Vietnam Flashcards
1
Q
How did the USA become involved in Vietnam under Truman?
A
- -Economic benefit of being involved in Indochina
- -After WW2 Truman supported French Empire
- -Believed the Vietminh were backed by Stalin and the USSR
- -Looked at his support for the French in Cold War terms
2
Q
How did the USA become involved in Vietnam under Eisenhower?
A
- -Increased US involvement
- -Domino Theory
- -Sent in the first military advisers
- -After French defeat Geneva agreement set up four countries: Laos, Cambodia, NV and SV
- -US wouldn’t hold elections in the South because they feared Communist victory
- -Backed unpopular leader Ngo Dinh Diem instead
- -Popular support went to Vietcong
- -Failed to see Vietnam as a national uprising instead of a Cold War conflict
3
Q
How did the USA become involved in Vietnam under Kennedy?
A
- -Believed he had to take a strong stand
- -Domino Theory
- -Containment
- -Advisers equally strong: Rusk, McNamara
- -Refused to send troops
- -Increased financial aid
- -16,000 military advisers in SE Asia by 1963
- -Sent US Special Forces to train the AVRN in counter-insurgency tactics
- -These tactic lost popular support
4
Q
Why did Johnson get involved in Vietnam?
A
- -Did not want to be the first President to lose a war
- -Believed US credibility was at stake
- -Inherited Kennedy’s advisers
- -Domino Theory
- -“Raggedy-ass little fourth rate country.”” – US arrogance
- -1964 election: didn’t want to show weakness
- -Anti-communism
5
Q
What was the Gulf of Tonkin incident?
A
- -August 1964: USS Maddox fired on in the Gulf of Tonkin by NV boats
- -Two days later Maddox and Turner Joy fired on again, potentially.
- -Johnson uses this to escalate US involvement in the war
- -Congress passed the Tonkin Resolution after a deliberately misleading account of the incident
- -Allowed the President to take ‘all necessary measures, including the use of military force’ to protect US interested in SE Asia
- -Allowed US to attack NV; Johnson claimed they were supplying the Vietcong
6
Q
What was the situation in Vietnam at the time of the Tonkin incident?
A
- -Ho Chi Minh: Communist revolutionary, nationalist struggled
- -Supported by Vietcong (SV) and Vietminh (NV)
- -Divided by 17th parallel
7
Q
How did the war escalate?
A
- -Operation Rolling Thunder: massive air assaults on NV to stop them helping the Vietcong
- -$1 billion aid programme for the South
- -Huge build-up of ground forces
- -March 1965: US Marines land in Da Nang
- -By the end of 1965: 1/2 million US soldiers in Vietnam
- -Cost $30 billion/year
- -NV Four Points: rejected
- -US Fourteen Points: rejected
8
Q
What were the Vietnamese Four Points?
A
- Withdrawal of US military from SV
- Neutrality of NV and SV pending reunification
- Organisation of SV based on programme of Vietcong
- Peaceful reunification of Vietnam without foreign intervention
9
Q
What were the US tactics during the war?
A
- -Search-and-destroy missions in which villages suspected of helping the guerrillas were destroyed
- -My Lai massacre: killed 300, covered it up
- -Success based on body counts or kill ratios
- -Napalm (jellied explosives)
- -Chemical weaponry e.g Agent Orange (defoliant)
- -10% of Vietnamese surface area sprayed with chemicals
- -Greater tonnage of bombs over NV and SV between July 1965 and December 1968 than the Allies over all of Europe throughout WW2
- -Passification: destruction of towns suspected of helping the Vietcong
10
Q
What were the causes of the Vietnam War?
A
- -US industrial interests in Vietnam
- -Russian expansionism
- -SE Asia growing more Communist e.g China 1949
- -McCarthyism
- -Containment
- -Domino Theory
- -16,000 military advisers in SE Asia
- -Tonkin incident
11
Q
What were the aims of Operation Rolling Thunder?
A
- -Damage Vietnamese economy
- -Attack Ho Chi Minh trail
- -Force peaceful negotations
- -Destruction of towns
- -Destruction of Vietcong cover: jungles
12
Q
What were the Vietcong tactics during the war?
A
- -Fought at night
- -Guerrilla warfare
- -Built tunnels under the jungle
- -Ho Chi Minh trail
- -Incredibly morale; US bombing intensified will to fight
- -Captured 5/6 of SV
13
Q
What was the Quagmire Theory?
A
- -The deeper you go the harder it is to get out
- -More forces Johnson put in – more interest he had there – harder to get out of Vietnam
14
Q
What was the progress of the war?
A
- -Johnson claimed the bombs were aimed at military targets
- -Claimed the US was winning the war
- -Strategic bombing failed to cripple a mostly agricultural country
- -Artillery and search-and-destroy missions failed in a guerrilla war
15
Q
What were the opinions of the American public and how did they change?
A
- -Johnson: 85% approval rate fell to 26%
- -1965: anti-war movement
- -Media war
- -Walter Cronkite: ‘I thought we were winnig the war’
- -Credibility gap opening up
