Vietnam had a long history of fighting outside forces

● Before the Second World War, Vietnam was ruled by the French and known as Indochina
● During the war the Japanese occupied Vietnam
● In 1941, a communist, anti-Japanese resistance army, the Viet Minh, was set up and led by
Ho Chi Minh
● In 1945, after the defeat of Japan, they declared independence for Vietnam
● France wanted its colony back when the Japanese left and between 1945 and 1954 a war
was fought between the Viet-Minh-controlled north and the French-controlled south
(Indochina War).
● The USA supported the French financially, as part of its policy of containment.
● In 1954, the French pulled out of Vietnam and the Geneva Peace Accord was signed
● This temporarily partitioned the country into north and south in preparation for free elections

The USA believed in the domino theory

● President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State John Dulles feared the communists would
win in the elections
● Domino theory - if one country fell to communism, other neighbouring countries were
more likely to do the same
● In 1955, the USA backed the anti-communist and Catholic Government in the South. They
helped set up the Republic of South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem
● Diem was very unpopular with Vietnamese peasants who were Buddhist
● His regime was very corrupt

The Viet Cong was formed to oppose the South Vietnamese

Government
● The Viet Cong was created in 1960 comprising peasants in the South as well as communists
in North Vietnam who took their orders from Ho Chi Minh.
● The new US president, J.F. Kennedy, responded in 1961 by sending more money to help the
South
● They increased the size of their army and more advisers were sent to train the soldiers
● The Viet Cong launched a guerrilla warfare campaign against South Vietnamese troops,
officials and government buildings and attacked US supplies
● In 1962, Kennedy sent 12,000 more military advisers to the South and equipped them with
US helicopters.
● The Viet Cong were sent supplies from the North via the Ho Chi Minh Trail
● In 1963, Diem's government was overthrown by a military coup and Diem was murdered

President Johnson escalated US involvement in Vietnam

● President JFK was more prepared to commit the USA to a military conflict
● In 1964, communist patrol boats opened fire on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin
● US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed Johnson to launch a
full-scale war against North Vietnam
 ● In 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder saw the US air force bomb the cities and factories of
North Vietnam
● By 1968, there were over half a million US troops in Vietnam

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

● The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in August 1964 off the coast of North Vietnam
● The dispute was between the US Navy and North Vietnamese naval vessels
● The US government claimed that North Vietnamese naval vessels fired at two US vessels
(the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy)
● US President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) ordered bombing raids against North Vietnam and
sought permission from Congress that would authorise the use of military force in Southeast
Asia
● This resolution, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed with broad support and was
used as the legal basis for the US to escalate its military involvement in Vietnam
● Some historians have challenged the official US account of events in the Gulf of Tonkin,
suggesting that the second alleged attack may not have taken place and that the incident was
used as a pretext to justify US military intervention in the region
● It remains a significant event in the history of the Vietnam War and US foreign policy

The Americans found it difficult to overcome the Viet Cong

US tactics:
● Search and destroy:
○ Helicopters from US bases in the South sent out troops into villages to hunt out and
destroy Viet Cong forces and supplies
○ Many US troops walked into traps
○ Many innocent villagers were killed, causing more people to support the Viet Cong
○ Rogue operations attacking villages were called ‘Zippo’ raids and often failed as the
villages usually weren’t associated with the Viet Cong
● Bombing campaign and chemical weapons:
○ The USA bombed the cities and factories in the North and used chemical weapons
such as Agent Orange and napalm to destroy the jungle cover where the Viet Cong
hid and received their supplies.
○ Many civilians were killed
● Conscription (draft):
○ From 1967, the USA introduced the 'draft' to increase the size of its army
○ Many young Americans joined the fight
○ High drug use and low morale among the troops, whose average age was 19.
● Operation Rolling Thunder
○ Bombing campaign
○ Meant to last 8 weeks but lasted 3.5 years
○ USA dropped more bombs than in all of WW2
○ US advisers warned LBJ that Rolling Thunder would have minimal effect on Vietnam -
they turned out to be right
○ Bombing was ineffective as most fell on the countryside
 ○ Supporters of Rolling Thunder argued that bombs would destroy the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, therefore restricting the flow of weapons and supplies
○ Johnson believed that bombing would show dominance and resilience, and would
persuade North Vietnam to agree to a compromise
● Strategic Hamlet programme
○ The government of the Republic of Vietnam was worried about the Viet Cong's
influence over South Vietnamese villages
○ The Strategic Hamlet programme was devised to counter the Viet Cong's growth. Its
objectives included increasing village security, implementing political measures
among local officials, and encouraging them to defend their homes from communist
campaigns' warfare and intimidation.
○ One of the primary reasons for the program's failure was its rushed implementation
According to the Pentagon Papers, by September 1962, 4.3 million people were
housed in 3,225 completed hamlets, with over two thousand still being constructed.
○ Despite funding from the US government, the South Vietnamese government couldn't
support the hamlets or their inhabitants due to the rapid construction pace
○ The weakly fortified communities were easily sabotaged and overrun by the Viet
Cong, granting them access to the South Vietnamese peasants.
○ Subsequently, the Viet Cong spread propaganda among civilians
● Operation Phoenix
○ In 1968 the CIA set up 'Operation Phoenix'
○ Identify and arrest VC suspects in areas controlled by the South Vietnamese
government
○ Target to get 3000 suspects and be 'neutralised' each month
○ The idea was to arrest them, get them to talk, reveal other names and then imprison
them
○ In the next three years secret South Vietnamese squads with American advisers
captured and imprisoned 28,000 VC suspects
○ Another 20,000 were assassinated and 17,000 defected - that is, changed sides and
supported the South.

Viet Cong tactics:

● Guerrilla warfare:
○ The Viet Cong lacked the technology of the US forces and instead used ambushes,
traps and hit-and-run tactics
○ Tunnel complexes were dug so Viet Cong forces could ambush US soldiers and then
hide
● Civilian help:
○ The Viet Cong helped Vietnamese villagers in the fields to gain their support
○ They also terrorised opponents, mainly South Vietnamese officials
● Ho Chi Minh Trail:
○ Supplies were sent to the South from North Vietnam
○ It was bombed constantly but the US failed to stop the supplies

The American public turned against the conflict in 1968-70

● In early 1968 the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive - attacking over 100 cities and
military targets
● The Viet Cong was weakened by the attack, but it proved a turning point in the USA as the
media began to question whether the sacrifice, expense and purpose of the war was worth it
 ● US anti-war feeling and anti-war protests peaked during 1968-70 and were particularly fuelled
by the events of the My Lai Massacre in 1968

Tet Offensive
● On 31 January 1968, 70,000 Vietcong launched a massive attack on 100 towns and cities in
South Vietnam
● It was launched during the Vietnamese New Year or Tet holiday.
● The Americans and South Vietnamese were taken by surprise because half of the ARVN
(South Vietnamese Army) were on leave for the Tet holiday
● The Vietcong abandoned the guerrilla war style of fighting and paid the price

Aims of the Tet Offensive

● Get support from South Vietnamese
● Decrease US confidence and show they would never surrender
● To have a dramatic effect on the US: One of the most remarkable events was the attack by a
15-man suicide squad of VC guerrillas who fought their way into the American embassy in
Saigon
● They held out for six hours before being killed.
● The embassy was the symbol of the American presence in Vietnam and it wasn't safe from
the enemy.
● If the embassy couldn't be defended, then what could? American public opinion quickly began
to turn against the war.

Military Consequences of the Tet Offensive

● Tet Offensive lasted less than a month was a disaster for the Vietcong or National Liberation
Front (NLF)
● Most of the 45,000 fighters killed were from the NLF and North Vietnamese Army
● American deaths came to 1500 and the ARVN lost 3000
● There were about 14,000 civilians killed
● It wiped out the NLF's organisation in the South

My Lai Massacre
● On 16 March 1968, just south of Khe Sanh, American patrol approached a small village called
My Lai
● The battle for Khe Sanh, where a US base was under siege, and the Tet Offensive were still
raging and the village was in an area controlled by the Vietcong
● Lieutenant Calley and his platoon, searching for VC, entered the village
● They found no VC and did not come under enemy fire.
● Instead, they then committed the worst atrocity reported of American troops throughout the
war
● An American investigation into the massacre later reported that 347 men, women, children
and babies were murdered. Other reports put the number of dead at over 500. Some of the
women had been raped first
● A US pilot, Hugh Thompson, witnessed the massacre from his helicopter
● He was enraged by what he saw and landed his helicopter, giving orders to the gunner to
open fire on any soldiers who shot at civilians. He rescued nine civilians, including five
children, and flew them back to hospital.
Consequences of My Lai
● News of the massacre was kept quiet. Officially, the operation at My Lai had been a success.
● United States troops had killed 90 VC fighters, according to the company commander's
report. The only casualty the Americans had was one soldier shot in the foot
● This soldier later said he had shot himself to get out of the killing
● In November 1969, the American press got hold of the story from a soldier who had heard
rumours of the massacre
● Calley, as the officer in charge of one of the platoons, was the only soldier convicted of
murder after the investigation. In 1971 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for personally
killing 22 villagers
● He served less than four years before President Nixon pardoned him and he became a free
man

A peace agreement was signed in January 1973

● In 1968, the new president, Nixon, and his National Security Adviser, Kissinger, wanted to pull
US troops out of Vietnam but not make it look like they had failed in the policy of containment
● In October 1972, Kissinger, Nixon's key adviser, and the chief negotiator for North Vietnam, Le Duc
Tho, had worked out a settlement. The terms were:
● A ceasefire over all Indo-China
● American troops would withdraw from Vietnam within 60 days of the ceasefire
● American prisoners of war would be freed - there were nearly 700 of these
● Free elections would be held in the South to choose a new government
● Each side would stay only in those areas it controlled when the ceasefire started
● By 1973, the number of US troops in Vietnam had been reduced to under 30,000
● Nixon signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam in Paris and described the withdrawal as
'peace with honour'.
● By 1975, the whole of Vietnam had fallen to the communists
● Vietnam's neighbours, Cambodia and Laos, became communist states the same year
● US military and economic strength had failed to contain the spread of communism
● It was a propaganda disaster for US foreign policy and the atrocities of the war had been
exposed