Vietnam War

More than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and an estimated two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed in the Vietnam War (1954–75). It was a vicious, brutal conflict fought in a land few Americans could even identify on a map at the beginning of the 1960s. By the time it was over, the war had divided America over the issue of foreign policy.

Roots of the war

In the 1800s the French took control of an area in Asia that included Vietnam. The Japanese, in an effort to gain control of trade in the Far East, evicted French forces from the region early in World War II (1939–45). When native political forces rebelled against Japanese rule, the United States was eager to help them because the Japanese were their enemies as well. The United States provided weapons and advice to these Vietnamese patriots, also known as Vietminh. Their leader was a man named Ho Chi Minh (c.1890–1969).

When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, Ho Chi Minh came to power and claimed Vietnam's right to self-rule. But that same year, the United States helped its longtime ally, France, regain control over the area. The United States justified its support of France by claiming that the Vietminh were Communists (people who support a system of government in which the state controls the economy and all property and wealth are shared equally by the people) and posed a threat to the little country's well-being.

When the Vietminh went to war to evict the French from Vietnam, the United States ignored pleas for assistance from the Vietminh and instead gave France money, weapons, and advice. By 1954 the conflict had killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides, as well as countless Vietnamese civilians. France withdrew from the area by negotiating a peace treaty that split Vietnam in half. North Vietnam was controlled by Communists led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam was led by Ngo Dinh Diem (1901–1963) and supported by the United States. Neither side was pleased with the arrangement.

America goes to war

Diem turned out to be a brutal dictator who ran his country in a manner that violated American values. Because he was an oppressive leader who tortured and killed his own people, he had little support even within his own country. As this type of treatment continued, more and more South Vietnamese supported the North Vietnamese and wanted the two countries to unite under Communist rule. These people were called the Viet Cong. They rebelled against Diem's forces and in 1960 alone, killed more than 2,500 government officials.

As John F. Kennedy (1917–63; served 1961–63) took presidential office, the situation in Vietnam demanded his immediate attention. The new president was passionately anticommunist and determined to support Diem's government. He slowly increased American monetary aid, which reached half a billion dollars by 1962. In addition, he had stationed more than eleven thousand military advisers in South Vietnam by 1962. These advisers were actually soldiers, but because federal law prohibits a president from sending soldiers to fight a foreign war without congressional approval, all soldiers were considered “advisers.”

This military aid was meant only to support Diem's government, not to assist in attacks on North Vietnam. But as the North continued to gain supporters from the South, the United States was drawn further into the conflict.

Kennedy's assassination in 1963 put Vice President Lyndon Johnson (1909–1973; served 1963–69) in the president's chair. Some advisers urged him to withdraw troops from Vietnam; most urged him to increase American involvement to send a clear message to the Communist superpower Soviet Union that no attempts at spreading Communism would be accepted. By the summer of 1964, Johnson had increased the number of soldiers and advisers to twenty thousand.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Maddox was ordered to sail to the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea on July 28, 1964. Its mission was to support South Vietnamese commando raids along the North Vietnamese coast. The purpose of the raids was to gather intelligence on radar sites and defenses in North Vietnam.

Three North Vietnam torpedo boats attacked the Maddox on August 2. The destroyer sank two enemy boats, but the third escaped. The next day, the Maddox was joined by the USS Turner Joy. On August 4, radar information led the two ships to report a second attack. This report elicited a strong response from President Johnson, who used the report to order an immediate aerial assault on the North Vietnamese coastline. It was the United States's first major air strike on North Vietnam.

Johnson also used the report to seek special authority to take further military action if necessary. Congress composed a resolution that gave Johnson this power. It became known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Johnson and his administration convinced the American public that unwavering support of the government would make North Vietnam understand that the United States could not be intimidated. The resolution passed almost unanimously in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Although further investigation revealed that the second attack never happened, Johnson did not share that information. And although the resolution granted the United States power to attack and escalate the fighting in Vietnam, it never did convince the Communists to back down.

Johnson was reelected in 1964. Before the end of the year, the Viet Cong had control of many South Vietnamese provinces. On Christmas Eve they bombed a U.S. officer barracks in the city of Saigon, killing two soldiers and wounding many others, including civilians.

Escalation

Although war was never officially declared on Vietnam, the United States drastically increased its involvement in the conflict in 1965. Over the next few years, the “Americanization” of the war developed quickly

as U.S. bombing campaigns killed thousands. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers fought the Viet Cong, whose guerilla strategies using small groups of fighters launching surprise attacks were unlike anything the U.S. military had ever confronted. Because they were fighting on their own turf, using their own strategies, the Communist forces remained strong. American soldiers were not well prepared either physically or mentally for the kind of fighting they encountered. To make matters worse, most of the U.S. troops had been forced into service by the military draft. The average age of an American infantryman in the Vietnam War was 22.8 years.

By 1967 the war had reached a stalemate; neither side was winning, and nothing much was happening. Despite major bombing campaigns, the United States could not reach its goals. The harder Americans fought, the more determined the Communist forces became. American troops were under the command of General William Westmoreland (1914–). He had been confident that with more troops, he could wipe out the Viet Cong. His efforts included search-and-destroy missions that used weapons, helicopters, and other resources to raid rural towns and villages and kill anyone suspected of being a Viet Cong or Viet Cong supporter. One such mission, which came to be known as the My Lai Massacre , took place in the small hamlet of My Lai on March 16, 1968. American soldiers brutalized and murdered between three hundred and five hundred unarmed, unresisting women, children, and elderly men.

It soon became evident that these missions were useless. Because so many people assisted the Viet Cong, the guerrilla fighters would slip away right before a town or village was raided. Then, as military attention was diverted elsewhere, the Viet Cong forces would sneak back in and resume their activities.

Peasants pay the price The peasant population of South Vietnam paid a heavy price as it found itself caught in the middle of the fighting. Although some peasants joined the Viet Cong of their own free will, most were forced into assisting the fighters. Viet Cong agents monitored the behavior and actions of villagers throughout the country, and anyone suspected of helping U.S. forces was brutally punished. Yet the villagers resented American troops as well. U.S. bombing campaigns destroyed their homes, killed their children, and drove hundreds of thousands to the crowded cities. Toxic chemicals were sprayed on crops to kill the vegetation and force Communist fighters out of hiding, but these chemicals also killed the peasants' food supply and resulted in severe birth defects in babies born during the war and for years afterward.

Stalemate and a change of sentiment

As the war reached a stalemate, the U.S. economy suffered. The government did not have enough money to sustain the war and fund social programs. As a result, the cost of food, clothing, and other goods and services rose drastically, making them less affordable. Americans became angry as their own lives became less comfortable because of a war that wasn't producing results.

Anger gave rise to a tremendous antiwar movement . Opposition increased on college campuses and in the streets. The people no longer trusted the government; they had been told that victory was at hand too many times when the reality was far different. Those who had once supported the overseas involvement of U.S. forces now marched in protest of the prolonged fighting.

Civilians were not the only people to change their minds about the legitimacy of the war when U.S. involvement escalated. Johnson's secretary of defense surprised everyone when he began pushing for peace negotiations in the mid-1960s. Robert McNamara (1916–) had supervised the military build-up in Vietnam in the early and mid-1960s. An intelligent man, he had relied on statistics and analysis to solve conflict. He was seen as the driving force behind the military's strategy, and some antiwar protestors called the conflict McNamara's War.

McNamara's confidence in the United States's ability to end the war quickly faded as it became obvious that victory was nowhere near at hand. His efforts for negotiation failed. Even after McNamara's eighth trip to Vietnam and his report to Johnson that the Communist forces were stronger than ever, Johnson would not alter his course. Many people believed McNamara should have gone public with his analysis.

In 1967, in testimony before a Senate committee, McNamara reported that the bombing campaigns were not having the desired effect, nor would they ever. McNamara's honesty cost him his job. His duties

were distributed among other officials, and McNamara left the administration in February 1968.

Tet Offensive

The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese launched a surprise assault in January 1968. Known as the Tet Offensive , it did not succeed in collapsing the Saigon government, but it did reinforce McNamara's warning that U.S. bombing campaigns were not going to win the war.

Tet is a Vietnamese holiday, and no one expected fighting during that time, but rebel forces seized control of villages, towns, and cities throughout South Vietnam. Hundreds of civilians were executed by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops and buried in shallow graves.

Despite this carnage, Johnson and his administration repeatedly assured the American public that the enemy was weakening. When news of the Tet Offensive was publicized, Americans were outraged. Their anger only intensified when it was reported that Johnson was considering sending another two hundred thousand troops overseas.

Johnson's presidency was destroyed by his decisions and deceit. The majority of Americans wanted out of Vietnam. Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74) was elected president on a promise for an honorable end to a dishonorable war. He and his foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger (1923–), achieved a peace settlement in Paris in January 1973. All U.S.combat forces in South Vietnam returned home, even as North Vietnamese troops were allowed to remain. The Paris agreement did not resolve the conflict, but it did provide a way out for the United States.

North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon in April 1975, and South Vietnam became a Communist country. Millions left the country over the next several years. The United States admitted millions of Vietnamese and Laotians who had supported U.S. efforts in the war; others remained in refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia.

The legacy of Vietnam lived on long after physical fighting had ended. The United States was not accustomed to losing. Diehard supporters of the war insisted that if U.S. troops had remained in place for just a while longer, surely they could have claimed victory. Government analysis does not support this viewpoint, and when investigations and reports were leaked to the press in 1971, they revealed numerous mistakes and poor decisions on the part of U.S. leaders.

As it was, the United States struggled for decades to recover from the Vietnam War.