was the vietnam war necessary

Only after 1975 would Americans see what the C.I.A. "[316] In addition, doubts surfaced about the ability of the military to train foreign forces. Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment, and frustration the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. [202], In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing the number of Americans to 265,500. ", American War and Military Operations: Casualties: Lists and Statistics, "Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 196272", "America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War", "Vietnam Reds Said to Hold 17 From Taiwan as Spies", "20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate", "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme", "Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict", "It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back", "The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War", "The National Archives Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File", "Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps", "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics", "Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues:: The American / Viet Nam War", "The History Place Vietnam War 19451960", "The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference July 21, 1954", "Geneva Accords | history of Indochina | Britannica", "China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar", "The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? [75]:89, In October 1956, Dim launched a land reform program limiting the size of rice farms per owner. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate Phm Vn ng,[103]:134 who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions". The speed of this success led the Politburo to reassess its strategy. [40]:702704, On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked Xun Lc, 40 miles (64km) east of Saigon. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong/PRG victory, Total military dead/missing:1,100,000Total military wounded:604,200(excluding GRUNK/Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao). Opponents of the war argued that civilians, not enemy combatants, were the primary victims and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon. Other aerial campaigns, such as Operation Barrel Roll, targeted different parts of the Viet Cong and PAVN infrastructure. By the end of June 1972, however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. [170]:104[169]:82 A month later a second offensive known as the May Offensive was launched; although less widespread, it demonstrated the Viet Cong were still capable of carrying out orchestrated nationwide offensives. [352] A detailed demographic study calculated 791,0001,141,000 war-related deaths during the war for all of Vietnam, for both military and civilians. The killed in action figure comes from "Special Subject 4: The Work of Locating and Recovering the Remains of Martyrs From Now Until 2020 And Later Years," downloaded from the Vietnamese government website datafile on 1 December 2017. [229] The fatal shooting of four students at Kent State University in 1970 led to nationwide university protests. This time, Tr could travel on a drivable highway with regular fueling stops, a vast change from the days when the Ho Chi Minh trail was a dangerous mountain trek. By the war's end, 58,220 American soldiers had been killed,[A 8] more than 150,000 had been wounded, and at least 21,000 had been permanently disabled. As secretary of defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, McNamara was an architect of the war and implicated in the lies that were the bedrock of U.S. policy. This effort to highlight the positive aspects of a nursing career reflected the feminism of the 1960s1970s in the United States. The Paris Peace Accords of January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn;[75]:457 accords were broken almost immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. aid. 6 Events That Laid the Groundwork for the Vietnam War [200]:357. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [citation needed] Operation Masher would have negligible impact, however, as the PAVN/VC returned to the province just four months after the operation ended. In August 1964, the US government received word that two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Reports of the Tet Offensive stunned the U.S. public, however, especially after news broke that Westmoreland had requested an additional 200,000 troops, despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. Or would he have gone in a quote better direction based upon how he handled other things as president? Those who argue that the United States opponents won the war cite the United States overall objectives and outcomes. 5, pp. [158] The operation was the first large scale helicopter air assault by the U.S., and first to employ Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post "John F. Kennedy expan, Posted 2 years ago. [216] Congress refused. War between North and South Vietnam continued, however, until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969). In 1967, all Viet Cong battalions were reequipped with arms of Soviet design such as the AK-47 assault rifle, carbines and the RPG-2 anti-tank weapon. All American men had to register for the draft at age 18. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out. [142]:78 The resolution granted the president power "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression" and Johnson would rely on this as giving him authority to expand the war. had pointed to eight years earlier: Defeat in Vietnam, whatever the political and social traumas it produced for the United States, brought no geopolitical disaster. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Gen. J. Lawton Collins wrote from Vietnam, warning Eisenhower that Diem was an unpopular and incapable leader and should be replaced. PAVN/VC leaders expected the ceasefire terms would favor their side, but Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Viet Cong. Fully disillusioned at last, McNamara argued in a 1967 memo to the president that more of the same more troops, more bombing would not win the war. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. Officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, the papers filled 47 volumes, covering the administrations of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to President Lyndon B. Johnson. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking over Phu Quoc on 17 April and Tho Chu on 4 May 1975 and the belief that they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to take back these islands. On 15 March 1973, Nixon implied the US would intervene again militarily if the North launched a full offensive, and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger re-affirmed this position during his June 1973 confirmation hearings. Indeed, there was no longer a 'regime' in the sense of a relatively stable political alliance and functioning bureaucracy. Ho Chi Minh had wished to continue the war in the south, but was restrained by his Chinese allies who convinced him that he could win control by electoral means. [152] With this recommendation, Westmoreland was advocating an aggressive departure from America's defensive posture and the sidelining of the South Vietnamese. [40]:515[182], U.S. president Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. In fact, the C.I.A. The Vietnam War was a proxy war between the United States, the Soviet Union then . In March 1970, Prince Sihanouk was deposed by his pro-American prime minister Lon Nol, who demanded that North Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia or face military action. In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973. [24]:1070. [276] A number of prominent Western journalists were also involved in covering the war, with Dickey Chapelle being among the first as well as the first American female reporter killed in a war. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata. For one thing, the report said, it would hardly come as a surprise that a highly motivated and well-supplied guerrilla movement could defeat a militarily superior power. [132], Paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. [40]:517 On 27 October 1969, Nixon had ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviet Union, in accord with the madman theory, that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War lasted about 40 years and involved several countries. The inept performance of the ARVN was exemplified by failed actions such as the Battle of p Bc on 2 January 1963, in which a small band of Viet Cong won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force, many of whose officers seemed reluctant even to engage in combat. [97]:706, The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor"[97]:18 in its dealings with the media. With the Pentagon Papers revelations, the U.S. publics trust in the government was forever diminished. The B-52s literally dropped their payloads in the lake." Vietnam War: Dates and Timeline (Video) | HISTORY [193]:349350[194]:166175 At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and PAVN forces were carried out by the US to prevent the collapse of the Royal central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. [165]:148149 By the end of 1968, the VC insurgents held almost no territory in South Vietnam, and their recruitment dropped by over 80%, signifying a drastic reduction in guerrilla operations, necessitating increased use of PAVN regular soldiers from the north. Please select which sections you would like to print: Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. They seized some Japanese arms after Japanese forces surrendered. Increasingly, each new regime was viewed by the communists as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Dim, his credentials as a nationalist (as Robert McNamara later reflected) had been impeccable. defenders. Direct link to nick nelson's post The Allies promised Vietn, Posted 6 years ago. [40]:714 After having appealed unsuccessfully to Congress for $722 million in emergency aid for South Vietnam, President Ford had given a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. Vietnam A Necessary War Analysis - 865 Words | Cram Americas alliances remained intact, and American-Soviet relations moved toward dtente, not war. "[316] U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Gerald Ford that "in terms of military tactics our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war. Tr's plan called for a limited offensive from Cambodia into Phc Long Province. Although they were originally intended for use behind front lines after a conventional Soviet invasion of Europe, Kennedy believed that the guerrilla tactics employed by special forces such as the Green Berets would be effective in a "brush fire" war in Vietnam. The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement. [71]:14, Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression. [116] The first arms delivery via the trail was completed in August 1959. A man of towering ambitions, he shuddered at the thought of becoming the first president to lose a war. Was the Vietnam War Necessary? - 1780 Words | Studymode [185][186], In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died, aged seventy-nine. This belief in this domino theory was so strong that the United States broke with its European allies and refused to sign the 1954 Geneva Accords ending the French war. Updated on March 23, 2020. [348] As of 2006[update], the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. "[210] U.S. and ARVN forces launched the Cambodian Campaign in May to attack PAVN and Viet Cong bases. Johnsons new tack, laid out in a March 1968 speech, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam opened in Paris that May. There were several main reasons why America was in the war. [97]:238 Dim staffed his government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics. That was the sole country Communist Vietnam ever invaded, forever undercutting the domino theory the wars foundational lie. After two clashes that left 55 ARVN soldiers dead, President Thieu announced on 4 January 1974, that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accords were no longer in effect. The initial deployment of 20,000 troops was described as military support forces under a change of mission to permit their more active use in Vietnam. 2144, Combat Area Casualty File, November 1993. A single-minded interpretation of the Vietnam War based on the author's conviction that the conflict's overriding issue was a Moscow-directed international communist conspiracy. troops. [289] While many in the U.S. military believed that the Viet Cong and PAVN would not be able to exploit insecure communications, interrogation of captured communication intelligence units showed they could understand the jargon and codes used in real time and were often able to warn their side of impending U.S. Sweden sent humanitarian support to North Vietnam, offered political and diplomatic opposition to the U.S., and harbored American deserters. People who had been farming land for years had to return it to landlords and pay years of back rent. [40]:686, The success of the 19731974 dry season offensive inspired Tr to return to Hanoi in October 1974 and plead for a larger offensive the next dry season. When a draft took place, it randomly selected men between the ages of 18 to 25. [335][336] The environmental destruction caused by this defoliation has been described by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, lawyers, historians and other academics as an ecocide. Baker, Kevin. [84] The French colonial empire gradually retook control of Indochina. Thieu, mistrustful and indecisive, remained president until 1975, having won a one-candidate election in 1971. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. Beginning in the summer of 1955, Dim launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. The Viet Minh had confiscated large private landholdings, reduced rents and debts, and leased communal lands, mostly to poorer peasants. Jennifer Rosenberg Updated on September 06, 2021 The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism. [71]:5558 According to the Pentagon Papers, the Viet Cong "placed heavy emphasis on the withdrawal of American advisors and influence, on land reform and liberalization of the GVN, on coalition government and the neutralization of Vietnam." The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. In March 1969 Nixon launched a massive secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Thieu was also accused of murdering Ky loyalists through contrived military accidents. Direct link to Bill Vu's post If the vietnam war was ab, Posted 7 years ago. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s. As the PAVN launched their attack, panic set in, and ARVN resistance withered. [320] This resulted in a large federal budget deficit. Nixon's National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's L c Th and in October 1972 reached an agreement. She is the author, most recently, of You Dont Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War., A version of this article appears in print on, The Secrets and Lies of the Vietnam War, Exposed in One Epic Document, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/us/pentagon-papers-vietnam-war.html, Photo Illustration by Joan Wong. 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[187] The failure of Tet in sparking a popular uprising caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the Gip-Chinh "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the L Dun-Hong Vn Thi "Southern-First" faction. Stanley Karnow noted that "the main PX [Post Exchange], located in the Saigon suburb of Cholon, was only slightly smaller than the New York Bloomingdale's"[97]:453, Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to contribute troops. [16] The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 were killed in the process. The U.S. also conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam,[40]:371374[73] and continued significantly building up its forces, despite little progress being made. [40]:99100. President Ronald Reagan coined the term "Vietnam Syndrome" to describe the reluctance of the American public and politicians to support further military interventions abroad after Vietnam. [179], On 10 May 1968, peace talks began between the United States and North Vietnam in Paris. Lunch, W. & Sperlich, P. (1979). The strike was designed to solve local logistical problems, gauge the reaction of South Vietnamese forces, and determine whether the U.S. would return. The following June, when another such crew broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, they were caught. Though the NLF claimed to be autonomous and that most of its members were not communists, many in Washington assumed it was a puppet of Hanoi. [326] The average age of the U.S. troops killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South. How did the American public react when they heard the news? The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. The nation spent more than $120 billion on the conflict in Vietnam from 1965-73; this massive spending led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices. Casualties fluctuated considerably from year to year, but a degree of accuracy can be inferred from the fact that 500,000 was 59 percent of the 849,018 total and that 59 percent of the war's days had passed by the time of Fallaci's conversation with Giap. The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), also known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), engaged in more conventional warfare with U.S. and South Vietnamese forces (ARVN). They are an essential record of the first war the United States lost. [40]:704707 An embittered and tearful president Thieu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam. He was determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. On V-J Day, 2 September, the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was proclaimed in Hanoi. [246] The Phoenix Program, coordinated by the CIA and involving US and South Vietnamese security forces, was aimed at destroying the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong. At the Geneva Conference, the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.[90][91]. In 1968 and 1969, there were hundreds of protest marches and gatherings throughout the country. [160]:407411 Drug usage increased rapidly among U.S. forces during this period, as 30% of U.S. troops regularly used marijuana,[160]:407 while a House subcommittee found 1015% of U.S. troops in Vietnam regularly used high-grade heroin. Some mines were set only to go off after heavy vehicle passage, causing extensive slaughter aboard packed civilian buses. On the contrary, the study asserted, such risks are probably more limited and controllable than most previous argument had indicated.. On 21 August 1963, the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel L Quang Tung, loyal to Dim's younger brother Ng nh Nhu, raided pagodas across Vietnam, causing widespread damage and destruction and leaving a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds.
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