War and American Society

The War in Vietnam

*The Viet-Nam war can be traced back to the Second World War and, indeed, to the 19^th Century colonial empire of France.  In 1884, the French occupied most of Viet-Nam, and soon made it part of a larger colony called Indo-China, encompassing Viet-Nam (which they French split into three colonies, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin-China), Laos, and Cambodia.

 

*Like most problems of the Twentieth Century, America’s troubles with Vietnam date to the First World War, when a young Vietnamese nationalist named Ho Chi Minh, requested an audience with Woodrow Wilson to discuss self-determination for Indochina, and was denied.  Although Ho admired the Declaration of Independence and George Washington (and saw himself as his own country’s Washington), he felt forced to turn to Moscow. 

 

*During World War II, though, the Vichy French government allowed the Japanese to move through parts of Indo-China to attack Chiang Kai-shek in China, and in 1945 the Japanese took over the whole colony.  During this time, the USA’s OSI trained a number of native guerrillas to fight the Japanese, including Ho Chi Minh. 

 

*The Japanese in Indo-China surrendered when the Emperor ended WWII in August 1945, and the French tried to regain control.  Ho and many of his supporters, called Viet Minh, the League for the Independence of Viet-Nam, opposed this, as they had declared Viet-Nam independent from France in 1941.  In 1946, Ho declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, but he was not recognised by anyone but his own followers, in part because most of Europe supported the French out of principle, and especially because Ho was a communist.  Furthermore, although he used Communism in part to help the poor at the expense of the rich and the French, and because it got him help from the USSR, Ho was first and foremost a nationalist, not likely to be completely dominated by the Soviets, which is what the West feared most.  That said, he was still a fairly monstrous figure, killing many of his enemies, even the poor of Viet-Nam.  So, the US gave France money (in accordance with the Truman Doctrine).

 

*To combat Ho, the French created a Republic of Viet-Nam, to be led by the Emperor of Viet-Nam, Bao Dai.  The French and the RVN fought against the Viet Minh for almost a decade.  In 1953, the French were attacked at a small base called Na San, and the Viet Minh were beaten badly.  The French decided to build a major fort, draw General Giap in, and destroy him at Dien Bien Phu.

 

*Initial French preparations went well, but it soon turned out there were far more Viet Minh than the French thought.  They were also armed with the latest Soviet rockets and other arms.  The Viet Minh laid siege to Dien Bien Phu and in April 1954 the French, in a bad position at the Geneva Conventions, gave up control of Viet Nam in the Geneva Accords, which in July divided Viet-Nam just south of the 17th Parallel, made Hanoi Ho’s capital of the North and Saigon Ngo Dinh Diem’s capital in the South. 

 

*Elections were to be held in 1956 for a unified country and government.  Ho Chi Minh was very popular for his work in getting the French out, and it was feared that he would win a popular election, so the South did not go along with this part of it and the US supported them in that.  When an election between Diem and Bao Dai was held, it was heavily rigged.

 

*Just as the US had sent money to France, Eisenhower also pledged to support the RVN, and sent money to Diem.  He also sent a few military advisors to help train the ARVN (675 by 1960).

 

*When Kennedy became president, he also pledged to support Ngo and the RVN.  However, Diem was not popular with many South Vietnamese.  He was Catholic (his older brother was Archbishop of Hue) and most Vietnamese were Buddhist.  He had supported the old French-dominated regime of Bao Dai and he imprisoned those who disagreed with him.

 

*Many people wanted him to initiate land reform—that is, take land from the rich and give it to the poor—but he would not.  Instead, he created ‘strategic hamlets,’ essentially large, government-run farms, where they could work, but where they would also be under close guard so they could not help the communists (but where communism actually spread more easily in the cramped quarters of the resentful hamlets).

 

*In June 1963 a Buddhist monk protested Diem’s regime by pouring gasoline on himself and immolating himself on a street in Saigon.  Soon other monks followed his example, and newspapers the world over reported it.  In Viet-Nam, news reporters and cameramen had almost total access to major events and unprecedented means of transmitting news, pictures, and video back home.

 

*Opposition to Diem in Viet-Nam and now America led Kennedy to permit a coup d’etat by several ARVN officers.  Ngo, his wife, and a younger brother were all murdered on 1 November 1963.  Three weeks later, Kennedy was assassinated, and LBJ became president.

*Kennedy and Johnson’s war policies were shaped by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara.  He helped create a new overall outlook for the US military.  Under Eisenhower, the US had relied on deterrence, the power of the mighty atom, and the threat of mutual assured destruction, to prevent war.  This worked in the sense that the USSR did not invade the US or any other NATO country.  However, this did not let the US deal with threats too small to nuke but too big to ignore.  Consequently, the JFK administration developed flexible response, the ability to send different types and sizes of military units around the world.  Part of this was the creation of the US Special Forces as we know them to-day:  the Green Berets.

 

*JFK and LBJ followed the policy of containment.  They wanted to keep communism from spreading and would fight it when it tried, just as the Truman Doctrine promised.  America’s great fear was called the Domino Theory:  if one country in South-east Asia fell to communism, so would the rest, one after another.  Despite this policy and these fears, they did not want to get involved in a major war, so, at least through 1964, they, like Ike, only sent money and advisors to the RVN, although they sent more and more as they years went by.

 

*Things got worse early in the Johnson administration.  The ARVN generals who took over from Nho Dinh Diem governed the country poorly, did not run the ARVN well, and 1964 saw a rise in Viet Cong activity in RVN.  Often former Viet Minh, these guerillas sabotaged the RVN at night and looked like peaceful peasants during the day.

 

*On 3 August, 1964, some US destroyers patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin were attacked by NVN torpedo boats.  The damage was minimal (only one bullet struck, hitting the USS Maddox), but the next day radar reports showed many more boats approaching and launching torpedoes, and the Navy fired upon them.  This attack allowed Johnson to ask Congress for the power to send troops to Viet-Nam, because Congress, not the president, deploys and pays troops.  On 7 August, 1964, Congress responded with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed the President to do whatever he felt was necessary as long as he said there was an emergency.  It was later determined that the second wave of attacks detected by radar were actually thunder clouds.

 

*LBJ could now send all the troops he wanted to Viet-Nam without a declaration of war by Congress and he did so in great numbers.  Eventually 3.5 million Americans served overseas during the War.

 

*In February 1965, the Viet Cong, moving along the Ho Chi Minh trail, attacked an American airbase near the RVN town of Pleiku, killing 8 Americans and wounding 126.  General Westmoreland called for two battalions of Marines to defend the US air base at Da Nang and other bases near the 17^th parallel.

 

*The first major battle between US and NVA forces came in November, 1965.  Elements of the 1^st Cavalry Division, including the 7^th Cavalry Regiment, were sent out to search for VC forces that had attacked American Special Forces at Plei Me near Pleiku.  They determined that they were on Chu Phong Mountain above the river known as Ia Drang.

 

*From 14-18 November, 1965, the Battle of Ia Drang involved the first major use of helicopters to transport troops to battle.  In fact, the battle was waged around two landing zones, LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany.

 

*At X-Ray, the first platoon to push into NVA lines was cut off, and it took two days to rescue it.  However, by the end of the 16^th, the NVA had been pushed back from LZ X-Ray, largely due to American artillery and air support.  The next day, though, while marching towards LZ Albany, American troops were ambushed and had to fight hard to escape.

 

*At least 1,200 NVA soldiers were killed while about 250 Americans were (along with about 250 wounded).  Both sides viewed it as a success, the Vietnamese because they learnt that they could successfully fight the Americans (and keep the US from using artillery) by fighting in close to American troops, while General Westmoreland felt that his men had killed a significant number of the enemy without taking more than acceptable losses.  Furthermore, the NVA attempts to invade South Vietnam in 1965 were stopped.  In fact, in every major, conventional battle, American and ARVN forced defeated the NVA and VC.  However, many battles were not fought face-to-face with the enemy.

 

*The war in Viet-Nam was not like any war Americans had fought, except possibly the French and Indian War.  Used to living in the jungle, the VC were undetectable in most cases, but they killed and wounded many soldiers and terrified more, and it was almost impossible to hit them back.  Civilians might throw a bomb or try to poison them.  Soldiers faced booby traps such as pits with punji sticks, land mines on paths, grenades hooked to tripwires, and an enemy working out of vast underground tunnel systems that were dangerous to infiltrate and clear out.

 

*The government they were helping to defend was corrupt and unpopular, but the government of North Viet-Nam was worse.  In the mid-1960s, Americans felt they had to be there and that they were doing the right thing.  In 1966 the #1 song was ‘Ballad of the Green Beret.’  However, Americans were not trained to fight a guerrilla war and it showed.  Soldiers frustrated at being unable to find the enemy often killed civilians, usually, but not always, by accident.

 

*The NVA and the VC had other advantages besides their invisibility and relative popularity.  The US Army had a number of rules of engagement it followed to keep from offending the Vietnamese people or neighbouring countries.  The US would not bomb cemeteries, so the VC hid in them.  The US would not invade or bomb Laos or Cambodia, so the NVA and VC built roads known as the Ho Chi Minh trail and carried supplies through those countries.  The US conducted bombing raids on North Viet-Nam and on suspected VC outposts, but not nearly as many as they could have, because Johnson was afraid of accidentally hitting a Soviet advisor and sparking WWIII.

 

*The Viet-Nam War was a coordinated ground and air war despite limitations on both branches, or at least it was meant to be.  The US Army sent many soldiers into battle on helicopters, including the famous First Cavalry.  This was the first time US helicopters were used for significant troop transports in war.

 

*The army could call in the Air Force to help them fight enemy positions, although the USAF was known to hit its own people, too.  In these attacks the USAF used fragmentation bombs, which exploded into many little pieces, sending shrapnel everywhere to kill the enemy.  They also used napalm, jellied gasoline that set the jungle on fire and stuck to anyone it hit.

 

*In the North, the USAF applied saturation bombing and carpet bombing when it dared, blasting entire regions flat with as much explosive power as the Hiroshima bomb several times over.  This began in 1965 under the codename Operation ROLLING THUNDER, and was intended to force the North to quit invading the South.  Beginning in 1966, this was carried out by the B-52.

 

*The US also used Agent Orange, a defoliant that killed the jungle vegetation so soldiers could find hiding VC, but it also caused health problems in many Vietnamese people and livestock and, it was later discovered, in many US soldiers as well.

 

*Despite increased US escalation, the war was largely a stalemate.  In ambushes, the V-C had the advantage, although special US search-and-destroy missions killed some V-C.  In open battles the US killed the V-C and NVA, but more just moved in.

 

*All this changed in 1968.  The US expected some kind of attack, because they knew there was a major buildup of NVA and V-C around the Marine base at Khe San.  However, the Vietnamese New Year was coming up, and there was supposed to be a cease-fire in honour of this occasion, called Tet, and beginning on the night of 30/31 January in 1968. 

 

*A few days before Tet, the NVA attacked Khe San, drawing the world’s attention to the besieged Marine base.  On 29 January, a few V-C attacked towns in RVN, and on the night of 30/31 January, almost every major town in RVN was attacked by V-C forces.  Although the US was distracted by Khe San, in most places the V-C were beaten immediately.  Only in Hue and Saigon itself did they have any success, where fighting continued for several weeks.

 

*During Tet, the V-C killed anyone they considered an enemy, especially the educated classes.  Doctors, teachers, minor government officials, military personnel, and many others were rounded up and executed.  In Hue alone between 3,000 and 5,000 were killed and buried in mass graves.

 

*Tet destroyed the V-C.  Over 100,000 were killed, wounded, or captured, compared to 1,100 dead US and 2,800 dead ARVN soldiers.  Charlie would never do much again.  However, when images of Tet and the news of the apparent ease with which US forces were surprised got home, civilians were horrified.  On the news it looked like the US was losing.  Even when the US won, it looked bad, especially the famous image of an ARVN officer summarily executing a V-C POW on the street.  Americans began to oppose the war in increasing numbers.

 

*Americans were also disturbed by the war when they learnt of the actions of Lieutenant William Calley, junior.  Having heard that the village of My Lai held 250 V-C who had recently attacked his men, he and his unit went to check it out in March 1968.  However, it only held women and children and old men.  Frustrated over this, and knowing that they were likely harbouring and helping the V-C, Calley had the civilians rounded up and shot, and in some cases tortured and raped.  347 Vietnamese died in the My Lai massacre, and more would have if a US helicopter crew scouting the area had not seen the massacre, landed between Calley’s men and the locals, and threatened to shoot the Americans if they tried to continue.

 

*This was unusual (although not unique), and it was the worst instance of such behaviour in Viet-Nam.  However, Americans were led by the media to assume such behaviour was typical.  The Army tried to cover this up, but in 1971 Calley was tried and sentenced to life in prison, later commuted to 20 years, and released for good behaviour after 3½ years of house arrest.

 

*The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the war psychologically.  Although a tactical victory for the US and ARVN, it convinced Americans watching at home that the V-C could attack anywhere at any time they wanted in massive numbers, and do well even against the US Army (even though after Tet that was largely untrue).  The bloody images of Tet filled television screens in the US, and more and more people began to ask just what the US were doing in Viet-Nam.

 

*Although Calley’s crime was not known to Americans when it happened, people did know about civilian deaths, and there were famous pictures of dead infants in burnt out villages.  One of the infamous slogans of the anti-war movement was the accusation ‘Hey, hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?’

 

*There had been a certain amount of resistance to the war since American involvement began, and much of it was among college students, the same middle-class Baby Boomers who would also become hippies.  For the first time in American history, large percentages of high school graduates went on to college.  They were well off, somewhat spoiled, and well-educated, with opportunities their parents never had, all of which widened the generation gap.

 

*The draft, begun during WWII, had been discontinued after the war but re-instated by Truman in 1948.  It was used during the Korean War, and starting in 1951 required all males ages 18 to 26 to register.  Most of those drafted in the early 60s complied, except for a few conscientious objectors.  As the war escalated, Johnson began to draft more and more men.  This in turn led to increased opposition to the draft.

 

*There were ways out of the draft.  Some doctors would fake medical exams to say that their patients were not fit to serve.  Students in college could get a deferment, meaning they did not have to go then (and usually never did go).  Because this did not apply to dropouts and failures and, after 1966, students with bad grades, many professors, many of whom opposed the war, or at least did not want to see people they knew killed, made it easier and easier to get good grades, thus dumbing down the educational system.  Many people, especially minorities, complained that the deferment was unfair because most college students were middle-class whites.

 

*Starting about 1967, more and more young men opposed the draft.  Some refused to fight and were locked away in jail.  Thousands ran away to Canada, and stayed there for years.  It is thought that about 100,000 Americans went to Canada to avoid the war.

 

*After the Tet Offensive, polls showed that the majority of Americans opposed the war.  McNamara had been having second thoughts and had already advised Johnson to pull out and been ignored.  In February 1968, the most respected man on television, Walter Kronkite, stated that he thought the war would end in stalemate.  Convinced he had failed in prosecuting the war and that he could not be re-elected. Johnson chose not to run for the presidency in 1968.  Before leaving office, he began the Paris peace talks with the North and the USSR.

 

*In 1968 the Democrats were split.  The most popular candidate, anti-war Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated in June.  America and the party were increasingly anti-war, but not so much so that the Democrats dared run an anti-war candidate.  They finally chose Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, a moderate who supported the war.  However, the Convention is remembered for the anti-war protests outside the convention center, where the police brutally beat down protesters with their nightsticks in front of TV cameras.  This violence split the Democrats further and made them seem out of touch with their constituency.

 

*The Republicans chose Richard Nixon, a former Vice-President.  He pointed out the violence outside the Democratic convention, and said he stood for law and order, and that he had a secret plan to end the war in Viet-Nam.

 

*Nixon won, largely by appealing to the ‘silent majority’ who supported the government, the war, and the American way of life, as opposed to the long-haired hippies who were destroying it.

 

*Nixon’s secret plan turned out to be what he called Vietnamisation.  This was the process of removing American troops and letting the ARVN take over the job of defending their own country.  By getting out of the war while leaving someone to fight it, Nixon claimed he was winning ‘peace with honor.’

 

*Nixon began to slowly withdraw troops, but at the same time he increased bombing runs against the North and threatened to use nuclear weapons to frighten the Soviets—that part of the secret plan was kept secret from Americans at the time.

 

*In 1970, tired of attacks from the Ho Chi Minh trail and worried about growing communist power in Cambodia, Nixon announced that the US and ARVN would more into Cambodia.  Not only would this help protect Americans, it would make America look strong and be more likely to get its way at the Paris peace talks.

 

*Tensions were probably at their worst in 1970.  The invasion of Cambodia, leading the US into a wider war at a time Nixon said he was withdrawing led to more protests.  At Kent State University in Ohio, students protested, burned down the ROTC building, and broke windows in the town’s business district.  The National Guard was sent in to watch the campus.  On 4 May 1970 a crowd of protesters began to harass the National Guardsmen, yelling at them, cursing them, spitting on them, and in some cases throwing rocks.  Somewhere a guardsman fired his gun, and the other guardsmen thought it was the protesters shooting at them, so they fired over and into the crowd.  Four students (two protesters and two bystanders) were killed and 9 wounded.  In Jackson, Mississippi, the police shot at protesters, killing 2 and wounding 11.

 

*In 1971, Nixon ended the college deferment system, so now the wealthy white kids would have to go to Viet-Nam.  Opposition to the war really increased then.

 

*Vietnamisation had been slow for Nixon, partly due to difficult peace talks in Paris.  When the 1972 election approached, Nixon claimed the North Vietnamese would not deal with him.  In March, the NVA attacked RVN.  This led Nixon to begin Operation LINEBACKER, the heaviest bombing campaign of the war, even attacking Hanoi.  Nixon won the election easily, partly due to popular disgust with the anti-war movement.  He also got credit for peace, which he said was ‘at hand.’  In fact, it took LINEBACKER II, another round of heavy bombing, to get North Viet-Nam back to the bargaining table.

 

*The Paris Peace Accords, signed January 1973, said that the US would withdraw all forces within 60 days, all prisoners would be released (something of a problem, as some NVA prisoners did not want to go home), everyone would get out of Cambodia and Laos, and the 17^th Parallel would continue to divide North and South.

 

*In 1973 the US withdrew from Viet-Nam but the NVA and ARVN fought until 1975 when the NVA took over South Viet-Nam and American helicopters lifted the last remaining Americans out of the embassy, along with about 6,000 Viet-Namese on 29 April.  On 30 April, the NVA held all of South Viet-Nam, and Viet-Nam was one country, under communist rule.  Saigon’s name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City after the dead leader, gone since 1969.

 

*In the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps where they were taught to follow the party line, or else.  Property was seized, opponents of the Communists were murdered, and over 1.5 million Vietnamese boat people fled to the US.

 

*Remember the Domino Theory?  After Viet-Nam, two more dominoes fell:  Laos, and Cambodia, where Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge killed 1.5 million Cambodians who he thought were too Western—that is over ¼ of the entire Cambodian population.  Cambodians and Laotians also fled to the US.  However, no more countries in the region fell, perhaps because they never would have, and perhaps because the long struggle in Viet-Nam had limited the power of Communism.

 

*The war left 300,000 Americans wounded, 58,000 dead, and at least 2,500 missing, many presumed dead but some POWs whose fate is still unknown.

 

*Many Americans also came to distrust the government, and when the veterans came home, they were not honoured, but spat on as baby-killers by an ungrateful public that often ignored their problems (including post-traumatic stress disorder, health problems caused by Agent Orange, and sometimes drug addiction).  This was a shocking contrast to the treatment of the heroes of World War I, especially World War II, and even the ‘forgotten war’ in Korea, and led to increased bitterness in America for years to come. 

 

*In 1973, the War Powers Act reversed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution severely limited the President’s power to make war.

 

*The US would not do business with Viet-Nam until 1994 and would not send an ambassador until 1995, 20 years after the fall of Saigon.