vietnamisation

• what was vietnamisation?


  The withdrawal of American troops but still aiding South Vietnam with money and materials
• when was policy introduced?

  3rd November 1969
• who's idea was it?

  Nixon's
• what were the aims of Vietnamisation?

  -to make ARVN self sufficient so it could defend without US support

  -Withdraw US troops from Vietnam
• why was the policy introduced?

  -Nixon believed that south Vietnamese should be able to defend themselves

  -needed to find a practical solution to end war quickly

  -whilst not letting south Vietnam fall to communism
• what problems did Nixon face ?

  -same time he implement Vietnamisation he expanded war into Cambodia and Laos

  -April 1970 he announced he needed 100,000 more troops

  -which led to wide spread demonstrations across US
• how did policy work?

  -USA would be trained by US to carry on fighting Vietcong

  -Vast amounts of money spent on best planes, helicopters weapons to equip ARVN

  -ARVN size would be increased from 393000 to 532000 soldiers

  -as ARVN became more self sufficient US troops could withdraw
• why did Vietnamisation fail?

  -The USA underfunded the South Vietnamese forces.

  -The South Vietnamese army was not large enough to take on the job of the Americans.

  -The withdrawal of US troops spurred on the North Vietnamese who increase in confidence and in effort.
• how did funding cause failure?

  -limited capability's and options for US military
• how did inadequate training cause failure?

  -training rushed

  -Without US support ARVN were unable to continue fighting
• how did economic weakness of south Vietnam lead to failure of policy's?

  -USA had been propping up south Vietnams economy since 50s

  -US trying to withdraw funding whilst USSR and China were sending more funds to NV