Vietnam war

• • USA feared communism spreading to other countries like Vietnam, Laos, Japan, or India, threatening American influence and business in the region
• The Domino Theory:

  • Fear that communism would spread across Asia and countries would fall to communism one by one, like dominoes
  • By the 1950s, all of Eastern Europe was communist and the USA followed a policy of containing communism from spreading further
  • China became communist in 1949 and supported communist rebels across Asia
  • North Korea was firmly communist and almost united the whole of Korea as a communist country with Chinese and Russian help until the UN intervened in the Korean War
• Domestic politics in the USA:

  • Cold War dominated politics in the USA in the 1950s with a strong anti-communist sentiment
  • "Arms race" with the USSR led to fear of nuclear attack and belief that the USSR was ahead in nuclear weapons development
  • Eisenhower and Kennedy sent soldiers to Vietnam to appear tough on communism and win American voters
  • Major elections every couple of years in the USA, presidents like to appear tough to win voters
• Failure of other strategies of containment:

  • War in Vietnam was partly due to the failure of previous attempts to contain communism in Vietnam since the 1940s
  • Americans supported the French against the Viet Minh until 1954, then supported Diem's government against the Viet Cong despite Diem's unpopularity
  • Eisenhower blocked elections to reunify Vietnam in 1956 out of fear of communist victory
  • Eisenhower and Kennedy sent military "advisers" to Vietnam and encouraged the "Strategic Hamlet Program" which failed to stop the Viet Cong's growth
• • Gulf of Tonkin incident was used as a pretext by President Johnson to escalate the war, which he wished to do anyway
• Trigger cause - the Gulf of Tonkin incident:

  • North Vietnamese attack on American navy ships in August 1964 led to escalation into a full-scale war
  • President Johnson asked Congress for permission to pursue a war in Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incident
  • Congress gave permission in the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" allowing Johnson to "take all necessary measures" in Vietnam
  • Johnson launched a major bombing campaign in North Vietnam in February 1965, followed by the first official US combat troops entering Vietnam in March 1965, officially beginning the war
• What did presidents have to do to win voters?

  Be tough on communism
• What was the Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution?


  Gave President Johnson authority to increase U.S. involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam in 1964
• Vietnam until 1945

  • The French ruled until WW2
  • Resources such as coal, tin, zinc and rubber so valuable
  • 1940 - Japanese invaded and conquered
  • Japan brutal rule until 1945
  • A strong anti-Japanese movement formed in during the war called the Viet Minh
  • Viet Minh fought for an independent Vietnam and were led by Ho Chi Minh
  • 1945 - Viet Minh entered Hanoi (the capital) and declared Vietnam independent
• French rule

  • French came back to rule in 1946
  • Several years of war ensued between the French and the Viet Minh
  • USA believed the Viet Minh were being controlled by Chinese communists so they supported the French with $500 million a year of military aid
  • The French set up a non-communist state in SV and it seemed as if the country was dividing into two
  • French took control of the capital in 1946
  • The French pulled out in 1954 after being decisively beaten at the battle of Dien Bien Phu which led the prime minister to resign
• Peace agreement

  • 1954 - a peace conference in Geneva (Switzerland) to discuss what should happen to Vietnam
  • It was decided that the country would be split into two - along the 17th parallel
  • Ho Chi Minh and the communists controlled NV
  • Elections were due to be held within 2 years
• What happened to the elections?

  • Ho Chi Minh was extremely popular and the US believed he would win the elections
• What happened to the elections?

  • Ho Chi Minh was extremely popular and the US believed that he would win the elections
  • Americans did not want Vietnam becoming a communist state and so blocked the elections from taking place
  • In 1955 they helped Ngo Dinh Diem set up a Republic in SV
  • Vietnam was now officially split into two countries - NV and SV
• Ngo Dinh Diem

  • Tough and brutal leader
  • Belonged to the wealthy and land-owning class so viewed Vietnamese peasants with contempt
  • Catholic - most Vietnamese were Buddhists and Diem showed little respect for their religion
  • Led an extremely corrupt regime
  • Refused to hold proper elections and the one he did hold (to be President in 1955) was clearly neither free nor fair - he even claimed to win with a 98% vote
  • Frustrated Americans with his actions but they didn't know anybody better
  • USA supported the SV government with $1.6 billion a year throughout the 1950s
• Opposition to Diem

  • Influential Buddhist priests - One of them (Quang Duc) burnt himself to death in the middle of Saigon (capital of SV) in 1963
  • Photos of the burning were widely seen around the world
• Civil war

  • Many joined the National Liberation Front or the Viet Cong to fight against Diem
  • VC was funded and supplied and partly directed by Ho Chi Minh's government
  • VC included both SV opponents of the government and NV communists
  • Government actions increased support for the VC
  • BUT the VC were also brutal and Vietnamese people who did not support them faced violence and intimidation
  • 1957 - VC began to fight a Guerilla war with the SV government
• 1950s

  • Eisenhower was committed to supporting Diem
  • He spent $1.6 billion arming and training the ARVN (SV army)
  • When Kennedy became President in 1960, he sent actual military personnel to help fight the VC - called 'advisers' so it was clear the US were not involved in fighting
  • Kennedy supported the 'Strategic Hamlet Programme'
  • By the end of 1962, there were 11,000 US soldiers in Vietnam - by the end of 1964: 23,000
• What was the Strategic Hamlet Programme?

  A programme where the US tried to reduce the influence of the NLF on the Vietnamese people by making peasants move to new villages in areas controlled by the government
• Why was the Strategic Hamlet Programme a total failure?

  Led to a clear increase in support for the VC as most peasants didn't want to move to a new village which was far away from their rice fields and from where their ancestors were buried
• President Kennedy was assassinated and President Johnson took over

  1963
• Johnson was prepared to launch into a full-scale war but he needed permission from the US congress who were reluctant to send troops to a far off country
• NV ships fired at US ships on the Gulf of Tonkin

  August 1964
• Causes - wider cold war

  • USSR never directly got involved in the Vietnam war
  • Supported the VC with supplies and training
  • China was more directly involved, and supported first the Viet Minh and then the VC
  • Vietnam war was a 'proxy war' where the USA and the USSR used other countries to fight for them, but never fought themselves
  • Important propaganda cause
• The US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave Johnson the power to 'take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression and achieve peace and security


  August 7th 1964
• Johnson launched a massive bombing campaign against NV called Operation Rolling Thunder


  February 1965
• Operation Rolling Thunder


  • Intended to put pressure on NV to stop supplying the VC
  • Meant to last 8 weeks but actually lasted 3 years
• Anti-war - civil rights campaigners

  • Martin Luther King pointed out the racial inequality highlighted by the war in 1967
  • Fewer African American students at university, so fewer could avoid the draft
  • 30% of African Americans were drafted, compared to 19% of whites
  • 22% of casualties were African Americans, even though they only made up 11% of the army in Vietnam
  • King argued it was wrong to spend billions of dollars a year on the war when the money could be spent on improving American society
• Anti-war - students

  • Many did not want to be drafted into a war they didn't believe in
  • They thought the war was about America being oppressive, not fighting communism
• Anti-war - other

  • A very famous news reporter called Walter Cronkite said he thought the war was unwinnable in 1968
  • President Johnson later said that if he'd lost the support of Cronkite, he'd lost the support of ordinary US citizens
  • Muhammed Ali was a boxer who refused to obey the draft on the grounds of his Muslim faith
  • He was stripped of his world title and had his passport removed
  • In June 1969 Life magazine published the names and faces of all 242 American soldiers who had been killed in Vietnam that week
  • This kind of reporting made an impact on US citizens
• US media in the early stages of war

  • The Vietnam war was covered by the media more extensively than any other war had been
  • In the early stages of war, the media largely did what they were told and supported the war effort
  • The army created the MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) to deal with the media: they would be given accreditation by the army and then granted access and transport to war areas, briefings, interviews with commanders and regular reports AND in return they were expected not to reveal any sensitive information that might help the enemy
  • This system worked until 1968
• US media in later stages of war

  • By 1967-8, media no longer supported the war
  • Television was taking over from newspapers as the most important source of news as it gave a more direct and raw account
  • New tech meant TV crews could take lightweight cameras into the war zone
  • US viewers watched lots of violence on their screens, including 'zippo raids' and the execution of a VC suspect without any trial
  • Doubts grew about the war effort after the Tet Offensive and there were increased stories about US defeats and low morale and behaviour amongst soldiers
• Hippie culture

  • Hippie culture was big amongst young people in the USA in the 1960s
  • Its main ideas were peace, love and opposition to all war and oppression
  • Thousands began to dodge the draft
  • Some even fled abroad if they could, often going to universities in Europe
  • Students attended rallies and protests, chanting slogans like 'Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?'
• Kent State Massacre

  • May 1970
  • Students demonstrating against President Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia in April 1970
  • University tried to ban the demonstration, but 3000 people gathered anyway
  • Rocks were thrown by some students and National Guard soldiers were called in
  • They opened fire and 4 students were killed
  • The press in the USA and abroad was shocked
  • 400 colleges were closed and 2 million students went on strike in protest
  • Eight national guard soldiers were arrested but charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence
• What happened at Jackson State College in Mississippi?

  Two students were shot and killed by police and twelve were injured at a protest
• Opposition to anti-war movement

  • A survey found that 64% of Americans wanted the Vietnam war over as quickly as possible but that means that 1/3 of Americans didn't
  • Many Americans saw the war as unpatriotic and disloyal to US soldiers - especially if they burnt the US flag
  • It was not unusual for anti-war protests to be met with counter-demonstrations by people who supported the war and would sometimes end in violence
• Anti-war protests

  • The protests were biggest in 1968-70
  • Often involved burning the American flag
  • This symbolised students rejecting American values
  • The biggest protest was in November 1969, when almost 700,000 anti-war protesters marched in Washington DC
• The Tet Offensive

  • Until late 1967, most people thought the war was going well in Vietnam
  • Confidence was shattered in 1968 due to the Tet Offensive
  • During the Tet festival (Vietnamese new year), Americans expected the Vietnamese to observe a truce
  • Instead the VC and 10,000s of NV soldiers launched a huge assault on over 100 cities and military targets in SV
  • They hoped the Vietnamese people would rise up in support of them, but they did not
  • One VC unit even managed to get inside the US embassy compound which was supposed to one of the most guarded places in the country!
• Why was the Tet Offensive a huge military disaster for the VC?

  US army quickly regained all of the towns and bases, 10,000 VC and 50,000 NV fighters were killed and VC was badly weakened as a fighting force
• How was the Tet Offensive a turning point of the war?

  • By 1968, there were 500,000 US troops in Vietnam and $30 billion was being spent per year on the war
  • Cast serious doubts on the quality of US intelligence and on the idea that the US were actually winning the war
  • While they recaptured what they'd lost, they lost massive amounts of artillery and air power
  • The ancient city of Hue was totally destroyed and many people questioned whether this war was really worth the destruction it caused
  • During the Tet Offensive, the US media really started asking difficult questions
• Vietnam's neighbours

  • Laos and Cambodia supported the VC
  • Allowed the VC to retreat and regroup there
  • Also allowed them to use land for supplies and reinforcements from the Ho Chi Minh trail
  • The USA could not risk to be seen extending the Vietnam war, so could not attack these countries
  • Unofficially, the US sent soldiers into both Laos and Cambodia but they were not willing to attack them with full force to stop their support for the VC