The Vietnam War (1954-1975)

Vietnam War

Combatants

• 1945- France sends in commanders to gain control of Vietnam
• August 1945 Viet Minh gained control of Vietnam and named it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

• Election of 1960
• Retained similar Cold War policy as truman and Eisenhower
• “To introduce U.S. forces in large numbers there today, while it might have an initially favorable military impact, would almost certainly lead to adverse political and, in the long run, adverse military consequences."
• Use of counterinsurgency personnel (Green Berets) to wage war/help fall communist regimes
• Vice President Lyndon Johnson says that Diem is the “Winston Churchill of Asia” and “the only boy we got out there”
• “I am not going to lose Vietnam” - Kennedy
• American obdurateness in winning Vietnam

• 1961: JFK sends 400 Special Operations Forces (AKA Green Beret) soldiers to create counterinsurgency force in South Vietnam
• “Dispatching military advisers to train a S. Nam army, and unleashing the CIA to conduct psychological warfare against the North”
• Initiated in 1961: Strategic Hamlet Program

The United States

Economic Effect

• Cost tax payers $27 billion in 1967
• Increased federal deficit from 9.8 billion to 23 billion
• Set precedent to the economic setback of the 70s
• Inflation plagued the United States

Between 1965 and 1985 divorce rates doubled

Children had a 40% of growing up in a Single-parent household

1965-1966 public opinion agreed with Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam

Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964 by sitting in the administration building after student political activity had been banned.

Some say this is because of Freedom Summer in Mississippi

In 1967 the world’s first Human Be-In drew 20,000 people to Golden Gate Park and began the "Summer of Love"

• Summer of love is directly a part of the counter culture idea
• After political assassinations and public display of violence in Vietnam Newsweek asked, "Had violence became a way of life"
• Unfair to say that the Summer of love was only because of the Vietnam War, but it would also be unfair to say that without Vietnam it still would have happened
• Students for Democratic Society (SDS) was formed by College Students in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1960 to lead an anti-war movement mimicking that of civil rights movement
• They wrote the Port Huron Statement - as previously read in class
• These are the students that led the sit-in at Berkeley showing the direct correlation between the anti-war movement and the free speech movement

Safe to say, these people absolutely hated the war and most of the public will agree, and those who did not agree will be covered in the Siege of Chicago Peace Sign

• As we all know, San Francisco became a "hippie city"
• STIs increased by 70% in prevalence in the 60's and 70's
• "If you look at all the political agendas of the 1960s, they basically failed," says actor Peter Coyote, who belonged to a Haight-Ashbury commune called the Diggers in the late '60s. "We didn't end capitalism. We didn't end imperialism. We didn't end racism. Yeah, the war ended. But if you look at the cultural agendas, they all worked."
• SF Gate says that "nature of drugs on the street changed"
• Health and Hygiene became a painfully real concern

"If these young people hadn't declared the possibility of a new culture, a new family," says beat poet Michael McClure, "a new tribe, believing in peace, nature, sexuality, the positive use of psychedelic drugs -- if they hadn't been there to broaden and deepen the hundreds of thousands and then millions of people who were broadened and deepened by this -- we would be in an even bigger stew."

Democratic National Convention in Chicago - thousands of protestors descended on the city

Youth International Party nominated a pig, Pigasus, for president

They wanted media exposure

Ended up being called the “Siege of Chicago"

Siege of Chicago is the best example of the political effects that ensued the Vietnam War

The New Left had begun

New Left organized against the political and economic system that was in place

Was actually the SDS that founded the name the New Left

This political figure was in order to distinguish themselves from the Communists and Socialists the Old Left Represented in order to better represent their ideals and the way they thought the Vietnam War should be carried out

Were people who hated the counter culture

Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) asserted faith in god and feared that the federal government accumulated too much power

Main platforms were to defend free platforms and SUPPORT THE WAR IN VIETNAM

They defended what hippies fought against

Artists and Their Songs

Pete Seeger - 1961 Song Where have all the flowers gone

Bob Dylan - Blowing in the Wind

Beatles - spawned commercial and cultural “phenomenon” known as Beatlemania

Other Artists

Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors, Joan Baez

His performance of the Star Spangled Banner was a "defining moment in the counter-culture movement"

Michael Wadleigh from a 1970 Woodstock documentary called the song Jimmy’s “challenge to American foreign policy”

A famous Vietnam War protest song is "War" by Edwin Starr, recorded in 1970, which you will all probably recognize from it's message: “War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”

Another line that well describes the anger of the people is: “War can’t give life, it can only take it away!”

Remember the pictures in the letter i?

The platform for the Siege of Chicago was for maximum media attention, hence the use of a pig to get attention

Tet offensive was a huge uproar once results were publicly shown on television as well as newspapers

Amount of photographs shown throughout the presentation aptly represent the amount of scrutiny all Vietnam related actions were under

The Public Media had decided to criminalize the war, and urge for peace and publication thereof - amount of social effects can be directly affiliated with the amount of media was used

People began to see the “carnage of war”

Morley Safer saw a marine unite burning a village (Cam Ne) to the ground

There began to be people warning that the government had a “credibility act”

Cannot stress enough the importance of media

The Vietnam War went out of it's way to produce yellow journalism

Used huge headlines about violence and the "brutalities" of war

Example: Mud, blood and terror: The brutality of the Vietnam War captured in harrowing images

Media used all the tactics we see today

Music counts as media, and as displayed by the last peace sign slide, songs and artists used their own publications in order to add to the contempt of war

Was the War good or bad for the US?

…really.

The war was very “bad” on almost all levels:

• ideological struggle against spread of communism fails
• American “invincibility” is shaken
• Public support for military dwindles
• Massacres, scandals, secret bombings, you name it, it happened
• 1st American failure

Should the US have been involved in the first place?

• The outcome was the same as if we hadn’t been involved in the first place

• The war provided minimal benefits for the US/ Allies

• Communist North demonstrated strength against arguably the most advanced military in the world

• Set the trend for later entanglements. Middle East?

• Doubt from the very beginning:
• "We had no sooner begun to carry out the plan to increase dramatically U.S. forces in Vietnam than it became clear there was reason to question the strategy on which the plan was based"

International Effects

Also bad.

Vietnam created uncertainty in the global community

Created worse relations with Communist nations due to the atrocities in Vietnam

Shook relations with democratic nations as well

Works Cited

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Summer-of-Love-40-Years-Later-1967-The-stuff-2593252.php#page-2

Prados, John. “Vietnam: The History of the Unwinnable War, 1945-1975.” University Press of Kansas. Copyright 2009.

Olson, James S. “Dictionary of the Vietnam War.” Greenwood Press. London. Copyright 1988.

Henretta, James A., David Brody, and Lynn Dumenil. America: A Concise History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. Print.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/causes.htm

McNamara, Robert S., and Brian VanDeMark. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Times, 1995. Print.

Duong, Van Nguyen. The Tragedy of the Vietnam War: A South Vietnamese Officer's Analysis. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2008. Print.

Rawson, Andrew. The Vietnam War Handbook: US Armed Forces in Vietnam. Stroud: History, 2008. Print.

"Vietnam War Timeline." Vietnam War Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.

France

United States

Peoples Republic of Vietnam

[Soviet Union]

Viet Cong Territory (North Vietnam)

[Peoples Republic

of China]

Southern Communists

•58,000 Americans Dead

•300,000 Wounded

•$150 Billion Spent (US)

•Vietnamese attacked by Cambodia, 1.5 million people murdered

1954-1975

• Franco Vietnamese accords of 1946
• Recognize Republic of Vietnam as a free state
• Why?
• Anti-imperialist movement in France
• Negotiations are suspended at Fontainebleu Conference

Direct Effects of the War

58,000 Americans Dead

300,000 Wounded

$150 Billion Spent (US)

Vietnamese attacked by Cambodia, 1.5 million people murdered

Vietnam still fell to Communist overall reign

Political: President gained more war powers in the War Powers Act of 1973

Social Structure

1968- New found women's liberation movement

ACH says the were educated "fresh from the New Left, antiwar, and civil rights movements"

A lot of people shooed away their problems because they had "more important things to worry about"

Not safe to say that the women's movement was directly because of the Vietnam war due to other external factors, such as Civil Rights and the Cold War

BUT it is safe to say that antiwar politics and protests served as a model for those of women

Just like women Chicano and Civil Rights movements emerged

But each of these movements were more to challenge the cold war liberalism of the democratic society rather than those of the Vietnam War

On the other hand, Homophile movements can be more directly tied to the Vietnam War because it was the Summer of Love and Hippie movements that gave acceptance a new meaning and could urge closeted gays to come out

Some Social Stats For Ya

Dien Bien Phu

• 1954: French defeated by Vietnminh army at Dien Bien Phu
• Geneva Accords in July 1954

Operation Linebacker II

Initiated December 1972; given such informal names as the Christmas Bombings and the December Raids

Conducted against targets in the North

Considered the "most savage" time in the war

Reasons For War

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER

• Ideological: prevent the spread of communism to Vietnam
• Both South and North were in ideological power struggle
• French/ US backing, keep Vietnam under Western control

The War... Begins. Ish. I guess.

Although US had provided advisers and aid to the South Vietnamese government, they hadn't actually sent in troops

Mid-1964: First American troops, 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrive in Drang Valley

No Marine injuries recorded

US Troop Deployment

Quickly escalates to more than 200,000 strong; requires the start of the draft

Did We Say Peace? Dang...

Congress refuses to increase aid in South Vietnam following troop evacuation

March 1975, North Vietnamese launches final offensive, a month later Vietnam is united under Communist rule

Saigon is taken by North Vietnamese troops

Sad because its outcome was the same as what would have happened anyways

Methods of War Waging

Preparing for War (1955-1963)

Air-based:

Carpet bombing

Napalms strikes

Tatter-fire

Land-based:

Troops

Flamethrowers/M.G.'s

"Burning Dragons"

• Ngo Dinh Diem = stout anti-communist, anti-imperialist; quickly befriends President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
• Diem organization was ill-managed, extremely corrupt and highly unstable, allowing for weaknesses to present themselves pretty quickly
• 1955-1957: South Vietnam was scene to countryside uprisings, with incidents of violence decreasing until 1957; however, a spike was once again seen in 1959
• December 1960: National Liberation Front (NLF) is created in response to Diem’s government; serving as the primary political party against Diem in the South, the NLF calls for the withdrawal of American advisors and influence

Countries Prepare for Peace

Kissinger and Le Duc Tho agree on several principals that would end in a cease fire

January 27, 1973, both sides sign the Paris Peace Accords

Last troops leave Vietnam in late 1973

Jimmy Hendrix

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Approved by Congress on August 7, 1964
• Allowed Johnson to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

Marvin Gaye published in 1970 "What's Going On" It wasn't at all like the song Edwin Starr produced melody wise, but it seemed to have the same message as Starr's production. Gaye, like Starr, was asking: “what’s going on” in the world today? Why are “far too many of you dying?”

Johnson quickly becomes an "escalator" of the war

August 2, 1964: 3 North Vietnamese PT boats allegedly fire sub-marine torpedoes at USS Maddox, a destroyer vessel

Controversial due to question of dependability of sonar conclusiveness

France

President John F. Kennedy (1960-1963)

PRESIDENTS INVOLVED WITH VIETNAM

Surrendered WWII in 1940

JOHNSON

*TRUMAN*

1963-1969

FORD

1945-1953

1974-1977

Kennedy in Vietnam (1960-1963)

EISENHOWER

KENNEDY

1953-1961

1961-1963

NIXON

1969-1974

So Does This War Fit the US Puzzle?

• January 2, 1963: Battle of Ap Bac
• State Department was generally in favor of encouraging a coup, while the Defense Department favored Diem
• November 2, 1963: Diem and his brother are killed by Southern generals without Kennedy’s authorization
• Chaos ensues
• Foreign Relation of the United States, Vietnam, 1961–1963. Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office, 1991, vol. 4., p. 707.
• Kennedy is assassinated on November 22, 1963

Depends on the Scope of involvement

Political Effects

Trying to stop the

political effects

Puzzle of 1776-1954: No, it doesn't. The war was qualitatively different, without the declaration of war by Congress, without the public support of the people, and without normal reasons for war.

Puzzle of 1975-Today: Yes, it does. Recent wars have been fought without congressional consent for "ideological" reasons. This is quite similar.

Most similar to: Iraq War, Korean War

Kent State Demonstration

Tie-In With War

After Effect

Antiwar protesters demonstrate at Ohio's Kent State University

Protest turns violent when demonstrators start throwing rocks/ empty tear gas canisters

National Guardsmen fire upon demonstrators, kills 4 students

Makes the war appear even uglier in the eyes of the world, the nation, and the government as well

Tet Offensive of 1969

War Continues to Accelerate

1965: LJB meets with south Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Coa Ky

Anti-war sentiment: WWI and WWII veterans rally in NYC

1967: Operation Cedar Falls

Iron Triangle is discovered

Society Begins to Fight the "Man"

Attitude Changes from the Top

1967: Summer of Love brings out the hippie movement, which is noted as being against the war

October 1967: 100k march against war in DC

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara calls the bombing efforts in North Vietnam ineffective, further disenfranchising Americans

1971: Pentagon Papers are published

1971: Nixon announces visit to China

April, 1972: B-52 Bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong

Paris Peace talks start to become serious; however, retaliation and mixed issues lead to...

1969: Massive War Demonstration

January 30, 1968: Vietcong launch massive, well-coordinated assault on South Vietnam, which coincided with Tet, the Vietnamese new year

The Battle of Hue

26 day engagement in which US and South Vietnamese troops attempted to regain the lost sites of the Tet Offensive; following the US and ARVN victory, mass graves containing the bodies of thousands of people who had been executed during the Communist occupation discovered

My Lai Massacre

US Army troops executed nearly five hundred people in the South Vietnamese village of My Lai, many women and children

Was not found out by the press until 1969, with the result being an absolute turn of public opinion against the war, during the presidency of...

A Nation Mourns

Dallas, Texas

November 1963

John F. Kennedy is assassinated, putting the presidency in the hands of...

1969: Nixon begins secret bombing of Cambodia, a place prior considered untouchable

"Vietnamization" Begins

Troop Numbers: 543,000 in 1968 to 334,000 in 1971 to barely 24,000 by early 1973

Knowledge of My Lai helps spur it more

Battle of Ia Drang

The first major battle between the United States Army and regulars of the People's Army of Vietnam

Southern Collapse

November 2, 1963: Diem and his brother are killed by Southern generals without Kennedy’s authorization; Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge celebrates the action by inviting the coup starters to the embassy

Chaos ensues; military coups are both violent and frequent

US becomes entrenched in nearly all levels of military

Battle of Ap Bac

Viet Cong forces beat considerably better equipped Southern force; shows inabilities of Diem and his supporters and further angered Southerners; US began discussing the possibility of an enacted regime change