Chapter 13 and 14 - Confrontation in the Vietnam War Flashcards
1
Q
What was OPLAN 34A?
A
- Implemented by Johnson, Jan 1964
- ‘Progressively escalating pressure … to inflict increasing punishment upon North Vietnam’
- Proved:
- Johnson not committed to a negotiated resolution
- Johnson saw conflict expanding into NV
2
Q
What was the Gulf of Tonkin?
A
- 2nd August 1964 = 3 NV board fired torpedoes at USS Maddox
- Attack failed
- Maddox called for air support from US aircraft carrier
- 1 NV boat sunk, 2 damaged
- 4th August = Johnson ordered bombing of NV naval bases
3
Q
What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?
A
- 7th August 1964 = Congress agreed GOT resolution
- Johnson had power to take whatever action he felt necessary to prevent further aggression
- Johnson had absolute power to conduct whatever policies he wanted in Vietnam without consulting Congress
4
Q
Why was situation in Vietnam deteriorating for USA at end of 1964?
A
- China agreed to provide military supplies to NV
- USSR established diplomatic links w/ NLF and set permanent mission in Moscow
- USSR sent military equipment to help NV
- First North Vietnamese military forces moved down Ho Chi Minh trail
- Vietcong had strengthened positions in many parts of SV
- US realised bombing response to Gulf of Tonkin had failed to bolster SV gov = rise in anti-American feelings about much of population
- ARVN in state of low morale due to poor leadership, inadequate training and low pay
5
Q
Why did Johnson order Operation Rolling Thunder?
A
- Feb 1965 = Vietcong attack on army barracks and US helicopter base in Pleiku
- Further attacks followed
- Johnson therefore called Operation Rolling Thunder
6
Q
What was Operation Rolling Thunder?
A
- Bombing campaign 1965-1968
- Marked start of Americanisation of war, and escalation of US involvement
7
Q
What did Johnson say in his 1965 speech?
A
- 7th April 1965 at John Hopkins University, Baltimore
- Making US seem heroic, acting in model way
- Believing Eisenhower’s Domino Theory
- Johnson continuing policies already there
- Purpose =
- gain support
- make US look like great defenders
- Get the people to invest in his policy
8
Q
What were the terms of North Vietnam’s four-point proposal?
A
- In response to Johnson’s April 1965 speech
- US troops must withdraw from SV, according to Geneva agreements
- Neither NV or SV may enter military alliance with foreign power during temporary division of Vietnam, according to Geneva agreements
- SV internal affairs must be settled by SV people, according to NLF’s programme and without external interference
- Peaceful reunification of Vietnam must be settled only by the people of both zones
9
Q
How did Johnson respond to NV’s four-point proposal?
A
- Rejected them = believed acceptance could lead to unified, COMMUNIST Vietnamese state
- J ordered, to be deployed in Vietnam:
- 2 marine battalions
- Air squadron
- 20,000 troops
- By July 1965 - 75,000 US ground troops deployed in Vietnam
10
Q
What were the USA’s strengths?
A
- USA’s large finance = most modern equipment in plentiful supply
- Airfields and landing pads built across country
- Helicopters could deliver troops directly without risk of ambush, recover wounded, act as attack weapon
11
Q
How did USA use bombing?
A
- Operation Rolling Thunder
- Used B-52 bomber as key bombing tool
- Aimed to destroy NV economy and undermine Vietcong and Northern forces in South = failed
12
Q
What were the disadvantages of USA’s bombing strategy?
A
- Vietnam had few (but well disguised) military bases
- Relatively few centres of industrial production
- More bombs dropped on Vietnam during this war than entirety of WW2
- North Vietnam’s lost resources soon replaced through aid from both China and Russia
13
Q
How did USA use chemical warfare?
A
- To undermine ability of Vietcong to operate as guerrilla fighters in dense jungles
- 1962 = Kennedy approved Operation Ranch Hand = Spraying chemicals to defoliate jungles and remove enemy’s cover
- Agent Orange and Agent Blue sprayed over cops = enemy lost food = tried to get peasants whose livelihoods were crops to stop supporting Vietcong
- ‘Pineapple Bombs’ (anti-personnel bombs) = 1,000s of pellets in one explosion BUT indiscriminate = killed many civilians
- Napalm = gel, spread over wide area and set on fire when landed
14
Q
How did USA use Search and Destroy?
A
- To find and destroy enemy in jungle and rural villages
- US forces arrive in helicopter and raid village suspected of harbouring Vietcong
- Livestock, sources of food production and homes destroyed
15
Q
What were the disadvantages of USA’s Search and Destroy strategy?
A
- Many innocent civilians killed
- Undermined US efforts to engage rural peasants as allies so they’d reject support for Vietcong
16
Q
What were the USA’s key weaknesses?
A
- South Vietnamese Army largely uncommitted = often avoided action and troops not well trained
- TV coverage = brutal images = growing anti-war movement in USA
- Martin Luther made 1967 speech emphasising war retracting from ‘Great Society’ promised in USA and that war was impacting civil rights of South Vietnamese and many Black Americans being drafted into army
17
Q
How did the Vietcong win support from the Vietnamese people?
A
- The guiding principles of the NLF guerrilla forces models on those laid by Mao Zedong in China:
- Don’t destroy land or crops
- Always keep your word
- Always show peasants respect
- Always support the peasants
- These methods worked, BUT Vietcong also prepared to use violence against peasants that challenged them
18
Q
How did the Vietcong use traps and tunnels against the USA?
A
- Used to undermine the resolve and morale of US forces
- Complex tunnel systems constructed to hide Vietcong troops
- Booby traps of all kinds deployed in dense forests
- e.g.: trip wires that set off grenades and mines
- Small groups of troops who ambushed US forces in the jungles
