The Vietnam War- Historical Background

• Vietnam controlled by outside powers for centuries.

• China (111 BC-1771)

• France (1853-1941)• Japan (1941-45)

French Colonial Rule

• Vietnamese were second class citizens

• Vietnamese developed “nationalist” feelings

• Uprisings against the French were not uncommon

Japanese Occupation• Japan invaded and occupied Indochina in

1941• Resistance against Japan led by Ho Chi Minh• Vietminh- Vietnamese Independence League

•Japan withdrew at end of WWII (1945)

•In 1946, France comes back to reclaim Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh• Nationalist 1st/

Communist 2nd• War hero in Vietnam

(fought the French, the Japanese & later the Americans)--very popular

Independence Movement

• Vietnamese D of I --Sept 2, 1945 (read this)

• France rejected D of I

• Leads to 8 year war “French Indochina War” (1946-1954)

Role of U.S.• Ho Chi Minh sends Truman 8 letters asking for

support• Truman Admin sends military support to …• Continues under Eisenhower Admin

– Harry Truman 1945-1952– Dwight Eisenhower 1952-1960– John F. Kennedy 1960-1963– Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) 1963-1968– Richard Nixon 1968-1973– Gerald Ford 1973-1977

End of French-Indochina War

• Despite U.S. aid, (80% of French effort paid for by the US), France loses in 1954

• Geneva Accords negotiates a settlement b/w France and Vietnam

• Divides Vietnam temporarily until elections in 1956 (eventual war will be b/w the N & S)

Ngo Dinh Diem• US installs Diem to

head the South• Eisenhower cancels

elections knowing that Ho Chi Minh would win

JFK & Vietnam• Continues Eisenhower’s

policy• CIA in Vietnam• Aids Diem• Increases involvement:

• Sends military “advisors” & special forces

• Read “importance of Vietnam”

US’ deepening involvement• Diem became

problematic for the US• Oppressed Buddhist

majority• Made the US look bad• Is assassinated in a

coup by S. Vietnamese generals (w/ support from US) on Nov. 1st, 1963

NLF (VC)• NLF• National Liberation

Front• Formed in 1960• Military wing of

Vietminh• Called Vietcong by

Americans (VC)

Tonkin Gulf Incident • Pres Johnson claimed

that 2 US destroyers had been attacked by NVM

• Pretense for war• Leads to passage of

“Tonkin Gulf Resolution” whereby Congress gave the Pres authority to wage war

Operation Rolling Thunder• 1st phase of war

– Bombing raids– Introduction of

200,000 ground troops into Vnam

•war is “escalated” each year until 1968

Nixon 1968-1973• “Vietnamization

policy”• Increased bombing

campaigns• Secretly started

bombing Cambodia & Laos

• Kent State (1970)

End of War• Paris Peace Talks

January 1973 end US combat role

• Nixon resigns due to scandal

• Ford never able to get funding to continue aiding SVM

• NVM wins war and unites country on April 30, 1975

Role of Anti-War Movement in ending war

• Exerpt from Nixon’s Memoirs

• “Although publicly I continued to ignore the raging antiwar controversy…I knew, however, that after all the protests and the Moratorium, American public opinion would be seriously divided by an military escalation of the war.”

Impact of War (Veterans)• 58,000 Americans

died/ 300,000 wounded• 20,000- 150,000

committed suicide• PTSD—30%

Impact on budget• War cost $200

billion • Jeopardized LBJ’s

poverty programs• Created inflation of

1970s

Impact of war on US public• Distrust of Gov’t• Pentagon Papers• Published in 1971• Revealed what gov’t

was actually doing in Vietnam

• Discrepency with what the people were told

Lesson for US Gov’t• Exerpt from In Retrospect by Robert McNamara,

Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.“If we had had more Asia experts around us, perhaps we would not have been so simple minded about China and Vietnam. We had that expertise available during the Cuban Missile Crisis; in general, we had it available when we dealt with Soviet affairs; but we lacked it when dealing with Southeast Asia.”

Quote from Melvin Laird, Sec of Defense under Nixon• “Both the Vietnam War and the Iraq war

were launched based on intelligence failures and possibly outright deception. The issue was much more egregious in the case of Vietnam, where the intelligence lapses were born of our failure to understand what motivated Ho Chi Minh in the 1950s. Had we understood the depth of his nationalism, we might have been able to derail his communism early on.”

Other Lessons• No draft

• Greater censorship

• “Embedded Journalists”

• Drones

• Fewer group troops