Vietnam War
From Ibstudy
Sometimes called the "Vietnam Conflict" since war was never technically declared.
Leadup to war
- Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel, U.S.-backed Ho Chi Minh in South.
- French leave Vietnam at the end of the Indo-China war in the face of popular, strong opposition.
- U.S. gets involved around 1957:
- advisors
- then military
- escalation (under Johnson: "...if I left that war and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the globe.")
- max. 500,000 American soldiers in Vietnam (1968)
- success stories reported, though not altogether connected with reality
- Tet Offensive was a large coordinated surprise attack by the NLF (Vietnam National Liberation Front)
- Militarily, it was crushed quickly -> an American victory, but it showed that the NLF was not defeated
- Tet Offensive was a large coordinated surprise attack by the NLF (Vietnam National Liberation Front)
- USA withdraws troops beginning in 1969, under strong anti-Vietnam-war public opinion.
- Vietnam falls to communism, 1975
Nature of the war
- American tactics:
- bombing: firebombing(napalm), chemical defoliants(eg. Agent Orange). A greater mass of bombs were dropped on Vietnam than were on Germany during WWII.
- Vietnam wasn't industrialized, and so bombing missions had a limited amount of tactical targets.
- Agent Orange had adverse effects:
- Setting up "strategic hamlets" or "safe" villages
- forcibly relocating people to new villages alienated them
- bombing: firebombing(napalm), chemical defoliants(eg. Agent Orange). A greater mass of bombs were dropped on Vietnam than were on Germany during WWII.
- Anti-American tactics:
- Vietcong and NLF were highly motivated, experts at guerrilla warfare
- Generally, the guerrilla war couldn't be won by the USA: enemy combatants couldn't be distinguished from civilians until they shot at you. The USA's conventional warfare, even with numbers, funds, and technology, was ineffective.
- Despite heavy bombing, Vietcong supplies couldn't be stopped on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
- Vietcong/NLF had military/supply support from China, Russia, North Vietnam.
- Vietcong and NLF were highly motivated, experts at guerrilla warfare
- NLF had widespread support, even in South Vietnam, because of anti-government, anti-imperialist ideas. America did not recognize this need, and focused purely on military intervention.
Effects
- Victory for the communist world
- Vietnamese costs great
- 1-2 million civilians dead, 18 million homeless
- Agent Orange: birth defects
- U.S.A:
- Detracted attention from domestic reforms
- Shook the confidence of this new world power
- U.S. soldiers:
- shunned by an anti-Vietnam-war society
- many had post-traumatic stress disorder
