The Vietnam War

By: Alexys Carn

November 9,1955-April 30,1975

Its was also known as……

•Second Indochina War

• Vietnam Conflict

•American war

Vietnam was spilt in two south and north

South supported by

•Untied States and Other anti-communist nations

North supported by•Communist Allies

North Vietnamese Army• Engaged in more conventional war

committing large units –U.S & South Vietnamese forces relied

on air superior because overwhelming firepower to conduct destroy operations involving ground forces, artillery and air strikes

Viet Cong • Lightly armed South Vietnamese communist

controlled common front• Largely fought Guerrilla war a) against anti communist

• Untied States entered the war to prevent communist to takeover South Vietnam.

Military arrived 1950U.S ground force were withdrawn as

part of a policy called Vietnamization

Case Church Amendment passed by us Congress

• Prohibited use of American military after August 15 , 1973

–Unless president secured

There were about 3 to 4 million on both sides.

Casualties

– At the end of the war the Vietnamese had been fighting foreign involvement or occupation in various wars for hundred of years.

During World War II the French were Defeated by Germans in 1940.

German Italian Axis PowerIn turn this meant the French

collaborated with Japanese forces after their invasion of French Indochina during 1940.

Untied Kingdom , Untied States and Soviet UnionAgreed that the area belonged to French

• French Did not have the ships , weapons or soldiers to immediately retake Vietnam.

• Ho Chi Minh initially attempted to negotiate with the French who were slowly re-establishing their control across he country.

• War spread to Laos and Cambodia where Communists organized the Pathet Lao.

• This situation changed by 1949 when the Chinese Communists had largely won the Chinese Civil War and were free to provide arms Vietnamese allies

• January 1950The communist led by the People Republic

of China (PRC)Recognized the Viet Minh’s

Democratic republic of Vietnam as the government of Vietnam

• Non Communist Organized the French-Backed State of Vietnam In Saigon Led By Bao Dai

• The outbreak of The Korean War in June 1950 convinced many Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina

September 1950

• U.S created a Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG)– French request for aid , advise on strategy, and

train Vietnamese soldiers– By 1954 U.S had supplied them with 300,00

small arms and spent U.S $1 Billion in support of French Military effort

• Vietnam was temporarily partitioned a the 17th parallel , and under the terms of the Geneva Conference

• Aided US funded $93 million relocation programs

• Catholics flowing south up to 130,000 “Revolutionary Regroups” went north for regroupment

• Emperor Bao Dai’s State of Vietnam operates with Ngo Dinh Diem ( appointed in July 1954) prime minister.

• April-June 1955 Diem declared the decks of any apposition in the south by laughing military operations

Geneva Conference

• - Domino Theory “which argues that if one country all to communist forces than all surrounding countries fall”

• Roman Catholic Diem was fervently anti communist and social conservative

• 1955 he launched the Denounce the communist

• Opponents were labeled viet cong “Vietnamese communists“

Insurgency in the South 1956

• Sino Soviet split led to a reduction in the influence of the PRC– Vietnam Minh accept a division of the courtry

• Truong Chinh, North Vietnam’s pro PRC party first secretary .

• South Vietnam to begin a low level insurgency in Dec 1956

• Ho Chi Minh stated– “Do not engage in military aperationd that will not

be defeat”• This strategy was referred to as “armed

propaganda”

• Le` Duan , a communist leader who had been working with the South returned to Hano to accept position of acting first secretary

• The Insurgency sought to completely destroy government control in the south Vietnam’s rural villages and replace it with shadow government.

January 1959

• North Central Committee issued a secret resolution authoring an armed struggle

Dec 12,1960

• Hanoi authorize the creation of the national Liberation Front as common from controlled by communist in the South

• John F Kennedy won the 1960 U.S presidential election

May 1961

• Vice President Lydon B Jhonson visted Saigon

• Strategic Hamlet Program had been initated in 1961

• The government refused to retake land reforn which left framers paying high rents to few weathly landlords

On 23 July 1962

• Fourteen nations including the People’s republic in China, South Vietnam , the Soviet Union, North Vietnam and the Untied States , signed an agreement promising the neutrality of Laos

• U.S officials been discussing the possibility of change during the summer of1963

• The Untied States Department of State was generally in favor of encouraging while defense Department favored Diem

• CIA was contacted with general planning to remove Diem

• Later overthrow and executed.

General Paul Harkins

• Lyndon B Johnson (LBJ) presidency after Kennedy death

November 24 , 1963

• Johnson said the battle against communist… must be joined…. With strength and determination

• About 5000• 1959- 100,000• 1961- 850,000 – one million soldiers

• US troops deployed in Vietnam grew from 2,000 soldiers in 1961 to 16,500 soldiers in 1964

• Military revolution council meeting in lieu of destroy South Vietnam leaders.

• 12 member headed by General Duong Van Minh who Stanley Karnow journalist on the ground later recalled as “ a model of lethargy”

• NLF activist captured during an attacked on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.

August 2,1964

• USS Maddox intelligence mission along North Vietnam’s coast fired upon and damaged several boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin.

• Second attack about 2 days later on USS Turner Joy and Maddox same area.

a. Lyndon community under-Secretary of State Geogre Ball that “those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish”

• National Security Council three stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam.

– On the 2nd of March 1965 attacking US Marines Barracks at Pleiku.

• Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam

– Operation commando targeted different parts of the NIF and Vietnam People Army (VPA)

• Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Curtis Lemay.

–Ground War• US Air Force bases needed more

protection

March 8 ,1965

• 3500 US Marines were dispatched to South Vietnamese

• Army of the Republic of Vietnam ( ARVN) force suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Binh Gia in the battle of both sides.

• South Vietnamese forces were again defeated in June, at the battle of Dong Xoan

• North Vietnamese and the NLF in a contest of attrition and morale– The opponents where locked in a cycle of

escalation.

• Washington encourage it SEATO allies to contribute troops– Australia, New Zealand , the Republic of Korea,

Thailand, and Philippines agreed to send troops

• Major Allies however not ably NATO nations Canada & Untied Nations declined Washington troops requested

• This is when over 100 cities were attacked with assaults on General Westmoreland’s headquarters and the US Embassy, Saigon

• It was the American turning point in Vietnam

May 10• Peace Talk

–American & Democratic Republic

–Johnson stopped bombing Vietnam

Hubert Humphrey

Richard Nixon

Vs.

Vietnamazion

• Richard Nixon becomes President.

• Nixon Doctrine- build up the ARVN so they could protect South Vietnam

October 10,1969 Nixon ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the boarder of Soviet airspace in order to convince the Soviet Union that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War

Operation Menu

• The secret bombing of Cambodia and Loas.– Prince Norodom Sihanouk had proclaim

Cambodia neutral since 1955– His policy changed in 1969, no longer

welcome• 1971 Pentagon Papers were leaked to the

New York Times

• Supreme court said it was illegal

1972

Nixon

McGovernVS

Opposition to the Vietnam War

• Untied the groups– Anti Communist– Imperialism– Coloialism

Paris Peace Accords

• They were signed on January 27, 1973

• Ended all U.S involvement in the Vietnam War

Exit of the Americans

• U.S dramatically retreated their support for South Vietnam during the final years of Vietnamization.

• The North was planning to attack the south during the 1975- 1976 dry season

Campaign 275

• On March 10th 1975, General Dung launched Campaign 275

–Their target was Ban Me Thuot in Daklak Province

Final North Vietnamese offensive

• North with half of Vietnam, decided to head for Saigon

• Ho Chi Minh campaigned for the fall of Saigon by May 1st

• The ARVN tried to make a last stand before they reached Saigon

• On April 21st they surrendered

• President Thieu resigned the same day declaring that the U.S betrayed South Vietnam

• April 27th 100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers encircled Saigon

Fall of Saigon

• Martial Law: American helicopters began evacuating people in Saigon

• This was called Operation Frequent Wind

Effects on Untied States

• Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention– General Maxwell Taylor – One of the principal of

the war

• U.S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – wrote in a secret memo to president Gerald Ford.– Could not help draw conculsion

Chemical Defoliation

• 1961-1971– These chemical continue to change the landscape

cause diseases and birth defects and poison the food chain

• Rainbow Herbicides:– Agent Pink– Agent Green – Agent Purple– Agent Blue– Agent WhiteAgent White– Most Famously Most Famously Agent Orange.

Casualties

• 1.1 million dead and 600,000 wounded

– Civilians were put to 2 million in the north and south

• US military has estimated that between 200,00 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldier died in war

•The End !