Asia: escalation of conflict in vietnam Flashcards
why did america get involved
-feeling good about their military: easily defeat north vietnam as they had been successful in korea, thought they were strong enough
-containment + domino theory
- domestic pressure on america to intervene
- patriotic and anti-communist attitudes such as of kennedy and johnson
- sv too weak to prevent the spread of communism
- french fighting vietnam, strong communist presence supplied £3million to france
diem and his rule on south vietnam
after geneva agreement in 1954, south vietnam = non-communist govt. ruled by president diem. harsh, corrupt and unpopular. enemies were imprisoned and money was either wasted or spent on defence. pushing peasants off their land. diem was a catholic in a largely buddhist country and the govt. persecuted buddhist majority. only supported the wealthier landlords and catholics. monks held severe protests about the lack of religious tolerance with extreme acts such as setting fire to themselves = self-immolation. despite this, diem co-operated with the US funds as he supported anti-communism. einsenhower favoured him.
calling an election is sv in oct 55- 1 yr before real elections
strategic hamlets: policy introduced by the US, took a vietnamese village and surrounded it by a fortified village to protect it from enemies. vietnamese people didnt want to build and pay for bamboo protection also didnt want to move away from their homeland which belonged to their ancestors, they knew the viet cong was also there and wanted to support them
- corrupt - alienated buddhists
- agrovilles (hearts and minds) - lost support
- excessive self beliefs - unwilling to reform
unpopular, corrupt, favoured wealth, westernised - no common touch
BEW
buddhists, elections, wealthy(favoured)
johnson’s inheritance: vice president inherited president role (1963)
- no mandate(right/authority) to change the policies
- political instability in sv
- military coup
- diem assassinated by his own army, replacement = not much better
- ineffective so army (ARVN)
- jan 1963: battle of Ap Bac, big numbers but still failing, low engagement
- public pressure: anti-communist
- increased support of viet cong (sv communists) by nv
- china sends weapons to nv through ho chi minh trail
- fear of wider conflict with china: 3rd world war
thus, he went full out troops, money, bombing, advisors
viet cong tactics
- raid when the army camps - catch them off-guard and sap morale, put enemy on edge and attack in small groups of armies that were not guarded well
- guerilla warfare - couldn’t distinguish between sv and nv which strengthened their attacks, allowed them to not get captured by the americans, helped them blend in and use surprise attacks,
- booby traps - distracted and deterred americans
- tunnels - protection from bombs, fewer casualties
- no uniform - enemy can’t distinguish between soldiers and civilians, easier to infiltrate their bases, blended in
- ho chi minh trail - helped supply weapons, great advantage of mobility, had many paths so couldn’t easily be closed off when bombed, helped supply military aid from china
sv and american tactics:
- search and destroy - find viet cong fighters often by helicopter and drops bombs, loud - the enemy knows the terrain and often knew where they were, couldn’t distinguish between sv and nv so would often kill innocent civilians
- operation rolling thunder - minimise us casualties, block supply routes, demoralise north, there were underground viet cong soldiers, killed innocents, indiscriminate bombing so often missed targets, did not win hearts and minds
- agent orange - chemical weapons used to kill and injure many viet cong soldiers such as napalm, missed targets, defoliant: kills crops and plants to clear the jungle
- indiscriminate bombing - bombed innocents + civilians, loses hearts and minds
my lai massacre
in march 1968, american soldiers on a search and destroy mission, killed nearly 400 civilians in the village of my lai. most were women, who were also raped, children and old men. animals killed to poisonous drinking water. news of the massacre were kept quiet. officially, been called a success, 90 viet cong killed. americans had one casualty - later found that he shot his foot from the pressures of the killing rage going on around him.
outcome:
in nov 1969, american press got a hold of the story and took a much serious approach to it. one of the officers who let the raid, lieutenant william daley, was sentenced to life imprisonment for personally killing 22 villagers. utter brutality by us soldiers, so out of control. journalist Herschel published it, march 1969 ridenhour wrote to politician udall about the massacre.
some people believed the killings were justified bc of the alleged presence of the viet cong troops
some believed the war had just gone wrong
almost 700,000 anti-war protestors demonstrated in washington dc, angry for accomplishing the wrong deeds and began to resist war, this demoralised soldiers
morale and inexperience:
- majority of us troops were professional soldiers and had volunteered for the forces. morale = good, stood up well for the conditions
- after 1967, many troops had been drafted: cared little for democracy and just wanted to get home alive many = poor or from immigrant background
- as war went on, quality of recruits declined. 500,000 incidents of desertion. mostly young so explains minimum commitment to the cause they were fighting for
- tensions between officers and troops, officers were professional soldiers so wanted to gain promotion (kills) but troops didnt care about that, evidence of ‘fragging’ - troops killing officers
- poor quality troops, low morale and viet cong tactics resulted in atrocities against civilians. johnson wanted them to win ‘the hearts and mind’ of vietnamese people
- however, army was based on attrition - killing large numbers and led to the vietnamese supporting the viet cong as there were high civilian casualties
tet offensive
during the tet new year holiday, bc fighters attacked over 100 sv cities. jan 1968
around 4,500 fighters tied down us and sv forces in saigon
shattered confidence
surprise communist military operation conducted between jan and sept 1968
open war so not their usual guerilla warfare
huge attack on south in the us embassy
how it affected media:
- us felt pressure from its own country like journalists such as walter cronkite who stated that they were “mired in stalemate”, asking difficult questions
- undermines credibility of govt.
- 500,000 troops and us were spending $20 billion a year on war but were still not ready for attack
- johnson not running for president again
- considering peace talks
- retook towns captured but in the process used enormous amounts of artillery and air power
- lower morale
- published negative news and overall demoralising, politicians losing support
- many civilians killed
- people questioning if they could even win
impact:
- vc suffered military: 37,000 soldiers compared to the 4000 america lost
- the gains the vc made were soon reversed by america
- vc thought sv would join them, they didnt
a military defeat for nv (communists)
- vc still fighting, no matter how much us fights back
- major effect on american govt and media, shocked public
- propaganda victory for communist, south not safe
a psychological defeat for americans
escalating US conflict in vietnam
1949: america pay 80% of french costs in the war against vietnam. battle of diem bien phu: $500 million a year
why?: allies with france and were against ho chi minh as they thought he was a communist and wanted to stay true to the truman doctrine: containment. the viet minh were attacking the french and were supported by communist china, us saw viet minh as communist puppets of mao
1954-60: sent equipment as they had superior technology and firepower. provide aid of $1.6 billion to south vietnam
why?: they believed in the domino theory so they if vietnam fell to communism, the other countries in asia would too and wanted to prevent that. support for diem bc anti-communist, sv needed support as diem was unpopular.
1963: sent 11,000 to provide training and 16,000 advisers to help organise the army (ARVN), sent military personnel to fight the viet cong. patrol boats opened fire on US ships in the gulf of tonkin
1965: massive bombing campaign in feb against nv called operation rolling thunder. 8th march, 3,500 US marines came ashore at da nang full-on war between america and vietnam. used their own troops, nov: killed 2,000 viet cong
why?: full-scale conflict to prevent communism in vietnam. gulf of tonkin resolution gave johnson power to ‘take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression and achieve peace and security’
why did the viet cong gain support
U = uniting vietnam and supported nationalist aim
L = peasants wanted their land back prepared to feed and hide vietcong soldiers
