The Vietnam War: War in Southeast Asia

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The Vietnam War War in Southeast Asia

• Section 20.1

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What words would you use to describe Americas
role in WWII?
Clockwise, from upper left Rosie, Marines plant
flag on Iwo Jima, burning destroyer in Pearl
Harbor, Roosevelt and Churchill, Ike gives
soldiers pre-D Day speech
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What words describe Americas role in the Vietnam
War? Watch the following video clips and then
make a list of at least 10 words to describe it
Left US and South Vietnamese joint patrol
right burning village
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Capture from opening credits of Vietnam movie
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Capture from opening credits of Vietnam movie
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The jungles of Vietnam
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Bamboo hut by a river
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So, what words describe the Vietnam War?
Remember, your goal is to write ten such words
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At the end of this lesson, you should be able to
answer the following

• Where is Vietnam?
• How did we get involved in the Vietnam War in the
  first place?
• Why did we get involved?
• What was it like to be an American/North
  Vietnamese soldier?
• What were the battle tactics?

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Describe Vietnam after WWII

• A French Colony
• Rich in natural resources
• War torn
• Japanese occupation ended
• Americans and Vietminh fought together
• Led by Ho Chi Minh
• Used words of Declaration of Independence to
  declare Vietnamese independence
• Hos War of Independence
• If ever the tiger pauses the elephant will
  impale him on his mighty tusks. But the tiger
  will not pause and the elephant will die of
  exhaustion and loss of blood.

Above Ho Chi Minh below map of Vietnam
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Why did the US decide to support the French in
their war with Minh?

• Cold War
• Containment
• Afraid of losing France as ally
• Domino Theory
• Remember how it goes?
• China fell and like a domino others would become
  communist if not contained

Cartoon ridicules the domino theory
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Why was Vietnam divided in 1954?
The border (17th Parallel) in 1954
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Why was Vietnam divided in 1954?

• French defeated at Dien Bien Phu
• Geneva peace agreement called for a temporary
  division along 17th parallel
• Vietminh controlled North
• French in South
• Elections in 1956 to decide who would lead
  reunified country
• Eisenhower believed South would vote communist
• Refused to sign agreement

Map showing N. and S. Vietnam, as well as
neighboring countries
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Describe the rule of South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh
Diem

• Wealthy landowners controlled nation, poor
  peasants lived in poverty
• Diem
• Anti-communist/Dictator
• Strongly supported by US
• Gave him 1 billion in aid (1954-61)
• Spent 80 on military, little on helping poor
• Rigged votes to make US think he was popular

Above contrast of wealth and poverty (cars and
oxen) below Diem on Time cover and with generals
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What was the National Liberation Front?

• Coalition of Vietminh and other anti-Diem groups
  in South
• Better known as Vietcong
• Communists
• Promised peasants economic reform, reunification
  with N. Vietnam
• Terrorist
• Assassinated 2 thousand officials
• Gradually supported by Ho Chi Minh, China, and
  Russia

Above and below Vietcong
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Describe JFKs Vietnam policy

• Expanded Eisenhowers policy
• Sent South Vietnamese military equipment and
  advisers (16 thousand)
• Pressured Diem to make political and economic
  reforms
• Supported overthrow of Diem after finding out
  about his brutal repression of Buddhist monks
• Monks set themselves on fire in protest
• Diem assassinated during coup d etat 8/1963

Above JFK points to map of SE Asia during
speech below protesting monk burns to death
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Gulf of Tonkin Presentation
See above
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What is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

• Congressional act which allowed LBJ to greatly
  expand US involvement in Vietnam
• Signed under pretext that N. Vietnamese gunboats
  had fired on US destroyer unprovoked
• take all necessary measures to repel any armed
  attack
• LBJ withheld evidence
• Ship not attacked
• Destroyers were sending S. Vietnamese on commando
  raids

Above detail of the Gulf of Tonkin
USS Maddox
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Gulf of Tonkin
Blank start of Gulf of Tonkin clip
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What was operation Rolling Thunder?
Smoke from US bombing campaign
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What was Operation Rolling Thunder and why is it
important?

• Massive US bombing campaign against N. Vietnam
• Roads, bases, supply lines hit
• Ho Chi Minh Trail targeted
• Supply line from N. Vietnam, through Laos,
  Cambodia
• Significance
• N. Vietnam suffered heavy loses yet kept fighting
• LBJ decided to sent hundreds of thousands of
  troops

Map shows the Ho Chi Minh Trail
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Newsreel chronicles bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail
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Why was the US optimistic about winning the war?

• Much more powerful military arsenal
• Air power
• Believed it could break Vietcongs will to fight
• Measured success by body-counts, not territory
• You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill
  of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose
  
• Ho Chi Minh

Above US helicopters below soldiers with
machine guns
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Unconventional Warfare
Capture from clip on war strategies (ours and
theirs)
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How did the US fight the war?

• Air War
• Over 100 thousand raids in 1967
• B52
• Limited success
• Vietcong dug 30 thousand miles of underground
  tunnels (supply routes)
• Ground War
• search and destroy missions
• Jungle patrols
• Heat, mosquitoes, leeches, snakes
• Carried 50-70 lbs of equipment
• Hearts and Minds
• Provided medical care, farming advice
• Development projects

Above B52 bomber drops payload
Above US soldiers in camouflage below medical
workers
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They were fighting for home.
Capture from clip about advantages our opponents
had
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How did the VC respond?

• Vietcong
• Guerilla warfare
• Avoided open battles
• Ambushes, hit and run raids
• Booby traps (Bouncing Betty)
• Advantages over US
• Knew the country
• Were Vietnamese (nationalism)

Above diagram of VietCong tunnel complex below
stills of the tunnels and Jimmy from the movie
version of Annas Boys ( j.k.)
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Can I survive?
Capture from clip on young G.I.s
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Describe the American soldier fighting in Vietnam
Below baby-faced American soldiers

• Average Age
• Between 19-22 years old
• According to text
• Over 9 Million military personnel served on
  active duty during the official Vietnam era from
  August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
• 58,148 were killed in Vietnam
• Some uncertain of wars purpose
• Terrified
• The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240
  days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility
  of the helicopter.

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Describe the American soldier fighting in Vietnam

• Some motivated to survive, not win
• Only in Vietnam for 1 year
• 3. 75,000 were severely disabled.
• Textbook says that soldiers were usually from
  poor or middle class background
• Disproportionately from minority groups

Again baby-faced G.I.s
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The Television War
Capture from clip on the t.v. war