American Involvement

Prime Minister (1946–1955)

President (1945–1969) of the North Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Lost power in late 1950s, but remained a figurehead

President of South Vietnam

Nationalistic Catholic Anti-communist Corrupt and

despotic

A US destroyer on patrol off the coast of Vietnam was torpedoed by No Vietnamese

Johnson asked and was given a resolution from the US Congress to engage in conventional warfare in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war

Secretary of Defense

Most important policy-maker of the Vietnam War

American military commander

Strategy of “attrition”, in other words, measured success in battle not by territory claimed, but by number of enemy killed

“body counts”

US sides with anti-communist South Vietnam even though its government is corrupt

ARNV (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) South Vietnam

North Vietnamese aided by

Vietcong (insurgents in the South fighting for the north; enemy of US)

A strategy of gradually intensified bombing of North Vietnam

Strategic; did not include airfields or missile sites under construction where Chinese or Soviet advisors would be; did not include dikes or dams or anything that would hurt civilian population;

January 30, 1968 Usually Tet had been observed as a truce time

General Westmoreland has just issued a statement that the enemy had been dispersed

North and Vietcong attacked key cities and every major American base in South Vietnam 30,000 from North or Vietcong were killed

Major psychological blow to the US Could the public believe military or

government officials? Presidential advisors began to devise plans

to disengage, believing goal of holding communism out of South Vietnam unlikely.

“Vietnamization” Rely on the Vietnamese to make

determinations

strengthen South Vietnamese military and government

disarm anti war movement at home by replacing US soldiers with So Vietnamese

negotiate with both North Vietnam and Soviet Union

intensive bombing

1968 there were 543,000 US troops in Vietnam

1971 reduced to 140,000 During the last four years of the war,

20,000 Americans died

Spring 1969 Nixon began a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia

April 1970, Nixon ordered a joint ARVN –US invasion of Cambodia

My Lai Massacre, March 1968 US Army Company tortured and

massacred a village of between 350 to 500 people

It was not reported until a year later Lt William Calley put on trial beginning

November 1970 He was the only one convicted

June 1971, publication of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study critical of US policy in Vietnam.

Daniel Ellsberg, who worked on the project but did not feel anyone paid attention, gave a copy to the New York Times

Later published in book form

the New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance"

To ensure the possibility of public debate about the content of the papers, U. S. Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) entered 4,100 pages of the Papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

After that, it could not legally be suppressed

US sent 2.6 million soldiers to Vietnam US spent more than $150 billion Unsuccessful in preventing the

unification of Vietnam under a communist government

Today the country is known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

North Vietnam’s poor economy made it need substantial assistance from China and Soviets In 1967 alone, China provided 600,000 tons of rice,

and small arms, ammunition; The Soviets contributed (to compete with China)

tanks, fighter planes, surface-to-air missiles, and other weapons.

Determination of the population Ability of the North Vietnamese government to

dispatch tens of thousands of citizens in the effort

Would a more aggressive (military) strategy have brought the Soviets and or China into the war?

Can strategic bombing work as well in the third world guerilla war as between major industrial powers?

Why did Johnson not do a full out bombing campaign? Concerned (like Truman) about upsetting China

that had nuclear weapons and 700 million men