The Vietnam War

FASIHA BINTI BUSTAMI 1318146
MASYITAH BINTI REDUAN 1411816
FITRIANI BINTI SHIFOLLAH 1312440

Overview
• Known as the Second Indochina War/American War.
• Longest war in U.S. history.
• The war occurred from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975.
• Cost the U.S. for $168 billion - $200 billion
• Nearly 58,000 American died
• Fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North
Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist
allies. While the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South
Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies.

Background of the war
• During World War II, Japan invaded and occupied Vietnam that
had been under French administration since the late 19th
century.
• Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Minh, (short for Viet Nam Doc Lap
Dong Minh Hoi, or League for the Independence of Vietnam), to
fight both Japan and the French colonial administration.
• 1945 – Japan withdrew its forces leaving the French-educated
Emperor Bao Dai in control of an independent Vietnam.
• Ho’s Viet Minh forces seizing the northern city of Hanoi and
declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as
president.
• Ho Chi Minh was sent aid by China. While France was sent aid
by the United States.

Cont…
• Pres. Harry S. Truman sent $15 million to France to help with war. United
States is paying 75%-80% of France’s military cost.
• France backed Bao and set up the state of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in July
1949, with Saigon as its capital.
• In May 1954, the French army's catastrophic defeat by Viet Minh forces at Dien
Bien Phu.
• Geneva Convention Agreements Announced:
Cambodia and Laos which had been part of the French colony received
their independence.
split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th parallel and called for
nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956.

Cont…
• The refusal of the strongly anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem to allow
the elections, eventually led to the first phase of the Second
Indochina War.
• In 1955, Diem pushed Bao aside to become president of the
Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN) in rigged election.
• At first, Diem was a good president by building new schools and
helping the economy. However, the number of people who didn’t
like him grew.
• After 1956, Diem's government faced increasingly serious
opposition from the Viet Cong, insurgents aided by North Vietnam.
• The Viet Cong became masters of the guerrilla tactics of North
Vietnam's Vo Nguyen Giap.
• Since Diem was a Catholic, he didn’t agree with the Buddhists so
they became oppressed since he ignored them.

• In protest to the Diem - Buddhist monks set themselves on
fire. The Viet Cong is gaining support in South Vietnam.
• Diem's army received U.S. advice and aid, but was unable to
suppress the guerrillas, who established a political
organization, the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960.
• South Vietnam signed a military and economic aid treaty with
the United States leading to the arrival of U.S. support troops
in 1961 and the formation of the U.S. Military Assistance
Command in 1962.
• Nov. 1963, Diem was executed. No one was able to establish
control in South Vietnam until June, 1965, when Nguyen Cao
Ky became premier.
• U.S. military aid to South Vietnam increased, especially after
the U.S. Senate passed the Tonkin Gulf resolution (Aug. 7,
1964) at the request of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Cont...

• North Vietnamese Communist forces viewed the conflict as
a colonial war against forces from France and the U.S.
• The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way
to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam.
Why did the US get involved?

U.S. Intervention Begins
• With the Cold War intensifying, the United States hardened its policies against
any allies of the Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D.
Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam.
• They decided to resume the responsibility of training South Vietnamese
forces after the French left.
• With equipment from American forces, Diem’s security forces cracked down
on Viet Minh sympathizers in the south, whom he called Viet Cong, arresting
about 100,000 people, many of whom were tortured and executed.

• By 1957, North Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong and other opponents of
Diem’s regime began their communist insurgent activities with guerrilla attacks
on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun
engaging South Vietnamese Army forces in firefights.
• During this time in 1959, North Vietnam forms Group 559 and began bringing
in weapons into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail became a
strategic target for future military attacks.
• In December 1960, Diem’s opponents within South Vietnam–both communist
and non-communist–formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize
resistance to the regime.

• In 1961, President John F. Kennedy’s report team advised a build-up of
American military, economic and technical aid in order to help confront the
Viet Cong threat. They believed that if one Southeast Asian country fell to
communism, many would follow.
• Kennedy increased aid from the United States. Diệm signed a military and
economic aid treaty with them, leading to the arrival of United States support
troops and the formation of the United States Military Assistance Command in
1962.
• By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000
troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.

The War Escalates
• Somewhere in November 1963, Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were
killed in a coup by some of his own generals. This was three weeks before
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
• The current political instability in South Vietnam left Kennedy’s
successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara no
choice but to further increase U.S. military and economic support.
• The following August, after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers
in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military
targets in North Vietnam and U.S planes began regular bombing raids.

• In March 1965, Johnson made the decision to send U.S. combat forces into battle
in Vietnam.
• By June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, and the U.S.
General Westmoreland was calling for 175,000 more by the end of 1965 to back
the struggling South Vietnamese army.
• Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July
1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. In addition to the United States, South
Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in
South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale).

War Strategies
• In addition to the air attacks on North Vietnam, the United States-South
Vietnamese war effort in the south was fought on the ground, largely under the
command of General Westmoreland, in coordination with the government of
General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon.
• The U.S. military forces in the region practiced a policy of attrition, aiming to kill as
many enemy troops as possible rather than trying to secure territory.
• Meanwhile, supported by aid from China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam
strengthened its air defenses.
• Even as the death count increased rapidly, the United States-South Vietnam and
Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting, encouraged by the fact that they could
easily reoccupy lost territory.

• By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching
500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded.
• As the war stretched on, some soldiers started to mistrust their government’s
reasons for keeping them there. There began an increased physical and
psychological deterioration among American soldiers, including drug use,
mutinies and attacks by soldiers against officers.
• Seeing horrible images of the war on television, Americans at home turned
against the U.S. government. In October 1967, 35,000 demonstrators staged a
mass antiwar protest outside the Pentagon. The protesters of the war argued that
civilians were the primary victims and that the United States was supporting a
corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.

The Tet Offensive
• By the end of 1967, Hanoi’s communist leadership was growing impatient and
wanted to strike a decisive blow aimed at forcing the better-equipped United
States to give up.
• In late January, 1968, during the lunar new year (or Tet) holiday, North
Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack
against a number of targets in South Vietnam.
• Around 70,000 Viet Cong forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched a
series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam.
• United States and South Vietnamese forces managed to strike back quickly,
and the communists were unable to hold any of the targets for more than a day
or two.
• Reports of the attacks shocked the American public especially after news
broke that General Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops.

• At this point of time, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam in March
although bombings continued in the South and promised to dedicate the rest of his
presidential term to seeking peace and decided that he would not seek a second term as
president.
• Within the United States, protests against continued involvement in Vietnam intensified.
He announced to place a limit on U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
• His speech in March 1968 met with positive responses from Hanoi, North Vietnam.
Johnson also attempted peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris
that May. The dialogue reached an impasse.
• Soon after, Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey to win the White
House.
• Fighting between South Vietnamese and Communists continued despite the peace
agreement.
• Direct U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973. The capture of Saigon by the
North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South
Vietnam were reunified the following year.

ECONOMY CRISIS
• U.S. had spent of $168 billion - $200 billion on the war.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson facing unleashed an acceleration of
inflation peaking at a runaway double-digit in mid 1970s.
• led to an increasingly unfavorable balance in trade which contributed
to international monetary crisis and threat to U.S. gold reserves in
1967-68.
• Increased food prices and contributed to the oil price hike in 1973,
which then led to inflationary expectations.

SPUR POLICY CHANGES
1. The Right to Vote at Age 18
- The youth had to involved in the war when they didn’t reach the age of
voting and consume alcohol, put pressure to legislators to lower the
voting age nationally.
2. The End of the Draft
-President Nixon signed a new law to end the draft and put the selective
service structure on standby.
3. An All-Volunteer Force (AVF)
-The AVF turned out to be a positive development in the midst of
widespread sentiment against the military after the Vietnam War.

4. Limit the President’s Veto
-the War Powers Resolution (or War Powers Act)
-which restricted the president’s power to send
American troops into combat for more than 90
days without explicit Congressional consent.
Richard M. Nixon,
the 37th President of
U.S.

MISTRUSTTHE GOVERNMENT
• More and more American citizens became suspicious, skeptical
and cynical about the government and public institutions in the
wake of the Vietnam War.
• The military, in particular, was discredited for years after the
conflict.
• A factor that helped the citizens form a dislike for the soldier was
because the war was televised. The people could watch the
horrible things that the U.S. soldiers were doing to the Vietnamese
citizens, who hadn't done anything wrong.

Student activists in the 1960s protested against US
involvement in the Vietnam War

Anti-Vietnam War rally on the National Mall
in Washington, D.C. 1971

“VIETNAM SYNDROME”
• “the Vietnam Effect” or “the Vietnam Syndrome”, which describes
America’s reluctance to commit troops oversea unless it is
absolutely necessary to protect the national interests or when
there is a strong public support with a high probability of a
relatively quick and inexpensive victory.
• After Vietnam, American leaders became more wary of intruding
in another country’s problems.

DEATH TOLL
• The war killed an estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians,
1.1 million North Vietnamese troops, 200,000 South
Vietnamese troops, and 58,000 U.S. troops.
• Those wounded in combat numbered tens of thousands more.

IMPACT OF AGENT ORANGE
• The chemical most used for
‘Operation Ranch Hand’ was
known as ‘Agent Orange’.
• In 1969 alone, 1,034,300
hectares of forest was
destroyed using ‘Agent Orange’.
• It is currently affecting the
second and third generations of
people directly exposed to
Agent Orange decades ago.

DISEASES
Porphyria
Cutanea Tarda
Multiple
Myeloma
Hodgkin’s
Disease
Respiratory
Cancers
Non-hodgkin’s
Lymphoma
Early-onset
Peripheral
Neuropathy
Prostate
Cancer
Chloracne

BEFORE AFTER
Children affected
by agent orange

THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM (SRV)
• In July 1976, the new unified Vietnam was officially reunited as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam with its capital at Hanoi.
• Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
• Communist leaders in Hanoi adopted an ambitious plan to bring
about the creation of an advanced Communist society.
• However, extensive war damage, lack of foreign investment,
managerial inexperience, and the passive resistance of millions of
people in the southern provinces all combined to defeat the
program.

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES
• The Vietnam War had taken a severe toll on Vietnamese farmland,
industry and infrastructure.
• In the post-war south at least three million civilians were unemployed,
while several million took to the roads in search of food.
• The US and its allies refused to trade with Hanoi, in part because of
disputes over missing American servicemen Washington claimed were
still imprisoned in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War

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