Vietnam War

Timeline
1772 French Conquer Saigon
1862  French began to conquer southeast Asia, Saigon, neighbouring provinces,
more of south Vietnam, Hanoi
1873 Emperor gives over northern Vietnam
1880’s  Formation of Indochina (blous and Cambodia and Vietnam),
Tonkin and Annam= protectorates
1900s Phan Chu Trinh (wanted to keep French around because Vietnam was not
ready to be independent) and Phan Boi chau (wanted to completely throw over the
French) Both = ”Where is Vietnam going?”
1919 first big Ho Chi Mein event, when he tries to meet Woodrow Wilson because he
likes hos 14 points on self-determination ideas on why countries should be their own
rulers but WW only liked the white, didn’t think colonies mattered  then he goes to
Hong Kong to start Revolutionary Youth League
1930 Founder of Indo-Chinese Communist Party
1941 Japanese invasion, initially feel confident about Asia taking over Europeans
- Japanese put more pressure on them,
- Japs wanted for the French to stay in power.
- Beginning of Viet Minh
- Guerilla warfare
- Ho Chi Minh Gets training from CIA
1945 Capture of Hanoi  august revolution
1945 FTR dies na dtruman gains power
1945 Capture of Hanoi  august
1946-1949 French-Vietnamese colonial war
1947

1954 when they become divided

1965 elections the north wanted to make themselves

1954 HCM Land Reform
- Vietnam attacks French army (Dien Bein Phu)
- Geneva Peace Conference Vietnam is split into north and south
- Dien is appointment
- Domino Theory Speech
1955 Dien becomes President of the south
1956 Dien begins campaign against political _____
1957 Communists begin to reissgense in the south
1958  things begin to escalate
1959 introduction of Ho Chi Minh Trail
1960 Rise of NLF and northern government is divided
 - Le Duan becomes head if DVR
- Sustained and violent insurgency in South Vietnam
1962 Cuban Missel Crisis; makes people wonder about if communism was worth
fighting for
- Agent Orange  Strategic Hamlets fortified
- Restrictions on who can enter/leave
- Looking for the NLF
- November Dien was assassinated and the death of JFK follows
1963 Buddhist Crisis  Political protest against Dien’s policies, police murdered
protesters and it sparked everyone’s attention
- Le Duan gets into power
- Spring  Johnson Escalates American involvement
1964 January, The South goes to war, expansion of the Ho Chi Minh trails
- Summer, Golf of Tolken sparks Johnson’s decision to go to war
1965 March 2, Start of the “Rolling Thunder” operation
- March, Americans land in Da Nag
- Thieu rises to power
1966 Revisionist Anti Party Affair
1967Revolution 13
1968 Implement conscription in North Vietnam and increase time max of duty to be
unlimited
- Jan 30- September 23, The Tet Offense
1969 Vietnamization Phoenix Program
- August, Woodstock
1970 Kissinger begins to talk with Le Duc Tho
- May, Cambodian Bombings
- May 4, Kent State bang-bangs (4 student protestors killed)
- Feb-Mar, Lam Son 719
- Feb 21, Nixon visited China
- Mar 30, Easter Offensive
- Operation Linebacker
- Aug 23, Last US ground combat battalion pulls out of Vietnam
- Oct 23, Thieu rejects peace deal, snakes USA
- Dec, Christmas bombings
1971 Jan 21, Paris Peace Accords
- Aug, Wars Powers Act

8 and 10 January:
Revolutionary Origins
Woodrow Wilson – American president representing the States after WWI
- “National self-determination”
- Argued that the people of the world have the right to choose under which
government they should live
Emperor Tu Duc -Vietnamese Emperor
- Temporarily surrendered the area (North Vietnam) that France claimed, would
deal with the rebellion and try to negotiate with the French in the meantime, if
that didn’t work, resort to force
- Some partisans tried to resist the French, which concerned Tu Duc because
France was more militarily and technologically advanced
- Tu Duc supressed the rebellion in order to not antagonize the French, but this
angered the Vietnamese

French Indochina
- Vietnam became part of the French Empire, and was split into three parts
- One was formal colony – subject to French law, had a governor general
- Other two were a little more autonomous on paper – but were really also
colonies

Can Vuong – Aid the King

- Called on all patriotic elements of Vietnamese society to rise up and throw the
French

Emperor Han Nghi - New Emperor

- Captured and exiled to Nigeria –another French possession
- New puppet Emperor (Han Nghi’s brother) – Emperor Dong Khanh

Mat Quoc – “losing one’s country”

- National extinction
- He studied Jean Jacques Rousseau – French philosopher – called for a social
contract – willingness of the people to submit themselves to a general will:
- Giving personal interests up for “the greater good of the nation”

Montesquieu……

Nation-builders: Peter the Great and Otto Von Bismarck

Herbert Spencer – 19th century English philosopher – developed the idea of social
Darwinism:
 Life or death – only the strong survive
 Spencer argued that weaker societies were doomed
 Vietnamese interpreted Spencer as hopeful
 Offered clues to how they could survive and escape – looking at national
development as a struggle
 Saw Vietnam as a nation that could one day stand independently among
the other nations of the world

Two Vietnamese reformers – Phan Chu Trinh and Phan Boi Chau
 - Came to prominence in the early 20th century
- Both argued that old ways of governance weren’t going to work anymore
- Argued against the xenophobia in Vietnam
- Argued that the old ways of organizing society were no longer relevant:
“confusion lines” – respect your elders and show loyalty to the Emperor
- Criticized a general conservatism among the Vietnamese – had to change
their way of thinking

Phan Chu Trihn had witnessed the failure of the Can Vuong and thought the
monarchy was a problem and preventing the Vietnamese from embracing moving
forward
- French had done more to insinuate that the Vietnamese were an inferior race
- Phan Chu Trinh was against violence, advocated use of the mind
- Wanted to teach the Vietnamese how to live in the modern world
- Knew it would take a long time but would be in the best interest of the
Vietnamese
- Argued that the French actually were the Vietnamese’s best hope, more
technologically and militaristically advanced
- Wanted to complete the French mission so the French would grant the
Vietnamese independence, “the imperial mission worked”
- He was imprisoned for life and moved to France

Phan Boi Chau  would go to any length to get rid of the French and was okay with
violence
- Wanted to couple reform with resistance, give the Vietnamese purpose and
some unifying force against which they could rally
- Organized groups to discuss what could be done, how Vietnam would
function and survive in the new world once the French were gone
- Looked to Japan – their efforts to modernize and strengthen with a
combination of Western advances and eastern defences
- The Japanese were successful at modernizing – Phan Boi Chau thought this
could work in Vietnam
- Needed a military to protect their independence, needed an educated,
forward looking people. Embracing the social contract, work with the agrarian
based economy and allow some industrialization, thought about getting
European advisors in
- But his advocacy of violence got him imprisoned in 1914

Nguyen Ai Quoc ….

Ho Chi Minh
- born in Vietnam in 1990 left in 1911 and returned in 1941, he went to Africa,
Boston, London, Hong Kong, while in Paris he moved it with ____fan chu chin.
They found time to debate the proper course forward for the Viet. They didn’t like
the French but thought they could learn something from them. And fighting them
 would be too hard so they might as well learn from them. Other one (ho Chi
Minh) thought that the French were the enemy and they were horrible. He argued
that the French brought the Vietnamese misery.
- Vietnam Troops near Ypres,1916 they fought for the French, the Vietnamese
were weakened by the war.
- Ho Chi Minh approved Woodrow Wilson’s way of “self-determination”
- Ho chi minh become a founding member the French Communist party, he
wanted to ensure to remain independent when the French left. He was sent by
the soviet union to hong kong to rep the Veits.
- Ho Chi Minh was an agent for the OSS (like the CIA) he would report on
Japanese movement, he was like a spy. They would use hit and run tactics to
really annoy the Japanese, they didn’t don’t be damage but they were seen as a
constant thorn.

VI Lenin  He saw imperialism as the central thing to worry about. socialists saw
imperialism as a side thing to worry about
- VI liked The Thesis on the National and Colonial Question, because the
thesis was “the struggle to overthrow the capitalist’s system the
communist party had to cooperate with nationalist in the colonial war.”
Partnership with international communist and national…

The Revolutionary Youth League

- trained youths and this became the future for a Vietnamese communist
party. The Vietnamese weren’t yet ready to establish a communist party
so by moving too quick could result in a disaster.
- In the early 1920’s the French saw The Revolutionary Youth league as
their greatest threat. The French were good at dealing with threat and
imprisoned
- They wanted to imprison Ho chinh Minh in Hong Kong b
- Distress increased in Indochina

Pham Van Dong and Truong Chinh  were leaders of the league.
- The league should future possible independence of the country, by 1.
kicking the French (main goal), then 2. social revolution. This was a
gradual process.
- They embraced some of Lenin’s ideas.
- They had to commit to patriotism and social justice, to throw off French
imperials, this was attractive to the youth, because they knew that were
not equal to the French so they wanted change. However, older
generation were more accepting.

The prison system

 - They forced political agitators in one place, once they were there their social
class and education had no value, they were dehumanized and tortured.
Everyone was reduced to surviving. The only thing the prisoners had was time
and with that they could think and reflect. Small networks were formed in the
prison and they would read communist theory that were smuggled, this was their
form of education. Some Vietnamese came out of the prisons having a lot more
knowledge of communist theory so this was big because so many different
people from difference places that learned about communism and then brought
them back to their country.

- When ww2 came, the Vietnamese had not made an progression. Since the
French started to worry more about the world war, tis became more vulnerable,
after the beginning of the war the… was no longer
- The French then fell to Germany
- The Vietnamese were influenced by the Japanese because they saw somebody
similar to them taking on a European power.
- Japanese began to take Vietnamese rights which led to a famine (1944-1945).
- 1921 Ho Chi Minh came back and began an all class c

Viet Minh an organists secretly led by communist and it focused on their culture and
customs and all classes were accepted.
- They all wanted national salvation, but communist leaders from southern veit
because they were executed. They also engaged in improving relations with
allied powers, because they need foreign help. They looked to china (had
regional power), the soviet union and the USA (had global power).

March 1945  the japs carried out a cu by rounding up the French to put them all in
jail. They imposed a puppet Vietnam puppet to try to make amends. The puppet
government had no real support. This created a poer
- Ho chi minh wanted to cease all the major places in china before the French
came back.

Hanoi, August 1945

- When the Vietnamese finally took over their country was in September of 1045
and it was called the ____
- Since the japs surrendered they didn’t fight back so it was a bloodless affair

15 and 17 January:
The International Context
The August Revolution
Declare Independence of Vietnam…. But no what? Two challenges:
Internal challenge  How will Vietnam prove itself to the rest of the world
External Challenge  The French
Many visions of post-colonial Vietnam
Main ones  Ho Chi Minh’s vision (two–stage revolution of national revolution but first
emphasize all-class evolution to get rid of French)
Social revolution Debate in the communist party, some people wanted radical land
reforms and others wanted a slow moving social revolution (radical, rapid or slow
transformation)

August Revolution in Saigon

- The communist were one of many groups that wanted power
o The leader of the south, was not part of the Viet Minh
o Some parts of the south were just now conquered so they didn’t have
much and they were individualistic, had different ideas, had many different
groups with their own visions. “the wild south”
- Another group
o Hoa Hao controlled large portions of territory in Saigon and they had an
army that sometime shelled the French
- Another group
o Coa Dai Temple, Tay Ninh they also had their own army and also at
times helped the French. They wanted to have their own say in what post-
colonial Vietnam would look like
***These tribes wanted to have their own say and didn’t want to just be a part of
the communist party. ***

The French…..
- They wanted to take back power after losing in the www2.
- They wanted to retain the empire for glory
- France was devastated (politically, economically and physically). Therefore, they
wanted to build their economy by claiming back territory
- Cultural
- France didn’t want to give up Cochinchine (very very south Vietnam)
Potsdam Conference
- Great powers got together
- They decided once japan was defended the Chinese would move into northern
Vietnam to disarmed the jap troops there  divide Asia to all help disarm the
Japanese in Vietnam.
- The Vietnam realized that they didn’t have the army to hold back the French if
they decided to return (other countries didn’t want to help and would let it
happen)
After the “independence”…
 - Several time after the conference, the Chinese gave into the French when they
gave the Chinese trading partners thing so The Chinese allowed the French to
take the north
- British were allowing the French to come back in easily (because they didn’t want
to break up their empire) French were allowed in the south

Meeting of government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Dark side;
- While French were in control in ww2 the communist in Vietnam had to meet in
secret by resorting to assassination and other ways to protect them.
- The communist party targeted moderate and extreme nationalist were targeted
and many were killed, although we don’t think Ho Chi Minh wanted this
- As tensions mounted, this made the situation got worse, shifted the ruling the
communist and turned them into radicals
- Moderate groups became marginalized
March 1946 Agreement  Ho Chi Minh didn’t think the Vietnamese were ready for war
because their army was very weak so he opened a negotiation within the French for
their possible return, ho chi minh wanted to reunite the whole country and for the DRV
to government themselves. The French however wanted control of the south, of
chochinchine.
In 1946 the French agreed to recognize the DRV but the French would maintain of their
colony, but with more freedom, more autonomy, but French would have troops and laws
of the French. The people their could decide for independence (Vietnam) of part of the
French. The referendum was not to be.

Gerorges Thierry d’Argenlieu Didn’t like the agreement with the French, he made his
own reform, got French inhabitants in chochinchina, created his own separate republic,
that would be part of France. Showed that France could not be trusted because
“autonomy of the Vietnamese of French control” was not possible.

The Colonial War : 1946-1449

- aim was to drive the French out of Indochina
- Some wanted the French to stay, many Vietnamese fighting Vietnamese = civil
war
- This colonial war wasn’t good in the beginning for the Vietnamese, they were in a
fragile state
- The French weren’t to capitalize on these gains, for their military tech could not
deal on the Vietnam guerilla tactics, the terrain favored the Vietnamese, which
they very much used, they used hit and run tactics, they could withdraw
- The Vietnamese wanted to slowly bleed the French dry
 - The French could only send a limited amount of troops to Indochina because
they still had to deal with colonial unrest on different parts of the empire as well
as the post war duties in Europe.
- French started to turn to the USA for assistance, after the war the USA began the
most powerful country in the world.

Franklin D Roosevelt had oopsed French reaccu, Americans believed they were the
ultimate anticolonial power, so they didn’t really like the fact of helping others. He also
believed that the French didn’t do much to help Indochina bf they were “lazy” he thought
they should under a period of tutelage. As the ww2 was ending FDR began to step
back, and began to lean to the French because the French could be strengthened to
play the role of level Europe?? He then died and was replaced by

Harry S Truman (was vice president) he was more concerned on what the Soviet Union
could do, was scared of a cold war

Cold was was a competition of:

Competing Modernities  Marxist-leninism and liberal internationalism two
competition for world order , how states would function
- Marxist-Leninism: advocated world revolution, people who do all the ugly work
will become capitalists and owners using a new world system, they would own
the world means of production, you would have a universal class of interest, no
need for nations, with no competing class interest and no need for war. Everyone
were all workers. You had to see the destrudto on the liberal capitalist order.
Dependent on the overthrow an destr on the liberal model which is Wilson’s view
- …………..
- Liberal Internationalism: Woodrow Wilson had a view based on his 14 points,
based on American principle, “nation self-determination” privileges the
nationalists, world order based on one man one book” democracy, constitutional
government, class based system (chance to improve your social standing by
proving yourself, free-trade. He was looking at the Russian revolution. Wanted
something so the states could meet up and resolve their differences so there’s no
war
*****these two ideas couldn’t exist at the same time.**
Late 1940’s
- Communist Korea invades non-communist Korea
- French believe that if they can make the communist Vietnamese, then America
will have less sympathy for them.
 - The French wanted to increase the national appeal of their war effort and they
were willing to try everything so they turned to the last member of the imperial
that had overseen Vietnam, Bao Dai

Bao Dai  Was made head of state, wanted to steal the communist national states
thunder, they were given an arm (did this so they could have something to fight for)
when Ho chi minh was scared the Viet Minh would lose some support and it would
undercut their appeal.

Jan 1950 the soviet union (Russia and China) recognize the DRV and ho chi
minh(had more control of the country side) as the government. This compels the USA
to recognize Bao Dai as the government

1950 soviet and china friendship treaty

Colonial war has become internationalize, and made into a cold war conflict.

La Guerra sale “the dirty war”

- The French government realized they can afford to fight in Vietnam in these
circumstances. So, in France the public mood is shifting because many soldiers
are dying for very little gain but in Indochina the Vietnamese are also getting fed
and they are beginning to want to really end the war. So, The DRV prepared to
launch a major effort which will get the French to commute groups deep into
territory.

Henri Narvarre  wants to the stop the Viet Minh and draw them out to an open battle
and destroy them, so they parachute troops to Dien….. military leader Vo Nguyen Giap
sees that the French has set an air base in a valley. But high ground is better. Eaders
ofe the great powers have become aware and scared of what’s happening and this
could become a ww3.
French were now ready to negotiate

May of 1954 The Viet minh strategy wanted to force the French to___.
They sent masses and masses of people and they lots many lives for little success so
they created tunnels and trenches and got artillery. They created a circle around the
French and they bombarded them and close in

May 7, 1954  the day before the negotiation, the French fell and the Vietnamese won.
It wasn’t a complete defeat because fighting continued and French had more troops, if
negotiations fell they knew his was going to last for many more years

The Geneva Conference May 1954, united king, soviet, DRV, USA , French and
china participated, Zhou Enlai went to reach a settlement, he was worried that if the
French fell and the French were satisfied then the USA could take over the French and
DRV. He made a settlement with the DRV to give them “peace” Settlement broken
down to northern (Viet Minh) and southern (non-communist attached to French union)
Vietnam, with different government in 2 years a national referendum would be held and
people could choose which government they wanted to completely take over

USA
- Viewed themselves as the ultimate anticolonial power
- Harry S Truman (was vice president) he was more concerned on what the soviet
union could do, was scared of a cold war

22 and 24 January:
Escalation
The Vietnamese have been at war since 1941 when the japs came
1954 when they become divided

1965 elections the north wanted to make themselves

Xiems theory  was that overtime this would lead to s self-sustaining community-
personalist theory, he wanted to do this in south Vietnam, this would then
His aims: nation building plan
1. He wanted to avoid economic independency of the usa
2. He wanted to make the citizens believe that the government cared about them
3. To make south Vietnam a viable state

Escalation: Light my Fire

- Rise of the NLF
- Propping up the first domino
- Strategic Hamlets
- The Buddhist crisis, 1963
- Choosing war  Le Duan and the South-Firsters and LBJ and the guilf of Tonkin
Incident

Northfristers don’t wanna do much

Southfirsters (get rid of the southern government and unit Vietnam under the ____
government

Le Duan (general secretary) radical, resisted the French, in ww2 he was imprisoned
by the French and got communist education.
- He was a southfrister. Thought that if the south waited too long, they would lose
its people. He started to push the Vietnamese to ignore and rebel the southern
 government. Led a movement called the Ho chi minh trail, circumventing the 17 th
parallel, this moved arms and shit. Leads to the establishment of the NLF

The NLF (national liberation front)

- Is an umbrella organization, idea of all-class nationalism. Gets rid of Ngo Dinh
Diem government.

Domino Theory  Dwight Isenhoward , if Vietnam fell to communism, then all the
countries around Viettnam would also fall to communism. World of democratic capitalist
principles would fail.
Vietnamese just wanted self-determination, the Americans agreed to this idea but in the
cold war environment, they might choose Marxist Lenism (communism) so the
Americans didn’t want them to choose just yet.

US advisers in Vietnam they has to do lots to help Ngo Dinh Diem build his nation.
Americans said:
- Based on narrative of progress
- Walt Rostow (economist)  Modernization Theory  which is the theory he
believes is how America became, they are some linear stages he believes all
societies must go through
- They didn’t want to hear about Ngo Dinh Diem ideas of personalism or
community development

In 1962 was the strategic Hamlet plan separate the peasants from the insurgents,
cut off by bamboo walls. The villages would start its own community development plan
and Ngo Dinh Diem idea to make them self-reliant. But the peasants thought they were
in concentration camps so they weren’t happy. The Americans also didn’t like it. So the
Americans and peasants didn’t exactly understand what Ngo Dinh Diem wanted. Ngo
Dinh Diem wanted to show that they could make their own community.
- Ngo Dinh Diem nation building plan clashed with the Americans plan.

In spring 1963 Buddhist protesters towards the northern Vietnam in Huai. It wasn’t
religious protest, catholic vs. Buddhist. It was more of a political protest. Many Buddhist
died and Ngo Dinh Diem only blamed the Buddhist.

Immolation of Thich Quang Duc, June 1963, a peaceful Buddhist set himself on fire
and they invited the Americans to come and it was all over the news. This soon resulted
in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, a group of American generals assassinated him
because they were angry.
In 1963
Ho Chi Minh was very shocked by this,
American advisors were increasing in numbers as time went by. After the assassination
of Ngo Dinh Diem three weeks later the American president Died. What would the new
president do????
Le Duan choose to go to war in south Vietnam

Lyndon JohnsonHe was savvy political operator. He was very manipulative. had a
big social conscious, he wanted social reform for a great society to eradicate poverty,
improve health care, and education. He need the domestic support of congress. He
believed in the domino theory. He wanted to but all the money and focus on Vietnam
but he didn’t wanted to put infront of congress. All he needed was something big to
happen in veitnam so that USA would all, spring of 1963, they wanted to bomb north
Vietnam to take the pressure on the south, so when asked about Vietnam, he said that
they wee sending anymore troops or cause any war but the opposite was planned. Over
the summer the Americans began to

Gulf of Tonkin Incident Aug 1964

- Vietnamese sent three torpedo boats to USA troops. Johnson asked congress to
permit him to do anything necessary to put the Vietnamese in their place. This is
called the Tonkin Resolution and Johnson was given this permission.

After the assassination Vietnam became to deteriorate

January 25????????/

29 and 31 January:
The American War
The American War: Blowing In the wind
Gulf in toncan resolution

Air war involved a bombing campaign against the military and supply system in north
Vietnam. They viewed Hanoi as the problem. They wanted to impede the movement of
man and material to the south. Forced Hanoi to stop supporting the south
Lyndon Johnson would have authority, they didn’t want the Hawks or the Doves to have
any say. Johnson began this escalation in early 1965. Started with air attacks and then
escalating to a bombing campaign (rolling thunder, began in 1965 they wanted to
support the

Rolling Thunder, March 1965

- LJ would inflict enough damage
 - To convince the government in Hanoi to stop supplying south veitnam.
- They slowly attacked north Vietnam.
- They wanted to give a physiological shot to the south Vietnamese, people were
always coming in and out power in south Vietnam for 19 months which showed
weakness. The American’s figured they wanted to show the south Vietnamese
that there is a government to fight for. So, the Air Campaign was also to give
confidence to the south

Ground war involve large scale search and destroy operations against the liberation
front and Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. they wanted to try to kill enemy soldiers
faster than they could be replaced. Showed that they could not win in south Vietnam.
Wanted to get the army of South Vietnam to hold
War can’t be won by bombing alone.

American troops landing at Da Nang, 1965

- 35 hundred waited at shore, just waiting to defend
- In South Vietnam, the society/political/military still continued to deteriorate
- American troops began to go onto an offensive roll, they began fighting for the
Vietnamese instead of teaching them how to fight.
- 1967, over a half of million American troops then came, they went again the NLF
and North Vietnam

General William Westmoreland

- Came up with the “search and destroy strategy” – wear down opposing team
before they can send more troops, they used air support to target enemy, kill
them and leave
- They brought plans. Vietnamese only had horses.
- Herbicides (agent orange) killed off the trees so the enemies could no hide

Pacification campaign
- The South Vietnamese were responsible
- The war for the hearts and minds for the South Vietnamese
- While USA went on ground war and kill enemies off and clear the land, the South
Vietnamese would then take control of the land
- This was not a war of frontlines, or gaining territory
- How the Americans escalated the war, the South Vietnamese military

“Forgotten soldiers” of the North

 - When the US sent troops to take down North Vietnam, they never consulted with
the South Vietnamese military.
- Shows how the USA didn’t really trust the couth Vietnam
- Although the south Vietnamese army 1967- 685 thousand South Vietnamese
soldiers, and over time, their military continued to grow.
- Men going to join the military, affected the society a lot. Many farms got lost since
there were barely any men.

R & R at China Beach, Da Nang

- Westmoreland wanted his troops to have the best equipment and be taken the
best care, they were given clubs, bowling alleys, movies, music. Therefore, south
Vietnamese people began to become influenced by the Americans, with their
clothes and music
- A whole new economy of the south Viet’s
- Americans hired many maids, and shoe polishers. Bars and brothels created a
wartime sex industry during the war. Many Vietnamese women saw these
services as a way out to be rich and get away of danger.
Lead to…..
Bui Doi- Amerasian Children Mixed children of the Vietnamese and American
- Treated poorly when the war ended

Economic Impact:
- The American money that was brought in from the Americans
- Viet money became worth nothing
- Created a condition of dependency
- American aid was used 80% of te time s
- A black market emerged, being able to use American dollars
- South Vietnam went from being rural to urban. Dropping rates of agriculture, and
they couldn’t produce their own crops anymore.
- They didn’t have the sewage or housing to sustain the large waves of South
Vietnamese coming in
- Refugee camps and slumps appeared everywhere.

American war efforts

- As the war efforts continued, the American troop escalated their violence
- “Zippo Job”  set huts and houses on fire so they could no longer be of use.
“had to destroy the village to be able to save it”, there was their mindsets of the
Americans
- They believed, they would be winning if they could kill more people than came be
brought from North Vietnamese. Very high levels of civilian casualty resulted.
- The US army killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians…
My Lai
- They killed hundreds of elderly, women and children
- Only one person got imprisoned for the incident after

THE NORTH

Republic of Northern Vietnam

Le Daun and Ho Chi Minh

9th plenum Ho Chi Minh was marginalized and was not let to do any military
decisions

Le Duan adopted…used a General Uprising Strategies once consolidating his

power, he though the southern revolutionary could launch a ______ with support of
Northern forces. He wanted a mass political party to unify Vietnam under their rules. He
wanted to knock out South Vietnam before the USA came, although this didn’t not
happen.

War of national Salvation he wanted the whole country to be involved, wanted a

general offensive. The north was going to the central base
Big revolutionary socialism to support the south. The hope was to drag the American
opinion against the war.

Wednesday 31,2017
The North
The People’s army of Veitnam  Were key for Leswan’s Strategy

 Used for man power in the north

 Meant this was a total war for Vietnam
 Those who headed south down the Ho Chi minh trail They left sept 1964 got
there at the end of the year, they would travel 20km a day and it took from 2-6
months to make the journey. 20% of them didn’t make it down south (due to
malaria, drowning)
 they would fight aside the NLF to defeat the Americans

Guerilla Hero of the Anti-American war

 - usually the women were caregivers and had many domestic duties
- During the war, their role expanded and were supposed to work in the factories
and rice fields
- They were able to attend political meetings and party affairs, some were drawn in
the war effort directly, they were called up to join self-defense units and in 1966
they were able to go down south to serve as nurses by 1969 they were able to
join the army and actually due some of the fighting

South Vietnam

The NLF they wanted to stop the communism for the most part
North fighting for national salvation

The North made a network of tunnels in the south to escape from American bombings
and
They had: Hospitals, meeting rooms, connect villages, make arms, could lay ambushes
for the Americans
- Also made many booby-traps
- Demonstrates ingenuity of the north
- They wanted minimal exposure to the Americans

The NLF had the tactic of “search and destroy”

- However, 80% of the time the Americans got ambushed due to the tunnels
- But when the Americans did get them by surprise
- The Saigon government had a hard time getting support due to the lack of their ..

“Vietnam Total Victory”

- Wanted to lure the south to the NLF
- Struggle for social justice since they were treated so badly by the French
- Initiated land reform campaigns return the land to the farmers
- Motivation they wanted
- Americans escalated their war efforts
- People were no log to escape the violence they became impatient with the NLF,
so they were wondering if it was all worth it because the NLF wasn’t able to
protect them and the NLF kept dragging the war on
- The NLF then placed conscription and began to impose taxes
- So, for ordinary people they didn’t like the normal South government because
they were controlled by the Americans and the NLF is making their lives hard.
- They started to overthrow the landlords and join the NLF so once they got their
land, nobody wanted to join the war and the middle class grew.
- The NLF began to have less of an appeal to those
 - Socialist Revolution

By the mid to late 1960s the initial members of the NLF that started the insurgency,
many died and many left because they were tired of the fighting.
- The war was very complicated and many people didn’t know what they wanted,
they just wanted to live in peace, so by the late 1960’s peace was more important
than a social revolution.

The USA
- Anti-war movement happening
- Many were opposed to the war, they had a war
- The Americans fought against the Vietnam war a lot more than any other war.
- Their parents suffered with WW2 and the great depression, but most Americans
in the time were post-war and many were educated
- BY the early 1960’s before the escalating, college students were questioning the
social-economical political order such as civil rights.
- This generation began to go against the government, they didn’t wanted to leave
it to the

Students started the… “Students for a democratic society”

- Began a cold war consensus  end “elite leadership the fact the USA was an
exceptional nation, but the students began to question if USA was actually a
morally just nation globally.
- They began to question of the war
- Educated students began the movement of questioning the
- Professors began giving sit ins to educate students what was happening in
Vietnam
- Riots erupted and protest groups rose
- Became a visible minority, group of student activists arose and they began to
question not only the war but other stuff
- Division of an anti-war movement, those who opposed the war saw it as a
mistake and they were osing confidence in their president (Lyndon Johnson),
some didn’t trust LJ)

Senetort J One of the people that in 1966 that didn’t trust Johnson in the war. As
Johnson escalated the war, they dint believe the Americans were actually helping
the Vietnamese.

- Since the Vietnam war was the first war were television, civilians began to see
the horrific scenes of the war
 Abbie Hoffman 

Johnson while he escalated the war effort, he would always downplay it

He kept trying to ensure the Americans that war was going to be short and that they
were winning the war at all times
- Since Johnson kept down playing the war while the Americans could see what
was actually happening through the TV, they began to not believe him
- This formed a movement of the people to try to do everything possible to end the
war
- General uprising strategy, launched a 10 offensive throughout all of south
Vietnam to end the talk about the Americans not winning the war.
5 and 7 February:
Peace with Honor?

The Tet Offensive -1968

Neither side (Americans, south, north) could achieve their aims solely on the battlefield,
but that’s what they have been trying to do
- It proved neither side could achieve a knockout blow
- After this there more Americans wouldn’t be needed anymore
Significance
1.
2. Resulted in the replacement of ___ and focused more on pacification in Vietnam
- NLF have been doing most of the fighting and carried most of the load so then
the fighting than became more lead by the north
- North was going to give the Americans the fight they always wanted
4. Brought an end to the steady increase of American troops being brought in
- Told Johnson that increasing the American troops being brought over, wouldn’t
help

1. New leadership
Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon
January 1969 they (Nixon) came into power
- They realized that Americans relative power have weakened since the ww2,
although they were still at the top
- Americans cold war allies Germany and japan and Soviet Union
- 2 major communist enemy soviet
- Henry wanted to come up with a policy to have control
- Henry doesn’t like ideology, deals with the currency of power (military, arms,
economic power)
- They started to secretly bomb Cambodia
 - Started to negotiate secretly in Paris with Le Duc Tho (powerful official,
÷÷÷/partner of Lesuan) (from North Vietnamese) to end the war. They could work
out something without being in the public eye. Le Duc Tho met with the sense
that north viet was more advanced and time were on their sides and the
Americans would eventually leave. They wanted the north to hold up until the
Americans gave up and retreated.
- After the 10th thingy, Westmoman wanted the Americans to send over more
people to take into the north and take down the Ho Chi Minh trail. People were
trying o convince Johnson to not take Westlomands thingy and he didn’t.
Westmoland was then replaced by Craighagrams and he turned his back on
Johnson. Americans began to go into the south Vietnamese villages and began
to help the sick and injured  pacification effort. This was easy for the
Americans to do, because the NLF was still really weak at the time.

The Phoenix Program  They trained south Viet special people to go undercover and
go into South Vietnam villages to see who was part, who was with or against the NLF,
the info was brought to the south Vietnamese government and they were given an
option to either give in with the south government or go to jail or die.

- The north Vietnamese began to give more people to the south ____
- Move from guerrilla tactics to more conventional tactics (like by using tanks and
doing long scale attacks, open combat) Turning over to the big movement
warfare,
- Peasants lives began to become easier and they were no longer under so much
attack

Nixon’s Doctorate, “Vietnamization” Nixon’s New approachThey wanted to turn

the war back to the Vietnamese. The local forces of Vietnam were in charge of the
fighting. Americans only gave aid and advice. The Americans gave the Vietnam many
guns and arms. Over-night, The Vietnamese had the best army and the most loaded
army. It didn’t do much for the war effort in south Vietnam. They eventually realized that
the Americans were not doing much and it was a big waste. They stopped looking for
the enemy and hey waited. Drug use amongst the soldier increased. Racial tensions
increased (part of the draft system, only the privileged that could go to college, were the
ones that didn’t have to go to Vietnam and fight). It began to look like an African
American war, fighting for the white people, but nothing was being gained.

- Nixon and Kissinger were realist, they were most concerned with American
global credibility. They didn’t want to look weak internationally, they didn’t want it
to look like they were cutting and running so they started the “Mad Man
Theory”, by the secrete bombing of Cambodia.
Bombing in Cambodia in May 1970, Nixon sent American troops to communist
sanctuaries in Cambodia. Instead of ending the war, they added in another country.
Some protesters were killed in America. Ex, some university students were killed but a
big deal wasn’t made because it was a prominently black college.

February 9,2018

Nikita Khrushchev  his view was to building socialism in the soviet-union . willing to
work with international system

Mao Zedong They saw China as the middle kingdom of the divine order, treated as a
semi-colonial state. He saw China as the revolutionary center for all the colonial states
in the world, and teach others how to throughout the permieral power. He didn’t like the
international system and wanted to upset them and thought they were the reason for
china’s humiliation
This causes the china and the Soviet Union to spilt, they both started to look for allies
The soviet union also wanted to be the model of national revolution

Cold war USA and the soviet-union now there is one with the soviets and china

Vietnam was then caught between the two cold wars.

Challenges for Viets  need both the Soviet Union (gave financial aid and military) and
china (sent engineers and soldiers for the north) for
- Chineses didn’t like peace and wanted to upset the international system and
didn’t want the SU to tell the not to fight for their country
Advantages for Veits  They both wanted the veits to have the lead in the cold war. It
gave them

The SU and China split

The south firsters wanted to escalate the war

The north firsters  building up north, socialism in one country, was for the SU and
wanted a peaceful war

The Nixon Administration threated the DRV relations with the PRC and SU.
Nixon wanted to make an international system where the USA was that powerful
Nixon wanted Beijing and Moscow to apply pressure in Hanoi to end the war in
Vietnam. He was able to convince them.
This changed Hanoi’s plan in ending the war, they fear China and SU might sell out the
DRV due to the constant war.

Lam Son  Army of Vietnam wanted to cross into Laos to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Wanted to disrupt the trail movement and prove that the Vietnamese army could stand
on its own. It turned out to be a complete disaster.

The Easter Offensive

Lesaun wanted to inspire the people of Vietnam and give them a reason to support the
revolution and spark the general uprising in the south.
Nixon took many bombs.
The North Vietnamese controlled still most National liberation front
Didn’t spark the general uprising he wanted. So, he then wanted to just reach a
settlement.
Kissinger then announced on Oct. 1972 peace was at hand! Although he had to make
sure the south viets were on board.

Nguyen Van Theiu in power of the south. He stopped the constant. Didn’t enjoy wide
spread support. He was corrupted. Rigged elections. Imprisoned many. Theiu had no
say in the arrangement of Le Duc and Kissinger. The arrangement was that both sides
would stop fighting and remained their place where they stopped and USA would
retreat, also wanted a commission with 3 parties to work out elections to see if the north
and south would unite, 3 parties (communist, south and a neutral party).
Theiu knew he was screwed with the north, NLF. Theiu didn’t want to sign the
agreement, so Kissinger said that the USA would leave either way. Kissenger also
made USA do the Christmas Bombings in 1972 so that Thieu wouldn’t like them. This
worked
1969-71
Paris Peace Awards was when USA backed out.

3rd Indochina war and the final battle over the future independent veitman, first time no
foreigners were involved. These were the bloodiest years of the war. When the USA
left, they left Theiu with a very strong army, the 5th biggest of the war at the time

1973 the north wanted 3 years to figure things out and begin to attack In 1976.
Theiu was very confident in his army so he told them to try to take back their land, but it
was too much for the army. They bombed communist lands. Thieu wanted to starve out
the communist. The army wasted all the bullets and arms because Theiry thought he
would get unlimited

Thieu had a 1 million man army

When the Americans left, they were left without jobs and inflation rose
The south was left with:
- Economic blockade
- Blood
- Decrease of arms
- Rice blockade

Theiu still believed the Americans would come through, but the American people
wanted to move past the war, and didn’t want to help anymore.

War Powers Act the president couldn’t just join any war

Watergate
Started cutting aid
Lesaun was confident the American government was no longer able to give forces

Ho Chi Minh Campaign  to unite Vietnam

- The south collapsed, civilians panicked and left, troops took off their uniforms
and escaped because they thought the north would attack.

April 21st 1975  theiu resigned

August 30th  Saigon fell to the communist
= unification of Vietnam

12 and 14 February:
Legacies

Lao and Cambodia were drawn into the loudstrom

Lao got bombed a lot like a lot a lot.
Hmong were an ethnic minority in Lao, they had the highest mortality rates than anyone
in the war
There was a genocidal regime the population went down 25%.
Both Laoa and Cambodia were independent in 1954 in the Genova conference
Lao was created by the French and became a battle ground in the first Indochina war,
there was an ideological conformation.
Prince Souvanna Phouma- He was a neutralist and was the PM of the kingdom of Laos
and was challenged by the Pathet Laos (communists), the Pathet Laos that were
led by the Veit Minh was led by Prince Souphanouvong.
- Phouna and Soup got together led a coalition government. The communist didn’t
want a neutralist government.
-
The CIA supported a right wing faction in the 1950 that take power in 1960 that
makes a new government. Lao goes into a civil war. This took on international
considerations.
Who took the left wing???
When Kennedy went into presidency, Washington and Moscow feared that Lao could
spark a nuclear war. Moscow agreed to end the civil war in Lao. They got the
neutralist, resulted ina great power agreement in 1962 where they agreed to see
Lao as being neutral and everyone has to cease all military action in Lao.
The soviet union and the USA were backing up Lao.
The USA turned to covert warfare to say “they didn’t know what was going on in Lao”
Vang Pao was a member of the _____ he had a huge military force outside of the Lao
army. It became 30000 men. They used them to fight the Pathet Lao to fight
against the North Viet. And the CIA was backing them up
Air America would bomb an escalate the killing in Lao. They used B52s “puff the magic
dragon ships”
In the capital the CIA backed different right wing factions that carried out another coup,
CIA had control over the Lao government

By 1965, the CIA was in power of Lao, they had secret bombing support. This was
kept out of the public-eye.

By 1967,  there were two wars, An air war over the Ho chi minh trail and the air war in
Lao. If The Pathet Lao could take over the capital, they could establish a new
government and kick out the CIA.
This secrete war went tils 1073, where the USA started to continued its right wing
neutralist government. Suvanaphma and Pathlet Lao arranged an agreement in Dec of
1975 the communist. Many agriculture was ruined die to unexploited bombs. These
bombs were killing around 45 people every month… and still are.
The CIA made a triabal broker a ruler. He controlled the shipments of rice and opient
(only crop to ship out) into villagaes (northern Tribes). If people wanted food, they would
have to sellout their male children to his military.

Cambodia
Was led by PrinceNorodom Sihnouk, he tried to maintin Cam neutrality. It’s a small
county inbetween thialind and Vietnam had many border disputes with both. Thialnad
and South Viet were allies with The USA. The Americans are suspicious of neutralist.
Sihnouk had to deal with the Democrtaic rebublic of Vietnam and the NLF. Troops
would go into south viet and fight them, them come back. The red Campar, they were
Cambodias “Viet Minh”, they resisted the French. Cam cuta deal with Viet that would
allow
Sinkouk was caught by all these groups, the war in Vietnam was very problematic so
they didn’t want to alienate anyone. He didn’t want to pic. The secrete bombing in Cam
by the Nixon campaign. This killed many innocent Cambodian people
The Communist kept sending most troops into Cambodia, were stanted to de-stabalize
Cambodia. They wasn’t to get NLF out of the sanctuaries
Many Cambodian people were left as refuges
Pol Pot and the Cambodia rouge blamed the right wing government in power thought
This was a constant revolution to a perfect communist state.
Pol Pot was
China and Cambodia
The conintues bombing in Cambodia lasted until 1973

The regime lasted till 1979

In power from 1975-1979
1779 the veit invaded and forced Pol Pot into hiding
The Goal

Feburary 14, 2018

Vietnam lost of farm land due to herbicide was spread all over veitnam, birth defects
and high rates of cancer

The USA was doing the best it could, although it was not able to succeed

Vietnamese cemetery for the war dead

 - The collapse of the south occurred faster than anyone anticipated. So when the
war ended Hanoi didn’t know how to in cooperate the south society into the north
society.
- The NLF and the democratic of Vietnam (DRV) were not the same, they didn’t
have the same goals

Independence Palace, Saigon

April 30, 1975
- Less interested in the Saigon regime generate that was fighting when the war
ended
- Northerners were sent down from Hanoi were sent to over sea unification, not the
south. But the south resented the north.
- Hundred thousands were sent to education camps, people that Hanoi did not like
- The reeducation camps were horrible, they had horrible conditions and were
brutally treated
- The social transformations were going slow because the north (low agriculture,
economy, tech and low employment) and south were ravaged by the war.
- The USA
- Vietnam socialist allies were starting to feel a pinch by Communism not
working… so they barely helped bring them out of war.
- They left the middle class alone, and targeted the wealthy, by taking their farms

Mid 1977
Lesuans vision of a modern Vietnam, by doing agriculture collecting

1978-outlawed all private trade. Economic zones, that were more prison camps instead
of agricultural zones. His way of mobilizing the Viets.
- This pushed the Vietnam into full poverty.
- No one could question Lesuans policies.
- The Government used the way of USA to reinforce justice.
- Seen as a sacred war for nationalism
- The government wanted the people to rally to prevent socialism just as they did
to the Americans and the party was just.
- The Vietnames people had to follow this “just policy” to justified the war.
- The official party of the war unifies. Everyone was agreeing with Lesuan. They
wanted to be unified in the war and in peace.
- The memory of Ho Chi Minh (he was marginalized in 1963by lesuan but some
say he was marginalized in 1946 when he allowed the French in, known as the
face of the French revolution. He made him the uncle of the people, he was
modest
Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi
- They built a memorial for Ho Chi Minh where He signed the declaration of
independence of Vietnam in 1945

The vietnam Doi moi moved towards a socialist oriented market economy and started
allowed privately own enterprises.
Foreign scholars slowly began having access to
Started opening up to tourism
Followed the Chinese model of market capitalism

War=sanctrised
They celebrate the great sacrifice against the imperialist.
Lesaun now is the only one that is starting to be an escape goat for the failure of post-
Vietnam