VIETNAM , 1946-75 (the 10,000 Day War )

1. VIETNAM, 1946-75 (the 10,000 Day War)

2. PHASE 1 - A WAR OF COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE AGAINST THE FRENCH • Vietnam had been a French colony under the name of French Indochina (along with Cambodia and Laos) • Vietnam began to fight for its independence from France during WW II ( when France was preoccupied with European conflict) • the Vietnamese revolutionary leader was Ho Chi Minh, a Communist • wanted to be the leader of an independent, communist Vietnam; Ho received support from both the USSR and “Red” China

3. this colonial war raged from 1946-54, culminating in the French defeat at Dienbienphu • Fr. decided it wanted out and called a peace conference in Geneva, Switzerland (attended by France, Vietnam, the US, and the USSR) • the decision of the conference was to partition Vietnam into a communist North led by Ho and a “democratic” South Vietnam led by Ngo Dinh Diem • the settlement was an outgrowth of basic Cold War tensions between the Americans and Soviets and clearly reflected the US policy of containment with respect to Soviet communist expansionism • the US had come to see South Vietnam as a “domino” that they couldn’t afford to lose

4. PHASE 2 – AMERICAN ESCALATION AND MILITARY INVOLVEMENT • this phase originated with “Ike” and JFK but was intensified under Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), who assumed the presidency after JFK’s assassination • The U.S. never formally issued a declaration of war, but after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, where 2 American destroyers were apparently fired upon by the North Vietnamese, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolutions (August 1964) - hereCongress gave LBJ their support in sending American personnel and materiel

5. in spite of ongoing escalation throughout the 1960s, the US experienced a lack of success against the Vietnamese guerrilla forces in S. Vietnam (the Vietcong) as the US Army was unprepared for their tactics and mentality • The US was also never entirely successful in shutting down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply line that ran between North and South Vietnam via difficult jungle terrain, often underground and through neighboring nations like Cambodia

6. the war definitely turned against the US in 1968, when the NVA’s General Giap began the Tet Offensive, a surprise offensive on a major Vietnamese holiday that saw attacks all over the country, including in Saigon itself • ongoing US casualties and losses saw an increase in antiwar sentiment on the American Home Front, in large part because Vietnam was a TV War where American audiences saw the brutality of war firsthand

7. this included American atrocities at My Lai (Lieutenant Calley) • they also witnessed the usage of weapons like napalm and Agent Orange, which devastated the environment

8. Agent Orange was the nickname given to a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. Cropdusting in Vietnam during Operation Ranch Hand lasted from 1962 to 1971.

9. Effects of Agent Orange Images taken from Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Vietnam by Philip Jones Griffiths

11. MORE VIETNAM PHASE 2 – AMERICAN ESCALATION AND MILITARY INVOLVEMENT • After Tet and My Lai, increasingly the American people came to perceive the “Credibility Gap”, i.e. they no longer believed that LBJ was telling them the truth about events in the war • in 1968, LBJ chose not to run for president, and Republican Richard M. Nixon was elected on a platform of “Peace with Honour”

12. · By 1968, over half a million Americans were fighting in the Vietnam War. · As the fighting escalated, the U.S. relied on the draft for raising troops.

13. Video Clip: Platoon The Uncertain Enemy · Jungle warfare was difficult, and it was hard to locate the enemy. · In addition, it was very difficult to identify which South Vietnamese were our allies and which were supporting the Vietcong. Ex Vietcong showing secret tunnels, November 7, 2004

14. This Pulitzer Prize winning photograph is of Kim Phuc Phan Thi, center, running down a road near after a napalm bomb was dropped on her village by a plane of the Vietnam Air Force. The village was suspected by US Army forces of being a Viet Cong stronghold. Kim Phuc survived by tearing off her burning clothes.

15. "Napalm is the most terrible pain you can imagine," said Kim Phuc. “Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. Napalm generates temperatures of 800 to 1,200 degrees Celsius.“ Phuc sustained third-degree burns to half her body and was not expected to live. Thanks to the assistance of South Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, and after surviving a 14-month hospital stay and 17 operations, Phuc eventually recovered.

16. A guerrilla in the Mekong Delta paddles through a mangrove forest defoliated by Agent Orange (1970).

17. The Anti-War Movement Intensifies • As the Counterculture gathered momentum (Hippies, Flower Children, etc.), protests became widespread and began to polarize the nation

18. The movement was intensified after the Kent State Massacre • National Guardsmen opened fire on student protestors in Ohio, killing four, and by Senator William Fulbright’s (Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee) admission that the war was a “mess”

19. Protests at Home · Thousands of Americans protested against the war, especially on college campuses. Video: Country Joe and the Fish, Woodstock Music Festival (1969) 3:18 Anti-Vietnam War protests, Ohio State University

20. · On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard killed 4 anti-war protesters at Kent State University. This Pulitzer Prize winning photo shows Mary Ann Vecchio screaming as she kneels over the body of student Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University. National Guardsmen had fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine.

21. “Ohio” Crosby Stills Nash & Young Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drummin'.Four dead in Ohio.(chorus) Gotta get down to it.Soldiers are cutting us down.Should have been done long ago.What if you knew her andFound her dead on the ground?How can you run when you know? Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. (chorus) Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drummin'.Four dead in Ohio. (9X)

22. Nixon wanted the South Vietnamese to play a greater role in the war, a policy he labeled Vietnamization • in spite of that, he continues carpet bombing Hanoi and orders a secret invasion of Cambodia • He relied on the diplomacy of Henry Kissinger to achieve peace and/or an American withdrawal • the US does manage to extricate itself by Jan. 27, 1973

23. Peace Without Victory · In January 1973, the U.S. reached a cease-fire agreement with North Vietnam and brought their troops home. · However, the U.S. continued to send billions of dollars in support of the South Vietnamese.

24. PHASE 3 – VIETNAMESE CIVIL WAR, 1973-75 • the NVA easily defeated the South by 1975; the South had appealed to Nixon for aid, which had been promised, but by 1975 Nixon was embroiled in the domestic Watergate Crisis, and he was in essence a “lame duck” • 1975 – the US abandoned its embassy in Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in the newly unified and communist Vietnam

25. · In April of 1975, the communists captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City, and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag. Video: People rush to leave Saigon as the city falls to the Vietcong. April 30, 1975 (9 min.)

26. Civil War in Cambodia · The U.S. and South Vietnamese began to secretly bomb communist bases in Cambodia used by the North Vietnamese.

27. · Cambodia soon fought a civil war, which was won by the communist Khmer Rouge in 1975, whereupon they changed the name of the country to Kampuchea. · The Khmer Rouge were brutal leaders, killing approximately two million people in just a few short years. Cambodia: Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979 (2:55)

28. Vietnam Balance Sheet · Between 1961 and 1973 over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War. · During the same time period, over 1,500,000 Vietnamese died as well. Vietnam War Memorial, Washington, D.C.