The US Goes to War in Vietnam

The U.S. Goes to War in Vietnam

Source A

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Basic accounts from BBC Bitesize

YouTube

Report on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident - President Johnson, 4 August 1964

A propaganda cartoon by the well-known North Vietnamese political cartoonist Mai Văn Hiến (1957).
The cartoon ttext reads: 'The frontier of the United States now extends all the way to the 17th parallel in Vietnam – Statement by Ngô Đình Diệm in New York on May 13, 1957'.
(What Diem actually said was: "With regard to security, the frontiers of the United States .. extend to the 17th parallel, [which] forms the threatened border of the Free World".)

Consider:

Interpret Source A. What are its messages? How effective is it as a piece of propaganda?

Why, in Hien's opinion, did the U.S. enter the war in Vietnam?

Why did the U.S. enter into the Vietnam War?

The Local Context

When you studied the webpages on 'The End of French Colonial Rule' and 'South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem' you were asked to "make a list of evidence which shows that the Americans were heavily involved in Vietnam".

If you click on the orange arrow you will be able to see the whole list:
- U.S. involvement in Vietnam, 1945-63
  President Truman
  - 1945: the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Team parachutes into the country as part of Operation Embankment, to recover American POWs and secure American interests in French Indochina.
  - 1945: Americans drop 'We are friends' leaflets into Vietnam.
  - 1947: the Ha Long Bay Agreement allows the U.S. to officially recognise Vietnam and start sending the French military and $3 billion U.S. financial aid.
  - 1952: U.S. military advisers advocate the 'Navarre Plan'.
  President Eisenhower
  - 1954: U.S. Army’s G3 Plans Division recommended using atomic weapons at Dien Bien Phu.
  - 1954: America participates in the Geneva peace talks.
  - 1954: The U.S. supports Diem as President of South Vietnam.
  - 1954: The U.S.-funded Saigon Military Mission – a unit of about 1000 military advisers – is sent to train the ARVN in guerrilla warfare.
  - 1954: The U.S. mounts Operation Passage to Freedom.
  - 1957: The U.S. funds South Vietnam’s 5-Year Economic Plan gives $17.5 million loan for sanitation improvements.
  President Kennedy
  - 1961: the U.S. spends $270 million propping up the Diem government – mainly, the ARVN.
  - 1961: NSAM52 authorises a secret military, political, economic and psychological programme to support Diem & prevent a Communist victory in South Vietnam.
  - 1961: The U.S. sends a signals intelligence unit to intercept Viet Cong radio, and 32 helicopters with 400 ground crew.
  - 1962: The U.S. sends a Navy SEAL Team and the U.S. Army 8th Field Hospital unit.
  - 1962: The U.S. funds and promotes the Strategic Hamlets program.
  - 1962: Operation Ranch Hand – start of spraying Agent Orange.
  - 1963: There are 16,000 U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam.
  - 1963: The U.S. supports the military coup which topples Diem.

Whilst the Americans might have only OPENLY gone to war in Vietnam in 1964, you will have realised that by 1963 they were already up to their necks in a secret proxy war there. The list of events shows clearly how the U.S. involvement in Vietnam gradually grew, as:

• The French were driven out.

• In 1959 Ho Chi Minh declared a 'People's War' of liberation.

• Diem was unpopular and the ARVN was losing to the VietCong.

The International Context

• Hatred of Communism: the U.S. saw itself as 'leader of the free world' and was committed to an ideological war against Communism, exemplified in the 'McCarthy Witch-hunt' of the 1950s, but also in Kennedy's 1961 election pledge to 'get tough' on Communism worldwide – Kennedy ended up sending 16,000 military personnel in Vietnam, but he tried to keep American involvement down to helping the ARVN with their an anti-guerrilla campaign.

• The Cold War: after 1945 the U.S. fought a worldwide 'Cold War' against Communism – on a number of occasions (notably the Berlin Blockade, the Korean War and the Cuban Missiles Crisis), the U.S. threatened to conduct a nuclear war which would have destroyed humankind. The U.S. suffered a huge setback in 1949 when China turned Communist. Then China and the USSR were supporting Ho Chi Minh, so the U.S. HAD to support South Vietnam.

• Strategic value:

The U.S. had allies and military bases in the region (eg Japan, the Philippines, Guam, and South Korea) which it saw as essential to the U.S. global defense network.
Defeat in Vietnam might cause allies to doubt U.S. security guarantees, and embolden China and the USSR.
Southeast Asia was rich in resources (e.g., rubber, tin, oil, rice) and near vital maritime trade lanes.

• U.S. policy: Over time, American aims hardened:

In 1947, President Truman had obtained Congress's authorisation to 'contain' Communism, supporting democracies financially and militarily to stop Communism spreading anywhere else. In 1954, the U.S. organised the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a defensive alliance to prevent communism from gaining ground in the region.
Especially after the Korean War of 1950-53, President Eisenhower popularised the 'Domino Theory' that, if one country was allowed to fall to Communism, it would set off a chain reaction causing other democracies to collapse.
In April 1950, the American National Security Council issued a report (NSC 68) recommending that America start 'rolling back' Communism. Although this policy was not formally adopted, the U.S. began clandestine CIA actions to provoke assassinations and revolutions in Communist states.

all these strategies required the U.S. to double down on its determination to prevent Ho Chi Minh unifying Vietnam under Communist rule.

• The Military-industrial Complex: American arms manufacturers wanted war. The U.S. military budget, $53 billion in 1964, rose to $85 billion in 1969 ... allowing U.S. companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin to make vast profits.

Source B

Communist control of all Southeast Asia would render the U.S. position in the Pacific precarious and would seriously endanger fundamental U.S. security interests in the Far East.

Secret Memorandum of the U.S. National Security Council (1952).

Source C

Why is Southeast Asia important? First, it provides fertile soil, rich natural resources, a relatively sparse population in most areas, and room to expand. It also produces rich exportable surpluses such as rice, rubber, teak, corn, tin, spices, oil and many others

Speech to Detroit businessmen by the U.S.Undersecretary of State (1963).

Source D

The American cartoonist 'Herblock' explains the domino theory (1964).

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 7 Aug 1964

Source E

Recently, North Vietnam has become more threatening. These latest attacks on our armed forces are not the first. Therefore, I am now asking Congress to agree that all future attacks will be responded to, and that the USA will continue to assist South Vietnam in defending its freedom.

We do not seek to widen our involvement in Vietnam but we must show that we are determined to stop communist aggression.

From President Johnson’s message to Congress on 5 August 1964.
Here he is asking Congress to support his actions in Vietnam following the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

On his election in 1964, President Johnson declared: "I am not going to be the President who saw South-East Asia go the way China went" – he was actively seeking an opportunity to become involved in the war. He described the North Vietnamese Communists as 'the bully at the porch': "If you let a bully come into your garden, next day he’ll be in your porch, and the day after that he’ll rape your wife".

In July 1964, American forces helped the ARVN carry out raids on North Vietnamese radar stations. On 2 August 1964, the USS Maddox fired on North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The U.S. military was on hgh alert; on the night of 3-4 August, sailors on the Maddox panicked, fearing they were under attack.

Johnson did not believe that the North Vietnamese had attacked the Maddox – he said: ‘those dumb stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish’ – and, later, he would call Vietnam "that bitch of a war" ... but in 1964 he told Congress that the North Vietnamese “had conducted deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels” and sought enhaced powers to go to war.

On 7 August 1964, Congress authorised him to increase American involvement.

Source F

This attack on American warships is the consequence of our own aggressive actions.

The President is now asking for powers to be able to move more of our armed forces into South Vietnam whenever he believes it necessary. This will involve Americans in a war in which we have no business, and which is quickly escalating. I am opposed to losing the life of any American soldier in Vietnam. We have lost far too many men already.

From a speech made by Senator Gruening on 7 August 1964 during the Senate debate on the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Source G

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a turning point in the USA’s involvement in Vietnam. Before the ‘attacks’ on U.S. warships, there were only 16,000 American military advisors in South Vietnam. A few years after, there were over 500,000 U.S. soldiers fighting the communists.

Before the Tonkin incident, the USA was already supplying South Vietnam with increasing amounts of money and arms. Both Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy had fully committed the USA to defend South Vietnam’s independence. However, the incident gave Johnson an excuse to expand the USA’s involvement massively.

From an article on the Gulf of Tonkin incident (2012).

Escalation

Once they had become involved, the Americans had to keep increasing their commitment so as not to lose the war. And the more they lost, the more they had to commit, because to back out would be to lose face.

The historian Tony Howarth summarises:

Where Kennedy had sent thousands of troops, Johnson sent tens, and then hundreds, of thousands; where Kennedy had spent tens of millions, Johnson poured out billions of dollars; where Kennedy had threatened, Johnson bombed. Just as Eisenhower had inherited and followed Truman’s strategy in Indo-China, and just as Kennedy had agreed with and developed Eisenhower’s policy, so LBJ accepted and then escalated Kennedy's commitment of men, money and materials to South Vietnam."

Source H

A cartoon by American cartoonist Ross Lewis in the Milwauke Journal, 1965

Consider:

1. Why, do you think, did Kennedy keep his involvement in the war secret?

2. Looking at the run ofevents, which idea, do you think, had the greater effect on U.S. policy: 'containment' or the 'domino theory'?

3. Which of the sources A-H, do you think, provides the most accurate statement of U.S. motives? Explain/justify your decision.

4. Make a list of all the reasons you can find (and infer) as to why the U.S. embarked on open war in Vietnam in 1964. In discussion, rank them in order of importance. Turn your list into an essay plan, providing 'proving evidence' and an explanation for each reason.

5. Discussion: Source H shows the Americans getting dragged helplessly ever deeper into the whirlpool of a war in Vietnam.
Is that what happened? Or was American involvement intentional and self-interested?

AQA-style Questions

iGCSE-style Questions

Edexcel Questions

Spotted an error on this page? Broken link? Anything missing? Let me know.