4.3: the Vietnam War

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

AGE 10. The Time of Television and Computers

4.3  the Vietnam War

What is this lesson about?

After Vietnam won its independenc from France in 1954, the USA took action to prevent the country from turning into a communist state.  Vietnam was split north-south, with the promise of elections after which the country would be reunited. These elections never took place and this started the Vietnam War.

How did this war come about? Why did the USA participate and what were the consequences of this war?

people in this lesson

Lyndon Johnson

president

USA

Richard Nixon

president

USA

Ho Chi Minh

leader

North Vietnam

Word Duty

Domino theory: US theory (from the 1950s to the 1980s) stating that if one state came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow.

guerrilla warfare: war fought by small groups of irregular soldiers against larger regular forces.

Vietnam War: a war fought between North and South Vietnam (1955–1975) that was part of the Cold War.

hippie: person that belongs to a youth culture of the 1960s and 1970s

WORD DUTY

Important dates in this lesson:

1954: Vietnam split in North and South Vietnam

1964: Tonkin Incident

1965 - 1968: Operation Rolling Thunder

1968: Tet Offensive

          My Lai Massacre

1973: Paris Peace Accords

1975: North Vietnam conquers South Vietnam

Vietnam: Fighting for independence

Vietnam, a French colony since 1887, was occupied by Japan during World War II. When the war was over, France tried to take back control of its former colony. 

This was against the wishes of the Vietnamese people, who wanted to live in an independent country. A Vietnamese army, called the Viet Minh, opposed France’s re- occupation. This army was founded by the communist party and led by Ho Chi Minh. The Viet Minh fought a long and hard war against the French that lasted for nine years, eventually overthrowing them in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.

After this battle, the French and Viet Minh signed a peace treaty, agreeing that Vietnam was temporarily to be split in two. Ho Chi Minh became leader of the North, while an anti-communist and pro-American became the leader of the South. In two years they were to organise democratic elections, so the Vietnamese people could decide on the future of their country. After that, Vietnam would be reunited.

although liberated by the Soviets, the new Yugoslav peresident Tito was able to break his country free from Stalin's control in 1948.

North and South Vietnam

The US president feared that Ho Chi Minh would win the elections. Vietnam, once reunited, could then fall under the influence of communism. The USA believed in the Domino theory, fearing that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then surrounding countries would follow like a row of falling dominoes. South Vietnam feared a communist election victory and stopped the elections taking place. The USA supported South Vietnam in this decision and sent military aid to make sure that South Vietnam would not be overtaken by the North.

However, Ho Chi Minh did start a campaign to take over South Vietnam. He established the Viet Cong: North Vietnamese soldiers stationed in South Vietnam to fight against the South Vietnamese army and, later, the American army. The Viet Cong specialised in guerrilla warfare, which meant that they did not fight face to face, but hid in the jungle and killed soldiers from their hiding places.

Source A

 South Vietnamese propaganda poster from August 1954. The text reads ‘Move to the South to avoid communism’. The USA gave assistance in transporting about 310,000 people from north to south.

1. Why did America intervene in Vietnam
after France was defeated?

Tonkin Incident

At his stage of the Vietnam War, the US Army only provided support to the South Vietnamese and did not take part in the fighting. This changed because of the Tonkin Incident in 1964. In the Gulf of Tonkin (the name of the sea off the North coast of Vietnam) a North Vietnamese submarine attacked an American Navy ship. The USA accused North Vietnam of provocative behaviour and American president Johnson now got approval from the US Congress to attack North Vietnam. As a result, the Vietnam War became a full-scale conflict, with the Americans using all its weapons and resources to fight the North Vietnamese army.

The US destroyer Maddox was attacked by a North Vietnamese submarine in the Gulf of Tonkin. 

source B

Theory about communism predicted by the US government.

2. Study source B. Then use the source
to describe the fear the USA had about communism

3a. The US president was afraid that
a reunited Vietnam would
become a communist state.

1. true
2. false

3b. The Viet Cong and American soldiers
fought face-to-face.

1. true
2. false

3c. The poster in source A is made
by the USA to warn against communism.

1. true
2. false

3d. The USA supported South Vietnam
against North Vietnam.

1. true
2. false

3e. The Viet Cong was stationed in
North Vietnam.

1. true
2. false

This 1965 photo by Horst Faas shows U.S. helicopters protecting South Vietnamese troops northwest of Saigon

Further escalation

The USA was now fully engaged in the Vietnam War. Teenagers who turned eighteen were conscripted into the US army and sent to fight in Vietnam. The US army also started Operation Rolling Thunder. This meant bombing strategic places, like North Vietnamese airbases. The bombing lasted from 1965 to 1968 and put pressure on the communist government to surrender.

The ground troops that were stationed in South Vietnam had to fight the Viet Cong, who were very hard to beat. In March 1968, the frustrations about this warfare led to a disaster in the village of My Lai: US troops were told that many civilians were members of the Viet Cong, so the captain of the US soldiers there went berserk and ordered every men, woman and child in the village to be killed. Between 350 and 500 unarmed civilians were murdered; women were raped and the village itself was burned to the ground. The My Lai Massacre caused outrage amongst the American people when it became public knowledge a year later.

Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The U.S. program, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 20 million gallons of various herbicides over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1961 to 1971. Agent Orange, which contained the deadly chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used herbicide. It was later proven to cause serious health issues—including cancer, birth defects, rashes and severe psychological and neurological problems—among the Vietnamese people as well as among returning U.S. servicemen and their families.

An abiding image of the Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, burned by napalm dropped accidentally by South Vietnamese air force. The damage caused by napalm was more immediate compared to the slow long-term havoc wreaked by Special Agent Orange.

4. This is a group task. Discuss this with your group members and formulate one joint group answer.

You are the jury in the trial of the army captain who gave the order for the My Lai Massacre.
Can you understand why this happened and why the captain made his decision?
Write down if you would find him guilty or not guilty and why.

Beginning of a university students' Anti-Vietnam War march, September 20, 1969.

An American couple is watching the news footage of the Vietnam War in their living room, 1968.

Protests in America

The Vietnam War was one of the most publicised wars in history. At this time, television was a new mass media and journalists could move around and write, film or photograph anything freely. Each evening, whole families gathered to watch the evening news on TV and saw their fellow Americans fighting the Viet Cong. In newspapers and magazines they saw photos of the war. Initially most Americans supported US military involvement in the Vietnam War; however, the media became more and more critical of American involvement, showing the horrors of war, like the dead women of the My Lai Massacre or children burned by napalm dropped by bombs during Operation Rolling Thunder. Thus, many people started to protest against the Vietnam War. Many protesters were hippies.

These young people protested against their government and the Vietnam War by taking part in sit-ins where they would occupy a public place and would only leave after their demands were granted. Hippies also organised mass demonstrations and music festivals where famous singers would sing protest songs. Because of these protests, the USA became a divided nation between citizens who supported the Vietnam War and those who were against it.

although liberated by the Soviets, the new Yugoslav peresident Tito was able to break his country free from Stalin's control in 1948.

Stars and Stripes photographer John Olson captured this image of A.B. Grantham, a Marine who had been shot in the chest in 1968. It is on display at the Newseum to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tet offensive. 

5a. How did the media play a part in the hippie protests?

5b. Give two examples of how hippies
protested against their government.

The end of the Vietnam War

In January 1968, the US Army thought that the Viet Cong was weakened and almost defeated. As it turns out, the Viet Cong was still quite strong and executed a counter-attack on hundreds of cities in South Vietnam. This large military campaign, the so-called Tet Offensive, was eventually won by the US army. Nevertheless, the Tet Offensive was a turning point in Vietnam, because it led to massive protests in the USA and a reduction of support there for the Vietnam War. US President Richard Nixon realised that the USA could not win this war and implemented a policy of gradually withdrawing his troops from Vietnam over the next five years. Talks began in Paris between the USA, North Vietnam and South Vietnam to officially end the war and establish peace in Vietnam; on 20th January 1973, the peace was signed. In these Paris Peace Accords, all parties agreed that the US army would leave Vietnam and that the country would remain divided as agreed in 1954. However, in 1975 the North Vietnamese army invaded South Vietnam and took over the government. Despite Nixon’s promise, the USA was of no help to South Vietnam this time. Vietnam was now united and was ruled by a communist government.

John Lennon (former member of The Beatles) and Yoko Ono pose on the steps of the Apple building in London, holding one of the posters they distributed to the world's major cities as part of a peace campaign protesting against the Vietnam War, Dec. 1969. The poster reads 'War Is Over, If You Want It'.

6. At the end of the Vietnam War, U.S. President Nixon was forced to step down, because of his involvement in a secret eavesdrops operation.

Use the Internet to find out what this scandal is called.
Choose the right name.

1. Mount Rushmore scandal
2. Washington monument scandal
3. Watergate scandal
4. White House scandal

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