5.1 Vietnam War Overview

The Vietnam War
Causes and how it was fought

Learning Intention To develop a base understanding of the cause(s) of the
Vietnam War, the basic chronology of the War and the
nature of the fighting in this conflict.
Success Criteria All I can outline the main causes of the conflict and
how it was fought
Most I can describe the main causes of this conflict
and explain the differences in how both sides fought in
this conflict
Some I can explain the main causes and evaluate the
way both sides fought in this conflict
Proxy Wars
• A military conflict in which a third party/parties
directly or indirectly support one or more state
or nonstate combatants to influence the
conflict’s outcome in hopes to support their own
strategic interests
• There is a long list of proxy wars in history where
countries have attempted to influence or
overpower neighbouring states
• An example of a proxy war is the 1962 Cuban
Missile Crisis:
• Although the USA and USSR never fought
directly, they pulled other countries into
fighting their war for their own advances.
Vietnam Under the French
• Vietnam was a French colony until 1954, when France
was defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
• The Geneva Agreement of 1954 temporarily divided
Vietnam into two zones:
• The northern zone was governed by the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi
Minh
• The southern zone was governed by an anti-communist
government under Ngo Dinh Diem, supported by the USA
• The Truman Doctrine of 1947 introduced the policy of
containment, aiming to prevent the spread of communism.
• This was based on the Domino Theory, which suggested
that if one country fell to communism, neighbouring
countries would follow.
The problem with Diem
• Ngo Dinh Diem was an unpopular leader with much of the South Vietnamese
people.
• He had removed the previous leader in a fraudulent election, in which he had won
600,000 votes in a country with only 450,000 people eligible to vote!
• Diem believed Vietnam needed a ‘democratic one-man rule’, which is considered
an oxymoron.
• He was a rich landowner in a country of poor peasant farmers which obviously
left people feeling a lack of connection
• He was a Catholic and openly discriminated against Buddhists (Buddhism was
the most popular religion in Vietnam at the time). Some Buddhists, for example
the Buddhist monk Quang Duc, burnt themselves to death in protest at Diem’s
government.
• He was a staunch anti-communist, and the USA was operating a strategy of
containment.
TRIGGER WARNING FOR
THE NEXT SLIDE – SKIP TO
SLIDE 8 IF YOU FEEL
UNCOMFORTABLE WITH
FIRE/DEATH
The Vietcong
• Vietnamese military and political
organisation
• Vietnamese communists
• Against the oppression of Diem in the
south
• Fought a guerilla war against the
south, whilst supported by the north
(late 1950s-1975)
Why did America
get involved?
• For fear of communism based on their
Containment Policy
• Concern of an entire communist takeover
• USA financial aid to Vietnam was unsuccessful
• The US initially supported Diem financially and
economically however they eventually withdrew
support based on his harsh leadership. His own
Generals then assassinated him in a political
intervention
• Two “unprovoked” attacks by North Vietnamese
torpedo boats on two US naval vessels 5th August
1964
American Tactics
• Bombing Operation Rolling Thunder. The USA would ultimately drop 3 million
tonnes of bombs in Vietnam - more than all the bombs dropped in Europe during
World War Two
• Escalation increase in number of soldiers in country
• Air and artillery - American troops were sent on patrols, to be supported by air and
artillery if attacked by the Vietcong
• Search and Destroy - From 1965, the American military began a policy of sending
soldiers into the jungle and villages of Vietnam to ‘take the war to the enemy’. In
1968, a mission to the village of My Lai ended with the massacre of many innocent
civilians, including women and children.
• Technology - The USA relied on high altitude bombers to drop heavy bombs in
North Vietnam. They used jets to dump napalm, a chemical that burnt skin to the
bone, on suspected Vietcong strongholds. They used Agent Orange, a powerful
defoliant, to destroy jungle cover. Helicopters were used to deploy (search for) and
destroy guerrilla combatants. Television propaganda was used in the USA to report
the ‘body count’ of estimated Vietcong casualties.
US Military Tactics
“My solution to the problem would be to tell
them (the North Vietnamese) frankly that
they’ve got to draw in their horns..., or we’re
going to bomb them back to the Stone Age”.
Curtis Lemay, Commander of the Strategic air Command, U.S Air Force
chief of staff, 25 November 1965
Napalm and Agent Orange
• Napalm – a weaponized mixture of chemicals designed
to create a highly flammable and gelatinous liquid
• A single bomb was capable of destroying areas of up to
2500 square yards
• Agent Orange – a mixture of herbicides for the purpose
of defoliating forest areas that might conceal Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese forces, along with destroying
crops that may feed the enemy
• Exposure caused high numbers of miscarriages, skin
diseases, cancer, birth defects, and extreme
malformations
My Lai
Massacre,
March 1968
Search and destroy mission
made up of three platoons
of American soldiers
landed in the small village
of My Lai.
One of the platoons, led by

Lieutenant William Calley,
spent the next two hours or
so killing in cold blood a
large number of unarmed
Vietnamese men, women
and children.
How the war was fought:
THE VIETCONG (NORTH VIETNAMESE)

• Infiltrate the countryside - get to know the people
• Guerrilla warfare - ambush enemy vehicles, isolate units, sabotage,
terrorism, murder, plant mines and booby traps
• Open warfare
• Tunnels - extensive system of underground tunnels around 250km in length.
The Vietcong Military Tactics
The Vietcong Tunnel System:
The Vietcong
Tunnel System
• There are 250 km of tunnels under Vietnam. They
were originally dug for fighting the French.
• The trap doors were covered with litter and impossible
to see. The Vietcong lived underground, scurrying
along the tunnels. There were several layers of
tunnels. They even cooked underground, venting the
smoke and smells 100’s of meters away with small
vents up through mounds of earth.
• They gained fresh air via other vents that went up
unobtrusively into termite mounds (natural and man
made)
Cu Chi Tunnels
Why did the
USA fail?
THE TET OFFENSIVE, 1968
• By January 1968 over half of the US soldiers were
based in South Vietnam, the NVA and Vietcong had
lost nearly 100,000 men in the previous year-
Key turning General Westmoreland was convinced he was
winning the war.
point of the • Vietnamese began to observe the Tet festival (lunar

New Year)- Wednesday, 31 January, Americans and
South Vietnamese assumed the North would be
war celebrating Tet- they were wrong.
• The North began a massive offensive, catching the
US and South Vietnamese forces off guard- the
sound of enemy rockets and guns became
confused with the sound of friendly fireworks.
THE TET OFFENSIVE, 1968
• Over 100,000 people were killed during the Tet offensive,
at least 30,000 were Vietcong- this was considered to be a
failure by the North Vietnamese leaders, they agreed to
Key turning take part in peace talks.
• Impact on the US- press and TV coverage prior to Tet gave
point of the the US public the impression that the war would soon be
over, the scale and scope of Tet gave them the impression
that they had been mislead by the Army.
war • The Army still considered Tet as a victory and were
dismayed that media decided otherwise. Nevertheless, Tet
convinced most Americans that the war must end asap.
• These events, teamed with the draft, media and returned
soldiers, triggered the beginning of a widespread peace
movement across the US.
Battles
of Tet
Street execution of a Vietcong suspect by
the Saigon police chief in 1968
Nixon introduced a policy of Vietnamisation,
also known as the Nixon Doctrine, in a speech
on 25th July 1969. This meant building up the
capacity of the armed forces of America’s
allies in Vietnam until they could take
responsibility for their own defence.
Trying to
get out In effect it meant the USA was beginning the
process of withdrawing troops from Vietnam,
while strengthening the South Vietnamese
army with the aim of getting it to take over
the war against communism.
To do
Task 1: Causes
 Complete table on OneNote. A couple dot-points per topic is sufficient.
Task 2: Definitions
 Define the key terms – refer to textbook Chapter 4
Task 3: Textbook ‘to do’
 Historical Inquiry - p.113
Task 4: Coursework questions
 Using two to three points, respond to the below prompts.
1. Explain why America became involved in the Vietnam conflict. /5 marks
2. Discuss why the American led forces ultimately were unable to defeat the North Vietnamese Army/Viet Cong. /5
marks
Homework: Read textbook p.122-124 (at least) and come up with at least 1
question you would like to ask our Vietnam Veteran next week.
-

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The Vietnam War

Causes and how it was fought

One of the platoons, led by

THE VIETCONG (NORTH VIETNAMESE)

point of the • Vietnamese began to observe the Tet festival (lunar

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