Vietnam The United States begins fighting…
Jan 19, 2016
Vietnam
The United States begins fighting…
NLF
• National Liberation Front – Vietcong – South Vietnam– Overthrow Diem– Get rid of Americans– Reunite North and South
Eisenhower and Kennedy• Send military advisors to train SVA• Geneva Accords - 685 military advisors
– Kennedy : 16,000
• Diem – “strategic hamlet”– Moved whole villages to “fortified villages”
• Peasants did not want to move, land of ancestors
– VC promised peasants more land once united
War Tactics
Vietcong• Ambush• Booby traps• Guerilla tactics
– Blend in
• Underground tunnel systems
United States• Search and destroy missions• Zippo raids• Napalm• Agent Orange
• To destroy crops• To defoliate the jungle.• To eliminate the hiding places of the Viet Cong.
After
Before
• 10 % of South Vietnam was contaminated with 12 million gallons of Agent Orange by airplanes spraying it over the land.
• 1965 - 1970.
EFFECTS
War of Attrition• North Vietnam – aid from
China & Soviet Union• North Vietnam
aid/supplies/arms/leader-ship– Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Go through Jungles of Cambodia and Laos
– Not officially in the War
• US strategy –”war of attrition”
Warm – Up Lesson 12
• In the world of sports, having the “Home Court Advantage” can often determine the outcome of a game…How did the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army benefit from having “Home Court Advantage” in the war?
The Pivotal Year• 1968 Tet Offensive
– Tet – VN New Year– NVA & VC launched a massive guerrilla
attack on US military airbases in SV • Fought in cities. Many military and civilian
casualties
• US claimed a military victory• NVA won a political victory(Media – Credibility gap)
"The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are highly disputed, is not a pretty one."
Nixon’s plans to end war
• Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger as special assistant for National Security Affairs– Kissinger enters negotiations with NV’s negotiator, Tho– “Vietnamization”
My Lai Massacre
US Soldiers kill 200 - 300 unarmed Vietnamese, many who were women, old men and children
“To kill on military orders and be a criminal, or to refuse to kill and be a criminal is the moral agony of America’s Vietnam War generation…”
Invasion of
Cambodia• US wanted to take out
VC military bases in Cambodia
• US public saw it as widening of war
• Kent State
University
– Student prot
est
in 1970
– Ohio Nationa
l
Guard Soldie
rs
fired on
demonstrator
s
without orde
rs
• Killed 4
• Wounded 9
Pentagon Papers• 1970 – Congress repeals the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution• 1971 – Pentagon Papers
– Confirmed the fears of many Americans • Govt had not been completely honest with
them– Weary of leaders
• 1971 – 2/3rds of American’s wanted to pull out of Vietnam
• Kissinger – “peace is at hand”• Negotiations broke down
– Christmas Bombings• 12 days of most intense bombing
– 1973 – peace agreement – US withdraws troops– 1975 – NV attacks SV – Saigon Ho Chi Minh City
U.S. exits
The Numbers…
• War cost US $170 Billion• 58,000 US soldiers died• 300,000 US soldiers injured• 1 million N & S Vietnamese soldiers died
• Because the antiwar
protests at home broke
the American spirit and
crushed military
morale?
• Because we didn’t understand our enemy and the reality and strength of a nationalist movement?
Why do you think the U.S.
Lost the War?