US Involvement in Vietnam

2nd August 1964

• North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack US warship USS Maddox
• It was hit by a torpedo that did not eplode
• USS Maddox fires at torpedo boats
• US fighter planes sink one torpedo + damage 2 more

4th August 1964

• USS Maddox + USS Turner Joy report that they had been attacked by torpedo boats
• Later reported that sailers or fighter pilots saw not evidence of 2nd attack
• Johnson ordered air force to attack North Vietnamese gunboat bases

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Ships had been attacked reported in the USA
• Public outraged + saw as an unprovoked attack by North Vietnam
• Johnson proposes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave president power to defend US forces + South Vietnam in whatever way he thought best - Congress agreed + passed

• A concern to allies because fear of Soviet expansion
• Spread of communism
• Isenhower thought one Asian country with communism would cause domino effect
• Vietnam wanted independance but France wanted to keep their old colony
• France, Japan, US, GB on same side
• Dien Bien Phu was like bait
• 1953 November got parachute soldiers and started building bases
• Vietnimh drew closer to bases + surrounded
• Allies sent in Air Power for supplies
• Allies tried to deploy air crafts to shoot down Vietminh but often shot down by weather
• March 13th 1954 - enemy attacks - began will artilary attack
• French had little food
• Plan to send out US troops but Eisenhower said non
• Post "Isabell" was cut off
• Vietnimh dug trenches around posts
• North ran by Hanoi
• South by Saigon

• President from 1954 1963
• Won election - got 605,000 votes in Saigon but only 450,000 were allowed to vote
• Rich Catholic - most Vietnamese were Buddhist. He supported rich land owners and prosecuted Buddhists
• with support of USA allowed election date deadline set by Geneva Conferance pass + refuse to allow any election to do with reunification of Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh much more popular - was nicer - would have won elections if they happened
• 1960 National Liberation Front formed - aim to unify country + supported by Ho Chi Minh
• NLF demanded removal of Diem - start guerrilla war
• 1961 - 20,000 Viet Cong in South
• USA backed up new leader of South Vietnam
• He was brutal but they still liked him because he was anti communist
• Clear to Kenedy that he was not an effective leader
• Diem could not unite the South against communism
• In 1963 Kennedy agreed to a CIA operation that gave a group of South Vietnamese army generals $40,000 to overthrow Diem’s government
• It was called operation "Coup"
• Although this was not in Kennedy’s plans, Diem and his brother ended up getting shot

Strategic Hamlets

• Designed to stop the Vietcong winning over South Vietnamese villagers
• led by Diem’s Government and the CIA
• If a village was seen to be ‘in danger’ residents were relocated to a fortified camp
• Fortified with barbed wire, ditches and guarded with non communists
• But it was hard to tell who was actually Viet Cong or a villager
• So they never knew if they were actually stopping the spread of communism or just moving the villagers

Military advisors

• Eisenhower wanted to stop communist spreading
• Gave South financial aid to help support government
• Sent military advisors to help train South Vietnamese Army

• Japan force into Viernam
• Restrict French administrators
• communists organize the Viet Minh (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, or "League for the Independence of Vietnam") to launch an uprising at the war's end
•  Ho Chi Minh secretly returns to Vietnam after 30 years in exile and organizes a nationalist organization known as the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh)
• Japanese troops occupy Vietnam. The Vichy French colonial government is allowed by the Japanese to continue to administer Vietnam. French repression continues
• Viet Minh resist Japanese occupation with the help of the United States and China.
• Chinese Nationalists set up the Vietnam Revolutionary League (Dong Minh Hoi) as an anti-communist movement
• Severe famine strikes Hanoi and surrounding areas eventually resulting in two million deaths from starvation out of a population of ten million
• Divide the country - China drive out Japanese in the North and Britain the South
• France will get thei colonies afterwards
• After bombing Japan surrender
• Vietnam declare independance - French wanted it back
• French regain South with British help

• April 1954 diplomats from several nations meet
• talk about Korea, Berlin, Vietnimh taking over Dien Bien Phu
• Paris had announced its intention to withdraw from Indochina and dismantle the colonial administration
• French withdrawal would leave Vietnam without an established national government - vulnerable to communist takeover
• Geneva conbference discussed reunification of Vietnam
• produced a set of resolutions known as the Geneva Accords - to map out Vietnam’s transition to independence
• Used similar approach to korea incident - Vietnamese territory would be divided temporarily into north and south - free elections, self government, reunification and independence
• Plan sabotages by lack of support - US barely participated, didnt want to talk?shake hands with China, China +Soviet Union refused to back the Viet Minh claim to govern all of Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh spokesman chose not to align too closely with Moscow or Beijing, preferring that North Vietnam remain in charge of its own destiny
• Bound to fail - everyone acting irrationallyt and had no trust

The Geneva conference took until July 21st before it produced a formal agreement. Among the terms of the Geneva Accords were the following:

• Vietnam would become an independent nation, formally ending 75 years of French colonialism. The former French colonies Cambodia and Laos would also given their independence
• Vietnam would be temporarily divided for a period of two years - The border was intended to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities
• Nationwide elections were scheduled for July 1956. They would be conducted under international supervision. The election result would determine the political system and government in the newly independent Vietnam
• During the two year transition period, military personnel were instructed to return to their place of origin: Viet Minh soldiers and guerrillas to North Vietnam, French and pro-French troops to South Vietnam. Vietnamese civilians were free to relocate to either North or South Vietnam
• During the transition period both North and South Vietnam agreed not to form any foreign military alliances or authorise the construction of foreign military bases

1. The Geneva Accords refer to series of agreements pertaining to the future of Vietnam. They were produced during multilateral discussions in Geneva between March and July 1954.

2. The discussions at Geneva were marred by Cold War paranoia and mistrust. Delegates from some nations refused to negotiate directly, while the United States and South Vietnam refused to sign the Accords.

3. Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel for a period of two years. Free elections were scheduled for July 1956 to decide the government of reunified Vietnam.

4. Both soldiers and militia from North and South Vietnam were instructed to return to their place of origin, while Vietnamese civilians were free to relocate to the north or south.

5. In 1954-55 the United States launched Operation Passage to Freedom to assist Vietnamese civilians with relocating from north to south. It was part humanitarian mission, part propaganda exercise.

if one communist success dominated one country neighbouring countries would also convert

Origions

• September 1945 - communist + Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh (North) vs French-backed regime in Saigon (South Vietnam)
• President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. government provided covert military and financial aid to the French
• Truman would also give aid to Greece and Turkey during the late 1940s to help contain communism in Europe and the Middle East
• By early 1950, makers of U.S. foreign policy believed if Indochina fell to cummunism then the rest of Asia would too
• After Geneva Agreements USA made Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a loose alliance of nations committed to taking action against “security threats” in the region
• US mistook Ho Chi Minhs communist ride for independance as domino theory when he only reallu cared for independance not spreading communism through Asia
• communism did not spread throughout the rest of Southeast Asia. With the exception of Laos and Cambodia, the nations of the region remained out of communist control