Vietnam 1966 - 1980
1. The American War
Paragraphs
We are going to write a paragraph about the war in five events.
How to write a beautiful paragraph
Topic sentence: Start with a clear and precise topic sentence that refers directly to the content of the paragraph. The topic sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is about, or its main idea
Explain: Explain what you mean in greater detail.
Evidence: Provide evidence to support your idea or claim. To do this, refer to your research. This may include: case studies, statistics, documentary evidence, academic books or journal articles.
Link: Summarise the main idea of the paragraph, and make clear how this paragraph supports your overall argument. The Second Indo China War in 6 Events
Was America’s war in Vietnam a noble struggle against Communist aggression, a tragic intervention in a civil conflict, or an attempt to crush a movement of national liberation?
Paragraph 1. The American War
Was America’s war in Vietnam a noble struggle against Communist aggression, a tragic intervention in a civil conflict, or an attempt to crush a movement of national liberation?
America’s leaders insisted that military force was necessary to defend a sovereign nation — South Vietnam — from external Communist aggression. According to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, “The first reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam. Its object is total conquest.”
He warned that the Communists in Vietnam were supported and guided by the Soviet Union and China. Therefore, the war in South Vietnam was not an isolated, local conflict, it was part of America's highest priority — the Cold War struggle to contain Communism around the globe.
Policymakers warned that if South Vietnam fell to Communism, neighbouring countries would inevitably fall in turn, one after another, like a row of dominoes.
Paragraph 2: The Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Early 1964, South Vietnam began conducting U.S.-backed commando attacks and intelligence-gathering missions along the North Vietnamese coast.
Success was limited so the US shifted the operation's tactics from commando attacks on land to shore bombardments using mortars, rockets, and rifles fired from South Vietnamese patrol boats. In response, North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats attacked the USS Maddox in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Two days later, the US claimed that the Maddox had been attacked again. After the second attack, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution almost unanimously allowing the federal government to “take all necessary measures” to protect U.S. forces in Vietnam.
In 2005, declassified NSA documents showed that there was no second attack. U.S. officials had lied. This lie started a war that would claim 58,220 American and more than 3 million Vietnamese lives
‘The overwhelming body of reports, if used, would have told the story that no attack occurred."
Paragraph 3: The Tet offensive
Late January 1968, beginning on the most sacred of Vietnamese holidays, communist forces launched a sweeping assault across the South Vietnam. The offensive shook the American military command and more importantly, the American home front.
Over 80,000 Vietcong troops emerged, seemingly from nowhere, to attack major metropolitan areas across South Vietnam. Surprise strikes were made at the American base at Danang and the American embassy in Saigon.
During the weeks that followed, the South Vietnamese army and U.S. ground forces recaptured all of the lost territory, inflicting twice as many casualties on the Vietcong.
The media images changed the view of the American public. Government statements about the war being nearly over were clearly false. After three years of intense bombing, billions of dollars and 500,000 troops, the VC proved themselves capable of attacking anywhere they chose. The message was simple, this war was not almost over.
“We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds… For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in stalemate.”
Walter Cronkite, American news anchor, February 1968
Paragraph 4. The My Lai Massacre. 1968
The My Lai massacre was the mass murder of 506 unarmed civilians by American troops.
First hand account:
Pham Thi Thuan had just woken up and was cooking potatoes when the Americans landed nearby and began killing her neighbours. The US soldiers had enter the area to kill local fighters. Military intelligence had determined that the villagers were harbouring Vietcong, although Thuan denied this was the case.
“They first killed the people at the rice paddies, as well as the cattle,” said Thuan, an 80-year-old rice farmer from Son My village.
“We just worked for ourselves,” she said. Only a handful of weapons were captured, and the only American casualty that day was a soldier who deliberately shot himself in the foot.
American soldiers treated all the villagers, including women and children, as hostile. One of them, Private Paul Meadlo, recounted what he had done in a 1969 interview for CBS News.
“You just spray the area on them and so you can’t know how many you killed ’cause they were going fast. So I might have killed 10 or 15 of them,” he told
interviewer Mike Wallace.
“Men, women, and children?” asked Wallace.
“Men, women, and children,” he replied.
“And babies?”
“And babies.”
Paragraph 5: The Ho Chi Minh trail.
The Ho Chi Minh was not one trail but a series of trails. The trail was used by the Viet Minh as a route for its troops and supplies (Food, weapons and equipment) to get into the South.
The trail ran along the Laos/Cambodia and Vietnam borders and was dominated by jungles. In total, the ‘trail’ was about 1,000 kilometres long.
The ‘trail’ also included dummy routes that served the only purpose of confusing the Americans. In places it was 80 kilometres wide. It is thought that up to 40,000 people were used to keep the route open.
The natural environment gave the trail excellent cover as the jungle could provide as much as three canopies of tree cover, which disguised what was going on at ground level.
The American response to this was to use defoliants – the most famous being Agent Orange - to kill vegetation that gave cover to those using the trail. Large areas of jungle were effectively killed off, but the trail remained in operation and was used for the duration of the war.
2. Bombing Cambodia and Laos
The secret bombing of Cambodia. 1965 - 73
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a vast network of jungle paths and roads running from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam. It was a crucial supply route for North Vietnamese forces, allowing them to transport troops, weapons, and supplies In response the US began Operation Menu. A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia and Laos.
Between 1965 and 1973, the American air force dropped 2 756 941 tonnes of bombs on Cambodia at 113, 716 sites. To put this in perspective, the Allies dropped 2 million tonnes in all of WW2, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cambodia may be the most bombed country in history.
The Americans were trying to prevent the Vietnamese supplying the insurgency in South Vietnam from the Ho Chi Minh trail. The scale of the bombing is linked to the rise of the Khmer Rouge who had limited support before the war.
Sites bombed by US in Cambodia 1965 - 73
To do: Annotate a satellite image/map of the US bombing campaign in Cambodia
What were the strategic objectives?
How did this campaign contribute to the rise of the Khmer Rouge?
Why was the campaign secret?
3. Strategy
Activity 3. Describe the US strategy in Vietnam in 3 points.
Include quotes and examples to support each of your points
The American strategy
Westmoreland's (US Commander) strategy was to wage a war of attrition, a long series of small-scale attacks gradually wears down the enemy. The goal was to inflict heavy damage on North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, to make it impossible for them to recover and keep fighting. To achieve this, the US carried out bombings in North Vietnam and Cambodia.
The ground strategy in South Vietnam was similar, devastate the Viet Cong and pro-communist forces. Key elements of the ground war included search and destroy missions. Local intelligence was used to identify VC and pro-communist strongholds, then eliminate them with firepower. From 1966 to 1967, the United States poured troops into Vietnam, over 485,000 by the end of 1967, a clear sign that Westmoreland's ground war was struggling.
Operation Rolling Thunder
The Vietnam War featured the most intense bombing campaign in military history and had massive human costs. General Westmoreland believed that the regular forces of the Viet Cong and the NVA would continue to suffer enormous casualties at the hands of massive U.S. firepower. Eventually, went the argument, the communists would reach the point where they would no longer be able to replace their losses on the battlefield. Having been ground down on the battlefield, they would presumably agree to a favourable peace settlement.
'So the challenge was bringing the enemy forces to battle, for they had no definite, recognisable or overt positions. They remained either ‘underground’ (often literally) within South Vietnamese borders, or back in base sanctuaries in Cambodia or Laos, going on the attack only when they so decided, seeking to surprise a preselected victim. Thus the enemy clearly had the initiative; and, given the way the United States had decided to fight the war in a passive defence of South Vietnam, American forces found themselves in the unenviable situation of having to react and dance to the enemy’s tune'.
General Bruce Palmer Jnr
Operation Rolling Thunder
To do: Describe the Viet Cong strategy in Vietnam in 3 points.
Include quotes and examples to support each of your points
The Viet Cong strategy
In 1965, Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnamese leadership ordered a change in a way the war in the South was to be fought. From now on, the Vietcong would avoid pitched battles with the Americans unless the odds were clearly in their favour. There would be more hit and run attacks and ambushes.
The Vietcong, also developed extensive tunnel systems that were training grounds, logistics centres and headquarters. They also offered secure sanctuaries for times when the war might go badly. The tunnels were fighting bases capable of providing continuous support for troops. Even if a village was in enemy hands, the NLF in the tunnels were still able to conduct offensive operations.
Giap's Guerrilla tactics
General Giap (Chief North Vietnamese strategist) was the master of doing the unexpected. He played on the Western powers' belief that firepower alone determined victory. Their overconfidence and hubris was their downfall.
Win over the peasantry, avoid damage to the land, crops, houses. Help them in work
Night attacks and booby traps made with bamboo sticks, called punji sticks, and filled with faeces to ensure infection, increasing the chances of death.
Write reports and publish after firefights to improve performance.
Use specially trained sappers to attack enemy defensive positions by placing demolition charges, using hand grenades and RPG's to disrupt enemy positions.
Attacks were swift and unexpected, they were able to damage key American bases and the American’s morale.
Secret supply lines and paths, based on ancient footpaths through the jungles on the borders between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, known to Americans as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
“The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue ”
10 Sources Analysis Answer Guide
Don’t forget: Quote often and begin your response with name of the author, not the Source number. Put the source number in brackets at the end of the quote/paraphrasing.
For example:
This is supported by Jones who states that 'History students would be more popular at parties if they used this method.' (Source 3)
More successful responses:
contain relevant evidence (quotes and observations) from sources when required.
Less successful responses
provide responses without reference to any evidence from the source
state that sources are limited without explaining why using evidence
do not assess the nature of sources clearly
do not explain how the nature and origin of the sources are a strength or limitation
do not include the source in the response.