Chapter 13

• Who was the President in the first part of the Vietnam War?

  Lyndon B Johnson
• What was Johnson's primary aim?

  A quick victory in Vietnam without US escalation

  Without the war being Americanised
• when did Johnson implement the strategy OPLAN34A

  January 1964
• What was OPLAN 34A?


  covert action to apply pressure by inflicting punishment on the North
• What did he continue from Kennedy?

  Increasing the amount of advisors from 16,300 to 23,300

  Counterinsurgency
• How did their Western allies react to the Vietnam war?

  French thought involvement would lead to same results as Indochina. General Charles de Gaulle warned Johnson

  Didn't support - wanted neutralisation
• What and when was the Gulf of Tonkin?

  2nd August 1964 - North attacked US naval ship
• What and when was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

  7th August 1964

  - Congress passed

  - Gave Johnson ability to 'take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against US forces and to prevent further aggression'

  - Became basis for US action in Vietnam for next 6 years

  This effectively gave Johnson the power to do whatever he wanted without consulting Congress.
• How did China and the USSR support the North?

  China - military support

  USSR - established domestic links w/NLF and military equipment
• How were the North getting stronger?

  Ho Chi Minh trail

  Vietcong stronger in the South
• How were the South getting weaker?

  South government didn't care

  ARVN low morale, poor leadership, inadequate training and low pay
• Why and when did Operation Rolling Thunder start?

  Pleiku Incident Feb 1965

  Vietcong attack on army barracks and a US helicopter base
• What and when was Operation Rolling Thunder?

  Bombing campaign

  Feb 1965 - 1968

  - MARKED THE START OF AMERICANISATION OF WAR AND ESCALATION OF US INVOLVEMENT

  Johnson continued armed reconnaissance strikes and had no inclination to move towards a diplomatic settlement, as he believed that the North Vietnamese would back down against the economic and military strength of the USA.
• When did the first US troops arrive?

  March 1965
• when did the north offer the 4 point proposal?

  April 1965
• What was the four point proposal that the North offered?

  - US troops withdraw from SV

  - Neither N or SV allowed to enter into alliance with foreign power

  - SV's internal affairs to be settled by people of SV, no external interference

  - Peace Reunification of Vietnam to be settle only by people in those zones
• What did Johnson say to the four point proposal?

  Rejected it - thought it would lead to a reunified communist state
• Instead of agreeing to the four point proposal what did Johnson do?

  Ordered 2 marine battalions

  Air squadron

  20,000 troops

  - Publicly announced US escalation on 28th July 1965
• When did Johnson publicly announce his decision to escalate?

  28th July 1965
• Exact figures of escalation

  Bomb tonnage: increased to 226,000 by 1967

  Ground troops: increased to 536,000 by 1968

  
  

  US deployed 75,000 troops in Vietnam by July 1965
• When did the first significant engagement between US forces and Vietcong take place?

  November 1965 at Ia Drang Valley
• What was the result of what happened at Ia Drang Valley?

  US 300 dead, North 2000 dead

  North decided to change tactics

  - Both saw battle as a victory (US as high enemy casualty figure and NV as they held their position)
• What were the USA's tactics?

  US helicopters: Deliver troops without the risk of ambush + Recovering wounded troops

  Bombing Campaigns - Use B-52 bombers to destroy NV's economy + undermine Northern forces in the South, however

  - NV agrarian country and had few but well-disguised military targets

  - Few centres of industrial production

  - Resources lost by NV soon replaced by China and USSR

  
  

  Operation Ranch Hand - 1962 - chemicals on crops to starve enemy and remove cover

  Anti Personnel Bombs - cause damage to wide area

  Search and Destroy - raid villages, destroy livestock to find enemy
• Chemicals used in Operation Ranch Hand + US attacking civilians

  agent orange and agent blue

  • destroy crops and jungles to deprive enemy of food and hiding spaces

  
  

  Also many civilians killed by USA's indiscriminate weapons

  - 'pineapple bombs'

  - napalm (set areas on fire)

  Search and Destroy: US going from village to village and interrogating villagers burning farms and huts to get answers on the Vietcongs.

  Lacked success as many innocent civilians killed
• What were the Vietcong's tactics?

  Peasant support

  Guerrilla tactics - tunnel systems and booby traps

  Ho Chi Minh trail - supply line for equipment

  Support from USSR & China - guns, jets, missiles
• What happened with the TET offensive?

  January - February 1968

  Religious celebration North attacked US embassy

  Massive attack on over 100 different places in South Vietnam.
• How long did it take for the US to get the North to leave?

  31st January till 24th February
• Was the Tet Offensive successful?


  Vietcong defeated

  - lacked support from SV

  - 25,000 VC killed and 5000 captured

  
  

  Showed conflict had reached a stalemate, psychological defeat for USA, military containment looked redundant, Johnson announced he won't run for reelection March 1968, new strategy for Cold War
• How did Johnson react to the TET offensive?

  Wouldn't return for election in 1968
• Why were the USA's strengths far outweighed by their weaknesses by 1968?

  • SV army uncommitted and untrained
  • Widespread TV and press coverage led to growing opposition at home (MLK opposed and questioned Johnson's aim of a 'Great Society')
• How did the NV use guerrilla tactics?

  • Complex tunnel systems constructed to hide VC troops
  • Booby traps deployed in dense forests, e.g. trip wires that set off grenades, small groups of troops who ambushed US in jungles
• How was support given from USSR and China?

  • 1964 China supplied over 80,000 guns which increased to 140,000 by 1969
  • USSR supplied surface-to-air missiles, MiG-21 jets and artillery systems
• The anti-war movement demonstrations

  In the early 1960s the peace movement was largely an intellectual movement that consisted mostly of university faculty and graduate students.

  There were some militant groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society, which demonstrated publicly against US escalation, but it was the October 1967 protest in Washington DC that showed the anti-war movement had become mainstream: over 100,000 participated.

  Most historians see the broadcast of the Tet Offensive as the reason for the escalation of the anti-war demonstrations.