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy is
  assassinated, Vice President Lyndon Johnson sworn
  in as President
• July 1964 U.S. Military
  presence in Vietnam increases to
  more than
  21,000

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The Escalation of the Vietnam War

• 1964-1968

32
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

• A U.S. destroyer on patrol in international
  waters in the Gulf of Tonkin was attacked by
  north Vietnamese torpedo boats.
• Many critics doubted if the attack ever even
  happened.
• Regardless, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was
  passed giving the Prez authority to take any
  action necessary to protect American forces and
  prevent future aggression.

33
The U.S. assumed the major responsibility for
fighting the war

• President Johnson ordered the bombing of
  Vietcong supply lines this lasted 7 years
• Johnson officially stated that American troops
  would openly engage the enemy
• In 1965 there were 180,000 American troops in
  Vietnam, by 1967 there were over 500,000
• December 31, 1968 Peak number of U.S. annual
  combat deaths 14,592
• The Vietnam War became a stalemate U.S. was
  preventing the communists from winning, but was
  not defeating them

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Effects of Vietnam at home

• Economy the spending began to wear on the
  economy
• LBJ was fighting a war at home and abroad
• His war on poverty was expensive
• He had to cut on the Great Society spending to
  afford the war

35
The Tet Offensive

• Took place on the Vietnamese holiday celebrating
  their New Year called Tet
• Tet Offensive Jan 30 Feb 26, 1968 the wars
  largest enemy offensive, 88,000 communist troops
  attack 105 South Vietnamese cities
• Was the largest Vietcong attack in South Vietnam
  since the war began
• The U.S. staged a successful defense
• Even though the U.S. won the battle it signaled
  to the American people that the war was far from
  over
• Consequences alarmed American people because it
  indicated the war was far from over mobilized
  anti-war demonstrations
• March 31, 1968 President Johnson announces
  he will not run
  for reelection

36
Johnson s career

• Over more objections of the war LBJ DOES NOT RUN
  FOR A SECOND TERM!
• The election of 1968 was about one issue VIETNAM
• Robert Kennedy, Democrat
• Eugene McCarthy anti war Democrat

37
Anti War movement

• By 1965 most troops in Vietnam were drafted
• 1.5 million men were drafted for Vietnam
• All 18 year old boys must register with Selective
  Service and can be drafted to meet military needs
• There was increased attention to the number of
  black men serving in the war

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The war in Congress

• By 1967 more Congressmen were questioning the
  war.
• Two sides emerged hawks and doves
• Hawks supported the war
• Doves did not agree with LBJs policy on Vietnam
• More criticism over the war started to emerge.

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More Protests

• Other Americans began to protest this endless war
• Journalists covering this war told a story that
  was different from the Johnson Administration
• This lead to a credibility gap

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MLK and Vietnam

• Black men out numbered white men in Vietnam
• They suffered 20 of the total combat deaths
• Twice that of white men
• Less likely to be officers and more likely to
  serve in combat regiments
• MLK called attention to the inequity.

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To leaders slain within two months
42
Election of 1968

• Open election for both Republicans and democrats
• Robert Kennedy was shot June 5, 1968 while
  campaigning in California
• This followed MLKs assassination two months
  before
• And this was four years after JFKs assassination
  

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Split Party

• Chicago DNC
• Protestors out side
• Peace in side
• Showed disconnect of broken democratic party
• Richard Nixon wins the election easily

44
Republican Nixon wins Presidential election in
1968
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Nixons plan Peace with Honor

• How can we still go out like champs?
• Peace with Honor
• The gradual pull of American troops and handing
  over the responsibility to the South Vietnamese
  called VIETNAMIZATION
• To stop the Ho Chi Minh trail more bombing in
  Cambodia

46
President Richard Nixon

• Number of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam
  peaks in April 1969 543, 482
• 1969 President Nixon announces Vietnamization
  withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam while
  increasing training equipping of South
  Vietnamese to take over U.S. combat role
• Nixon begins to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam
  

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Tough North Vietnamese resistance created a
stalemate

• American bombing increased, especially in the
  north
• Operation Rolling Thunder attempted to cut supply
  lines from the north
• But the continued bombing only served to
  strengthen the Vietcongs will to resist American
  aggression and imperialism

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1970 war just widened

• Now with more bombing in Cambodia the war
  enlarged and not ended.
• Nixon wanted to help the Cambodians fight the
  brutal and deadly Khmer Rouge
• Again fighting in Cambodia was linked to
  preserving peace in the world

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Cambodia bombed
50
The Ho Chi Minh Trail

• Was a jungle supply route the North Vietnamese
  used to travel south
• Much of the trail went through neighboring Laos
  and Cambodia, which was an area the U.S. was
  reluctant to attack for some time
• In any case, the North Vietnamese were able to
  move the trail just enough on short notice to
  confuse and frustrate the U.S.

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1971-1973 turning points

• Kent State
• 4 college students dead
• My Lai Massacre
• Pentagon Papers
• Govt papers showed the government was not fully
  informing the American people and sometimes LIED
  to them!!!

52
Problems Among American Soldiers

• Racial conflicts between black and white soldiers
  reflected the same racial tensions back home
• The lack of progress in the war truly hurt the
  soldiers morale, spirits, and confidence
• Many troops deserted their units.
• Many soldiers fragged their own officers

53
Nixon end the war

• Peace talks begin
• The stall by Jan 1969
• Americans and South Vietnamese wanted communists
  out of the South , all POWs
• North want all Americans to withdraw

54
War ends

• Re-election around the corner
• Still had not made good on first campaign promise
• 1973 Paris Peace Accords
• Both sides agreed to a cease fire
• North Vietnamese troops can stay in South (bad
  sign)

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War ends

• Re-election around the corner
• Still had not made good on first campaign promise
• By the end of 1971, less than
  200,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
• 1973 Paris Peace Accords
• Both sides agreed to a cease fire
• North Vietnamese troops can stay in South (bad
  sign)

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The End of the Vietnam War

• March 29, 1973 Last U.S. troops
  leave South Vietnam
• 8,500 U.S. civilians and about 50 military
  personnel remain in Vietnam
• April 29, 1975 Last American soldier killed in
  Vietnam Official American presence ends when
  last Americans are evacuated by helicopter from
  the roof of the U.S.
  embassy in Saigon.

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Paris Peace Accords

• The National Liberation Front (Vietcong) would
  become a legit political party
• South Vietnam would remain non communist
• 1975
• Peace agreement fell apart
• Saigon fell to communists

58
The My Lai Massacre

• A unit of U.S. troops who recently suffered
  severe casualties, entered My Lai
• They received information that this village was a
  Vietcong stronghold
• The troops found no evidence of enemy activity
  but they rounded up residents of the village,
  mostly women and children, and began shooting
  them - over 200 were killed

59
Geography also helped the Vietcong and North
Vietnamese

• Vietnam was covered in jungles and rice paddies
  making movement very difficult
• There was natural cover making surprise attacks
  from the enemy very effective
• The enemy, including a large amount of women and
  children, were very difficult to tell apart from
  the rest of Vietnams population

60
The U.S. attempted to make-up for their
environmental disadvantage using technology

• Napalm-a highly flammable jellied gasoline was
  used to burn the thick jungle vegetation that
  helped the Vietcong hide
• Agent Orange-a highly toxic spray that killed off
  any foliage (plants) it touched
• Bulldozers and Flame-throwers too

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U.S. soldiers found Vietnam a very frustrating
experience

• Many were very young and very scared with no
  previous military experience
• These soldiers also had very diverse or different
  opinions about the war.
• The culture, language, food, and environment were
  strange to them.
• The Vietnamese people were suspicious and hostile
  - no place was safe for the soldiers
• Very difficult to distinguish the enemy (NVA
  Viet Cong) from the rest of the South Vietnamese
  population enemy included women sometimes the
  use of children
• Viet Cong soldiers did not wear uniforms,
  traveled in small groups and used complex tunnel
  systems

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The American Soldiers Experience in
Vietnam

• Early in the war, most U.S. troops
  were trained professional
  soldiers, including many
  members of Special Forces
• As the war went on, more of the soldiers
  were young draftees
• American soldiers had different opinions about
  the war
• Some believed in the cause for which they were
  fighting
• Some did not understand the cause for which they
  were fighting
• Some were eager to fight regardless of the cause
  because they believed it was their duty to answer
  their countrys call
• Some were totally against the war
• Some disagreed with the way the war was being
  fought
• Some had mixed feelings

63
Statistics

• Percentage of Americans who thought it was a
  mistake to send troops to Vietnam
• 1965- 24
• 1967- 47
• 1968- 53
• 1970- 56
• 1973- 60
• Estimated number of combat troops by end of 1965
• 200,000
• Estimated number of combat troops by end of 1966
• 389,000
• Approximately 58,000-60,000 American casualties
• The age a serviceman was most likely to die
  during the war 20

64
American Women in Vietnam

• An est.15,000 American women served in Vietnam
  (approximately 7,500 military women 7,500
  civilians)
• Women served bravely throughout Vietnam in
  hostile and dangerous conditions, as no safe
  zones existed in Vietnam
• Military women in Vietnam were awarded
• the Purple Heart
• the Bronze Star
• Commendation Medals
• Unit Citations
• 8 military women and over 55 civilian women died
  in Vietnam
• 4 civilian women were listed as MIA and 1 is
  still officially listed MIA

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American Military Women in Vietnam

• Navy
• nurses in Vietnam on hospital ships
• 9 female Naval officers other than nurses served
  in Vietnam
• Marines
• 28 enlisted women and 8 female officers between
  1967 - 1973

• Army
• Army Nurse Corps
• Army Medical Specialist Corps
• Womens Army Corps (WACs)
• Air Force
• Air Forces Nurse Corps
• Biomedical Science Corps (all were officers)
• WAF (an acronym no longer used that stood for
  Women in the Air Force (included both officers
  enlisted)

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American Civilian Women in Vietnam

• American Red Cross
• USO
• Government Agencies
• Army Special Services
• U.S State Department
• U.S. Department of Defense
• C.I.A.
• U.S.A.I.D.
• U.S.
• Information
• Services

• Civilian Agencies
• International Voluntary Services
• Catholic Relief Services
• Tom Dooley Medical Foundation
• Civilian Contractors
• Foreign Correspondents
• Flight Attendants
• Entertainers

67
Military Nurses who died serving in Vietnam

• 2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
• 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones
• Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander
• 1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski
• 2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan
• 1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane (KIA)
• Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham
• Capt. Mary Therese Klinker

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POW / MIA

• Dr. Eleanor Ardel Vietti
• Eleanor Vietti was a 30 year old civilian medical
  doctor who was attached to the Alliance of
  Christian Churches and Missions
• She was taken prisoner on Memorial Day, 1962
• She is still listed as POW / MIA but is presumed
  dead

69
Aftermath of the Vietnam War

• Over 2.6 million American military personnel
  served in Vietnam
• over 58,000 died and approximately
• 2,000 are still listed as MIA
• American troops taken as Prisoners of War totaled
  766 (114 died in captivity)
• Wounded 303,704 severely disabled 75,000
  (23,214 100 disabled)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Cancer genetic disorders from
  exposure to Agent Orange

70
Aftermath of the Vietnam War

• American troops who returned from Vietnam came
  home to a bitterly divided and ungrateful nation
• Today our troops are overwhelmingly supported by
  our nation Americans now separate their
  attitudes toward the politics of a conflict from
  the soldiers themselves
• Today the U.S.
  Armed Forces maintains
  an all volunteer military

71
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

• Dedicated on Veterans Day, Nov 13, 1982
• Most visited memorial in Washington, D.C. with
  more than 4.4 million visitors each year
• Consists of The Wall, the Three Servicemen
  Statue (dedicated in 1984) and the Vietnam
  Womens Memorial (dedicated in 1993)
• The Vietnam Memorial has become a
  powerful symbol of reconciliation and
  healing for Vietnam veterans, their
  families, and our nation.

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Long Term Effects

• Southeast Asia in turmoil
• Khmer Rouge genocide
• Veterans returned home with mixed reactions
• Some felt lied to by leaders growing distrust of
  government
• Nation never fully thanked the Vietnam vets
• 2.5 million men served with honor and distinction
• No memorial until 1982!!