chapter 17-section 10

7/31/2019 Chapter 17-Section 10

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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia Indochina- (1941) Ho Chi Minh, Pham Van Dong, and Vo Nguyen Giap

created the Vietminh at the May 1941 plenum of the IndochineseCommunist party

Ho Chi Minh had been the main instrument of Southeast Asian

independence from the Japanese during WWII Supplied with arms and aid from the US

Vietminh guerrilla units formed under the command of Giap (stronghatred of the French due to atrocities done to his family)

Many of the troops who joined his unit were non-communists, butrallied to him as the only hope for liberation and independence

Japanese troops never succumbed to the Vietminh during WWII- butwere highly annoyed by them

Japanese troops surrendered to Vietminh instead of the French in theregion

September 2, 1945- Ho Chi Minh addressed a rally of 400,000 people inHanoi, proclaiming Vietnamese independence in an address deliberately

modeled on the US Declaration of Independence


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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia Ho had hoped for US backing, but Truman (being anticommunist) backed the

French instead

Indochina was then divided into two occupation zones

North- nationalist China controlled

South- Britain controlled The Brits allowed the French to move back into the south, while the Chinese civil

war broke out and Chiang Kai-shek had to bring his troops back to China to helpout

Ho now hoped that the French would negotiate a deal rather than engage in a longcolonial war

Two months of talks resulted in the Ho-Sainteny Accords of March 6, 1946

France would recognize Vietnam as a free state with its own government,parliament, army, and finances

Vietnam would become part of an Indochinese Federation and the FrenchUnion

France would station 25,000 troops in the north until the end of 1952

Vietminh would end its guerrilla war in the south


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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia The accords were doomed to failure as the French only had

Sainteny sign in order to get their troops into the North in order toeventually destroy Vietnamese independence

Ho agreed to the accords to buy time in which to consolidate hishold by destroying all opposition and to give Giap time to preparehis forces for battle

1946- incidents between French and Vietminh soldiers multiplied

November 23, 1946- French warship bombed the Vietnamesequarter of the port of Haiphong, killing at least 6,000 and perhaps

as many as 20,000 people December 19, 1946- Vietminh soldiers in Hanoi killed 37

Frenchmen, which caused the French to attack and take the city

The First Indochina War had begun


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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia Ho hoped for some form of international support, but none ever came

US encouraged France to persevere in its anticommunist course

Britain followed suit

USSR, true to its ideals of spheres of influence, ignored the conflict in

Indochina Chinese communists were too busy with their own civil war to be of any help

Nonetheless, Ho and his army gave the French all they could handle and more

1952- territory under French control was smaller than in 1947

Vietminh greatly increased its military strength and began to conduct large-scale offensive operations

Ho remained steadfast in the use of guerrilla tactics as he was not prepared to facethe larger French forces out in the open

After the Chinese communists won their civil war, they sent substantial aid toVietminh

By 1952- Giap had a well-equipped regular army of 300,000 men with which tooppose 150,000 French and 300,000 colonial troops


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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia Late 1953- French citizens are exasperated with the cost of suppressing Indochina

90,000 casualties and 1.6 trillion francs

Also kept France weakened in Europe in terms of fighting-ready troops

Economy was lagging behind even W. Germany

Early 1953- Giap launched an offensive toward Laos to get the French stretchedbeyond their military capacity

French garrison a town called Dienbienphu on the main road between Vietnam andLaos

March 1954- the French troops (fewer than 20,000) are surrounded by 40,000Vietminh

Giap concealed large numbers of antiaircraft guns and howitzers in caves

beneath the dense foliage around the city- to cut down any aircraft coming intothe airstrip and shut it down

March 13, 1954- Giap attacked and was assured of victory over the French in justfive days

Dienbienphu fell to the Vietminh by May 7 as the Western Allies debated what todo about the situation- with Ike not willing to commit troops to aid the French inIndochina


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The Struggle for

Southeast Asia June 17, 1954- socialist premier Pierre Mendes-France threatened to resign if a peace

settlement were not concluded by July 20

Geneva- Mendes-France, Molotov, and Zhou Enlai worked out a plan to divide Indochina intofour states

North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

North Vietnam- ruled by Vietminh South Vietnam- democracy led by anticommunist politician Ngo Dinh Diem

Divided at the 17th parallel

Laos and Cambodia would become independent and neutral nations under coalitiongovernments

Vietminh foreign minister Pham Van Dong reluctantly had to agree

July 20, 1954- the First Indochina War ended with the signing of the Geneva Accords

France got more than they could have hoped for, but at the cost of their empire Ho Chi Minh felt betrayed by China and the USSR

China was the real winner as they achieved a split Vietnam

Would rather have seen France control the region as the US would not intervene in such away as they did in Korea, nonetheless, a divided southern neighbor


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos Ho Chi Minh had gained enormous respect by expelling the French

Ngo Dinh Diem was going to have to prove that the government wasbetter off in his hands than in Hos

Diem did not see the need for drastic social reforms to destroy the vestiges

of French colonialism Lacked support from the masses (and the police and the army) to

begin with and this made him even less popular among the people

Diem denounced the Geneva Accords as he and the US knew that anelection at that time (1956) would end in a Vietminh victory

Diems regime entered the first of three stages

1954 to 55- maintained his position of power (miracle)

1955 to 57- his government created a strong belief in its capability forconstructive action

1957 to 63- disenchantment with Diem grew, resulting in a consistenterosion of his support


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos 1957- USSR suggested a permanent partition of Vietnam to the UN

US rejected the offer- not willing to recognize the communist government in the North

Result was South Vietnam fighting a war for the next 15 years and losing

Ho resisted armed attacks against Diem for several years, suggesting the time was not yet ripefor insurrection

1957- Mao Zedong gave his East Wind over West Wind speech in Moscow calling forcommunist insurgencies

Influenced Ho to go on the offensive against South Vietnam- as he saw itthe only way toreunify Vietnam (especially under his/communist rule)

1959- Ho authorized the creation of the Viet Cong (VC) guerrilla units in the South

1960- Ho creates the National Liberation Front (NLF) in the South

US supported Diem against the VC even though he was just as much a dictator as Ho (he was

just anticommunist) Both North and South Vietnam were one-party states, with a few opposition parties as

window dressing, secret police, rigged elections, ubiquitous propaganda, and politicalreeducation camps

Both differed in their economic and social systems


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos Creation of the VC had a huge impact on neighboring Laos as the only road or supply line to

the VC ran through Laos (Ho Chi Minh Trail)

Laos was to remain neutral, but easier said than done

Laos, from the early 1950s, had been divided

Most of the country was under the sway of Prince Souvanna Phouma

Souvanna Phoumas half-brother Prince Souvanouvong (a communist) controlled twonorthern provinces with his version of the Vietminh known as the Pathet Lao

1960- US favorite Phoumi Nosavan broke a US-sponsored cease-fire and captured Vientiane

Pushed Souvanna Phouma into the arms of the Pathet Lao

1961- a communist counterattack routed Phoumis forces and opened all of Laos to attack

Kennedy was now faced with a situation where all of Laos would fall to communist forces andopen the ability for North Vietnam to outflank South Vietnam

Suggested military action

Joint Chiefs of Staff (gun shy due to Korea) insisted that military commanders of any UStroops in Asia must be able to use nuclear weapons

Kennedy dispatched Averell Harriman (former ambassador to London and Moscow) to seek acompromise in Laos


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos Harriman quickly reached several conclusions

Neutralist course was the only one that might enable

the US to avoid war in Laos Khrushchev did not want war in Laos

Thought it would fall to communism anyway and Berlin

was more important to him

Zhou Enlai did not want to risk another Korea, but

believed that the US didnt want to either

Ho wanted a communist Laos, but not at the cost of

provoking US or Chinese intervention


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos Kennedy decided to back Souvanna Phoumas neutralist approach

in hopes of achieving a negotiated settlement

May 1962- breakthrough came when Pathet Lao pressure ledKennedy to send the Seventh Fleet to the Gulf of Thailand and USground forces to Thailand

Souvanna Phouma initiated direct talks

Setting a June 15 deadline for success

USSR, China, and Vietnam now believed that a settlement was lessrisky than continued military pressure

June 11, 1962- Souvanna Phouma announced the formation of agovernment of national unity

July 23, 1962- Agreements were signed in Geneva reaffirmingLaotian neutrality and setting a schedule for removal of all foreignforces


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos US aid to South Vietnam was increasing markedly

Kennedys administration kept elevating the number of American military advisors from 300in January 1961 to 16,000 by the summer of 1963

1962 Strategic Hamlet Program had little effect on the insurgency

Diem angered the Buddhists when it was found out that he had been funneling government

posts, land, and power to the Catholic minority United Buddhist Church led by a nationalist monk named Thich Tri Quang staged a series of

provocations aimed at uniting South Vietnamese nationalists to overthrow Diem and return totraditional Vietnamese values by expelling the US

Buddhist hunger strikes in May led the regime to declare martial law in several places

June 11, 1963- a Buddhist monk knelt on a Saigon street, had himself drenched with gasoline,and committed suicide by lighting a match

Followed by other monks over the next few days

Diems sister-in-law offered to furnish fuel for the next barbecue

Kennedy insisted that Diem compromise

Caving in to US pressure would have given him less credibility among the people andwould have given the Buddhists an upper hand

August 20, 1963- Diem imposes martial law nationwide and suspends all civil liberties


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The Cold War in

Vietnam and Laos Fall, 1963- US ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and CIA operative

Lucien Conein conveyed Americas wishes to certain key SouthVietnamese military leaders (assassination plot)

Diem found out and concocted a counterplot

A phony revolt that would result in the murders of Lodge,Conein, and the military plotters

Diems closest military advisor (who was to carry out his phonyplot) was actually part of the plot against him

November 1, 1963- the government was overthrown

Diem and his brother, assured of safe conduct by the rebels,were arrested and murdered (officiallyaccidental suicide)

A military dictatorship now ruled in Saigon

Johnson replaced Kennedy three weeks later and decisively tookaction to defeat the communists

Ho was looking for a fight too- not in the mood for negotiations


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The US in Vietnam

Ho was annoyed by Khrushchevs unwillingness to aid in their struggle

They began to tilt toward the CCP in late 1963

Mao Zedong suggested to Ho that he fight a war of attrition

North Vietnam and the US would be tied down to a long,

expensive conflict Gave Mao a way to fight the US without risking a repeat of

Korea, where US technology led to the deaths of a million Chinese

Ho distrusted Maos advice and was reluctant to alienate the Soviets

March 28, 1964- Lao Dong Party (communists of North Vietnam) opted tofully support revolution in the South by sending in regular units of theNorth Vietnamese Army (NVA)

Realized the need for Chinese arms and the tilt toward Chinaremained

August 1964- first NVA troops reach the south


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The US in Vietnam

US Congressional approval to bomb North Vietnam and mine its harbors to cut offits support for the VC was obtained through the approval of the Gulf of TonkinResolution

Following an alleged attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on USsurveillance ships in the Gulf of Tonkin

Authorized the president to take all necessary steps, including the use ofarmed force, to assist any memberof the Southeast Asia Collective DefenseTreaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom

In other wordsa blank check for US military action

Direct US involvement in Vietnam posed a dilemma to China

Mao supported the idea that feared preparing for war against the US because

it would delay the revolutionizing of Chinese society Mao depicted US weapons as paper tigers and must rely on its own

revolutionary spirit for survival

Late 1965- China detached itself from Vietnam and other external affairs in aninternal upheaval known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Although they continued to support the Vietminh with arms andencouragement, but nothing else


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The US in Vietnam

February 1965- VC raid on US military advisors at Pleiku convinced Johnson toinitiate bombing

Engaged in Operation ROLLING THUNDER

A systematic bombing campaign which would continue until 1968

Bombings did not reduce Vietminh morale, only inspired them to fight harder Late 1964- Soviet and Chinese arms reach the VC in the South via the Ho Chi

Minh Trail

Rebel threat to air base at Danang led Johnson to grant the request of GeneralWestmoreland for two battalions of marines

Once troops were committed, Johnson would find it hard to resist the requestfor more and more

By the end of 1965- US troop levels had reached 184,300 with another 200,000 onthe way

Johnson had committed the US to a land war in Asia while misleading theAmerican public as to the scope of the commitment

Would foster the antiwar protests of the late 1960s


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The US in Vietnam

Limited war in Vietnam carried all the liabilities of limited war in Korea

Significant US casualties

Stalemate with no prospects for quick victory

Sense that the military was being unduly restricted by civilian politicians

Easier to fight total warfare than limited

Lack of clear war aims plagued US leadership

Attempted to fight a conventional war against guerrilla tactics

Knew that they had to kill enough North Vietnamese to bring them to the

negotiation table

More than likely US killed over a million North Vietnamese between 1961

and 1975

Lao Dong Party believed that it could raise at least 250,000 new recruits

each year and that America simply couldnt kill that many

The US goal was fuzzy and probably unattainable


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The US in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh was ready to drag out the war for

as long as necessary as he saw it not as

stalemate, but an endless chain of smallencounters designed to weaken Americas will

There was no need for him to venture to the

bargaining table to negotiate- he would wear

the Americans down until they quitwhich isexactly what happened


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Escalation without Victory,

1965-67 Factors for the Vietminh resistance

The simplicity of its goal- to reunify Vietnam by expelling theAmericans and conquering the South

North Vietnams economy could not be destroyed by bombing

Agrarian nation with few industrial areas Weapons were produced and furnished by its allies

Trucks and AK-47s from China

Tanks, planes, and surface-to-air missiles from Russia

The NVA followed the same strategy it had used against France-

employ guerrilla tactics against a superior foe until you can enticethat foe into a situation where you have the advantage

Giap knew how to fight set-piece battles and knew that he wouldlose them unless he could select the proper time, place, andconditions (US generals would not fight like him as they weretrained on the plains of Europe in the 1940s and the hills of Koreain the 1950s)


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1965-67 March 8, 1965- US ground troops come ashore at Danang

Vietminh was much better prepared and much more focused on attainable objectives thanthe US realized

Almost simultaneously the antiwar movement broke out in America

Teach-Ins broke out all over America

March 24, 1965- University of Michigan Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

May 15, 1965- nation-wide Teach-In

Occurred in all 50 states

Johnsons later draft calls and increased casualties turned the antiwar movement into the mostextensive grass-roots protest in American history

November 1965- US were ambushed at Ia Drang Valley

240 US deaths vs. 1,800 NVA deaths and probably that many casualties NVA generals debated over conventional vs. guerrilla tactics and made adjustments in

which they would avoid large battles as such

The US under Westmoreland did not adjust and US military fortunes began to turn forthe worse

December 25, 1965- Johnson suspends ROLLING THUNDER to allow the Vietminh to discussa negotiated settlement

Received no response and resumed bombing on January 31, 1966


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1965-67 Senatorial hearings on the war, the resignation of the National Security Advisor, an

attempted repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, civilian protests, rising

casualties, no real end of the war in site

All led to one of the most tumultuous times in American history

Baby Boomers (those born after WWII) were being drafted and were notconvinced of its value or its morality

Some enlisted, some were drafted reluctantly, some sought escape in student

deferments or conscientious objector status, some enlisted in the reserve forces

to avoid combat, a few fled to foreign lands, many took part in antiwar

protests

April 1966- Johnson called on Ho to make peace in return for $5 billion in aid anda huge development program

Ho responded with silence

May 1, 1966- US bombed VC camps in Cambodia for the first time and the

demonstrations at home continued


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1965-67 Early 1967- US troop strength had risen to 385,300

6,000 deaths in 1966

Westmoreland was looking for a military victory but could not find a strategy to cope withGiaps guerrilla warfare

Defense Secretary McNamara suggested that Johnson deescalate and seek a peace settlement

McNamara was eased out of office in 1967

September 1967- Johnson offered the San Antonio Formula

The bombing of North Vietnam would stop as soon as talks began

Vietminh would not listen and the war dragged on

Bombings of the North intensified as well as aerial defoliation of the South

Carcinogenic Agent Orange was sprayed over jungles throughout the South to deprive the

enemy of cover B-52s dropped enough bombs to resemble an atomic blast

Colossal body counts were reported by the Vietminh

But they still wouldnt back down


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1965-67 Summer 1967- Johnson meets Premier Kosygin in New Jersey, but

nothing comes of it as Ho Chi Minh did not answer to the Soviets or theChinese

April 1967- antiwar sentiment was growing to an all-time high

A protest in New York drew over 100,000 people Six months later 50,000 marched on the Pentagon

Advantage for the Johnson administration was that they were notunited except for their insistence to an end of the war

Liberals saw the war as a mistake, radicals opposed capitalism,and pacifists hated violence

Johnson responded by questioning his critics patriotism and trying toprove that the war was being won

End of 1967- troop strength reached 485,600 and the death toll for thatyear was 9,377 bringing the total for the war up to 16,021

But US intelligence stated that VC control in the South was growingnonetheless


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The Tet Offensive

Tet- the Lunar New Year (main holiday of the year 1968)

A truce had been observed so that both sides might celebrate in

peace

January 21, 1968- nine days before Tet, the NVA laid siege to aremote US outpost at Khe Sanh

Only done to get the US troops away from southern cities

Westmoreland fell for it and redeployed forces toward Khe Sanh

as he assumed that southern cities would be safe during Tet

January 30, 1968 (first day of Tet)- VC invaded thirteen provincialcapitals, captured the ancient capital of Hue, and used nineteen

commandos to attack and briefly occupy parts of the US embassy

in Saigon


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The Tet Offensive

February 27, 1968- Westmoreland made public a request for 206,000 more troops

Shock to the nation was worse than the news of the Tet Offensive

US citizens began to realize that no end of the war was in site

Newsman Walter Cronkite observed that the war was likely to end in stalemate andalso that the war could last a century

March 12, 1968- McCarthy won New Hampshire primary

March 16, 1968- Robert Kennedy throws his hat into the political ring as another Democraticcandidate

That same day, US troops massacred nearly 500 women and children in a remote villagecalled My Lai (news of which was hidden for twenty months)

March 26, 1968- Johnson assembled the Senior Advisory Group on Vietnam

Headed by Philip Habib and Dean Acheson Both overwhelmingly advised US disengagement from the war

March 31, 1968- Johnson addressed thenation and announced that he would not seek anotherterm

VP Hubert Humphrey entered the race as Johnsons heir


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Nixon Takes Command

April 1968- seemed as war was about to be over, but half of the US deathtoll was still to come

April 4, 1968- Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed

May 12, 1968- Peace talks opened in Paris

No real progress was made May 1968- student and working-class riots nearly toppled de Gaulles

regime in France

June 5, 1968- Robert Kennedy was killed moments after defeatingMcCarthy and Humphrey in the California presidential primary

August 1968- USSR invaded Czechoslovakia to destroy AlexanderDubceks reformist government

October 1968- Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordazs troops openedfire on a crowd of demonstrators and killed more than 300

Two weeks before the start of the Summer Olympics in Mexico City


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Nixon Takes Command

Former Vice-President Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination in July,narrowly defeating California governor Ronald Reagan

Humphrey prevailed over McCarthy for the Democratic nomination

Democratic National Convention in Chicago that year turned violent withantiwar protests

Seriously weakened the moral credibility of both the antiwar movementand the Chicago police and damaging the Democratic Party

Humphrey did not mention the willingness to end the war until September 1968

Johnson tried to help out by halting ROLLING THUNDER on October 31

Nixon held on and very narrowly won the election

End of 1968- troop strength was at 536,000 and deaths that year totaled 14,589

(highest of the war to that point) April 30, 1969- US troop strength peaked at 543,300

Nixon had no intention of escalating the war, nor did he envision a quick pullout

Not wanting to be the first president to lose a warhe wanted to pulloutgradually and pump into South Vietnam tons of war materiel


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Nixon Takes Command

This new policy toward the war was called the Nixon Doctrine

National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger stated that troop pullouts deprived him ofnegotiating leverage

Defense Secretary Melvin Laird coined the term Vietnamization to describe theexecution of the Nixon Doctrine in Southeast Asia

Antiwar protestors saw this as a delay tactic and South Vietnamese President Nguyen VanThieu considered it a betrayal of US commitment

July 1969- CIA employed the Phoenix program to infiltrate techniques to cripple the VCsoperations through the unmasking and killing of approximately 60,000 VC agents in the South

Ho Chi Minh died in September 1969

Had no impact on North Vietnams bargaining posture

October 15, 1969- nationwide moratorium demonstrations

November 15, 1969- huge march on Washington

November 16, 1969- New York Times published the first accounts of the March 1968 My Laimassacre

January 1970- troop strength was reduced to 475,200, total US deaths now numbered over40,000


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Nixon Takes Command

Nixons impatience led to a widening of the war

Throughout the 1960s, NVA and VC units had used the Ho Chi Minh Trail and used Cambodiaand Laos as refuge from US troops who were told not to engage the enemy in these countries

March 1970- a military coup deposed Cambodias neutralist Prince Sihanouk, replacing himwith pro-US general Lon Nol

US at once pressured Lon Nol to expel the NVA and VC forces April 30, 1970- Nixon announced a US invasion of Cambodia to close down the camps and

supply routes

Now officially begins the Second Indochina War

US campuses erupted in protest

Ohio National Guard fired on one such demonstration at Kent State killing fourstudents and sending ripples of revulsion across the nation

Several more students were killed at Jackson State in Mississippi that same week

Many colleges cancelled classes and exams

June 30, 1970- US operations in Cambodia ended

Six months later Congress prohibited the use of US combat troops in Laos and Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh Trail was still open and US forces were still mired in South Vietnam

Nixon and Kissinger increasingly placed their hopes on dtente with China and Russia hopingthat these two nations could help them end the war

chapter 17-section 10

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