-          Vietnamese struggled under foreign rule for long time - Chinese, French etc.

-          Ho Chi Minh - prominent in rebellion against foreign control. Committed to Anti-French patriotism and a communist social revolution. Helped end the French rule in all of Indochina.

-          OSS - American Office of Strategic Services, was very impressed by Ho Chi Minh. They actually tended to support Vietnamese independence after the war.

-          President Roosevelt extremely opposed to French colonialism

-          Battle of French and Vietnamese at Dienbienphu: French were trapped by Vietnamese and asked the US for help. President Eisenhower seriously considered intervening and helping the French, and was advised by his Chief of Staff, Radford, to intervene (Radford was a big supporter of air power). However, he decides not to intervene.

-          Geneva Accords: end of war between French and Vietnamese (first Indochinese war). Decided to divide the country by the 17^th parallel, north half controlled by Ho Chi Minh, south part by Bao Dai.

-          Throughout the Kennedy administration, Vietnam was not a primary concern. It chose the middle path, increasing military advisors and giving more money and equipment

-          The US was very confident about winning the war in Vietnam because they considered America superior over Vietnam, especially with the superiority of American equipment, its firepower, aircraft carriers, etc.

-          After Kennedy  - Johnson. He kept Kennedy's Secretary of State Rusk and Secretary of Defense McNamara. Johnson administration's main objective was a non-communist Vietnam, but it didn't have a consensus on how to achieve it. They continued with the gradual escalation of the war. Johnson suggested negotiations to end the war in 65 and 68, but he couldn't agree to a communist South Vietnam.

-          OPLAN34-A: on the Tonkin Gulf, this was a series of raids along the Coast supervised by the CIA.

-          After Johnson - Nixon. Had promised a "secret plan" during his electoral campaign. Came up with "Vietnamization" - withdrawing American troops while turning the fighting over to the South Vietnamese.

-          After Nixon - Ford. Couldn't generate any support for additional American aid to Vietnam, since opposition was overwhelming. Then, in 1975 revolutionary forces attacked South Vietnam and unified Vietnam under communist rule. End of American war in Vietnam on May 30, 1975. Formal conclusion to war - when Pres. Clinton in 1995 diplomatically recognized the socialist Republic of Vietnam.

-          Piece Arrow - American first air attack on North Vietnam

-          Operation Rolling Thunder - sustained air strikes against North Vietnam. Also introduced combat troops.

-          Two major kinds of combats in war: Battle of Ia Drang Valley - the kind that America hoped for, where they could use their fire power; and Battle of Thuy Bo, that happened more often, where they couldn't hardly find the enemy.

-          Tet Offensive - 1968, major enemy attack on 36 provincial capitals, 5 major cities, and 64 district capitals, psychologically defeated the Americans.

-          Antiwar movement: Several large antiwar movements: Chicago Democratic Convention (purpose to draw attention to the war), burning of the ROTC building at Kent State University (four college students were killed, unleashed the largest number of campus upheavals in American history, possibly the worst antiwar movement) etc. 

-          Not clear if antiwar movement helped end the war or not. Majority of American public did not like antiwar protesters, and believed that they encouraged the communist enemy.

-          General Maxwell Taylor was a very powerful general, was JCS, and installed Paul Harkins in Vietnam. He told him that only good news could be received from Vietnam, and so Paul Harkins manipulated the information and his own army - he saw his officers as being disloyal if they tried to convey the truth. He went with this so far that he even suppressed his own soldiers (one example - Paul Vann).

-          Legacies of the war:

o       Virtual disappearance of antiwar impulse, tight control on media reporting of American military actions

o       In Gulf war: Bush worked through UN, involved Congress, left military strategy to JCS. Did opposite of gradual escalation: wanted the US to hit hard, achieve central objective, and leave the war.

o       Deepening public cynicism about national leaders and institutions

o       Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for those who experienced the war.

o       Effects of Agent Orange and other pesticides

o       Huge decline in Vietnam economy: most villages and cities were ruined, the Communist government failed to set up a stable economic policy, Vietnam engaged in a war with China just shortly after the war etc.

-          From Schrecker:

o       Thousands of people lost their jobs for political reasons during the McCarthy era. People were unfairly punished, due process was violated, and proceedings were undertaken in the name of security that had another purpose. This process collaborated every sector of American society, but it was led by Washington.

o       The government's loyalty and security programs provided models for dismissing workers.

o       Much of the damage McCarthyism made was psychological

o       It destroyed the communist movement - the party itself survived, but everything else that constituted the infrastructure of the left disappeared.

o       Officials in the State Department were scared they would have the fate of the Asian experts (that got fired) for true reporting, so they stayed away from parts of the world that might go communist, and completely stayed away from China.

o       US policymakers embraced a hard-line Manichean view of East Asia that bore little relation that was happening there.

o       Kennedy and Johnson believed they could not risk a replay of the loss of China by abandoning another country to Communism. In order to avoid this, Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam and shattered his own career.

3 PHASE STRATEGY TO DEFEAT NVA AND VIETCONG:

-          When Johnson decided to increase US troop levels from 75,000 to 175,000, the commander of the MACV (America Military Assistance Command Vietnam), William Westmoreland developed a 3 phase strategy to defeat NVA and Vietcong forces:

·         I - American and South Vietnamese forces would try to stem the tide of communist victories by securing cities and main bases

·         II - (depended on a large additional infusion of American combat troops). Seek out to search and destroy Vietcong and North Vietnamese main forces and start the pacification effort to separate the enemy from its rural base of support. Insurgent forces would be pushed into sparsely populated areas and then demolished with superior American firepower. South Vietnamese units would be involved primarily in support of pacification efforts in areas cleared of enemy troops, providing security and winning the hearts and minds of South Vietnamese villagers

·         III - American forces would concentrate on wiping out remaining enemy units in control bases, while the ARVN would eliminate NLF cadres still operating in South Vietnamese villages. Gradually, the South Vietnamese would take over all responsibility for that war.

-          During all three phases, Operation Rolling Thunder would continue to put pressure on North Vietnam by targeting supply lines and military bases. Air attacks on the North would also raise morale in the South.

-          Westmoreland focused on one fundamental American strength: firepower (artillery and air support). Wanted his ground forces to make contact with enemy, and then destroy the enemy y with the technical and mechanical superiority represented by weapons of large destruction. Wanted to get communists into battles with large-scale firepower, where Americans would not die in large numbers. Also, to fight away from heavily populated areas so civilian casualties and refugee problems would not muddle military issues.

INFLUENCE OF MEDIA

-          Presidents Johnson and Kennedy successfully cultivated media support.

-          Even thought there was some grumbling, for the most part the media was supportive of Johnson and Kennedy

-          Johnson administration followed a policy of "maximum candor": was open as much as possible with the press within the bounds of military security

-          Not too many Americans watched TV news, relied mostly on newspaper

-          TV reporters and their editors tended to support the American decision throughout the war

-          No evidence exists that link news coverage with changes in public opinion.

-          Media paid less attention to Vietnam under Richard Nixon. Nixon saw the media as an enemy, and unleashed an attack on the media. However, no evidence exists that negative reporting caused the public to turn against Nixon's handling of the war. Also, there is no evidence that Nixon was influenced to take America out of Vietnam because of the media.

5 RULES FOR DEFEATING REVOLUTIONARY GUERILLA WARFARE:

1. The political objective must be clear and well defined.
2. The defending government and its police, army and civil administration must be efficient and reasonably honest.
3. The overall counter-guerilla strategy must be unified and comprehensive
4. Public support and intelligence are crucial
5. The guerilla infrastructure must be targeted and destroyed.

THE TET OFFENSIVE (1968)

The Tet Offensive was a major enemy attack on 36 of 44 provincial capitals, 5 major Vietnamese cities, and 64 district capitals. It was a series of tet attacks called "Tet Mau Than". The size, timing and scope of the communist offensive caught Americans by surprise.

-          Intelligence information suggested some sort of enemy offensive was going to happen in 1968, but most of the US leaders thought the target would be Khe Sanh. The goals of the Tet attacks were to achieve popular uprising against the Government of South Vietnam and to show the American public that the very notion of security was null and void.

-          Even though the communists did not manage to get the South Vietnamese to up rise against their government, and they also suffered severe casualties, it was still a psychological victory for the communists.

-          The impact of the Tet offensive hardened public attitudes: in February, 53% supported stronger military action, while already in March 78% thought that the US wasn't making any progress in the war, and disapproved of Johnson's handling of the war.

-          Key figures, including journalists, media commentators, business executives, educators, clergymen etc were deserting Johnson. Also, Johnson's military advisors told him that the communists had come very close to winning a military victory as well as a psychological one.

-          Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more troops from Johnson in February, but Clark Clifford (his new Secretary of Defense), Acheson (Sec. of State) and other Johnson's "wise men" advised him not to support that request.

-          In March, Johnson announced that the US must seek an end to the war, he called for a partial bombing halt, peace talks, named Harriman as his representative at prospective talks, and announced he would not seek another term as president.

5 BASES OF OPPOSITION TO THE WAR

-          Opposition to war was multi-layered, many-sided phenomenon. Too amorphous to be controlled by anyone.

-          5 bases of opposition to the war emerged, and these bases often overlapped with each other both chronologically and philosophically, with shifting memberships and more than occasional arguments over goals and tactics.

·         "Dissident members of the nation's policy shaping elite": men like Lippmann and Senator Fulbright. In late 1960s some business leaders (like Henry Niles who founded BEM in 1966) joined this core. They saw America's oversized military commitment to Vietnam as contrary to "true" national security interests - especially improved relations with the Soviet Union. Worried that an ever-escalating conflict would unnecessarily provoke communist China. They saw Vietnam as irrelevant to America. As war went on, increasing number of influential Americans in politics, the media, and the professions became advocates of this position.

·         A larger group - "peace liberals" - composed of internationalists, pacifists, and Christian socialists. Through letter-writing, petitions, lobbying, and peaceful demonstrations, they wanted to change US policy away from a military approach and toward a more peaceful one that would enable a pluralist South Vietnam to negotiate its own peace with the North.

·         Much smaller group - more-militant pacifists who found the war as profoundly immoral. Catholic priests thought that the US had no moral right to intervene in Vietnamese life is any way. Through aggressive non-violent civil disobedience, ranging from individual draft-card burning to destruction of draft records, the Berrigans and groups like the War Resisters League wanted to stir the conscience of America and its leaders to effect immediate and total withdrawal from an immoral overseas adventure. Given the dramatic nature of its protests, this group received substantial media attention, far outweighing its numbers and supporters in the general population

·         Various traditional and "new" leftist organizations, including the rather miniscule pro-Soviet Communist party, the Maoist Progressive Labor party, the Trotskyite Socialist Workers party, and, the most visible of the New Left organizations, the Students for a Democratic Society. These groups generally placed the Vietnam War in a larger framework of American imperialism and were quite sympathetic to the Vietcong and North Vietnamese (ans well as other Third-World countries like Castro's Cuba). They also saw the war not as some kind of foreign policy aberration but rather as a symptom of a corrupt capitalist polity that needed to be radically altered. Although most rejected violence, some, like the Weather Underground, reveled in the power of violent confrontation, as did more localized groups like the New Year's Gang in Madison.

·         Big number of Americans upset with the war, increasing as it dragged on, who belonged to no antiwar group and probably never protested against the war in any sort of demonstration. These were citizens who simply wanted the war to end.