Modern U.S. History. Election of 1968 Richard Nixon had promised to end the war in Vietnam if he...

The End of the Vietnam WarModern U.S. History

President Nixon & the Vietnam War

Election of 1968 Richard Nixon had

promised to end the war in Vietnam if he became president

Henry Kissinger▪ National Security Advisor

to President Nixon ▪ Begins secret negotiations

in 1969 with the North Vietnamese


Vietnamization Nixon wanted “peace

with honor”▪ Wanted to remove

American troops from Vietnam without embarrassing the country and avoid the appearance of defeat

Nixon wins the election


Vietnamization▪ Nixon’s plan to gradually turn more of the fighting over

to the South Vietnamese troops ▪ Wanted to give South Vietnam time to create a stable

(anti-communist) government Troop withdrawal ▪ 540,000 troops in Vietnam in 1969, only 24,000 by 1972

Mixed public opinion ▪ Many disliked Vietnamization because it took longer to

completely end America’s involvement


Expanding the war (secretly) While Nixon was withdrawing

troops, he was also secretly expanding the war into Laos and Cambodia ▪ Bombed Cambodia in 1969 to

disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail ▪ Sent American and ARVN

troops into Cambodia in 1970 and into Laos in 1971 to attack North Vietnamese military bases

▪ Renewed the bombing of North Vietnam


Nixon wanted to show the North Vietnamese that he was willing to expand the war into territories other than Vietnam ▪ Also wanted them to think

he was a “madman” that would do anything to stop the war


Atrocities and cover-ups My Lai massacre (March

1968)▪ American troops on a

search-and-destroy mission entered the village of My Lai to find Vietcong troops under the command of Lieutenant William Calley

▪ No Vietcong were found, but the American troops shot and killed 450 women, children, and elderly men


Calley was accused of murder in September 1969 and sentenced to life in prison; he got parole in 1974


Pentagon Papers ▪ Secret government

documents that told the history of America’s involvement in Vietnam going back to President Truman

▪ Published by the New York Times in 1971


Pentagon Papers cont.▪ Leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, a

journalist ▪ Showed that the U.S.

government had been misleading the public about the war


Peace talks Henry Kissinger announces in 1972 (just before the

election, what a coincidence) that peace is at hand ▪ In reality, peace talks stalled ▪ “Christmas bombing”- in December 1972, Nixon has

cities in North Vietnam bombed constantly in order to get the North Vietnamese to give in to demands, doesn’t work


January 1973▪ North Vietnam, South

Vietnam, and the United States reach a settlement

▪ U.S. agrees to withdraw troops and help rebuild South Vietnam

▪ Both sides release prisoners of war (POWs)

▪ Agreement does not settle the issue of the political future of South Vietnam

Vietnam post-American Involvement

North Vietnam invades South Vietnam and takes Saigon by April 1975 Americans working at

the embassy are airlifted out of the country

Some Vietnamese who were afraid of retribution (130,000) were also evacuated

Vietnam post-American Involvement

April 30, 1975 South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam Vietnam, after over 20 years of division, is reunited

under Communism Casualties

185,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and 450,000 South Vietnamese civilians killed

About 1 million Vietcong and NVA killed

Impact of the Vietnam War on Southeast Asia

Domino theory U.S. fear that if Vietnam

becomes communist, other Southeast countries will follow, comes true▪ Cambodia and Laos both

become Communist after 1975


In Cambodia, a communist group called the Khmer Rouge takes power in 1975 Formerly supported by

the North Vietnamese, had allowed the NVA to set up camps along Cambodia’s border


Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge Capital of Cambodia, Phnom

Penh is evacuated and people are sent to work camps known as the “killing fields”

Leader of the Khmer Rouge is Pol Pot (known as Brother No. 1)▪ Brother No. 1 wanted to

create a society free of all social institutions and become a totally agrarian society


"What is rotten must be removed”▪ Pol Pot began an

extermination program that eliminated anyone who didn’t fit in with his new society, intellectuals, businessmen, Buddhists and foreigners were all killed

1-2 million people were killed before Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in 1979 and defeated the Khmer Rouge


The Khmer Rouge was led by Pol Pot as an insurgent group until he died in 1998; he never faced any charges


Hmong involvement in the Vietnam War Laos was supposed to be neutral in the Vietnam

War, but it was also divided between Communism and anti-Communism ▪ Royal Lao Army- trained and supported by the U.S.▪ The Pathet Lao- backed by the Soviet Union

Ho Chi Minh Trail▪ The trail went through the Laotian mountains, home of

the Hmong▪ U.S. couldn’t use ground troops in Laos because Laos was

neutral


CIA secretly begins “Operation Momentum”▪ CIA convinced the Hmong

people that they would be invaded and conquered by the Vietnamese

▪ CIA promises to help the Hmong people if they help the American troops fight the Vietnamese in Laos

▪ 30,000 Hmong troops begin fighting a ground war for the U.S.


Mission of the “secret army” under General Vang Pao (1960s)▪ Cut off supply lines on the

Ho Chi Minh Trail ▪ Guide U.S. bombing

missions▪ Rescue U.S. pilots who had

been shot down


After the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam▪ Laos becomes of communist

country in 1975▪ Hmong people who had

supported the U.S. were killed

▪ Laotian government newspaper in 1975 says "We must eradicate the Hmong minority completely."

▪ Thousands of Hmong people fled to Thailand and other sympathetic countries

Impact of the Vietnam War in the United States

Veterans Casualties ▪ 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam, 300,000 wounded ▪ 600 POWs, many were held in North Vietnamese prisons

and tortured for years before they were released ▪ Agent Orange- exposure to chemical weapons caused

cancer and other diseases in many soldiers Post-traumatic stress disorder ▪ Caused nightmares, violent behavior, flashbacks

Impact of the Vietnam War in the United States

Political impact U.S. spent $150 billion in its failed attempt to

prevent the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia

War Powers Act 1973▪ Reaffirmed Congress’ constitutional right to declare war ▪ Presidents can’t commit U.S. troops to foreign conflict for

more than 60 days without authorization from Congress or a declaration of war

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Modern U.S. History. Election of 1968 Richard Nixon had promised to end the war in Vietnam if he...

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