Viet Cong
• Good soldiers
o 170,000 (clearly outnumbered)
• Right Technology
o Weapons and equipment provided from China and the USSR
o Still outgunned by the US and South Vietnamese forces
• Good supplies and equipment
o Viet Cong depended on supplies from North Vietnam which came along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
o 40,000 Vietnamese people worked to keep the trail open despite the constant bombing from the South Vietnamese planes
• Effective techniques
o Guerrilla tactics used
No uniform
No known base camp or HQ
Worked in small groups with little weapons
Attacked then disappeared into the dense jungle or extensive tunnel network
Ambushes and booby traps also used
• Support from the Vietnamese people
o Troops were encouraged to be courteous towards peasants and even help them in the field during busy periods
o They however were prepared to kill any peasants who opposed them
• Motivated and committed soldiers
o Refused to give in
o There was a campaign of terror against those who work for the South Korean government
The US Army
• Good soldiers
o Inexperienced US troops often walked into traps
o Basic training was inadequate
o Tour of duty was only a year
o First time most had been exposed to warfare
o Low IQ Ratings
o Average age of 19
• The Right Technology
o Access to bombs which they used regularly on extensive bombing raids
o Chemical weapons also used (such as Agent Orange and Napalm)
• Effective techniques
o Napalm and Agent Orange used
o Search and Destroy techniques
1. US Commander Westmorland established secure and heavily defended US base near the south of the country
2. US and South Vietnamese forces descended on villages by helicopter and destroyed any Vietcong forces found
• Raids were usually based upon inadequate information
• Inexperienced US troops walked into traps
• Many civilian casualties
• Support from the Vietnamese people
o Innocent villages were sometimes mistaken for Viet Cong strongholds
o US and South Vietnamese were unpopular with the peasants causing many to support the Viet Cong
• Motivated and committed soldiers
o Soldiers were fighting to stop the spread of communism
Why did the Viet Cong choose guerrilla tactics?
• Outnumbered and gunned
• Viet Cong had the sympathy of the peasants
• Ho had used it before on the Japanese and the French
• It worked as it wrecked moral, helped to wear down the enemy and it was expensive and difficult to kill a Viet Cong fighter
• Artillery was ineffective in dense jungle
• Suitable land and territory
• Viet Cong were more accustomed to the territory than the US
Operation Rolling Thunder
Launched on 7th February 1965, included the widespread bombing raids on military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. Target was gradually increased to include cities in North and South Vietnam. The USA dropped more bombs in Vietnam than during the entire Second World War.
Success:
• Damaged North Vietnam’s war effort and disrupted supply route
• Caused considerable damage to cities and towns in North Vietnam
• Forced North Vietnam to the negotiating table later in the war
Failure:
• North Vietnam had few factories to bomb and therefore countryside was mainly affected
• Encouraged greater support for the war from North Vietnam
• Did not supplies reaching the Viet Cong from the North
• Cost a lot
Tet Offensive
On January 1968, Vietcong launched a massive attack over 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam during the New year holiday. Conventional warfare was used as opposed to guerrilla warfare.
It was launched as:
• Half the AVRN were on leave due to the holiday
• The war was unpopular with the US, and therefore a US defeat may force them out of the
• conflict
• US Public opinion may prevent dispatch of addition troops
• Hoped that the offensive would inspire mass support from the people of South Vietnam
Main features include:
• Vietcong rapidly advanced into major towns, cities and other military targets
• Fifteen man suicide squad reached US embassy in Saigon. They held it out for 5 hours.
• Vietcong captured the major Northern city of Hue and held it for 25 days. During this time, the Vietcong executed anyone who was suspected of collaborating with the USA or South Vietnamese government
Success for the South:
• Vietcong lost most of its fighters and independence, now more closely controlled by Hanoi
• 4500 Vietcong fighters killed
• Very few in the South joined the Vietcong offensive
• The offensive killed many of the finest Vietcong fighters
• US casualties only came to 1500
Success for the North:
• Ancient city of Hue destroyed with 3000 AVRN casualties
• After seeing Vietcong reach embassy, people believed the war could not be won
• USA and AVRN used a lot of artillery and air power to defeat the Vietcong
Public media
Towards the beginning, newspapers and television journalists were in favour of the war.
December 1966, North Vietnamese allow Harrison Salisbury (Journalist for New York Times) to report on the destruction of civilian areas and civilian casualties due to American bombing raids. The report increased the ‘credibility gap’ as the US military always denied that their bombs hit civilian targets.
August 1967 was the first poll where more people thought the war was a mistake than those who thought it was right. The war was costing America $20 billion a year at this time.
Impact of Tet - It was shocking to the US public. The Chief of Police also had shot an individual in the head with no trial.
My Lai massacre
March 1968, Charlie Company launched a search and destroy mission. They were told that My Lai was a Viet Cong headquarter with 200 fighters. The soldiers were under the impression they had to kill everyone they had found in the village. Between 300 to 400 civilians were killed. No Viet Cong was found in the village and only 3 weapons were found. It took 12 months for anyone to anything about the massacre.
Opposition to the war
Burning Draft Cards:
Some burnt their draft card or refused to report to training. 34,000 draft-dodgers were wanted by the police. The Camden 28 participated in the last attack on a draft board in 1971. They were all found non-guilty.
Blacks:
Martin Luther King believed poor blacks were targeted, and made up a large fraction of the recruits.
Protests:
Many protests against the war, “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” were leading the way. After Nixon announced troops were entering neural Cambodia (1970), protests occurred in universities around the USA. In one protest in May, the National Guard shot dead four students. These killings caused 400 protests and strikes in other universities.
Why did Opposition increase?
Operation Phoenix:
Set up in 1968 by the CIA with the purpose of identifying and arresting VC suspects in areas controlled by South Vietnam. The CIA had a target of 3000 suspects to neutralise each month. Many innocent people were taken in in order to reach the quota of 3000. The Phoenix program had wiped many communist bases in the South.
The Pentagon Papers:
In 1967, a Pentagon employee was asked to collect all government documents to do with Vietnam from 1940 onwards. These secret documents showed how the USA government officials had sometime lied about or covered up war incidents. The documents also showed that the US government had failed to understand what they were getting involved with. All 7000 papers were photocopied and passed to the New York Times. The employee Ellsberg was not charged, and two attempts to put him on trial had to be stopped as Nixon used illegal methods to get evidence ushc as bugging his telephone and breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. The publication of the papers made him more obsessed with security which led him to use any method, including criminal ones to stop leaks of information from the white house. This led him to illegally covering up the truth about the Watergate scandal which forced him to retire in 1974.
Impact of opposition
Great impact:
• Johnson declared he wouldn’t seek re-election as president due to the unpopularity of war
• Nixon won the election as he promised to end the war
• Vietnamisation was introduced in 1969 to reduce opposition
Limited impact:
• Protesters were seen as communists and therefore were labelled as traitors and cowards
• Level of opposition wasn’t as great as claimed
• Number of people were active and enthusiastic supporters of the war and the containment of communism. For example, in 1970 200 hard-hat construction workers attacked a peaceful crowd of anti-war protesters
Vietnamisation
Involved South Vietnamese troops to be trained and equipped to take place of US troops. The US troops would gradually return home. President Thieu’s government would still receive financial and military aid and the US air force would continue supporting ground troops.
Nixon Doctrine: Nixon claimed that the USA would honour its current defence committees but not commit troops anywhere else.
War spreading to Cambodia and Laos
In favour:
• Necessary for the purpose of ending the war and for the withdrawal program to work
• His decision had wide support
• Would keep American casualties low as the Viet Cong and NVA were using safe havens in Cambodia as springboards for offensives into South Vietnam
• Bombing had less US Casualties than providing ground troops
Against:
• Illegal especially considering the congress was not consulted
• The bombing was disproportionate
• 500,000 civilian casualties in Cambodia
• Cambodia is a neutral country
• Damaging to Nixon’s political position
Peace process
Agreement was reached in October 1972.
Nixon first exploits divisions between China and the Soviet Union and between China and Vietnam. He then becomes the first US president to visit the soviet capital which meant the relationships became stronger. October agreements followed (mentioned above). Talks were halted as President Thieu refused the agreement. Bombing campaign starts again and then finally in January 1973 President Thieu signs it with the promise that the South would be aided and help would be provided if the North violated the agreement. US troops had fully withdrawn by the 29th of March.
South Vietnam were left with the world’s fourth largest air force and their one million army were equipped with the latest American weapons.
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