The Impossible Victory: Vietnam

War
1. Us fought in Vietnam
  1. Used modern technology
    1. Vietnam utilized "organized human beings"
      1. Human beings won
      2. Technology doesn't always win
  2. Large anti-war sentiment
    1. If war is unpopular there is potential for a lot of problems
1945
1. Japan was forced to leave Indochina -former french colony that it occupied
  1. Revolutionary movement grew there
    1. Led by a communist Ho Chi Minh
      1. Vietnamese listed their complaints against French rule
      2. He wrote to Truman explaining of the starvation policy
      3. Truman never responded
Western ideals
1. US Defense department saw Vietnam as an opportunity to change them
  1. Want to force our ideals on them
Communism
1. French bombarded Haiphong and it began an 8 year war between the Vietminh movement and the French over who would rule Vietnam
  1. After Communist victory in China in 1949 and korean war, Us gave large amounts of military aid to the French
    1. US in the end was financing 80% of the French war effort
      1. To the public, the word was US was helping to stop communism in Asia
      2. But never really a public discussion on this
      3. Secret memoranda of the National Security Council talked about the domino theory
      4. Stated if one country fell to communism then next country would do so and it would continue
      5. Therefore they couldn't let the first country "fall" to it
      6. Noted that Japan depended on the rice of southeast Asia and communist victory would make it difficult to prevent eventual accomodation to communism
2. 1958 Guerrilla activities began
  1. Communist regime in Hanoi gave aid
    1. Viet Cong
      1. Brought the villages of South Vietnam significant change and have done so largely by means of the communication process
      2. Only the Viet Cong had any real support and influence on a broad base in the countryside
Strategy
1. 1953 Congressional study mission reported Indochina is wealthy in rice, rubber, coal, iron
  1. Position makes it a strategic key to the rest of Southeast Asia
    1. Us would have to consider whether to take it over if French withdrew
      1. I wonder about current events now and what is really happening
      2. French eventually would temporarily withdraw
      3. US moved quickly to prevent unification and establish South Vietnam as an American sphere
      4. Ngo Dinh Diem
      5. Blocked the elections requested by the Vietminh and with American money and arms, his government became more and more firmly established
      6. "South Vietnam was essentially the creation of the US"
      7. How can we just go into places and claim it as ours?
      8. Rehime became increasingly unpopular
      9. Diem was catholic and most Vietnamese were Buddhists
      10. He replaced locally selected provincial chiefs with his own men
      11. He imprisoned those who criticized the regime for corruption and lack of reform
2. Geneve Accords
  1. US permitted to have 685 military advisers in southern Vietnam
    1. Eisenhower secretly sent several thousand and under Kennedy rose to 16,000
      1. Diem now losing countryside
3. "Free fire zones"
  1. Areas of South Vietnam had these areas which meant all persons remaining within them were considered an enemy
    1. Bombs were dropped at will
      1. Villages suspected of harboring Viet Cong were subject to search and destroy missions
      2. Such innocent people were killed for no reason and that is horrifying
4. Operation Phoenix
  1. Secretly, without trial, at least 20,000 civilians were suspected of being members of the communist underground
    1. They were killed or incarcerated
      1. "Eliminates communist infrastructure"
      2. We can't just assume that these people are communists
Kennedy took office in 1961
1. Continued policies of Truman and Eisenhower in Southeast Asia
  1. Approved a secret plan for various military action in Vietnam and Laos
    1. "Sabatoga and light harassment"
2. Discusses communism and talking about how the US has been assiting the government and people of Vietnam to maintain independence
  1. Three weeks after execution of Diem, Kennedy was assasinated
    1. Then Lyndon Johnson took office
June 1963
1. Buddhist monks sat down in public square
  1. Start setting them on fire and committing suicide
    1. More monks followed and did same
      1. Did this to dramtize their opposition to the Diem regime
      2. I think this is a bit of an overstatement, die for this? Not worth it in my opinion.
President Johnson
1. Used a murkey set of events in the Gulf of Tonkin to launch fullscale war on Vietnam
  1. McNamara told the American public there was an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on American destroyers
    1. Later turned out this was fake
      1. Highest American officials had lied to the public
      2. If there would be an attack it was not unprovoked
      3. Refer to "open aggression on the high seas"
      4. How can we have blatantly lied to the American public...
2. Tonkin attack brought a congressional resolution
  1. Passed unanimously
    1. Public opinion in the US was divided, so needed an affirmation of support
      1. So we lie to gain support, that is appalling
  2. This Tonkin resolution gave the President power to initiate hostilities without the declaration of war by Congress that the Constitution required
    1. Immediately after this Tonkin affair, American warplanes began bombarding North Vietnam
      1. Dropped so many bombs so quickly
      2. Massive human suffering
      3. Can't we have empathy towards everyone
Results
1. International Red Cross showed that in South Vietnamese prison camps often held and beat and tortured the people
  1. By the end of the war there had been 7 million tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam
    1. This is a frightening statistic
  2. Estimated there were 20 million bomb craters in the country
    1. Poisonous sorays dropped
      1. This has negative consequences
      2. Vietnamese mothers reported birth defects
      3. Little babies who did nothing wrong now had to suffer in their life
2. Army tries to cover up what happened
  1. Letter from GI began to circulate
    1. Photos taken of the killing by an army photographer
      1. The patriotic defense was to defend against communism
      2. Poisoning and committing henous crimes is not defending the country
3. Laos faced a rebellion
  1. Being destroyed by bombs
    1. Revolutionary movement new theme
4. Unpopular war
  1. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee declared that the US is pursuing an aggressive policy that violated international law
    1. Muhammed Ali refused to serve in what he called a white man's war
  2. People began to refuse to register for the draft
    1. Some even burned their draft cards
      1. Organized draft card turn ins all over the country
  3. London- 2 young Americans gate crashed the American ambassador's elegant July 4th reception
    1. Angry over the unjustified deaths
  4. Daniel Ellsberg
    1. Harvard trained economist
      1. Did secret research for government
      2. Pentagon papers
      3. Nixon tried to get Supreme court to stop publishing this
      4. Indicted Ellsberg and Russo for violating the Espionage act
      5. Later not convicted because of Watergate incident coming out
      6. Too much corruption is happening
Saigon
1. As the Saigon government became more unpopular, the military effort became more desperate
  1. 1967 report stated Viet Cong were distributing 5x more land to the peasants than the South Vietnamese
    1. "Viet Cong have eliminated landlord domination and reallocated lands owned .."
      1. National Liberation Front was successful because of this unenthused sentiment
      2. It's scary how these events actually took place
1968
1. Cruelty of the war began to touch the conscience of many Americans
  1. Fact of the matter was we couldn't win the war
    1. Yet Lyndon Johnson escalated a brutal war and failed to win it
      1. Popularity at an all-time low
      2. "LBJ how many kids have you killed today?"
      3. Frank statement.
      4. Nixon elected in fall of 1968
      5. Began to withdraw troops
      6. Vietnamization
      7. With their troops using American money, carry on the war
      8. But Nixon did not end the war, he was only ending the most popular aspect of it
      9. This is horrendous
      10. 1970- Launched an invasion of Cambodia
      11. This only killed people and failed miserably
Sometimes to be silent is to lie
1. Great quote by Spanish philosopher by Miguel Unamuno
  1. I really think this is an accurate description of this era
    1. People can't just turn deaf ears to this pressing, serious matter
Antiwar movement
1. Early on priests and nuns of the Catholic church joining this movement
  1. Saw poverty and injustice saw sparked passion to get involved
    1. Some got arrested
  2. Daniel Berrigan
    1. Searched for by FBI
      1. Showed up in Cornell where he had been teaching
      2. He hid inside a giant figure of the Bread and Puppet theatre
      3. Carried off stage and escaped
      4. Stayed underground for a few months and wrote poems, gave secret interviews
      5. Then FBI got word of where he was so he was imprisoned
2. Students heavily involved in the early protests against the war
  1. Climax of protest came in the spring of 1960 when Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia
    1. Guardsmen fired into the crowd of student protests at Kent State University
      1. Four students were killed, one paralyzed for life
      2. Protests should be peaceful
  2. Students protested against the ROTC- Reserve Officers Training Program
    1. Cancelled those programs in over forty colleges and universities
      1. Protests like these gave the public opinion insight that middle class intellectuals were really against the war
      2. But research showed Americans with only a grade school education were much stronger for withdrawal from the war than Americans with college education
      3. We must stop making on the surface judgements because this research proves our assumptions wrong
3. By 1971 61% of the population thought our involvement was wrong
  1. If such an unpopular war, why continue it...
4. American GIs
  1. volunteers and draftees who came mostly from lower-income groups
    1. Opposition by soldiers and veterans on a scale larger than ever before
      1. Some even refused to do their duties like Steinke a West Point graduate
      2. If our own men don't want to fight, that really says something
  2. White, black, Native Ameircan, Chinese, and Chicano most involved
    1. Sam Choy sent to Vietnam and found himself target of abuse from fellow GIs
      1. They referred to him as a chink
      2. Tried to fight back
      3. Then taken by military police, beaten
      4. This is not acceptable
End of the war
1. Congress passed a resolution declaring that American troops should not be sent into Cambodia without its approval
  1. In 1973 American troops finally removed from Vietnam
    1. War Powers Resolution- President could make war for sixty days on his own without a congressional hearing
2. "US emerged as the big loser"
  1. Obviously history books don't reveal this