The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Irene Wernicke [irene.wernicke@chello.at]

Introduction:

The Vietnam War is probably the biggest trauma in the US history.No other war before was that much discussed like this one .A whole generation was rapped to fight a war for another country under the pseudonym of freedom. At this time the cold war was at its height and everywhere was the danger of the third world war and an atomic overkill. It was the time when everybody knew what is meant with the "dominio effect" and the "red danger". It was in 1964 when Cassius Clay won his first world championship and in Tokio were the Olympic Games going on .But it was also the year when the Vietnam War started. The USA wanted to ban the red danger in Vietnam ,but in the end they failed bloodily.

The history of Vietnam:

Vietnam was a colony of the French since 1880,then in the second World War the Japanese occupied it , after the Second World War the French got their colony back.But the Vietnemese did no longer want to be a colony and so there was an independence movement. At this time a man named Ho Chi Minh built up a radical movement against the French authority in Indochina. In 1946 ther was an incident in Haipong , a city with an important harbour. The french troops killed over 6000 thousands Vietnamese,because they wanted to show power to the Vietnamese. From that moment on Ho Chi Minh and his radical Vietnimh,which is a military organisation, fought an open war for the independence of Vietnam. The Vietnimh was a very powerful organisation in the north of Vietnam. In the beginning it seemed that the Vietnimh has no chance against the powerful french troops , but The troops of Ho Chi Minh believed in the victory and which is very important is that they had a good strategic.They used guerillatactics to beat their enemies.In 1954 the Vietnimh defeated the Indochina companies in Dien Bien Phu fataly. With the lost of Dien Bien Phu the dictature by the French was finished . The Vietnemese won and they got their independence. But Vietnam was saperaterd in two parts ,the north part where Ho Chi Minh was and the south part which got a goverment with Ngo Dinh Diem for president. This regime was supported by the USA. The border between these two states was the 17th parallel. In 1960 FNL was founded in North-Vietnam. This political party aimed to reunite Vietnam.Therefore they also founed the Vietcong ,which is the military wing of the FNL. The Vietcong made attacks against the ARVN ,the army of south-Vietnam, because the south did not want to reunite with a communism regime.The USA wanted to support the ARVN against the communism and so they founded the MACV(US- Military-Assistent-Company-Vietnam)._In 1963 president Diem was killed and from that moment on south-Vietnam was a country governed by the army. A man named Khan got the new president. Now the USA concentrated ist strength against the communism regime in Hanoi.The president of the United States of America,Lyndon B.Johnson,and his secreterry McNamara followed a policy of undercover missions in North-Vietnam . The US army flew air combats against Vietcong positions since 1963.The reaction of the Vietcong was that they attacked the USS. Madox in the gulf of Tongking.President Johnson did not want to explain the congress why there were undercover missions against North-Vietnam and so the USA ignored the attack by the Vietcong.But a few weeks later the USS.Madox reported another attack by North-Vietnemese troops against them. In fact it was not certain that there was really an attack against the US -ship,because a few days later the captain of the ship revoked his report.He said that it would have been possible that the torpedo attack of the North- Vietnemese marine has been a mistake of the radar. But now it was too late ,because Johnson took this chance and started the "Operation Rolling Thunder" ,which meant a bombardement of positions in North-Vietnam, this attack was like a war decleration by the USA.In 1965 the Vietnam War started.

The interests of the USA in Vietnam:

Under President the interests of the US towards Communism were layed down for the first time. Those interests were taken over by all the following presidents.The USA saw itself as the saviour of the rest of the world from the red threat. J.F. Kennedy formulated during his presidency the Domino Theory. This theory stated that Communist China was a danger for the whole Asian area. It ws assumed that after the fall of Corea, Laos and Cambodia all the other Asian countries would fall also. That is why Vietnam became a central theme. It was the main effort to prevent that the pro-west and therefore pro USA South Vietnam turn over communist. President Kennedy believed deeply in the Domino Theory. Once a reporter asked him, if he agreed with this theory. Kennedy answered:" No, I believe it, I believe it! China is so large, so high just beyond frontiers, that if South Vietnam went it would not assault on Malaysia but would also give the impression that the wave of the future in southeast Asia was China and the communists."

The interest was to help Saigon quiet down the southeastern area.That is why the USA and France helped with money and then with military counsellors in their fight against guerillas. After the failure of France the USA helped South Vietnam to prevent a take - over of North Vietnam.

1962 they founded the MACV, the military assisten company Vietnam, to support the ARVN in their fight against North Vietnam.

In 1963 the military of South Vietnam revolted with the aid of the USA. The USA found that the acting president was too weak to cope the the danger from the north. But the new president Khan was also not able to do it. After Kennedy’s death in 1963 Lyndon B.Johnson became president of the USA. He followed KennedyÄs line and also believed in the Domino Theory. He and his defense mininster McNamara wanted to keep the status quo. But they wanted to evade a conflict with the Sowjet Union and China,so they decided to act under coverance. The code-name for this was 34-A operations. But Johnson did not tell the senate and the congress of the undercover operations.

1964 they started the operations with airraids against Vietcong positions. That way they wanted to achieve that the North Vietnam government stop the support of the Vietcong. These airraids were also supposed to hit positions in Laos. The American bomber flew under the flag of Laos to disguise themselves. To coordinate the action they also sent the marine into the Golf of Tongking.

On July 31st, 1964 South Vietnamese troops made sabotage acts against the North Vietnames isles of Hon Me and Hon Niem. The reaction was, that North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Madox in the southern Chinese sea. The boats were disctructed very fast, but Johnson could not use this as an aggression, because then the undercover operations would have been known. That’s why they ignored the attack. But a few weeks later the USS Madox was attacked again. It is not sure though, if this attack has really taken place, because the captain of the USS Madox withdrew the announcement of the attack later on. But it was too late. Johnson and McNamara presented the congress a resolution to bombard North Vietnam. The resolution was accepted. Johnson though was worried about the situation in Indochina, because 1964 was an election year and he did not want to send ground troops at that time. 1965 the USA started bombarding targets in North Vietnam, which equalled a declaration of war. That is how the Vietnam War started.

The Vietnam War (1965 -1975):

With the "Operation Rolling Thunder" they wanted to interrupt the support linesof the Vietcong, but the success was very low. Furthermore they wanted to force the government to take up negociations, but that also was not very successful. On March 8th, 1965 the first American ground troops arrived at Da Nang. The task of the 3 500 marines was it to defend the air-force base. The Vietcong tried to use the monsun-rain, which lasts for months, for a fast victory, but they didn’t succeed. Therefore General Westmoreland demanded the increasing of the MACV contingent to 200 000 men. In August the USA started their counter- attack which was very successful. The Vietcong learned from ist defeats and found out that they could not win the war in open battles but only by undercover guerilla fighting. From that point on the strategy changed completely.

During fall the USA brought into play increasingly the helicopters. This inabled them to move freely and to have good mobility. The USA won, because of their superiority in the air many battles and destroyed until December 65 half of the North Vietnamese divisions. But the US losses also increased rapidly.

The Vietcong started now the strategy of wear and tear to weaken the moral and the power of the USA. At the end of 1965 the first opposition against this absurd war arose in the United States. At that time 200 000 American soldiers were in Vietnam.

The air-raids came closer to Hanoi and Haiphong and the Ho Chi Ninh- train, the main support lines of the Vietcong were also bombarded now. Corean, Australian and New Zealand troops fought under the command of the USA also. Saigon was already an American air-force base. The "Operation Rolling Thunder" lasted already 18 months, but it still didn’t show any success.More and more positions in Laos and Cambodia were bombarded. The Sowjet Union and China grew closer to Ho Chi Minh, while the western states went on distance to the United States. The new South Vietnamese president Ky had to fight furthermore against buddist rebels in his own country. At the end of 1966 the US Air-Force flew 25 000 bombardemenst, but it was impossibel to stop the support of weapons and soldiers from North Vietnam. The USA took more and more over the command of the ARVN and on the ground. They no longer tolerated that the Vietcong held their own positions right in South Vietnam, such as the occupied Mekong Delta. The USA wanted to win back the chamber of rice of Vietnam and to restrict the Vietcong in the "Iron Triangle" of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In the third year of the war the USA needed badly a victory. They increased their troops to 380 000 man and started with the "Operation Ranch Hand" under the undercover name of "Agent Orange". With this powder they wanted to make the jungle accessible, so that they could find the enemy easier. The troops grew more and more restless, which showed in the increase of violence against civilians and the devastating of more and more villages.

In May 1967 "Operation Junction City" started, the biggest single attack during this war. The operation was a bad blow against the communist. 2 700 Vietcongs were killed and 5 000 air- raid shelter were distroyed. The US troops outweighed the Vietcongs 5:1, but the Vietcong won the area back very fast, because the US troops were to weak to hold the area. President Johnson got under real great pressure at home, because the one side wanted the troops back at home and the other side wanted a reinforcement of the troops.. Hanoi also gets under pressure, because he has to send 10 000 soldiers every month.

During this time the 9th Infantry Division wins again the Mekong Delta back and they decide to build up the McNamara-line along the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam.

At the end of 1967 North Vietnam asks for cease-fire so start with peace connections. The USA agrees but is suspicious. The Vietcong uses the cease-fire to build up ist greatest offensive, the so-called Tet Offensive. The USA were aware of a big offensive, but nobody thought that they would attack during the holiday celebrations of the Vietnamese New Year. This offensive was a great blow against the allies and it should be the turning point of this war. The Vietcong attacked at the same time 36 of the 44 provincial cities and 5 of the autonomous cities. In military terms the offensive was no big success, but psychologically is was a very big one, because it showed the South Vietnames people that the allies could and would not help or protect them. The Vietcong lost over 40 000 soldiers but the most prominent victim was President Johnson. He declared not to present himself for re-election, because of his unsuccessful Vietnam policy.

In 1968 Nixon was elected president of the USA. He promised the complete retreat of the American troops from Vietnam, but he did not say when and how. Besides that peace negotiations took place again in Paris, but they were boycotted by the South Vietnamese because the NLF (the party of the Vietcong) also took place. Nixon presented a completely new politic. He also, like Johnson, wanted to help the ARVN with military means, but without American support. So he drew back more and more troops from Vietnam in the following years.

The protest movement in the United States grew and became stronger, especially after the revelation of the My Lai massacre .

1969 Ho Chi Minh died, but the Vietcong continued his attacks. 1970 the ARVN and the US troops started an invasion of Cambodia to clear it from pro-communist objects. 1971 finally the war was extended to Laos and Cambodia, because the Vietcong had so many bases there. The US troops were reduced to 280 000 men and the ARVN took over the defence of the borders. 1972 the American troops mined the harbour of Haiphong because the support from the Soviet Union arrived from there. But the retreat of the American troops showed that the South Vietnamese were not able to hold the positions and the Vietcong took over more and more areas of South Vietnam.

1973 the last American troops retreated from Vietnam. 1974 the Red Khmer took over in Cambodia and the Pathet Lao in Laos. The USA lost their interest in the Southeastern area.

1974 and 1975 there were only defeats against the Vietcong. In March 1975 the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon.

Later the USA declared that not they had lost the war, but the South Vietnamese.

Main slogans fo the Vietnam War:

Ho Chi Minh Trail:

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was not a normal trail or way. It was a certain route. This route changed several times during the war. On this trail weapons and soldiers wird brought to South Vietnam. It was on the ground of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The US troops tried to stop the support of the Vietcong on this trail and bombarded it heavily. But they changed simply the trail. Later the Americans tried to make the jungle more visible and bombarded the trees with a poison that made the leaves fall to the ground. The trail was named after the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.

Tunnelsystem:

The Vietcong had a wide tunnelsystem, which had already proven good during the war with France. The tunnels were several kilometers long and reached from Laos to Vietnam. They had several floors: one for the fighting troops, one for the support, one for living and many to flee. The US troops tried to destroy them with poison and bombs, but they were not successful.

The Tet Offensive:

The Tet Offensive in 1968 was the turning point of the Vietnam War and the end of the political career of President Johnson. She was planned by General Giap, who also wrote a book about her. The Vietcong was aware of the situation in America and especially about the peace movement. They knew that a great offensive would break the will of the American people and that would mean that they would retreat. 1969 they offered a cease-fire and used it to prepare the Tet Offensive. They were supported by the Soviet Union with tanks. The Americans didn’t expect them to start the offensive on their new years holiday. They attacked many target at the same time to bind the US troops. It succeeded for some time, but the allies were too strong and so they could not gain great military successes. On the contrary, they had over 40 000 deads. But psychologically seen they have achieved exactly what they wanted. Televison brought pictures of the cruel attacks of the Vietcong during the Tet Offensive directly in every American living-room. The American people were shocked and the pressure on President Johnson grew more and more, until he finally did not run for president again. The Vietcong had won a bloody victory.

The My Lai Massacre:

In March 1968 the "Light Infantry Brigade" should storm the little village of My Lai to kill a Vietcong battalion that was supposed to be there. But as they arrived there, there was no Vietcong there. Lieutenant Calley, the commander of the brigade, questioned some civilians. During this questioning he lost his self control and killed some civilians. Suddenly also the other soldiers opened fire. They fired on everything that moved, children, women and old people. As one helicopter pilot saw wht happened he tried to save some civilians. He ordered his co-pilot to fire on every soldier who fired on civilians. In the end 500 civilians were dead and one US soldier wounded, because he had shot himself in the foot.

In the beginning the official report was of 20 dead persons and one tried to hush up the whole story. But as the story got known only Lieutenant Calley was accused and sentenced to lifetime jail. But after three years of house arrest he came free again. After the massacre got known the opposition against the war grew greater and the people demanded the retreat of the US troops.

Important persons: Ho Chi Minh:

Ho Chi Minh, who only was called uncle Ho, was born 1890 in a little village in Vietnam. He grew up in a region that was controlled by the French. His father rebelled against the predominance of the colonists and he inherited this hate for the foreigners in his country. 1911 he went to Paris and he stayed there for some years. He got to know the French principles of "egalite, fraternite et liberte" and wanted to apply them for his country. As he had taken part in several revolts and boycots back in Vietnam he was on record for this also in France. 1919 he was witness to the peace negotiations in Paris after the First World War. He also became a member of the French Communist Party and became an agent for Moscow in Southeast Asia. He was declared dead several times only to show up again in a new identity. 1929 he founded with some military people the Indochinese Party. He was married several times. One of his wives was a sister of his General Giap.

When in 1940 the Japanese took over Vietnam he decided to fight the Japanese and the French and to free Vietnam. He founded in 1941 the "Vietnam Independence League", better known as the Viet-Minh. He started a war against the French colonists and defeated them at Dien Bien Phu. That was when the division of Vietnam at the 17th degree of latitude was decided. Minh became the president of North Vietnam.

In 1959 the Viet-Minh started under his guidance the armed revolt against South Vietnam with several attacks. As the USA intervened in 1965 in Vietnam, he led his war on against the USA. He was completely obsessed by his idea of a free Vietnam that he sacrificed millions of soldiers and civilians for his idea. He is supposed to have said once: "One can kill 10 of one’s people for every killed opponent, he is going to win the war despite of this." He lead his comrades into the war, but he did not survive to see the success of it, because he died in 1969 at the age of 79. He is buried in a mausoleum just like the one they built for Lenin.

Lyndon Baines Johnson:

Johnson took over the presidency after John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He also took over his Domino Theory. He wanted to prevent with every means the spreading of communism aroung the world. His defense minister Robert McNamara guided him badly and forced him to get engaged in the war. His problem was that he could not rely on good people who has experience with Vietnam, because during the McCarthy time all the people that had experince with communism were prosecuted. So they judged the situations competely wrong. Johnson started this war and underestimated his oponent completely. In the end he himself became a victim of this war and did not go for the presidency a second time.

Richard Nixon:

Richard Nixon went into the campaign for the presidency with the slogan of bringing back the US troops from Vietnam. After beeing elected he started to withdraw continually the troops from 69 on. But that broke the ARVN the neck and therefore they lost the war. After the Watergate scandal he got very much under pressure so that he had to resign.

The US - troops in Vietnam:

Until now the Vietnam War is a trauma to the people of the United States. The average age of the US soldiers was 20 years, so that it is understandable that many soldiers youldn’t cooperate with the pressure of this war on them. It was a very strange war for the Marines: the enemy was invisible but always present.

The Marines marched for weeks and weeks throught the jungle without ever making enemy contact. The Vietcong was master in hiding and make surprising assaults.

The Army wanted to make the combat field as comfortable as possible, so they made Saigon to an American barrack. You could buy nearly all western products, such as Coca-Cola and Marlboro. The soldiers were given drugs to forget the attrocities of the war. But that became very fast a big problem. We have statistics that say, that 40% of the soldiers were heroin- addicted.

The soldiers were always some days in the jungle to make out the enemy and thenthey were again some days in the barracks. This gave them not the impression of war. They had the feeling of just doing a job, which made it more difficult for them. They were under the constant stress of being watched by the enemy. There was always the fear of being shot by snipers or to get into a bobby-trap.

So one can understand that the soldiers needed some sort of outlet. They found this outlet in the villages where they caused horrible massacres, like in My Lai and Con Tho.

But also after the war the soldiers had great problems at home. On the one side they were honoroured , but on the other side nobody understood the attrocities that took place. The greatest problems had those soldiers that came back wounded or as invallids. Don Kovic deals with this problem in his book "Born on the 4th of July". The invalids often become dependent of alcohol or drugs. The society mainly expelled them from social life and forgot them in order not to be reminded of a dark chapter of American History.

The Vietnam War has changed the life of hundredthousands of Americans for ever.

The Vietcong:

The Vietcong is the militant arm of the National Freedom Front, which was founded 1960 under Ho Chi Minh. It is composed of soldiers with war experience from the war against the French and of newly recruted soldiers. These groups acted mostly autonom until the North- Vietnames Army took over the leadership of the war. Technically seen these troops were inferior to the US-troops, but they all had the immense willpower to win the war. They had twenty times mor casualties that the US-troops, but that could not break their will.

The most part of their explosives they got from the 5% of american duds. That’s how they won 800 tons of dynamite per month.

The Vietcong was led very stiff and therefore highly motivated. He surprised the US-troops always with a wealth of ideas. They understood very quickly that they could win this war with their guerilla-tactic. Besides that they had a highly developped tunnel system so escape from the Americans. But their greatest advantage was the knowledge of the area. Therefore they could move around the jungle much better and could hide in their tunnels.

The USA looked on the Vietcong as barbarians, which they were not at all. Every soldier that went to South Vietnam, for example, had his own burial ceremony before he left. Because nobody knew if he would come back or where he would be burried. So this shows that they did have their culture and were no barbarians.

The assumption that the South-Vietnamese people supported the Vietcong is wrong.. The main purpose why the Tet Offensive did not work was, that the South-Vietnamese did not support them. But the Vietcong had a terrific strategy and could therefore besiege the United States.

Why the USA lost the war:

There are many reasons for the defeat of the United States. First of all Johnson and McNamara judged the situation completely wrong. During the sixties there existed no person with a profound knowledge of Vietnam, because of the cleaning of the communists or supposed communists during the McCarthy era. The relationship between North-Vietnam, China and the USSR were not as good as assumed. China and the USSR had not really any interest in Vietnam. Only later during the war they took the side of North Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh led this war not to establish a communist state, but to have a united and free Vietnam.

Another reason was that the USA was not consequent enough. On the one side they did want to win the war, but on the other side they did not want to loose too many soldiers. But with the amount of soldiers that were in Vietnam one could not win this war despite of higher technology. All this technology did not help against an enemy that hid in the jungle and ws highly motivated. So the airraids during the years 1965 -1968 cost 6 billions of dollars, but they made only a damage of 6 millions of dollars.

Another problem was the bad moral of the US-troops. The majority of the troops was from the lower class and black. And especially for the black peoples it was hard to identify themselves with this war, while in the United States a racial war was going on. The soldiers were very young and had big problems with the surroundings in Vietnam and with the constant fear they had to live with. That’s why many of them took to drugs.

During the whole Vietnam War 3 200 people officially deserted. The offical number of assault on unpopular officers or soldiers (so-called fraggins) was 778. But this seems to be a huge understatement, because assaults took place every day inside the troops.

Finally one can say that the USA achieved ist waterloo in Vietnam because of very bad preparation of the war.