Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, Had Been a French Colony Until WWII, When the Japanese Conquered

Vietnam

1. Background

1. Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, had been a French colony until WWII, when the Japanese conquered it. The French treated the Vietnamese harshly, and an independence movement, led by nationalist Ho Chi Minh, worked to achieve cannot be used in court.

1. When the Japanese surrendered in WWII, Minh declared Vietnam an independent country. But the French refused to surrender their colony, despite the world-wide movement toward colonial independence, and regained control of the southern part of he country.

1. Minh looked to the U.S. for support, but instead President Truman sent aid to France. The U.S. saw Minh not as a nationalist seeking independence, but a communist seeking to spread communism.

1. President Eisenhower continued U.S. support of the French. He believed in the domino theory- that if one country in a region fell to communism, the other countries in the area would, also. This was the driving force behind America’s involvement in Vietnam- the policy of containment required the U.S. to stop Vietnam from turning communist.

1. The division of Vietnam

1. When the French forced were defeated at Dien Ben Phu in 1954, the major world powers met in Geneva, Switzerland to resolve the situation. The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel, giving control in the North to Minh and to anti-communists in the South. An election was scheduled for 1956 to unify the county.

1. The leader of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, realized that Minh was popular leader, even among South Vietnamese. Supported by the U.S., Diem cancelled the scheduled unification election because he knew he would lose.

1. The Diem Regime

1. Diem managed to alienate almost everyone in South Vietnam with his brutal regime. South Vietnamese communists (the Vietcong) worked to topple the Diem regime, supplied by the North Vietnamese by the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1. Buddhist monks set themselves on fire to protest the Catholic Diem’s persecution.

1. Greed, corruption and incompetence were the hallmarks of the Diem regime. When JFK finally admitted the Diem could not lead South Vietnam, he approved a military coup that ended with he assassination of Diem. Thereafter, he U.S. supported a series of corrupt dictators in South Vietnam.

1. Escalation of U.S. involvement

1. JFK increase the U.S. presence in South Vietnam, sending 16,000 military advisors.

1. LBJ arranged an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized the President to take whatever steps he deemed necessary to protect U.S. forces in Vietnam- it amounted to a blank check from Congress to escalate the war.

1. By 1967, the U.S. had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam.

1. Tactics in Vietnam

1. The North Vietnamese and Vietcong utilized jungle tactics and a series of underground tunnels to frustrate the American Military.

1. To expose the tunnels, U.S. forced dropped napalm bombs, which caused massive fired, and used Agent Orange, a defoliant that stripped the trees of leaves. By the end of the war, Vietnam’s countryside was devastated.

1. The Protest Movement

1. Despite early reports from the government that the U.S. was winning he war, many Americans opposed the war from the beginning, arguing that the U.D. had no business interfering in a civil war.

1. Opposition intensified after he Tet Offensive, a series of stunning North Vietnamese victories that clearly showed the U.S. was losing the war.

1. TV coverage also inflamed the anti-war movement. Vietnam was America’s first “living room war”, where the public saw, night after night scenes of death and destruction on the evening news. As yellow journalism had pushed American public and turned it against the war.

1. College students were particularly active in the protest against the war in Vietnam. They staged campus protests, stormed administration buildings, and burned draft cards to show their anger over their government’s actions.

1. Nixon and the War

1. LBJ was so distraught over the situation in Vietnam, its increasing unpopularity, and its devastating effect on his Great Society programs, he decided not to run for re-election in 1968.

1. Richard Nixon won the presidency on a promise to end the war in Vietnam.

1. Vietnamization- Nixon promised to slowly withdraw U.S. troops, and eave the fighting to the South Vietnamese.

1. While Nixon did not begin troop withdrawal, several events made the public question the government’s intention to end the war, and make the public even more insistent that the war be ended.

1. My Lai- U.S. troops slaughtered more than 100 innocent women and children in this South Vietnamese village.

1. Invasion of Cambodia- When Nixon ordered the invasion of neighboring Cambodia, ostensibly to destroy Vietcong supply bases, without even notifying Congress, many people believed the war was spreading, not ending. In response, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1. Kent State- Student protests of the invasion closed down over 1200 campuses nationwide. At Kent State University in Ohio, the mayor called in the National Guard to end student protests. 4 students were killed, including 2 who had not even participated in the protest rally.

1. Pentagon Papers- This Defense Department report leaked to the media, established that the government had been lying to the American public about the war from the very beginning.

1. The end of the war. When the U.S. pulled is last troops out of Vietnam in 1973, the war quickly came to an end. North Vietnamese troops took Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, as the U.S. evacuated the last of is diplomatic personnel.

1. The Legacy of the Vietnam War

1. The War Powers Act of 1973 required the President to notify Congress within 48 hours if U.S. troops were sent into battle. Troops could only remain there for 90 days unless Congress approved the President’s action to declare war.

1. The U.S. discovered that the superior technology does not always win war. The U.S. is now more reluctant to commit troops to battle in other parts on the World. (the Vietnam Syndrome).

1. The American people are more distrustful of their own government. Prior to the war, many people thought they could always believe what their government told them. Today, few people are so naïve, partly as a result of the American experience in Vietnam, and partly because of the Watergate scandal.