Vietnam War Flashcards
Bombing Campaign
1965 - 1968
- Directed by Johnson
- Response to attack on American base, PLIEKU
- 400 tons a day on NV (more than entirety of WWII)
- first major escalation of war
- came with first wave of American troops
“Carrot and Stick”
bomb, bomb, bomb and only stop for negotiations
If negotiations = unsuccessful, bombbombbomb again
Not very effective
American commander in charge
General Westmoreland
War of attrition
kill as many people as possible so NV might give in
- show body count on evening news
- RESULTS: NV responds in kind
Erosion
erode away ability to attack war; i.e. attack strategic locations like industrial sites
-Ho Chi Minh trail too
RESULTS: not very effective; most supplies came from USSR -> China
Support of Containment
- in support of Truman Doctrine; contain NV
- first and foremost a Civil War - would have gone on without US involvement
Superiority of US industry/technology/fire power
“We’re better, so how can we not win?”
Technology only goes so far though because we’re not going to use nuclear warfare
Use of Special forces
increased funding for training of special forces in covert operations (navy Seals)
“Market Time”
1965 - 1971
Cut off coastal areas as supply routes (from N->S)
-starve off Vietcong
-problem: 1200 miles means hard to defend entire area
Arrival of the Marines
March 1965
focus: secure areas along the coast to use as safe bases to rest at when men come back from battles
Helicopter War
-move men in & out of fighting
“Search and Destroy”
then fly back…don’t claim territory
Agent Orange
chemical that comes out of planes w/ orange belt
- kill vegetation along Ho Chi Minh Trail to expose Vietcong
- also affects villages and crops
Napalm
like Vaseline: burns
The Draft
- at the beginning of the war, most = volunteers
- more needed, instate draft, less support…
- no consistent platoon because everyone on their own rotations
- avg. age = 19
For Vietnam…
low tech war; few planes, few pilots
used tunnels and camoflage
Control fo S. Vietnamese Population
terrorism, assassinations, kidnapping
mostly to people in cities favorable to US
Troops reduced by half
1972
Troops before = 550,000
Reduced to 250,000 between 1968 - 1972
Vietnamization
Turn the war over to Vietnamese while gradually withdrawing troops
- money goes to material, but less
- bombing of north continues
Paris Peace Accords
-January 12, 1973
Ends American involvement (Civil War continues to rage on)
-Allows for POWs to be released
NOW stop bombing north
President Thieu (South) resigns
March 1975
Evacuation/Fall of Saigon
April 29, 1975
American military returns to evacuate remaining Americans
Effects of Peace Accords on North Vietnam
- ceasefire
- drop demands for coalition government
- release American POWs
Effects of Peace Accords on America
- ends the war
- bases dismantled and men come home
- agree to stop interfering in South Vietnamese government
- agree to rebuild North Vietnam (doesn’t happen)
Effects…on South Vietnam
- agree to reunification negotiations
- allow polls for people
- allow 160,000 troops from NVA to remain in the south
Overall results of Paris Peace Accords
everybody agrees to anything to make others happy (NV drops demands for unification, SV agrees to unification negotiation, US agrees to stop interfering) but nothing actually ends up happening
Case Church Amendment
June 1973
- cut all funds to Vietnam
- attack on Saigon nullifies Peace Accords, so is never rebuilt
American death tally
58,000 killed
300,000 injured
3000 MIA
$15 billion spent
Vietnam death tally
> 400,000 SV killed
>1 million NV killed (mostly from bombing)
Refugees
Territory completely destroyed from bombing/chemical warfare
SV sent to reeducation camps (basically Gulags)
Some fled (boat people and AmerAsian children)
Vietnam Syndrome
ida = didn’t want repeat of conflict like Vietnam
-more covert operations instead of overt conflicts (until 9/11)
War Powers Act
1973
- took power given to president from Gulf of Tonkin and gave back to president
- president could send troops overseas, but had to notify Congress within 48 hours of it
- can only keep troops overseas for 60 days w/o Congressional support
Vietnam _____ the domino theory
Disproved; neither Cambodia nor Laos fell to communism
Ho Chi Minh
Communist party leader in North Vietnam
Gained popular support by resisting Japanese occupation of Indochina
took power in provisional government after JApanese surrender
Vietminh
Ho Chi Minh’s united nationalist front; “independence League
ARVN
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese army)
Ngo Dinh Diem
Southern regime leader supported by America
- administration corrupt
- after revolution, he was overthrown and American aid was cut off
Geneva Accords
April 24, 1954
Vietnam divided along 17th parallel
Vietcong
Southern Anti-Diem communist group
-popular in countryside
Dien Bien Phu
Site of French defeat in Vietnam
Tet Offensive
January 31: SV towns attacked by Vietcong/Vietminh after US troops diverted by attack on Khesan
- penetrated US embassy
- 6000 (our) deaths vs. 50,000 VC deaths BUT…
- proved war could never be won. the strength of the VC was too great
Watergate Scandal
1974, removes Nixon from office
My Lai Massacre
March 16, 1968 BUT covered up for over a year
LT. Colonel Frank Barker given task force “Charlie Company” to rid area of VC
-platoons dropped off in helicopters
-death toll rises, but not many weapons taken .’. killing citizens
-Captain Ernest Medina radios Lt. William Calley to stop, but Calley continues
-Calley’s men reveal that no VC; were killing innocent people
-gets out to the press and Calley put on trial; find out that My Lai =/= an isolated incident
Prague Spring
January 1968 - Alexander Dubcek becomes party secretary in Czechoslovakia
March-April: reforms such as censorship abolished, Club 231 established to monitor treatment on political prisoners, rights to travel abroad, freedom of speech…
-Supported Warsaw Pact but promoted socialism
***worried USSR because of opposite domino effect - nationalism could spread
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
August 20, 1968 Soviet tanks arrive from Ukraine/Poland/E germany/Hungary
C’s meet it with passive resistance
April 17, 1969 Gustav Husak replaces Dubcek
-USSR annouces Brezhnev Doctrine
Brezhnev Doctrine
written after Prague Spring to justify invasion
published in Pravda in September of 1969
-declared no communist party could do anything that would harm international socialist movement
-USSR had the right to intervene if socialism = threatened
became essential part of USSR foreign policy
