paper 2: all topics Flashcards

Question

background to the Vietnam War- end of second world war

Answer 1

-development of conflict in Vietnam bears strong similarities with Korea -Vietnam was a French colony, Indochina, before being occupied by the Japanese during the second world war. The Japanese were register by a resistance movement, the Viet Minh, led by a Communist named Ho Chi Minh -when Japan was defeated, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent. However, the French intended to return and re-establish control over Indochina -the Viet Minh then fought the French for independence over the next nine years

Answer 2

-despite financial backing from the US, who feared a Communist takeover of Vietnam more than they disliked the other of French colonial rule, the French were eventually defeated by the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu -negotiations began immediately afterwards and in July 1954 France signed the Geneva Peace Accord with the Viet Minh which temporarily divided Vietnam into two parts, North and South. This would last until internationally supervised elections took place in 1956 -however, the US prevented elections from taking place as they feared the Communists would win. This formally divided Vietnam into two

Answer 3

-like Korea, the Vietnam War was not a conflict started by the Americans, but a war between a divided country which they became involved in (but much more gradually in the case of Vietnam) -north Vietnam was controlled by communist Viet Minh, whereas the South was governed a staunchly anti-communist dictator, Ngo Dinh Diem -however, Diem’s regime was extremely unpopular with the Vietnamese people. He was wealthy elite, a Catholic who hated Buddhism and was very corrupt and harsh in his repression of opponents. The Americans knew Diem was a problematic leader, but felt they had no choice but to back him

Answer 4

-the actions of the Diem government led to increased rebellion and armed struggle by groups against them. These intensified over the course of the next few years and by 1959 the north vietnamese government began to fun and give military assistance to these rebels -this group would become known as the Viet Cong. They were made up of South Vietnamese who opposed the government as well as communists from the north under the orders of the Viet Minh -the Viet Cong began waging a guerilla war against the south vietnamese government in the hopes of overthrowing them and reuniting the country

Answer 5

-the Viet Cong mainly relied upon guerillas warfare, constantly ambushing souhtern government forces, officials and attacking government buildings -the Viet Cong did NOT generally get involved in large pitched battles. They relied upon scretely when it came to getting around and quickly dissapearing after an attack so they were hard to target and capture -additionally, they used their links to the peasants to hide out in the countryside and it was VERY difficult to distinguish between ordinary peasants and VC

Answer 6

-the VC were very well supplied with the Ho Chi Minh trails being used to transport supplies and manpower from the north to the south through the jungles of neighbouring Laos and Cambodia -VC, overall, were a formidable opponent and the south vietnamese government were hopelessly incapable of dealing with them

Answer 7

-the government in the south was propped up only due to the increasingly heavy backing of the US government which decided the south falling to communism would be a crucial part of the ‘Domino Theory’ in action -however, the US was cautious about getting too involved in the conflict. Instead they were dragged deeper and deeper into it over the course of multiple presidencies before finally withdrawing almost 20 years after sending soldiers

Answer 8

-Eisenhower involved the US in Vietnam as early as the war with France. He had American planes supporting French troops during some operations -when the new governments were setup, he offered economic aid to the south and also some military -900 military ‘advisors’ were sent to the south to help deal with the uprisings that had begun

Answer 9

-Kennedy continued where Eisenower left off and increased funding for the southern government and also increased the number of military ‘advisors’ -12,000 US troops were in Vietnam by the end of 1962 and the Americans had supplied the south with 300 helicopters -however, by 1963, Diem was unpopular as ever and huge protests continued to take place in the cities. Budhist monks burned themselves alive in protest at the government and the government’s response was more repression -in november, Diem was overthrown in a coup and was killed along with his family. The already weak Southern government was now in total chaos

Answer 10

-Kennedy was assassinated in 63 and replaced by his vice-president, Johnson -Johnson was an even greater supporter of war in Vietnam and believed a full scale war would be necessary to halt the spread of communism (and the South was still in chaos following the coup against Diem) -Johnson was given the excuse he needed for his plan with the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Incident’ in August 64 saw two American warships attacked by North Vietnamese gunboats while they were in international waters -congress passed a resolution granting Johnson powers to massively escalate the war in Vietnam-which he did

Answer 11

-Johnson massively escalated the conflict in two ways: 1. Significant increase in ground troops in Vietnam to fight the VC (and this time officially called combat troops, not advisors!) - the government actually institued a ‘draft’ system whereby young men were chosen at random and called up to fight for the army as and when needed -by 1968, over 500,000 US troops were stationed in Vietnam 2. Operation Rolling Thunder- the US began an enormous bombing campaign against the north vietnamese to put pressure on them to come to the negotiating table and halt their backing for the VC. Huge bombing of Northern cities, factoriesm bases, and crucially the Ho Chi Minh trail -the escalation by Johnson led to the war becoming extremely bloody and the body count significantly increased on both sides

Answer 12

-however americans (very simplistically) measured their success mainly through their ‘kill count’ and believed that they were putting pressure on the north who were close to quitting and becoming exhausted. The war was increasingly highly controversial at home too, but hopefully was close to an end -their fantasy was dispelled in January 1968 when the north launched their greates attack of the war-the ‘Tet Offensive’. They attacked 30 different targets and cities in the south, including temporary capture of the US embassy in Saigon. Tet was a strategic failure for the north, but americans public knew the war was nowhere near done and support for the war fell massively -in addition to anger over controversial abuse of civilians by US soldiers, (My Lai Massacre) Johnson decided not to run again for president in 68

Answer 13

-the US public were desperate to see the back of the Vietnam war and new President Nixon sought to withdraw the US from the war. However, they could not simply hand over Southern Vietnam and admit defeat -Nixon introduced a policy of ‘Vietnamisation’ by handling more responsibility for the war to southern troops and withdrew over 400,000 troops in his first two years -at the same time he increased combing massively and to neighbouring Cambodia to put pressure on the north to agree a peace deal, leading to Nixon withdrawing all US troops in 1973

Answer 14

-however, the war between the VC and south re-ignited with months of the final withdrawal -this time, without the support of the US, the south was totally unable to repel the communist forces who managed to toally defeat them by 1975 -the communists therefore won and would unify Vietnam under their rule (under whom it remains today!)

Answer 15

-the USA was a vastly superior military force than the Viet Cong and the north vietnamese government yet despite putting a huge amount of effort into the war, they ultimately lost. This was mainly down to four main reasons: 1. Poor US tactics vs Strong Viet Cong tatics 2. Press and media coverage of the war 3. Anti-war protests 4. Individual events of 1968, e.g. My Lai Massacre and Tet Offensive

Answer 16

poor US tatics: -the US relied mainly on bombing between 65-72, however despite the enormous damage done, this was not enough to defeat the communists, onyl slow them down -US found it very difficult to know who was a VC fighter and so ‘Search and destroy’ mission in villages to hunt down andy VC often involved killing far more innocent civilians mistaken for VC or killed as collateral -chemical weapons, Agent Orange and Napalm, were used to destroy jungles where VC hid however saw many civilians killed or injured in brutal ways as a result -extremely low quality soldiers once draft began, often young, uneducated men from poor background and little motivations to fight

Answer 17

-the VC were heavily outnumbered and less well equipped and therefore always avoided open warfare -instead fought guerilla warfare and only every engaged in combat on their terms, they had no headquaters that could be destroyed, they laid booby traps all over the countryside and mainly relied on ambushes to attack southern/US soldiers -in contrast to US search and destroy, VC dealt far better with peasant and tried to be helpful as possible to keep them onside (and stop them from betraying them to the US army) -soldiers were deeply committed to the cause and had unshakable morale, severity of war only hardened resolve

Answer 18

-initially positive, as it became clear the war a disaster, the US media turned on the government -media attacked the war on two fronts, both on a practical level arguing the US was losing and debunking government claims otherwise and also regularly reporting on the atrocities being committed by American soliders -the war was the first time that the public was getting a close to uncensored account of what was happening e.g. peasants having huts set on fire, prisoners executed, children crying from napalm burns etc -the public could not support what they were seeing

Answer 19

-media coverage led to the war becoming increasingly unpopular which triggered large scale anti-war protests across the country -whilst many people still continued to support the government, the anti-war movement was staunchly opposed to the war and US society became highly polarised and divided, especially due to actions of some protesters such as burning american flags at protests -over 700,000 people attended a protest in Washington in november 1969 -the protests and social division they were creating was putting a huge strain on the government and put great pressure on them to end the war

Answer 20

-Tet Offensive: media coverage was mostly positive until Tet Offensive shattered US government myth that VC were being worn down. Despite the offensive failure, it was clear that the US tactics were not working and the media lost patience with the government My Lai Massacre: among the worst astrocities committed by the US army, was uncovered. March 1968, a US army ‘Search and Destroy’ mission descended upon village of My Lai and murdered all 400 civilians in the village, mostly women and children-the truth of the event was revealed by an army photographer who captured evidence of the events. The event shocked the american public and support for the war massively decreased