Wars In Vietnam And Cambodia Flashcards
Tactics USA
technology and fire power dropped more bombs on Vietnam than all of WW2 - bombing cost $1/2 mil per NV soldier killed bombing Strategic hamlets Napalm + agent orange Lost hearts and minds Struggled with heat and heavy packs Search and destroy missions Inexperienced- average age 19 Drug abuse Fragging (killing officers) 1/5 taking heroin Over 1/2 smoking marijuana Poor morale
Tactics Vietcong
Travelled light Used to conditions Underground tunnels Guerrilla tactics Booby traps - 11% of US casualties No uniform
Defeat in Vietnam
Poor morale of ARVN e.g. Battle of Ap Bac
Unpopularity and corruption of SV government - diem, thieu, lack of land reform, democracy
Popularity, nationalism and anti-imperialism of Ho Chi Minh
Anti war protests led to US withdrawal - SV couldn’t survive on its own
Ho Chi Minh trail and Vietcong tactics and morale
Sino-soviet aid for Vietcong
Cambodia and Sihanouk
1955-70 - prince of Cambodia
Neutral - courted USA and China
Corrupt government
Popular among peasants
NV bases in Cambodia - US bombing of Cambodia
Coup in 1970 by General Lon nol removed Sihanouk
Create Khmer republic - received U.S. aid
Cambodian civil war
Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot
Khmer Rouge grew from 2,000 (1967) - 200,000 (1972)
At least 800 Vietnamese massacred in 1970 others in internment camps
Government corrupt and unpopular
Army poorly trained- 25,000 ghost soldiers
Sihanouk supports Khmer Rouge
Carried out land reforms and preached anti-imperialism - won KRou support - US bombing est. 50,000-150,000 civilians killed and US invasion (1970)
1973 - US bombing prevented KRou from taking Phnom Penh
1975 - democratic Kampuchea - Khmer Rouge
Pol Pot and Democratic Kampuchea
1975- emptied cities - 20,000 died on forced marches- year 0
Collectivisation- led to famine - classes (base and new) - suffering for ‘new’ - survive on 90g of rice a day
Anti-intellectualism - bikes, glasses and education were all regarded as bourgeoise
2% of Buddhist monks survived
Killing fields
1.4-2.2 mil died 1975-9 1/2 population
Vietnamese invasion
Half Chinese population killed 200,000
Border wars 1977-8
1978 December - invasion
Jan 1979 - people’s republic of Kampuchea led by heng samrin
Vietnam withdrawal 1989 - UN oversee peacekeeping
Pol pot capture in 1997 died 1998
Nuon chea (pol pot’s right hand man) and kang Kek lew (head of s21) - life sentences
Nixon and Vietnam
1969 - Ho Chi Minh dies - secretly bomb Cambodia
1970 - Kent state university - 4 die
1969-73 - continued bombing
1973 - Paris peace accords
1973 - US withdraws leaving only advisors - US POWs released
1975 - Saigon captured
