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Admin. Review. Sea Power and Maritime Affairs. Lesson 24: The US Navy, Vietnam and Limited War, 1964-1975. Learning Objectives. Know the role of the US Navy in the Vietnam War (1964-1975)

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  1. Admin

  2. Review

  3. Sea Power and Maritime Affairs Lesson 24: The US Navy, Vietnam and Limited War, 1964-1975

  4. Learning Objectives • Know the role of the US Navy in the Vietnam War (1964-1975) • Comprehend the impact of the Vietnam War on the Navy’s force structure under Admiral Zumwalt during the Nixon administration. • Recall the reasons for the relative decline in the U.S. naval preeminence from 1962-1977.

  5. Remember our Themes! • The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy • Interaction between Congress and the Navy • Interservice Relations • Technology • Leadership • Strategy and Tactics • Evolution of Naval Doctrine

  6. Republic of Vietnam (South) U.S. Ally Capital: Saigon Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North) Communist Capital: Hanoi

  7. Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) • Succeeds Kennedy as President after his assassination in Dallas in 1963. • Increases U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. • High level of restrictions put on military planners by his administration. • Concerned with “Great Society” and domestic politics.

  8. Robert S. McNamara • Secretary of Defense in Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. • Use of mathematical models to calculate required military force in Vietnam. • Attempted to avoid escalation of the war by putting restrictions on military operations.

  9. Tonkin Gulf Incident - 1964 • U.S. Seventh Fleet operating off Vietnam coast • Surveillance and covert operations against North Vietnam • Destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy: • Night attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats reported • Evidence supports North Vietnam’s claim that no torpedo boats were present in the area • Carrier strikes ordered in retaliation

  10. Tonkin Gulf Incident

  11. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution • LBJ requests authority from Congress to increase U.S. involvement • Congressional approval for the President to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack” in Vietnam • Made him look good against Barry Goldwater

  12. Escalating Intervention - 1965 • Johnson Administration goes to work after the election • MACV- Military Assistance Command Vietnam • Overall- General William Westmoreland • Naval Advisory Group • Sea Force • River Force • Junk Force • Task Forces • Ground war of attrition against North Vietnam begins.

  13. Retaliatory strike on enlisted barracks FLAMING DART TF 77 (CVs) ROLLING THUNDER TF 77 (CVs) North Vietnamese bombing campaign MARKET TIME TF 115 (WPBs, PCFs) Coastal Interdiction GAME WARDEN Mekong Delta Interdiction TF 116 (PRBs) SEALORDS Interdiction in Mekong Delta on Cambodia border TF 194 (PRBs)

  14. Westmoreland and LBJ Cam Ranh Bay 23 DEC ‘67 WESTY’s STRATEGY: “SEARCH AND DESTROY” MEASUREMENT: BODY BAGS

  15. “Rolling Thunder” • Theory: punish north until it stops supporting V.C. in South • Reality: lasted intermittently until 31 OCT 68 • Interrupted by 7 bombing halts which North used to rebuild • 304,000 fighter bombers and 2,380 B-52 sorties • Evaluation

  16. “Rolling Thunder must go down in the history of aerial warfare as the most ambitious, wasteful, and ineffective campaign ever mounted. While damage was . . . done to many targets in the North, no lasting objective was achieved. Hanoi emerged as the winner of Rolling Thunder.” (CIA analyst quoted by COL Harry Summers, USA, Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War, p. 96)

  17. Douglas A-1 Skyraider - AD or “Able Dog”“Spad” or “Sandy” Flew close air support missions in Vietnam.

  18. Douglas A-4 Skyhawk • Navy and Marine light attack aircraft in Vietnam.

  19. A-6A Intruder • Introduced in Vietnam. • Navy and Marine carrier- or land-based medium bomber. • Evades enemy radar by low level flight.

  20. F-4 Phantom • U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter aircraft flown in Vietnam on fighter and attack missions

  21. Soviet-built MiG-19 • Used by North Vietnamese Air Force to defend against U.S. attacks during the Vietnam War.

  22. Overall Conclusions on Naval Aviation • Cost were too high • Results were uncertain • POW suffering N. Vietnam SAM sites

  23. Coastal Patrol Force: Operation “Market Time” (March 1965- December 1972)

  24. “Market Time” • Coastal interdiction of supplies moved from N. Vietnam to South Vietnam by small boats, etc. • Improvised Force • 84 PCF armed with .50 cal machine guns and 81-mm mortar. • Destroyers, destroyer escorts, minesweepers • Coast Guard Cutters • Not unlike North’s blockade during Civil War!

  25. Evaluation as outstandingly effective: “From January to July 1967, Market Time forces . . . inspected or boarded more than 700,000 vessels in South Vietnamese waters. Except for five enemy ships [sighted during Tet] . . . no other enemy trawlers were spotted from July 1967 to August 1969.” (COL Harry Summers, USA, Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War, p. 150)

  26. Cautious evaluation: “There are no statistics to show what MARKET TIME did not interdict. At the very least, MARKET TIME forced the enemy to be even more inventive and creative in bringing into the South the tools of war.” (Symonds, Historical Atlas, p. 210) .50 caliber machine guns of PCF

  27. S. Viet “Junk Boat Force” operating during Market Time Certain evaluation: Forced North Vietnam to expand and rely more heavily on the overland Ho Chi Minh Trail running south through Laos and Cambodia.

  28. Mobile Riverine Force of the “Brown Water Navy” Operation “Game Warden” (December 1965- September 1968

  29. Brown Water Navy • Deny use of Mekong River and tributaries • Specially designed and improvised small craft • 50 FT, aluminum hull fast patrol craft (PCFs), .50 cal and 81-mm • 31 ft, fiberglass, river patrol boat. ~ 25 knots • Monitors, armored troop carriers (ATC) • Highly Dangerous • Less effective and more costly than coastal interdiction • Turned over to S. Vietnamese during “Vietnamization” in Feb 69

  30. River Patrol Boat

  31. Huey Landing on ATC

  32. Monitor leading ATCs

  33. SEALS on a Assault Boat on Mekong Delta

  34. Marines unloading from at ATC for a River Assault

  35. Tet and Its Impact (30 Jan 1968 – 20 Jan 1969) “The Turning Point in the War”

  36. Tet Offensive -- January 1968 • Conceived by N. Vietnam’s General Vo Nguyen Giap, architect of Dien Bien Phu (1954 defeat of France) • Combine attack by N Vietnamese and Vietcong • Goal: popular uprising (failed) • Achieve Dien Bien Phu- like tactical battlefield victory for propaganda purposes • Scope • Struck at 36 of 44 provincial capital and military bases (most notably, Hue and Khe Sanh) • 100 other villages

  37. “What the Hell’s Ho Chi Minh Doing Answering Our Saigon Embassy Phone. . . ?” Paul Conrad, Los Angles Times, 1968 General Vo Nguyen Giap Former history teacher

  38. TET in and near Saigon 0245 Jan. 31 - 7 Mar. 1968 NVA and VC attack city-wide, especially against US Embassy and MACV HQ (Gen. Westmoreland), near Tan Son Nhut airbase. Also at Bin Hoa airbase (NE of Saigon), busiest in world. (875,000 landings & takeoffs per year) Enemy repulsed by strategic/ tactical foresight of LGEN Fred C. Weyand, veteran of China-Burma- India campaign, WW II

  39. Marines in the Tet Offensive • Hue City • Ancient capital of Vietnam. • Held by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for 26 days. • Retaken by Marines and South Vietnamese forces. • Street fighting from house to house. • Khe Sanh • Important base in northern South Vietnam near DMZ. • 6,000 Marines under siege by 20,000 North Vietnamese Army regular troops. • Supplied by air drops and supported with air strikes. • Eventually abandoned.

  40. Hue City

  41. Tet at Hue 0330, 31 Jan. - 2 Mar. 1968 “The twenty-five day struggle for Hue was the longest and bloodiest ground action of the Tet offensive, and, quite possibly, the longest and bloodiest single action of the Second Indochina War.” --- Don Oberdorfer author of Tet!, first-hand witness

  42. Temple for victims of the resistance against French colonial rule, Hue. Marines patrol streets Hue, Feb. 1968 (USMC photo)

  43. Khe Sanh

  44. Tet at Khe Sanh 21 Jan. - 8 Apr. 1968 “I don’t want any damn Dinbinfoo.” Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson to Gen. Earle Wheeler, CJCS, as 77-day siege began

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