Vietnam Theme: Problems with limited war

Vietnam

Theme: Problems with limited war

Lesson 25

Road to War

• 1941… Ho Chi Minh secretly returns to Vietnam after 30 years in exile and begins organizing Viet Minh. US works with Ho to harass Japanese and rescue downed US pilots

• 1945… Allies divide Vietnam to aid in disarming Japanese (Chinese disarm north and British disarm south). Allies honor France’s request for restoration of its pre-war Indochina colonies (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

Ho Chi Minh

Road to War

• Sept 1945… Ho unsuccessfully seeks US recognition

• Oct 1945… French troops return to Vietnam; guerrilla fighting begins almost immediately

• Dec 1946… First large scale Viet Minh assault on French French Far East Expeditionary

Corps

Road to War

• 1949… Mao defeats Chiang Kai-shek in China. US begins “containment” policy.

• 1950… US authorizes aid and advisors to French

• 1954… Viet Minh defeat French at Dien Bien Phu. US does not intervene.

French paratroopers run for cover during the 55 day siege

of Dien Bien Phu

Road to War

• 21 July 1954… Geneva Accords divide Vietnam at 17th parallel.

• 1955… Ngo Dinh Diem becomes president. Begins illegitimate and corrupt (but strongly anticommunist) rule.

• 1956… Last French soldier leaves.

Road to War

• 1959… Ho declares “Peoples’ War” to unite Vietnam.• 1961… President Kennedy sends 400 Green Berets to Vietnam• Oct 1961… Maxwell Taylor visits Vietnam and reports “If Vietnam

goes it will be exceedingly difficult to hold Southeast Asia.” (domino theory) Recommends sending combat troops.

Road to War

• 1963… Diem assassinated in US-backed coup.

• 1964… North Vietnamese patrol boats attack US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin. US begins bombing.

• 2 Mar 1965… Operation Rolling Thunder begins.

• 8 Mar 1965… First US combat troops arrive. By the end of the year, 184,300 troops are in Vietnam.

The massive bombing campaign was plagued by restricted targeting and the non-industrialized nature of

North Vietnam

Topics

• Guerilla War

• Pacification

• The “Big War”

• Domestic Issues

• Legacy and Lessons

Guerilla War

Definitions

• Insurgency-- An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict

• Guerrilla warfare-- Military and paramilitary operations conducted in enemy-held or hostile territory by irregular, predominantly indigenous forces.

Prerequisites and Other Conditions Required for or Conducive to an Insurgency

• Vulnerable population

• Leadership available for direction

• Lack of government control

• Popular support

• Unity of effort

• Will to resist

• Discipline

• Intelligence

• Propaganda

• Favorable environment

• External support

Conditions in South Vietnam• Diem illegitimate and

corrupt– Catholic in an

overwhelmingly Buddhist society

– Ignored Geneva Accords call for elections in 1956

– Nepotism• Succession of military

coups resulted in a revolving door government

Several Buddhist monks burned themselves alive to protest Diem’s religious oppression

Insurgent Leadership

• Increasing North Vietnamese infiltration created a security threat in South Vietnam

• In Dec 1960, the insurgents formed the National Liberation Front (typically called the Viet Cong or VC), a broad-based organization led by communists but designed to rally all those disaffected with Diem by promising sweeping reforms and genuine independence

Flag of the National Liberation Front

Insurgent Leadership

• The NLF skillfully combined political and military organizations and efforts

• Politically they created special organizations to give status to such groups as farmers, women, and youth– Used agitation and

propaganda (“agitprop”) to arouse the people to the government’s oppressiveness and lack of responsibility

Protesters in Saigon to express their dissatisfaction with the Diem government.

Insurgent Leadership

• Militarily they assembled a disciplined and potent force of an estimated 80,000 fighters by 1965

• Relied on speed, surprise, and deception to strike targets selected for the maximum psychological effect– Used violence to coerce

or win over the population and undermine the legitimacy of the South Vietnamese government

Vietnamese battalion commander interrogating a

captured Viet Cong suspect in a 1965 AP picture.

External Support

• North Vietnam began constructing a massive supply route through Laos and Cambodia that allowed it to infiltrate supplies and personnel south– The Ho Chi Minh Trail

• The Soviet Union and China provided equipment, advisors, and diplomatic support

Mao on Guerrilla Warfare

• Mao wrote On Guerrilla Warfare in 1937 while in retreat after ten years of battling the Nationalist Chinese army of Chiang Kai-shek

• In 1949, Mao defeated the Nationalist Chinese and validated his theories of revolutionary guerrilla warfare– Remember from Lesson 23

• The National Liberation Front would pattern much of its strategy and tactics after Mao

Phases of Development

• Phase I: Latent and incipient insurgency. – Activity in this phase ranges from subversive

activity that is only a potential threat to situations in which frequent subversive incidents and activities occur in an organized pattern. It involves no major outbreak of violence or uncontrolled insurgent activity. The guerrilla force does not conduct continuous operations but rather selected acts of terrorism.

Phases of Development

• Phase II: Guerrilla warfare. – This phase is reached when the insurgent

movement, having gained sufficient local or external support, initiates organized continuous guerrilla warfare or related forms of violence against the government. This is an attempt to force government forces into a defensive role. As the guerrilla becomes stronger, he begins to conduct larger operations.

Phases of Development

• Phase III: War of movement. – When the guerrilla attains the force structure

and capability to directly engage government forces in decisive combat, then he will progressively begin to use more conventional tactics and may obtain combat forces from an external source. He may also begin to conduct more extensive defensive operations in this phase to protect the areas he controls.

Pacification

Pacification• Between 1961 and 1963,

President Kennedy launched a full-scale counterinsurgency program in Vietnam, part of which would become the “pacification” program

• Major goals– Strengthen the South

Vietnamese government’s hold on the peasantry

– Cut into the heart of the Viet Cong politico-military organization

• Designed to “win the hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese

In 1967, Robert Komer, shown here with President Johnson, was selected to head

CORDS (Civil Operations and Rural Development Support)

and coordinate all pacification programs

Pacification

• Strategic Hamlet Program… South Vietnamese peasants from scattered villages were brought together in defended and organized hamlets in order to protect them, isolate the Viet Cong, and show the superiority of what the SVN government could offer– Patterned after British experience

in Malaya– Did not work in Vietnam because

of traditional Vietnamese ties to the land

Pacification

• Combined Action Program… Placed selected Marine squads within the village militia to eliminate local guerrillas– Very successful at the local level but

required a degree of American-Vietnamese cooperation unable to be replicated on a wider scale

– Drew American troops away from the “big war”

• Instead, American troops concentrated on the “big war”and left pacification to the South Vietnamese who did not show an abundance of commitment to the task

Pacification

• Revolutionary Development Program… Put armed social workers into Vietnamese villages to begin grass roots civic improvement and eliminate the VC shadow government– Didn’t reach full

potential because South Vietnamese government feared the consequences of real rural politicalization

25th Infantry Division soldiers support the Revolutionary Development

Program by clearing the village of Rach Kien during Operation Lanakai

Pacification

• Chieu hoi (opens arms) amnesty program… designed to persuade VC to change sides– When VC saw the program

might bear fruit they unleashed a terrorist campaign that reduced defections from 5,000 to 500 a month

– CORDS responded with Operation Phoenix, a direct action plan to kill, capture, or co-opt the “provincial reconnaissance units”

These former VC who took advantage of the chieu hoi amnesty receive training in

automotive repair to help them in their new lives

Pacification: Overall Assessment

• Commonly considered a missed strategic opportunity

• Suffered from being “too little, too late”– CORDS not activated

until 1967• Perceived as competition

with the “big war” and many military officers favored a “military solution”

Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay reportedly said, “Grab

‘em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.”

The “Big War”

Limited War

• When the Soviet Union and the US nuclear programs reached the point of Mutually Assured Destruction, the US faced the dilemma of responding to communist challenges in peripheral areas by either risking starting a nuclear war or doing nothing

• The alternative strategy of limited war was developed to harness the nation’s military power and employ only that force necessary to achieve the political aim

• The objective was not to destroy an opponent but to persuade him to break of the conflict short of achieving his goals and without resorting to nuclear war

Limited War

• The limited war theory was more an academic than a military concept and its application resulted in tensions, frustrations, and misunderstanding between the military and civilian leadership Secretary of Defense Robert

McNamara is sharply criticized for his technocratic and

statistical approach to the Vietnam War

Strategy of Attrition

• Traditionally, the “American way of war” had been a strategy of annihilation– Seeks the immediate destruction of the combat power

of the enemy’s armed forces• In Vietnam, the US would instead follow a strategy of

attrition– The reduction of the effectiveness of a force caused

by loss of personnel and materiel• This proved to be a poor strategy against the North

Vietnamese who used a strategy of exhaustion– The gradual erosion of a nation’s will or means to

resist

Problems with the Strategy of Attrition

• Led the US to fight according to the theory of gradual escalation– A steady increase in the level of military pressure

would coerce the enemy into compliance instead of employing overwhelming force all at once

– US never had enough forces to control the countryside

– US soldiers served one year tours in Vietnam– North Vietnamese soldiers were there till the end and

recognized “Victory will come to us, not suddenly, but in a complicated and tortuous way.”

US Troop Levels in Vietnam

• 1959 760• 1960 900• 1961 3,205• 1962 11,300• 1963 16,300• 1964 23,300• 1965 184,300• 1966 385,300

• 1967 485,600• 1968 536,100• 1969 475,200• 1970 334,600• 1971 156,800• 1972 24,200• 1973 50

Problems with the Strategy of Attrition

• Led to a “body count” mentality– Many reports were exaggerated or falsified– North Vietnamese were always able to replace their

losses while Americans became disillusioned with the mounting death toll

• Nightly news broadcasts reported US deaths versus North Vietnamese deaths– If ours were less, we were winning!

• North Vietnamese showed a remarkable capability to cope, rebuild, and repair– The enemy will was never broken

Problems with the Strategy of Attrition

• Low-tech nature of the enemy prevented the US from bringing to bear the full effects of its combat power– North Vietnamese infiltration routes were hard to

bomb– North Vietnamese ground troops used the tactic of

“clinging to the G.I.’s belts” to minimize American ability to use artillery and close air support

– The nature of guerrilla war allowed the North Vietnamese to avoid contact when it was not to their advantage to fight

Tet Offensive

• On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese escalated to Phase III, the War of Movement

• Attack gained surprise by coinciding with the Vietnamese lunar new year holiday

• Designed to foster antigovernment uprisings against the South Vietnamese

Tet Offensive

• 84,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked 36 of 43 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 34 of 242 district capitals, and at least 50 hamlets

Reasons for North Vietnam’s Lack of

Tactical Success in Tet

• By attacking everywhere, the North Vietnamese had superior strength nowhere

•Inflexible Viet Cong command and control system could not respond to late announcements of timings and objectives from the North Vietnamese Army

•North Vietnamese wrongly assumed South Vietnamese were on the verge of a general uprising

Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of the director of the South

Vietnamese national police executing a VC prisoner in Saigon

during Tet

Reasons for the U.S. Tactical Success

in Tet • Technology gave the US a strategic mobility that allowed it to respond to multiple threats

• When the North Vietnamese came out and fought en masse in a traditional war of movement, the US could bring to bear its overwhelming firepower in a strategy of annihilation

Helicopters gave the US the ability to cover all types of terrain,

maneuver over large areas, react quickly to enemy attacks, reinforce embattled units, and conduct raids

into enemy territory

Back to Insurgency Phase II • Previously complacent South Vietnamese population was for the first time made to feel involved in the war effort

• Local insurgency movement suffered a devastating loss when it surfaced to assume leadership of a general uprising that never materialized

• Clandestine shadow government, years in the building, was largely destroyed

• Tactical military defeat for North Vietnam

• By coming into the open, the enemy had exposed itself to massive American firepower and lost 137,000 killed in the first nine months of 1968

• Allowed US to practice “the American way of war”

Overall Results of Tet • Tactical defeat for North Vietnam

• North Vietnamese 32,000 killed and 6,000 captured

• US and South Vietnamese 4,000 killed

• But a strategic victory

• “I thought we were winning this war!” (Walter Cronkite)

• Dramatic shift in public opinion in US

Returning from Vietnam after Tet, Walter Cronkite reported, “It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is a

stalemate” and then urged the government to open negotiations with

the North Vietnamese.

Domestic Issues

Societal Changes

Country Joe McDonald at

Woodstock, 1969

Martin Luther King delivers his “I have a

dream” speech in 1963Gloria Steinem

helped found Ms magazine in 1971

War Protests

President Johnson

President Lyndon B. Johnson listens to tape sent by Captain Charles Robb from Vietnam,

July 31, 1968.

Democratic delegates protest the Johnson administration's policies

in Vietnam at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

in Chicago.

President Nixon• Richard Nixon was elected

president in 1968 campaigning for “peace with honor”

• Under Nixon the process of “Vietnamization”– the gradual transfer of primary responsibility of the war to the South Vietnamese that Johnson had begun on a small scale after Tet– was accelerated

• Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, his impeachment, and resignation hamstrung America’s ability to influence peace negotiations through sustained offensive operations

Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford. By this point the US was

traumatized by war-weariness and economic recession. Ford had

almost no maneuver room to help the South Vietnamese.

My Lai• On March 16, 1968, an

infantry company entered the village of My Lai

• They found no insurgents but, being psychologically prepared for battle and poorly disciplined, they proceeded to kill between 347 and 504 mostly old men, women, and children

• Word of the massacre did not reach the American public until November 1969 when it then fueled national outrage and further undermined support for the war

Kent State and Jackson State

Four students were killed and nine wounded at Kent State and two students were killed at Jackson State during

protests against a number of issues to include US operations in Cambodia

Defeat

• The US concluded a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese in 1973, but the South Vietnamese continued fighting until April 30, 1975 when the North Vietnamese captured Saigon Americans and South Vietnamese

who had worked for the US are evacuated from Saigon

Legacy and Lessons

Legacy and Lessons• Sophisticated weaponry and conventional forces

have limits in “low intensity conflict”• The restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs) and

political considerations of limited war hamper military operations

• Domestic support is critical• You can win the battles and lose the war• “Vietnam syndrome” effects military and diplomatic

operations until finally exorcised by Desert Storm. – We’ll take about that in the next lesson.

Vietnam Today

• Vietnam remains communist

• However, since 2001, it has committed to economic liberalization and is trying to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries

• An April 28, 2005 article in the Economist was aptly titled “America Lost, Capitalism Won”

Next

• The End of the Cold War, Desert Storm, and the New World Order

• Islamic Resurgence and Global Terrorism