Vietnam: Great Society to Great Quagmire

Lesson Objectives

•  Describe and analyze the changes in the American home front and their impact on US conduct of the war prior to and after the Tet 1968 offensive.

•  Describe and analyze the impact of technology in the Vietnam War.

•  Describe and analyze the significance and history of the bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

•  Be able to describe the Ho Chi Minh Trail and analyze its significance in the Vietnam War.

•  Describe the operational and strategic significance of the Tet Offensive (1968) and analyze is impact on US foreign policy since.

Strategy of Revolutionary War

Phase I: Targeted state stronger militarily

Phase II: Rough military parity

Phase III: Revolution stronger than targeted state

• Revolutionaries avoid combat• Guerrilla war: raids, ambushes, sabotage, terrorism• Political conflict predominant

• Combined guerrilla and conventional war• Military and political conflict equally important

• Revolutionary forces go to totally conventional war• “General Offensive” linked to political “Great Uprising”

Review

Timeline

Mar 64 Secret CIA bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos began

• Civilian pilots (Air America) flying old U.S. aircraft

May 64 LBJ staff begins drafting Congressional support resolution

• Temporarily shelved due to lack of support in Senate

Summer 64 Guerilla warfare spreading throughout South Vietnam

• Now supported by NVA regulars

2-4 Aug 64 Gulf of Tonkin Incident

7 Aug 64 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress

• Authorizes president to use force to protect U.S. forces

• President orders retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam

Review

LBJ’s Dilemma

“In later years [Johnson] lamented:

Source

... But if I left that war and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.’”

Joshua Zeitz"1964 - The Year the Sixties Began"American Heritage, October 2006

If I left the woman I really loved, the Great Society, in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, I would lose everything at home. All my programs.

'I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved.

Review

Timeline

16 Oct 64 China explodes its first nuclear weapon

I Nov 64 VC attack Bien Hoa Air Base

• First directt attack on Americans; five Gis killed

3 Nov 64 Lyndon Johnson elected to presidency

• Defeats Barry Goldwater by a landslide

Attacks on US Airfields

I Nov 64 VC attack Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigom• First direct attack on Americans; five Gis killed

6 Feb 65 VC attack US base at Pleiku (central Highlands)• Eight Americans killed, ten aircraft destroyed

7 Feb 65 President orders air strikes against North Vietnam• Operation Flaming Dart continues to 24 Feb 65

7 Mar 65 President authorizes Operation Rolling Thunder• Progressively escalating air attack against North Vietnam

• Dual military and political objectives

• Ran until 2 Nov 68

=> “send a message”

8 Mar 65

At LBJ’s order, Marines land at Da Nang• To protect airfield

Marines land at Da NangMarch 8, 1965

Expanding the War

( Full Speech: 0 – 21:08 )

July 28, 1965

Excerpt( click image )

Troop Levels

A Flashback in Time

August 22, 2013

( Lesson 2 )

Operation Desert Shield

General Schwarzkopf’s dilemma:

• Deploy fighting forces to defend Saudi Arabia?

12

With limited mobility resources, do you first:

• Deploy logistics infrastructure to prepare for a bigger fight?

or

Review

Operation Desert Shield

General Schwarzkopf’s decision:

Deploy forces to defend Saudi Arabia

… and very aggressively!

(This would later have an adverse impact on the buildup of forces for an offensive capability)

Scott W. ConradMoving the Force: Desert Storm and Beyond, p. 26

dilemma:

Review

Operation Desert Shield

14

“Some who questioned our policy in the Gulf felt this deployment was overkill, but General Norman Schwartzkopf had learned from Vietnam the problems of gradual escalation.”

Andrew Leyden“Summary of the Gulf War: Operation Desert Shield”Gulf War Debriefing BookGrants Pass, OR: Hellgate Press, 1997

* 22 Feb 1991Source: The Whirlwind War

What was different?

Vietnam: 1964 – 1968 (536,100 troops)

Gulf War: Aug 1990 - Jan-Mar 1991 (533,600 troops)*

Review

Buildup In Vietnam

Why was our buildup in Vietnam so slow?

Gradual escalation?

Vietnam: 1964 - 1968

Lack of infrastructure?

Probably a little of each!

Fear of Soviet or Chinese intervention?

(536,100 troops)

Gulf War: Aug 1990 - Jan-Mar 1991 (533,600 troops)

Vietnam: The Helicopter War

"What would we do [in Vietnam] without helicopters? We would be fighting a different war, for a smaller area, at a greater cost, with less effectiveness.

General William WestmorelandQuoted by Lieutenant General John J. Tolson, USAAirmobility 1961-1971, Chapter 13

We might as well-have asked: 'What would General Patton have done without his tanks?’”

The Helicopter War

Why did the U.S. Army adopt the Airmobile* doctrine?

* using helicopters to move forces around the battlefield

• Concept not specifically developed for Vietnam

• Conceived to move forces around an atomic battlefield

• Ideally suited for Southeast Asia

The Helicopter War

The problem in Vietnam is terrain — jungles, mountains, rivers. Maneuver's a nightmare. That's why we came up with a plan to use helicopters. Leap in and out of battle.

Dialogue from the movie “We Were Soldiers” (2002)

Battlefield Mobility

Battle of Ia Drang ValleyNovember 14–18, 1965

Battle of Ia Drang Valley

( 26:56)

November 14–18, 1965

Battle of Ia Drang Valley

( 5:03 )

November 14–18, 1965

Significance of Ia Drang

First employment of Airmobile concept

First major combat between US and NVA units

Communist shift from Phase I to Phase II in Strategy of Revolutionary War

Strategy of Revolutionary War

Timeline

1954-1965: Phase I (guerilla warfare)

• 1961-1965: Heated Politburo debate on transition

1965-1967: Phase II (combined guerilla & conventional warfare)

• Increased large unit actions (Ia Drang, Khe Sanh)

Timeline

7 Aug 64 Tonkin Gulf Resolution

2 Mar 65 8 Mar 65

1966-67

Spring 67

Early 1960’s NVA troops begin moving into South Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder (bombing of North) begins

Marines land at Da Nang

North Vietnamese Army (NVA) increases pressure on South

Siege of Khe Sanh Begins

Siege of Khe SanhSpring 1967 - March 1968

Siege of Khe Sanh

YouTube

Timeline

7 Aug 64 Tonkin Gulf Resolution

2 Mar 65 8 Mar 65

1967

Spring 67

Early 1960’s NVA troops begin moving into South Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder (bombing of North) begins

Marines land at Da Nang

North Vietnamese Army (NVA) increases pressure on South

Siege of Khe Sanh Begins

Tet Offensive begins31 Jan 68

Strategy of Revolutionary War

Timeline

1954-1965: Phase I (guerilla warfare)

• 1961-1965: Heated Politburo debate on transition

1965-1967: Phase II (combined guerilla & conventional warfare)

• Increased large unit actions (Ia Drang, Khe Sanh)

1968 (early): Phase III (Tet Offensive) (conventional warfare)

Tet Offensive 1968

Country-wide combined VC & NVA offensive intended to inspire popular uprising

Began January 31, 1968

Attack on Khe Sanh began earlier as a diversion

Tet Offensive 1968

US Embassy Saigon attacked by VC

Tet Offensive 1968 Battle of Hué Jan 31- Mar 3 1968

HuéThe Historic & Cultural Capital of Vietnam

Hué Citadel

In February 1966, LBJ asked Gen. Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, what he would do next if he were the enemy commander

“Capture Hué,” Westmoreland immediately replied.

Almost two years to the day later, North Vietnam did just that

Tet Offensive 1968Battle of Hué Jan 31- Mar 3 1968

HuéThe Historic & Cultural Capital of Vietnam

In February 1966, LBJ asked Gen. Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, what he would do next if he were the enemy commander

“Capture Hué,” Westmoreland immediately replied.

Almost two years to the day later, North Vietnam did just that

Tet Offensive 1968Battle of Hué Jan 31- Mar 3 1968

Tet Offensive 1968 Battle of Hué Jan 31- Mar 3 1968

Battle of Hué

Video Pt 2 - 9:09 Pt 4 - 9:10Pt 3 - 8:48 Pt 5 - 7:02

Tet Offensive 1968

Turning point of the war … politically

Saigon police chief executes Viet Cong TerroristPhotograph by Eddie Adams

Tet Offensive 1968

Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News anchor, visited Vietnam Feb1968

Post-Tet

Walter Cronkite

Upon his return to the US, Cronkite delivered an unprecedented editorial comment on this trip (February 27, 1968)

“To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.”

LBJ’s reply on hearing this: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

On March 31, 1968, President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.

Source

Strategy of Revolutionary War

Timeline

1954-1965: Phase I (guerilla warfare)

• 1961-1965: Heated Politburo debate on transition

1965-1967: Phase II (conbined guerilla & conventional warfare)

• Increased large unit actions (Ia Drang, Khe Sanh)

1968 (mid): Phase II

1968 (early): Phase III (Tet Offensive) (conventional warfare)

• Military disaster (VC destroyed)• “General Uprising” did not occur • Strategic victory none the less

Vietnam: The Final Chapter

Lesson Objectives

• Understand the goals, provisions and consequences of President Nixon's Vietnamization policy.

• Describe the efforts of President Nixon to change global strategic alignments and the implications of his initiatives.

• Describe and analyze changes in the military situation in Vietnam from 1969 to 1973.

• Describe and assess the impact of US political developments from 1969 through 1975.

End