91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served

1. 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served 74% said they would serve again even knowing the outcome 87% of the American people hold Vietnam Vets in high esteem. "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic."[Nixon]

2. Where is Vietnam?

3. The Vietnam War: In a Nutshell • The Vietnam War—commonly referred to as "America's longest war"—grew out of the American commitment to the containment of communism during the Cold War. For approximately fifteen years, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) fought against an American-supported Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The war for the U.S. ended in 1973 with the withdrawal of American combat troops, and two years later, South Vietnamese forces surrendered to the North. • With the unification of Vietnam under the Communist government of the North, the U.S. had officially failed to achieve its objectives. A nation accustomed to grand victories suffered its first major defeat; the "longest war" was a military, political, and social disaster, one that would haunt Americans for decades.

4. The Vietnam War

5. Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Vietnam War.

7. A little background info- do not write down. • Believe it or not, it all began in 1919. • As World War I came to a close, a young Vietnamese patriot named Nguyen That Thanh arrived in Paris to speak with the powerful men negotiating the terms for peace. On behalf of his people living within the French empire in Indochina, Thanh wanted Vietnam to be free from colonial rule (France). The British and the French refused to enforce self-rule for their colonies. • In the following years, Thanh, disillusioned by the Western democratic process, pursued new and more radical solutions to imperial rule in his country. He had been deeply impressed by the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and by the ability of the Bolsheviks to rally support among the Soviet masses. So in the 1920s, while still in France, he joined the Communist Party. With the adopted name Ho Chi Minh, meaning "enlightened one,"he planned to take his teachings home to Vietnam to awaken his own people, to unite and train them, and to lead them in their own revolution.

9. Still more background info: By 1941, Ho Chi Minh was preparing for the independence movement in Vietnam; but it appeared that the struggle would not be against French rule after all. World War II was under way, and the Japanese—allied with Germany and Italy against Britain and France—had seized French Indochina. Minh, along with fellow Vietnamese nationalists, organized the Viet Minh, a military league committed to the fight for Vietnamese self-rule. Aided by both the Soviet Union and the United States during the war years, the Viet Minh waged a guerilla campaign against the Japanese occupation.

10. Background continued: In August 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied powers and relinquished its holdings in Indochina, Ho Chi Minh became confident that he and the Viet Minh would at last gain control of the country. So sure was the nationalist leader of this fate that in early September he announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Directly referencing the American Declaration of Independence, Minh addressed his people: "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

11. March 30-May 1, 1954- The siege at Dien Bien Phu occurs as nearly 10,000 French soldiers are trapped by 45,000 Viet Minh. • The French ask Washington for help. • President Eisenhower -No action is taken. • May 7, 1954 - At 5:30 p.m., 10,000 French soldiers surrender at Dien Bien Phu. By now, an estimated 8000 Viet Minh and 1500 French have died. • France proceeds to withdraw completely from Vietnam, ending a bitter eight year struggle against the Viet Minh. • In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam.

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13. · South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, was democratic and backed by the U.S. but remained deeply unpopular with most Vietnamesepeople. · North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, was communist and backed by the Soviet Union.

14. A New Nation in the South • The Eisenhower administration helped create a new nation in southern Vietnam. • In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the government of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) was born. • The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunchly anti-Communist figure from the South, won a dubious election that made him president of South Vietnam

15. Growing American Involvement · The U.S. believed that if South Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of the nations in Southeast Asia would as well in a theory called thedomino theory.

16. Opposition to Diem • The outcry against Diem's harsh and oppressive actions was immediate. • Buddhist monks and nuns were joined by students, business people, intellectuals, and peasants in opposition to Diem’s corrupt rule. • The more these forces attacked Diem's troops and secret police, the more Diem complained that the Communists were trying to take South Vietnam by force. This was "a hostile act of aggression by North Vietnam against peace-loving and democratic South Vietnam."

17. Key Question 1: Why did the USA go to warin Vietnam? Basically to hold the line against the spread of world Communism. America paid for the war the French fought against Communist Vietnam as a part of the Truman Doctrine (1947) “to protect free peoples…” and then by the 1950’s became involved when the war flared up again. Fighting lasted until March 1954 when the Viet Minh won a decisive victory against French forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu

18. U.S. Involvement in Vietnam • Began sending money and weapons to South Vietnam • Military advisors sent to train South Vietnamese army Eisenhower • Believed in the Domino Theory • Increased the number of military advisors and army special forces, or Green Berets • Advisors were not to take part in combat, but many did Kennedy • Believed an expanded U.S. effort was the only way to prevent a Communist victory in Vietnam • Asked Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution Johnson

19. Vietminh or Vietcong? The Vietminhwas the revolutionary army operating in Vietnam when it was under the French flag. After Vietnam was divided into North and South, the Vietcongwere a guerilla force operating in South Vietnam

20. · Many South Vietnamese distrusted Diem and joined the Vietcong, a communist guerilla group supported by North Vietnam. An execution of a Vietcong prisoner Feb. 1, 1968

21. · In August 1964, U.S. military officials believed that the North Vietnamese had torpedoed an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. · In response, the U.S. passed theGulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed the U.S. to begin bombing enemy targets within North and South Vietnam. The U.S. Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to use "all necessary measures" to repel armed attacks against U.S. forces in Vietnam. Many in Congress came to see it as a blank check for the president and opposed it

22. On Aug. 4, 1964, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara reported to Pres. Johnson that an American destroyer in the region was under torpedo attack by the North Vietnamese. That brief conversation was the tipping point for the entire Vietnam War. Video: Defense Secretary Robert McNamara speaks about the attack that precipitated our involvement in the Vietnam War

23. ·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.

24. Vietnam Military Draft President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Service Act of 1940 which created the country's first peacetime draft and formally established the Selective Service System From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means. A lottery drawing - the first since 1942 - was held on December 1, 1969, This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year 1970 Reinstitution of the lottery was a change from the oldest first method, which had been the determining method for deciding order of call.

25. The Vietnam Draft Lottery

26. Vietnam Draft Information Facts Myths Myth: Most Vietnam veterans were drafted. Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted……Approximately 70% of those killed were volunteers. Myth: A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War. Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. Myth: The war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated. Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school education or better.

27. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? The US ‘Search and Destroy’ tactics. In areas where the VC were thought to be operating troops went in, checked for weapons and if found, rounded up the villagers and burned the villages down. This often alienated the peasants from the US/Arvn cause.

28. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? As one marine said of a search and destroy mission – “If they weren’t VC before we got there, they sure…… were by the time we left”.

29. My Lai Massacre Lt William Calley The mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, entirely civilians and some of them women and children, conducted by U.S. Army forces on March 16, 1968.

30. The Heroes of My Lai HUGH THOMPSON was a helicopter reconnaissance pilot who came upon the My Lai massacre in progress. "Thompson landed, put his guns on Americans, said he would shoot them if they shot another Vietnamese, had his people wade in the ditch in gore to their knees, took out children, took them to the hospital......then had the courage to testify time after time after time." RON RIDENHOUR He wrote a letter about the incident and sent it out to thirty different Congressmen.  Mo Udall, who was a Congressman from Arizona---acted on it, and called on the House Armed Services Committee and the Pentagon to conduct the investigation and they did so.

31. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? The Air War—”Operation Rolling Thunder” The Air War – Frustrated by lack of success on the ground, the US tried to win the war from the air. Operation Rolling Thunder that began with dropping millions of tons of High Explosive bombs on North Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh trail.

32. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? Napalm phosphorous and napalm bombs were used on villages – the latter causing dreadful burns to thousand of innocent civilians.

33. 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.

34. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? Agent Orange— “Operation Ranch Hand” to break down the jungle cover the USAF started ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ – the defoliation programme, using Agent Orange. This deadly chemical cocktail, containing dioxin, killed off millions of acres of jungle to try to weaken the VC – but left a horrendous legacy in Vietnam. The dioxin got into the food chain causing chromosome damage to humans. There were hundreds of cases of children born with deformities.

35. 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.

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

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

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

39. Agent Orange -The Facts Myth:Agent Orange poisoned millions of Vietnam veterans. Fact:Ground troops typically did not enter a sprayed area until four to six weeks after being sprayed. Most Agent Orange contained .0002 of 1 percent of dioxin. Scientific research has shown that dioxin degrades in sunlight after 48 to 72 hours; therefore, troops exposure to dioxin was infinitesimal.

40. Key Question: How did the USA wage waragainst Vietnam? Helicopters Of all aircraft, the helicopter(mainly Bell Huey) was the most useful, dropping platoons in the jungle clearings and out again. They were excellent air ambulances.

41. Key Question: How did the Vietnamesefight back against the US? The Communist NLF (National Liberation Front) or "VC" used classic Maoist guerrilla tactics. “Guerrillas must move through the peasants like fish through sea”, i.e. the peasants will support them as much as they can, shelter, food, weapons, storage, intelligence, recruits. In VC held areas they distributed the land to the peasants, which went down extremely well.

42. Key Question: How did the Vietnamesefight back against the US? They recycled dud bombs dropped by the Americans or old weapons left by the French.

43. Key Question: How did the Vietnamesefight back against the US? Deadly booby-traps could inflict huge damage on young American soldiers! OUCH!!!!!

44. Key Question: How did the Vietnamesefight back against the US? VietCong Tunnels: The Vietnamese built large tunnel complexes such as the ones at Cu Chi near Saigon. This protected them from the bombing raids by the Americans and gave them cover for attacking.

45. The Tunnel System · 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

47. the Americans set up a special unit, the Tunnel Rats to seek out the VietCong.

48. Key Question: What turned Americans against the war in Vietnam? Probably the turning point came in January 1968 with the Tet Offensive. The US public had been told that America was winning the war. However, when the VC attacked(and held for 3 weeks) most of South Vietnamese cities and towns Americans began to question whether the war could be won at all! Despite the serious VC losses (20,000), they were soon replaced.  -” Tet is Vietnamese New Year”

49. The Tet Offensive: A Turning Point · In January of 1968, the Vietcong launched surprise attacks on cities throughout South Vietnam. · The American embassy was attacked as well in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.

50. · The attacks were known as the Tet Offensive because they occurred during Tet, the Vietnamese News Year’s holiday. · The Tet Offensive proved to the world that no part of South Vietnam was safe, even with the presence of half a million American troops. The Tet Offensive: Video