The Road to Vietnam
The Vietnam War was the longest and most costly war in US history. The US Asia policy never was coherent; from the Second World War through the end of the Cold War, the US dealt with Asia from a European perspective. The lessons learned in Europe, although not entirely relevant, were directly applied to Asia.
Some questions to keep in mind:
1 Pointing to specific instances, explain how effectively or ineffectively American foreign policy leaders have maintained the ideal of "self-determination" since the First World War.
2 Why were theories such as the "Domino Theory" an effective means of gaining political and popular support for active involvement in foreign affairs?
3 Compare and contrast JFK's and LBJ's specific reasons for increasing America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
Costs of the Vietnam War to the United States
Economic Costs:
LBJ thought the U.S. could simultaneously wage war and fulfill the goals of the Great Society. However, the U.S. could not afford both "guns and butter." In monetary terms the war cost the United States more than $140 billion. The more dollars spent on Vietnam, the less there was available for the goals of the Great Society.
Human Costs:
58,000 U.S. soldiers dead with over 300,000 physically wounded. There are no accurate statistics on the numbers of those permanently psychologically wounded.
Consensus Costs:
A loss of agreement about the proper role America should play in world affairs. Before the Vietnam War there had been a general consensus about the United States as a champion of freedom against communism. The results of the Vietnam War exposed the foolishness of the argument that the U.S. could defend freedom everywhere in the world. The Vietnam War shattered the long-held belief that American money and American technology could accomplish just about anything.
How Did American Involvement in Southeast Asia Escalate?
1941: The Atlantic Charter: signed by Allies, stating their intended post-war goals; U.S. was opposed to resumption of colonialism, we committed ourselves to supported self-determination; but after WWII, some colonial powers returned despite U.S. opposition.
1945: Vietnam declared independence after 100 years of occupation by the Chinese, Japanese, and later the French. On September 2, 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnamese independence with a speech reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's American Declaration of Independence.
1949: The U.S. was astonished to see China, its major trading partner, turn from a republic towards a Communist dictatorship. The U.S. called this the "fall" or "loss" of China.
1950: Dean Acheson had stated that our goals in Asia were limited to protecting a "Pacific Rim" extending from Japan to the Philippines; any other countries would need to appeal to the whole world for help. June 25, 1950 marked the beginning of the Korean War, although the U.S. never formally declared war -- this was a UN police action in which nine out of every 10 policemen were Americans.
1953: Truce in Korea and the reinstatement of the 38th parallel as the dividing line between North and South Korea. At this time, other problems in Asia began to develop; internal civil wars continued to escalate in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam at the same time these nations were fighting French colonialism.
1954: As France continued to fight battles in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, the U.S. supported the French first through economic aid, then military aid, but never troops. By 1954 the U.S. was paying 75% of all of the military cost for a war the French had no hope of winning. French generals decided to make one last stand at Dien Bien Phu. Dien Bien Phu became the last gasp of the French military, in which they placed themselves in a valley surrounded by Vietnamese artillery. The U.S. had promised air support but when the final battle started the Eisenhower administration didn't provide support due to domestic political concerns.
Dien Bien Phu fell and the resulting uproar led to a Geneva Conference of 1954, in which world nations agreed to resolve the problems of South East Asia in the following ways:
1. Laos and Cambodia would become independent countries
2. Vietnam would temporarily be divided in two at the 17th parallel
3. In 1956 free elections would be held in both the North and South which would reunite Vietnam under one government.
1956: The elections of 1956 never took place in Vietnam because the U.S. did everything it could to prevent them. The U.S. knew that free elections could only lead to Vietnam's reunification under Ho Chi Minh, the most popular political leader, who had been leading the civil rebellion since before WWII. Ho Chi Minh was a communist who had spent time in Moscow. While there was no direct evidence that he was a puppet of the Kremlin, the U.S. chose to treat him as if he were.
The Domino Theory: A theory which described the spread of communism in terms of a row of dominos waiting to fall. The premise was that if Vietnam fell to communism, Laos and Cambodia would be next. Eventually communism would reach the Philippines, and finally would arrive on the shores of California. 1960: When John F. Kennedy became President there were about 780 American military advisors in South Vietnam who were supposed to assist in training a democratic army. Kennedy stepped up the number of advisors and by the time of his assassination there were over 17,000 advisors in Vietnam supporting the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem.
Why did JFK support the Vietnam War?
1. He desperately wanted to save face after the embarrassments of the Bay of Pigs, Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He felt under fire and in need of American popular support.
2. Because of the "Containment" policy: JFK was the ultimate "Cold Warrior" and drew on the lessons of Munich in 1938 and the failure of appeasement. He viewed North Vietnam as a communist aggressor and a Soviet puppet. Containment policy depended on the support of South Vietnam against Northern aggression.
3. He supported "limited brushfire wars" in the age of a nuclear threat. Kennedy believed governments would have to develop mobile forces to deal with small international problems before they developed into an all-out global nuclear war. For this purpose he created the Special Forces or Green Berets. Kennedy used Vietnam as the first testing ground for his "new toys." On the morning of November 22, 1963 he spoke to his aides with great satisfaction about the development of troops and arsenals in South Vietnam.
1963: When Johnson became president after Kennedy's assassination, he stressed the importance of continuing JFK's policy. On a 1962 fact-finding tour of Southeast Asia, Johnson had visited Vietnam and felt that Ngo Dinh Diem was the "George Washington of Asia," and wanted to support the South Vietnamese. He envisioned the United States sending medical supplies, building schools, and creating a Rural Electrification Administration, a sort of TVA in Vietnam. Johnson said,
"I want to leave the footprints of America in Vietnam. We're going to turn Mekong Delta into the Tennessee Valley."
1964: The first congressional debate about U.S. involvement in Vietnam occurred after August 2, 1964 when American destroyers, allegedly on a peaceful observation mission, were fired on by North Vietnamese ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later there was another unconfirmed report of Vietnamese firing on U.S. ships. President Johnson called these attacks "as devious as Pearl Harbor" and went to Congress claiming that North Vietnamese vessels had fired at U.S. vessels in international waters; Congress empowered President Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any attack against the forces of the U.S. and prevent further aggression." The truth of the situation was that U.S. ships were actually in N. Vietnamese waters, supplying South Vietnamese commandos.
1965: Through the fall of 1964 Johnson was unsure about how to justify the aerial assault of Vietnam, but on February 3, 1965 the North Vietnamese attacked the American air base at Pleiku, killing 8 military advisors and wounding 100. This incident became Johnson's rationalization for aerial bombardment, which was ordered on March 2, 1964. The direct involvement of American ground troops began less than two weeks later when Marines landed to secure military bases and airfields. At first the troops were ordered to act only on the defensive, but officers claimed this policy made them sitting ducks and a new policy emerged; "search and destroy" missions began in June 1965 -- we were no longer committed to "military advising" but rather to an all-out land war.
1966-67: The TV news showed a sanitized view of the war without bloodshed, with casualties announced as a body count and with footage shot well in advance of the events it supposedly documented.
1968: The U.S. stepped up military involvement in Vietnam following the Tet Offensive in January of 1968 (Tet is the Vietnamese New Year.) The Tet Offensive was a massive strike by the North Vietnamese against American military bases in 39 of the major 44 cities in Southern Vietnam. The lies of the Johnson administration about the strength of North Vietnam forces were exposed. North Vietnam was better equipped, better trained and more determined to win the war than the American public had been told.
The Tet Offensive also marked the beginning of direct, immediate and more accurate media coverage of the war. For the first time, the American public could see on television all of the horrors of war from the safety of their living rooms. In February of 1968, NBC broadcasted shocking images of a South Vietnamese officer shooting a defenseless prisoner in the head. Because of the increasing U.S. involvement in the war Johnson decided to withdraw from the 1968 presidential race. In 1964, when he was elected president he received 61% of the popular vote. He left the office four years later as one of the most unpopular presidents in American history.
America's involvement in Vietnam had progressed from a small cadre of "military advisors" to a full-fledged land force within ten years. The war had forced Lyndon Baines Johnson to withdraw his name from consideration for the presidential nomination in 1968. A new name, although not unfamiliar to Americans who remembered the Second Red Scare and the "touching" story of Checkers the dog, would soon adorn the mailbox at 1616 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bibliography:
Stanley K. Schultz, Professor of History – University of Wisconsin