American Involvement

 Prime Minister (1946– 1955)  President (1945– 1969) of the North Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam  Lost power in late 1950s, but remained a figurehead

 President of South Vietnam  Nationalistic  Catholic  Anti-communist  Corrupt and despotic

 A US destroyer on patrol off the coast of Vietnam was torpedoed by No Vietnamese  Johnson asked and was given a resolution from the US Congress to engage in conventional warfare in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war

 Secretary of Defense  Most important policy-maker of the Vietnam War

 American military commander  Strategy of “attrition”, in other words, measured success in battle not by territory claimed, but by number of enemy killed  “body counts”

 US sides with anti- communist South Vietnam even though its government is corrupt  ARNV (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) South Vietnam North Vietnamese aided by  Vietcong (insurgents in the South fighting for the north; enemy of US)

 A strategy of gradually intensified bombing of North Vietnam  Strategic; did not include airfields or missile sites under construction where Chinese or Soviet advisors would be; did not include dikes or dams or anything that would hurt civilian population;

 January 30, 1968  Usually Tet had been observed as a truce time  General Westmoreland has just issued a statement that the enemy had been dispersed  North and Vietcong attacked key cities and every major American base in South Vietnam  30,000 from North or Vietcong were killed

 Major psychological blow to the US  Could the public believe military or government officials?  Presidential advisors began to devise plans to disengage, believing goal of holding communism out of South Vietnam unlikely.  “Vietnamization”  Rely on the Vietnamese to make determinations

 strengthen South Vietnamese military and government  disarm anti war movement at home by replacing US soldiers with So Vietnamese  negotiate with both North Vietnam and Soviet Union  intensive bombing

 1968 there were 543,000 US troops in Vietnam  1971 reduced to 140,000  During the last four years of the war, 20,000 Americans died

 Spring 1969 Nixon began a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia  April 1970, Nixon ordered a joint ARVN –US invasion of Cambodia

 My Lai Massacre, March 1968  US Army Company tortured and massacred a village of between 350 to 500 people  It was not reported until a year later  Lt William Calley put on trial beginning November 1970  He was the only one convicted

 June 1971, publication of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study critical of US policy in Vietnam.  Daniel Ellsberg, who worked on the project but did not feel anyone paid attention, gave a copy to the New York Times  Later published in book form

 the New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance"New York Times

 To ensure the possibility of public debate about the content of the papers, U. S. Senator Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) entered 4,100 pages of the Papers into the record of his Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds.  After that, it could not legally be suppressed

 US sent 2.6 million soldiers to Vietnam  US spent more than $150 billion  Unsuccessful in preventing the unification of Vietnam under a communist government  Today the country is known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

 North Vietnam’s poor economy made it need substantial assistance from China and Soviets  In 1967 alone, China provided 600,000 tons of rice, and small arms, ammunition;  The Soviets contributed (to compete with China) tanks, fighter planes, surface-to-air missiles, and other weapons.  Determination of the population  Ability of the North Vietnamese government to dispatch tens of thousands of citizens in the effort

 Would a more aggressive (military) strategy have brought the Soviets and or China into the war?  Can strategic bombing work as well in the third world guerilla war as between major industrial powers?  Why did Johnson not do a full out bombing campaign?  Concerned (like Truman) about upsetting China that had nuclear weapons and 700 million men