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In France, December 26, 1920 You all have known that French imperialism entered Indochina half a century ago. In its selfish interests, it conquered our country with bayonets. Since then we have not only been oppressed and exploited shamelessly, but also tortured and poisoned pitilessly. Plainly speaking, we have been poisoned with opium, alcohol, etc. I cannot, in some minutes, reveal all the atrocities inflicted on Indochina. Prisons outnumber schools and are always overcrowded with detainees. Natives are arrested and sometimes murdered without trial. Vietnamese are discriminated against. We have neither freedom of press nor freedom of speech. Even freedom of assembly and freedom of association do not exist. We have no right to live in other countries or to go abroad as tourists. We are forced to live in utter ignorance and obscurity because we have no right to study. In Indochina the colonialists find all ways and means to force us to smoke opium and drink alcohol to poison and beset us. Thousands of Vietnamese have been led to a slow death or massacred to protect other people's interests. Such is the treatment inflicted upon more that 20 million Vietnamese, that is more then half the population of France. And they are said to be under French protection!
What Document Contains These Words? "All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Vietnam’s.
The U.S. makes the decision to support the French colonialists in order to contain the spread of Communism into Southeast Asia. Dien Bien Phu 1954
“There are plenty of people in Asia, and we can train them to fight well. I don’t see any reason for American ground troops to be committed in Indochina.” Dulles’ Response Assured Senate that under no circumstances would the United States be required to put down an internal uprising or get involved in a civil war.
Holding up the Dominoes in SE Asia • After Diem refused to hold free elections in 1956 the Vietminh in the South grew restive. • The National Liberation Front formed to fight politically for a unified country • U.S. believed the war in Vietnam was sponsored by Hanoi, which in turn was acting as the agent of Peking (China) • If one country fell to communism the rest would fall like dominoes
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” How might the increasing power of the Military-industrial complex influence political decisions on our involvement in Vietnam?
Kennedy Takes Over the Problem • 1961 kennedy sends advisers to South Vietnam to report to him on the situation • Lyndon B. Johnson – “Fortress America” • “We must decide whether to help these countries to best of our ability or throw in the towel in the area and pull back our defenses to San Francisco.”
Kennedy sends Rostow and Taylor • Advise to send military advisers to support and train counterinsurgent methods to the ARVN (South Vietnamese) forces
"Shit, man, he's the only boy we got out there." Ngo Diem • Diem, Leader of South Vietnam attempted to destroy all Communists though he couldn’t often tell the difference
In November 1963, ARVN, acting with the knowledge and approval of the CIA, overthrew then killed Diem “He was corrupt and he ought to be killed. So we killed him. We all got together and got a goddam bunch of thugs and we went in and assassinated him. Now, we've really had no political stability since then.” - LBJ
Given that Johnson had participated as an early advisor to Kennedy on the situation in Vietnam what policy would he administer after becoming president?
"If American lives must end, and American treasure be spilled, in countries we barely know, that is the price that change has demanded of conviction and of our enduring covenant."President Lyndon B. Johnson, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1965 • “The United States shall continue to furnish you and your people with the fullest measure of support…. We shall maintain in Vietnam American personnel and material as needed to assist you achieving victory.” President Lyndon B. Johnson, New Year’s Day 1964
1964 – American Policy in Vietnam was that “enough was being done.” • Our troops played a limited role allowing the ARVN (South Vietnamese troops) to lead the fight • Public unwillingness to pay a high cost for the war • Fear of Chinese intervention • Consistent underestimation of the enemy
Goldwater presses government to end the war by any means necessary, even nuclear weapons. LBJ responds to the increased pressure, “We are not going to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” Election of 1964
“Open Aggression on the High Seas” “Those dumb stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish." OR • 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident • The USS Maddox fired on nearby North Vietnamese torpedo boats thinking they were being attacked • LBJ uses incident to request more materials and soldiers
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution • Johnson asked for “Blank Check” allowing him to expand the war as he saw fit. • Congress authorized • Authority to use “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack.” • Power to prevent further aggression and take all necessary steps to protect any nation covered by SEATO that might request aid “in defense of its freedom.”
LBJ Wins the 1964 Election What Policy Should He Choose? • Kennedy’s Advisors-Only • Negotiate with Hanoi • Introduce American Troops into Combat Hint: ARVN troops were failing because of their lack of a will to fight, for there was nothing to fight for.
“OUCH WARFARE” • Strategic-Air-power advocates recommended a massive bombing campaign • Claimed could convince Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh to surrender in a month • Believed would improve ARVN morale • Would win the war by expending money and material, and avoid manpower losses
Despite One last investigation into the situation of South Vietnam, LBJ had his answer when on February 7, 1965 North Viet Cong troops stormed the U.S. base at Pleiku
Let the Bombing Begin, But Within Reason • Criteria for Bombing: • Military advantage of target • Risk to American aircraft • Danger of drawing other countries into war • Danger of heavy civilian casualties LBJ met at lunchtime with Walt Rostow, Robert McNamara, George McBundy, and Dean Rusk to determine targets.
Rolling Thunder • Longest US bombing campaign, 1965-68 • Achieved little strategic result • B/C missions were designed to demoralize not destroy, the enemy often had time to recover and infiltrate the South
Pressed to Negotiate by NATO Allies “We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.” The central lesson of the 20th century, he proclaimed, was that “the appetite of aggression is never satisfied.” Thus, there would be no appeasement in South Vietnam toward the Communists as long as he was president.
Johnson was following the policies of Containment examples of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy, but “times they are a changin’.” The people of the fifties did not oppose policies of containment, mostly because it did not entail the death of thousands of American boys or the squandering of billions of dollars. “Well, I know we oughtn't to be there, but I can't get out. I just can't be the architect of surrender. And don't [you] see ... I'm trying every way in the world I can to find a way to ...” - LBJ
Walter Lippman “America can exert its greatest influence in the outer world by demonstrating at home that the largest and most complex modern society can solve the problems of modernity. … Example, and not intervention and firepower, has been the historic instrument of American influence on mankind.”
Senate “Doves” Protest War “If we don’t stop the Reds in South Vietnam, tomorrow they will be in Hawaii, and next week they will be in San Francisco.” Senator Eugene McCarthy
Winning the War of Attrition • LBJ used carefully gathered statistics to show that we were wearing down the enemy • He argued, the overwhelming application of American power was having a cumulative effect that would, in time, bring Hanoi and the VC to their knees • Brought General Westmoreland to the Senate to Explain: • “I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing.” He predicted victory within two years.
“Military victory was the only way out.” Throughout 1967 and into 1968, “President Johnson and his advisors had so defined our national purposes and so conducted the war that a compromise political settlement would be tantamount to a resounding defeat for U.S. policy andprestige.” (Townsend Hoopes)
Proving Westmoreland Wrong - The TET OFFENSIVE of 1968 • In January of 1968, The VC launched a surprise attack on all American positions. • This displayed that the VC and Hanoi were vital and nowhere near surrender. • This also changed how many people and soldiers viewed the war.
Students at Columbia University protest Against the College’s Connection to the War’s Think-Tanks and the Racist Actions of the College in destroying a park in Harlem to build a new building. The students protests led to the taking over of 5 University buildings.
Anti-War Protestors Led by SDS are beaten by Police outside the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968
On May 17, 1968, nine men and women entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland, removed several hundred draft records, and burned them with homemade napalm in protest against the war in Vietnam. The nine were arrested and, in a highly publicized trial, sentenced to jail.
The Most Trusted News Anchor in the Country Travels to Vietnam and returns with the opinion that we cannot win this war. Walter Cronkite – CBS News "it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." "That's it. If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.” - President Lyndon B. Johnson
On Sunday evening, March 31, 1968, Johnson announced on national television that he was stopping the bombing in North Vietnam. To everyone’s astonishment, he then withdrew from the presidential race.
RFK Dies, And Hope Dies With Him! For many members of the Counter-Culture, Anti-War Movement, & the Civil Rights Movement the death of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 symbolized the end of hopes for change. Many did not turn out to vote in the ’68 election.
3rd Party George Wallace demands “We’ll bomb them back to the stoneage.” Election of 1968 Democrats’ Hubert Humphrey Won’t break from Johnson’s Plans Nixon announces “secret plan to end the war.” Nixon Wins!
What will Nixon do? • Be a hero and end the war bringing troops home • Continue Johnson’s policy of all-out war in the South, hands-off the North • Let the South Vietnamese fight using American supplies • Extend the war into the North with bombings, ground troops • Use Nuclear Wepons
Vietnamization: One of the Worst Decisions of the Cold War • Nixon would gradually remove American troops from Vietnam and increase military supplies to the ARVN • Prolonged war by 4 years • Double-digit inflation • Increased bitterness, division and dissension amongst American people • Disregard of the Constitution as he extended war into Cambodia and Laos • Eventual Loss of war
My Lai Massacre • Following Tet, Soldiers were ordered to destroy the village of My Lai as it was seen as a location where the VC hid amongst the civilians. • The soldiers found no insurgents in the village on the morning of March 16, 1968. The soldiers, one platoon of which was led by Lt. William Calley, killed hundreds of civilians – primarily old men, women, children, and babies. Some were tortured or raped. Dozens were herded into a ditch and executed with automatic firearms. At one stage, Calley expressed his intent to throw handgrenades into a trench filled with villagers.
