The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War

• 1954-1975

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Background

• France controlled Indochina since the late 19th
  century.
• Japan took control during WWII
• With US aid, France attempted to re-colonize
  Indochina in the postwar period.

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Background

• Ho Chi Minh builds nationalist resistance
• Vietnamese George Washington
• France fights and US pays for French-Indochina
  War
• Dien Bien Phu Disaster

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Background

• Geneva Peace Conference
• Vietnam Divided at the 17th Parallel
• Ho Chi Minhs nationalists controlled the North
• Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the South

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Background

• Democratic elections set to reunify Vietnam
• Diem backed out violence erupted

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Background

• Participants

North Vietnam
Soviet Union
China
South Vietnam
United States
Vietcong
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US Involvement Begins

• Repressive Diem Regime
• French-educated Catholic leader
• Diems family controlled government
• Plutocracy developed
• Buddhist majority repressed
• Torture, intimidation and all kinds of fun things

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US Involvement Begins

• Hes an SOB, but hes our SOB
• Eisenhower sent financial and military aid
• 675 military advisors sent by 1960

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JFK Vietnam

• Increases military advisors to 16,000
• 1963 military coup d'état
• Supported (instigated?) by JFK
• Diem brother murdered
• JFK assassinated weeks later

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LBJ Vietnam

• Remembers Trumans loss of China
• Domino Theory revived
• I am not going to be the president who saw
  Southeast Asia go the way China went.
• Secretary of Defense
• Robert McNamara
• Primary architect of war
• Gradual Escalation

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LBJ Vietnam Crossing the Rubicon

• Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• USS Maddox attacked twice?
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Blank Check to LBJ to fight the war

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LJB Vietnam

• Troop Deployment

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Vietnam Iraq
2008
2009
2007
2005
2004
2006
2003
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1965-1968

• No territorial goals
• Body Counts on TV every night
• 1st Living Room War
• Vietcong receives supplies via the Ho Chi Minh
  Trail

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1965-1968

• The Air War
• Operation Rolling Thunder - 1965
• Sustained Bombing of North Vietnam
• Hanoi bombed for 3 years
• Downed pilots P.O.W.s
• Carpet Bombing v. Strategic Bombing
• Napalm

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1965-1968

• The Ground War
• General Westmoreland
• We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
  Westmoreland 1967

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Who is the Enemy?

• North Vietnam Regulars
• Traditional military opponent
• Vietcong
• Citizen soldiers
• Farm by day Fight by night
• Patient and Strategic
• US grossly underestimated their resolve
  resourcefulness

The guerilla wins if he does not lose, the
conventional army loses if it does not win. Mao
Zedong
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Vietcong - Insurgents
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Vietcong - Insurgents
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Vietcong - Insurgents
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Vietcong - Insurgents
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The Tet Offensive

• January 1968
• NV Army Vietcong Offensive
• 100 Cities Bases
• Hue American Embassy in Saigon

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The Tet Offensive

• Perception of Victory
• US Battlefield Victory Vietcong Disabled
• US Intelligence Defeat
• Impacts
• US Public Disbelief, Anger, Distrust of LBJ
• Hey, Hey LBJ! How many kids did you kill
  today?

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1968

• LBJs approval rating drops from 48 to 36
• Announces
• I shall not seek, and I shall not accept, the
  nomination of my party for another term as
  President.

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Vietnam Strains American Society

• Disproportionate representation of racial
  minorities and poor in enlisted ranks
• Discipline problems
• Racial Tension
• Drug Abuse
• Insubordination
• Fragging

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Vietnam Strains American Society

• Officer versus Enlisted
• Combat Rotation
• Officers 6 month front line 6 months rear
  support
• Enlisted 12 month font line varied rear support

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America Divided

• My Lai Massacre - 1968

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America Divided

• My Lai

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America Divided

• Lt. William Calley
• Helicopter Attack Following Orders
• War Criminal 1st Degree Murder Conviction
• Life Sentence House Arrest Released
• Post My Lai

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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

Columbia University 1968
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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

University of California Berkeley 1968
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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

Kent State University 1970
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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

Jackson State University 1970
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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

Democratic National Convention - Chicago 1968
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America Divided

• Anti-War Demonstrations

Washington, DC 1967
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America Divided

• Counterculture
• Jane Fonda

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Nixon Vietnam

• 1968 Presidential Campaign
• Peace with Honor End the War with Victory
• Appealed to the Silent Majority

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Nixon Vietnam

• Vietnamization

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Nixon Vietnam

• Pentagon Papers, 1971
• LBJ Assigned Research Paper to the Pentagon
• Daniel Ellsberg leaked documents to New York
  Times
• Government misled Congress American people
  through the 1960s
• New York Times v. United States (1971)

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Nixon Vietnam

• Expansion of War
• Cambodia Laos Hit the Trail
• 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign
• Anti-War Demonstrations Increase

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Nixon Vietnam

• Expansion of the War
• Agent Orange Chemical Defoliant
• Bombing Hanoi
• Mining Haiphong

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Nixon Vietnam

• 1972 Peace is at Hand Henry Kissinger
• North Vietnam attacks South Vietnam
• US Bombing of North Vietnam more bombs than all
  of WWII

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1973 Ceasefire

• Negotiations to be covered later
• Conditions
• US remove all troops
• NV leave troops in SV
• NV resumes war
• No POW or MIA provisions

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1973 Ceasefire

• Last US troops leave SV 3/29/73
• 1975 NV defeats SV
• Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City

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South Vietnamese Flee country prior to fall of
Saigon
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North Vietnamese at the SV Presidential Palace
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America Abandons Its Embassy April 30, 1975
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Vietnam
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The Price

• 58,000 US Killed
• 300,00 US Wounded
• 3,000,000 Vietnamese Killed
• 150,000,000,000
• Great Society LBJ Presidency
• US Morale, Self-confidence, Trust

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The Impact

• 26th Amendment
• Suffrage for 18-year-olds
• Watergate
• War Powers Act
• Troop Deployment
• 48 Hour Notification of Congress
• 90 Day Approval by Congress

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The Impact

• Veterans Experiences
• POW MIA
• Some POWs retured from Hanoi Hilton
• 2583 Still unaccounted

Senator John McCain (R-AZ)
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• If we have to fight, we will fight. You will
  kill ten of our men and we will kill one of
  yours, and in the end it will be you who tires of
  it.
• Ho Chi Minh

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Lessons Learned (?)

• Duration
• Casualties
• Media Access
• Congressional Support
• Public Support
• Clear Goals
• Deadlines

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Vietnam War Memorial
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Vietnam War Memorial
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Vietnam War Memorial