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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.

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On April 30, 1975, Saigon, capital of the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), fell to the invading military forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (communist North Vietnam), two years after the withdrawal of American troops in the wake of the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords. America's troop pullout and its subsequent drastic cuts in economic aid left the South Vietnamese military weakened and on its own when North Vietnam cynically violated the peace agreement in early 1975 by launching a massive invasion. The nearly 300,000 North Vietnamese Army troops, 1,100 artillery guns and over 300 tanks crushed the South Vietnamese defenders in barely four months of conventional combat, achieving ultimate victory in the Vietnam War. Although American combat troops were not directly involved in the South's final, crushing defeat, by failing to prevent the communist North's victory, the United States - after years of costly effort that included a decade-long major military intervention and 58,000 American deaths - had lost the Vietnam War.

Over the past four decades, legions of historians, analysts and pundits have put forth various reasons to explain why America lost the war in Vietnam. Many blame what they claim were General William C. Westmoreland's inappropriate combat tactics in the crucial years of 1964-68 - his emphasis on enemy "body counts" and conventional operations instead of implementing effective counterinsurgency policies. Some blame the media, particularly their egregiously flawed reporting of the 1968 Tet Offensive that gave the false impression that the North Vietnamese battlefield disaster was a communist victory, thereby helping turn American public opinion against the war. Others simply claim the war was "unwinnable" from the outset, citing the corrupt, inept South Vietnam regime as "unworthy" of American support.

Although a number of factors and influences, domestic and international, contributed to America's defeat in Vietnam, the overriding reason the United States lost the war was one that has often fueled nations' losing military efforts throughout history: the fundamental error in strategic judgment called "refighting the last war." As American military intervention in Vietnam ramped up in the early 1960s, U.S. leaders unwisely based the foundation of their strategy in the current war in Vietnam on America's previous experience fighting to save an Asian nation under threat of a communist takeover: the "last war," Korea, 1950-53.

In Vietnam, however, the Americans were determined to implement a strategy that avoided what they perceived as the principal mistake that had turned the Korean War into a bloody stalemate. Yet instead of a blueprint for victory, "refighting the last war" proved to be a strategy for failure.
KOREA AND VIETNAM
Committed to a global policy of "containing" the spread of communism, America's Cold War-era political and military leaders - for whom the Korean War had been a defining experience - perceived the "containing communism" situation in Vietnam as replicating that of the 1950-53 Asian war. Either ignorant of or willfully ignoring the profound historical, cultural and geopolitical differences between Korea and Vietnam, U.S. leaders saw only their superficial similarities: a communist "north" attempting to overrun a democratic "south"; powerful communist nations (China and the USSR) sponsoring a "northern" regime attacking a U.S.-backed "southern" regime; and, most troubling, the "northern" countries' shared border with China that made them communist-controlled buffer states between China and Western-aligned Asian nations.

In 1950, the rising Asian power, Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China, had shown - dramatically and at great cost to the United States - that it possessed the capability and, more importantly, the will to intervene militarily if the defeat of the "northern" buffer state appeared imminent. In October 1950, four months after the Korean War began, President Harry S. Truman sent U.S. and United Nations combat units north across the 38th parallel dividing North and South Korea. Instead of merely "containing" communism, Truman sought to "roll back" communist gains in Asia through an effort to unify the Korean peninsula by force. His ill-advised invasion of North Korea, however, quickly prompted a massive Chinese military intervention that drove U.S.-U.N. forces back south of the 38th parallel. China's entry into the Korean War prolonged the conflict by several years, led to horrific casualties on both sides, and produced a frustrating battlefield stalemate when the July 1953 armistice ended the fighting along the same front line that had existed when the war began in June 1950.

Above all, therefore, the fear of Chinese intervention in the Vietnam War dominated American leaders' strategic thinking and thereby set the parameters governing U.S. ground combat operations throughout the conflict.
STRATEGY FOR FAILURE
Principally to deny China an excuse to replicate its Korean War actions and intervene militarily in the Vietnam War, U.S. ground forces' operations were restricted to the territory of South Vietnam. North Vietnam would remain "off limits" to U.S. and South Vietnamese ground combat forces throughout the war. This was also extended for most of American involvement in the Vietnam War to respecting the "neutrality" of the bordering countries, Laos and Cambodia, large portions of which as early as 1960 had, in effect, been invaded and occupied by North Vietnam to establish the Ho Chi Minh Trail - the main route of communist troops, weapons and supplies flowing into South Vietnam. (The limited 1970-71 U.S. and South Vietnamese ground operations in portions of Cambodia and Laos proved too little, too late.)

The restriction confining the ground war to South Vietnam did not apply to American aerial bombing. Indeed, North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail were bombed extensively. Yet the bombing campaign, whose targets were tightly controlled by Washington, was not decisive in determining the war's outcome.

Despite what seemed the most effective policy for keeping China out of the war, the long-term effect of confining ground operations within South Vietnam's borders proved irretrievably fatal to any hope America had of winning the war outright. It meant that U.S. military commanders were never given a mission to win the Vietnam War, but only to prevent South Vietnam from losing it. The distinction is no mere exercise in semantics - it was the key element in the U.S. defeat. This reactive strategy placed American forces permanently on the strategic defensive. Although U.S. ground forces did conduct offensives within South Vietnam at the operational and tactical levels, America had surrendered the strategic initiative to North Vietnam, which was then free to set the tempo of the war by feeding troops and materiel into South Vietnam as it wished.

By choosing the strategic defensive, U.S. leaders created a "localized" war of attrition that would drag on as long as both sides possessed the will to continue. North Vietnam simply had to prolong its war within South Vietnam until the United States inevitably abandoned the conflict. In this clash of national wills, North Vietnam proved to be better armed. The communist dictatorship possessed the "weapons" it needed to persevere as long as it took to win: a ruthless disregard of casualties and total control of its captive population.

America lost the Vietnam War the moment its leaders chose to "refight the last war" by surrendering the initiative in the conflict to the North Vietnamese.

Jerry D. Morelock, PhD, "Armchair General" Editor in Chief.

Originally published in the January 2014 issue of Armchair General.

Sponsored Content:

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Strategy for Failure: America's War in Vietnam

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"Refighting the last war" ensured U.S. defeat. On April 30, 1975, Saigon, capital of the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), fell to the invading military forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (communist North Vietnam), two years after the withdrawal of American troops in the wake of the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords.

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BBC - GCSE Bitesize: Why did America lose the war?

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A secondary school revision resource for GCSE History about modern world history, Vietnam and the US' departure

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The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong and North Vietnam formally sign "An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" in Paris. Due to South Vietnam's unwillingness to recognize the Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government, all references to it were confined to a two-party version of the document signed by North Vietnam and the United States-the South Vietnamese were presented with a separate document that did not make reference to the Viet Cong government. This was part of Saigon's long-time refusal to recognize the Viet Cong as a legitimate participant in the discussions to end the war.

The settlement included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam. In addition, the United States agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. troops and advisors (totaling about 23,700) and the dismantling of all U.S. bases within 60 days. In return, the North Vietnamese agreed to release all U.S. and other prisoners of war.

Both sides agreed to the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia and the prohibition of bases in and troop movements through these countries. It was agreed that the DMZ at the 17th Parallel would remain a provisional dividing line, with eventual reunification of the country "through peaceful means." An international control commission would be established made up of Canadians, Hungarians, Poles, and Indonesians, with 1,160 inspectors to supervise the agreement. According to the agreement, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu would continue in office pending elections. Agreeing to "the South Vietnamese People's right to self-determination," the North Vietnamese said they would not initiate military movement across the DMZ and that there would be no use of force to reunify the country.

Footnote: The last U.S. serviceman to die in combat in Vietnam, Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, was killed by an artillery shell at An Loc, 60 miles northwest of Saigon, only 11 hours before the truce went into effect.
READ MORE: Vietnam War: Dates and Timeline

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The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong and North Vietnam formally sign "An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" in Paris. Due to South Vietnam's unwillingness to recognize the Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government, all references to it were confined to a two-party version of the document signed by North Vietnam and [...]

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The Kent State Shootings, Explained | History

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Antiwar Movement Begins

In August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. By the time U.S. planes began regular bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the government's assertion that it was fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist aggression.

The antiwar movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) began organizing "teach-ins" to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted.

Though the vast majority of the American population still supported U.S. government policy in the Vietnam War, a small but outspoken minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965, especially after Johnson began an increasingly aggressive air and ground war in Vietnam.

This vocal minority included many students as well as prominent artists, intellectuals and members of the "hippie" movement, i.e., the growing number of mostly young people who rejected authority and embraced the counterculture.

Did you know? Boxer Muhammad Ali was one prominent American who resisted being drafted into service during the Vietnam War. Ali, then heavyweight champion of the world, declared himself a "conscientious objector," earning a prison sentence (later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court) and a three-year ban from boxing.

Widespread Disillusionment

By November 1967, American troop strength in Vietnam was approaching 500,000 and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The Vietnam War was costing the United States some $25 billion per year, and disillusionment was beginning to reach greater sections of the taxpaying public.

More casualties were reported in Vietnam every day, even as U.S. commanders demanded more troops. Under the draft system of conscription, as many as 40,000 young men were called into service every month, adding fuel to the fire of the antiwar movement.

On October 21, 1967, one of the most prominent antiwar demonstrations took place as some 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial-around 30,000 of them continued in a march on the Pentagon later that night.

After a brutal confrontation with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. One of them was the author Norman Mailer, who chronicled the events in his book "The Armies of the Night," published the following year to widespread acclaim.

Also in 1967, the antiwar movement got a big boost when the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. went public with his opposition to the war on moral grounds, condemning the war's diversion of federal funds from domestic programs as well as the disproportionate number of Black casualties in relation to the total number of soldiers killed in the war.

At a march of over 5,000 protestors in Chicago, Illinois, on March 25, 1967, King called the Vietnam War "a blasphemy against all that America stands for."

Vietnam War Protest Songs

The Vietnam War protest inspired many popular songs that became an anthem for that generation. Phil Ochs wrote "What Are You Fighting For?" in 1963 and "I Ain't Marching Anymore" in 1965. Other songs whose very titles were a protest themselves included Pete Seeger's "Bring 'Em Home" (1966) and Joan Baez 's "Saigon Bride" (1967).

Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues" (1967) took a civil rights poem by Langston Hughes and adapted it into a protest of Vietnam: "Raise my taxes/Freeze my wages/Send my son to Vietnam." Marvin Gaye 's "What's Going On?" from 1971 went on to be one of the most popular songs of all time.

John Lennon's first song after leaving the Beatles, "Give Peace a Chance," hit airwaves in 1966. " Imagine," from 1971, has transcended the Vietnam era to be a timeless song of peace and unity.

Political Consequences of Vietnam War Protests

The launch of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese communist troops in January 1968, and its success against U.S. and South Vietnamese troops, sent waves of shock and discontent across the home front and sparked a most intense period of antiwar protests. By February 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of Johnson's handling of the war and a full 50 percent disapproved.

Joining the antiwar demonstrations by this time were members of the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, many of whom were in wheelchairs and on crutches. The sight of these men on television throwing away the medals they had won during the war did much to win people over to the antiwar cause.

After many 1968 New Hampshire primary voters rallied behind the antiwar Democrat Eugene McCarthy, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection.

Later that year, Hubert Humphrey accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the 1968 Democratic Convention, held at Chicago's International Amphitheatre. Meanwhile, outside the convention hall, 10,000 antiwar demonstrators showed up, clashing violently with security forces assembled by Mayor Richard Daley.

Humphrey lost the 1968 presidential election to Richard M. Nixon, who promised in his campaign to restore "law and order"-a reference to conflict over antiwar protests as well as the rioting that followed King's assassination in 1968-more effectively than Johnson had.

Silent Majority

The following year, Nixon claimed in a famous speech that antiwar protesters constituted a small-albeit vocal-minority that should not be allowed to drown out the "silent majority" of Americans. Nixon's war policies divided the nation still further, however: In December 1969, the government instituted the first U.S. draft lottery since World War II, inciting a vast amount of controversy and causing many young men to flee to Canada to avoid conscription.

Tensions ran higher than ever, spurred on by mass demonstrations and incidents of violence by officials such those at Kent State in May 1970, when National Guard troops shot into a group of protesters demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four students.

At the Mayday Protest in 1971, thousands of antiwar protestors tried to shut down Washington, D.C., completely, all but crippling the U.S. government. Traffic was stopped for a few hours, and CIA director Richard Helms later remarked that Mayday was "one of the things that was putting increasing pressure on the [Nixon] administration to try and find some way to get out of the war."

Vietnam War Ends

As antiwar fervor grew, in mid-1971, Daniel Ellsberg brought about the publication of the Pentagon Papers -which revealed previously confidential details about the war's conduct-and misconduct by government and military officials. Ellsberg called the Pentagon Papers "evidence of a quarter-century of aggression, broken treaties, deceptions, stolen elections, lies and murder."

These and other revelations caused more and more Americans to doubt the accountability of the U.S. government and the integrity of the U.S. military establishment.

Finally, in response to an almost overwhelming antiwar mandate, Nixon announced the effective end to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January 1973. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, effectively ending the Vietnam War.

Sources

Vietnam War. Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium: University of Washington.
Anti-War Protests of the 1960s-70s. The White House Historical Association.
Anti-War Movement. PBS.

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Vietnam War Protests: Antiwar & Protest Songs - HISTORY

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Vietnam War protests began among antiwar activists and students, then gained prominence in 1965 when the U.S. military began bombing North Vietnam heavily.

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Another major reason why the USA could not win the war was the lack of support at home from the American public. The huge protest movement divided the country. A major pro-war movement also erupted. Many veterans of the war called the anti-war protesters traitors and communists.

Opposition to the war came from a number of sources and for a number of reasons

Media coverage

This was the first televised war. It was vividly reported by journalists who went to Vietnam in search of stories. Images of innocent civilians being killed, maimed and tortured were displayed on the TV and in newspapers - many Americans were horrified and turned against the war.

Opposition to support for the South Vietnamese Government

The South Vietnamese Government, which the Americans were committed to defending was revealed as corrupt and anti-democratic.

Many Americans questioned how the American Government could justify standing up for this oppressive regime. The USA was meant to fight to protect freedom and democracy.

It became clear that the Vietnamese peasants did not welcome American troops. Many Americans questioned why their country was involved if the local population did not want them there.

Opposition to the 'Draft'

The 'Draft' was the conscription of American men into the US army and lasted from 1954-1975. As sons, brothers and fathers went to war, people began to question whether it was worth it. Draft Law hit African Americans hardest.

Many middle-class Americans opposed the war because, by 1967, the death rate had increased to 160 per week.

Opposition from Civil Rights Movement

There was opposition to the war from civil rights activists, who were fighting for more rights for African-Americans in the USA. Many African-Americans were drafted and because they were new recruits, they were often given the worst postings and assignments. Muhammad Ali had his boxing title revoked for refusing to fight in the war.

Opposition from youth

The main opposition came from students. In the 1960s, protest movements began in California but spread to all the major cities and universities across the USA by 1968.

On 4 May 1970, four peaceful student demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio were murdered. They were shot by Ohio National Guardsmen during a noon-time campus anti-war rally - this became known at the Kent State Massacre.

Pacifists

Many believed that war was morally wrong. There were mass protests across the USA, including in Washington in December 1969.

Singers wrote anti-war songs and songs that criticised the Vietnam War itself. Bob Dylan wrote 'Masters of War' and John Lennon wrote 'Give Peace A Chance'.

Political opposition

The American Government spent vast amounts of money on the war that could have been spent on domestic problems. Some politicians who had supported the war to begin with, such as Robert McNamara, began to turn against American involvement.

The end of the war in Vietnam

The resignation of President Nixon also weakened US enthusiasm for involvement in Vietnam.

In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive and over-ran a series of South Vietnamese strongholds. In May 1975 communist forces took Saigon. In 1976 the two halves of Vietnam were united in a single Socialist Republic.

The Vietnam War was the greatest struggle of the Cold War era and the only major military defeat in United States history.

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BBC Bitesize - National 5 History - The Vietnam War - Revision 5

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Another major reason why the USA could not win the war was the lack of support at home from the American public. The huge protest movement divided the country. A major pro-war movement also erupted. Many veterans of the war called the anti-war protesters traitors and communists.

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President Obama announced today that the United States is doubling its funding to clear bombs dropped in Laos during the Vietnam War era.

An additional $30 million per year will be given to Laos for three years to help clear undetonated cluster bombs that still pockmark the landscape. Obama, who is attending the ASEAN Summit in Laos, said the U.S. has a "moral obligation to help Laos heal" and that the "remnants of war continue to shatter lives."

Here is an ABC News breakdown on the history of the bombing in Laos:

America's Secret War

As the U.S. fought against communism in Vietnam, a civil war was also raging in Laos between the communist Pathet Lao party and the Royal Lao Government.

To support the Royal Lao Government against the communists, and to disrupt supply lines being used by the communist Vietnamese forces, the CIA waged a proxy war in Laos, dropping two million tons of ordnance. The CIA has called the effort "the largest paramilitary operations ever undertaken by the CIA." The bombing campaign began in 1964 and lasted until 1973.

This proxy war was unknown to many at the time. An airline secretly owned by the CIA, Air America, hugely assisted in the operation.

The fate of the CIA proxy war in Laos became inextricably linked to the war in Vietnam. As American forces lost their battle to the north Vietnamese to the east, the U.S.-backed regime in Laos began to lose power, as well. In 1973, a cease-fire between the warring Lao parties was signed, and the CIA ended its aerial bombardment. Eventually, the communist party gained control of Laos, and the country remains communist today.

David Longstreath/AP Photo

By the Numbers

2 million tons - the amount of ordnance dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, according to Legacies of War, an advocacy and education group. This amounts to a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours per day, for nine years.

270 million - the number of cluster bombs that were dropped on Laos during this period.

80 million -- the estimated number of cluster bombs that did not detonate, most of which are still buried in farmland.

210 million -- how many more bombs were dropped on Laos than were dropped on Iraq in 1991, 1998, and 2006 combined. In fact, Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.

20,000 -- the number of people who have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance in Laos.

50 -- the number of casualties per year, down from 310 per year in 2008. Forty percent of the victims are children.

$4.9 million -- the average amount per year the U.S. has spent on clearing unexploded ordnance in Laos, from 1993 to 2016.

$30 million -- the amount the U.S. will spend on clearing unexploded ordnance each year for the next three years.

Rick Merron/AP Photo

What Are Cluster Bombs?

The bombs littering the Laotian landscape are known as cluster bombs or "bombies" in local parlance.

A cluster bomb is designed to explode into smaller pieces of shrapnel, causing casualties over a large area.

The smaller pieces of these bombs, known as cluster munitions, are they are usually the size of a soup can, an orange, or a tennis ball.

Those cluster bombs that do not explode on impact can remain buried in the ground for years, posing an indefinite danger to the civilians who live around them. They can be set off in a variety of ways, including if they are struck with a shovel by a farmer or if rain and floodwaters uncover them.

These bombs can cause major injuries such as blindness, loss of limbs, hearing loss, traumatic brain injuries, and shrapnel wounds.

Many farmers know their land is contaminated with bombs, but they can't afford to move or purchase more land, so they must take the risk to farm contaminated land.

ABC News' Elizabeth McLaughlin contributed to this report.

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President Obama announced today that the United States is doubling its funding to clear bombs dropped in Laos during the Vietnam War era. An additional $30 million per year will be given to Laos for three years to help clear undetonated cluster bombs that still pockmark the landscape.

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Cambodia: THE ILLEGAL BOMBING OF CAMBODIA [EN]

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The "Secret Plan" of Nixon

After the stunning Tet Offensive, American public, who was already cautious about the war in Vietnam, now changed their views even more dramatically against it. Anti-war protests and demonstrations increased rapidly in numbers and size throughout the nation. American people now demanded for peace more than ever before. As a result, a peace solution for Vietnam apparently became a key issue in the next presidential election occurring soon at the end of the year.

Republican Party presidential candidate Richard Nixon understood and acknowledged that if he was to win the election he had to show that he had a viable plan to bring out peace and he did. In a public speech on 5 March 1968, Nixon implied that he already had a "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam, which succeeded in attracting public's attention ¹. Since then, he continued to carry his "secret plan" with the slogan of "peace with honor" throughout his campaign until he finally got elected in one of the nation's tightest Presidential race.

Even though some claimed that the "secret" plan that Nixon implied never actually existed ², early in his administration, he did come up with a new policy to secure the existence of South Vietnam and the withdrawal of the U.S. forces at the same time. This policy was later known as the "Vietnamization" which was coined in a broadcast speech in November, 1969 ³.

Vietnamization in Theory...

Vietnamization policy had two major purposes: first, to gradually withdraw U.S. combat troops from South Vietnam; second, to train and strengthen the South Vietnamese military so they can defend themselves against the North Communists. In theory, the subsequent withdrawal of the U.S. forces would depend on the improvements of South Vietnamese military capabilities and the level of combat activities. That process, according to most U.S. senior advisors in Vietnam, could take no less than five years ⁴.

To put Vietnamization into practice, the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), directed by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, prepared a two phases plan for American withdrawal. In Phase I, American continued to participate in the war at the current level while enlarging, improving, and modernizing South Vietnamese forces. In Phase II, the burden of the war was gradually shifted to the ARVN until they was capable of dealing with the combined Viet Cong and NVA threat ⁵. Although the Vietnamization policy did make sense in theory, many military officers still doubted whether the inexperienced South Vietnamese Army, who was relegated to a second-class role for too long, could be able to cope with the skilful NVA before the U.S. total withdrawal.

... and in Reality

The U.S. withdrawal began when 814 soldiers of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division left Saigon on July 7, 1969. Following them was more than 24,000 troops who withdrew in the first stage of the U.S. disengagement ⁶. In December 1969, a further 60,000 men were scheduled to leave South Vietnam. In parallel, the U.S. also began their essential efforts to strengthen the ARVN. At first, they attempted to develop and expand South Vietnam's military schools of advanced military training. In fact, the curriculum from junior officers at Da Lat Military Academy was expanded to four years ⁷. In March 1971, the numbers of ARVN soldiers impressively increased to more than 1,000,000 men armed with modern US M-16 guns ⁸. At the beginning of 1972, the ARVN had about 120 infantry battalions supported by 58 artillery battalions and 19 battalion-size armored units ⁹. Moreover, with more than 2,000 aircraft supported by the U.S., the Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) grown to the fourth largest Air Force in the world ¹⁰.

After a year of implementation, the U.S. decided to give Vietnamization its first test. In mid-1970, the U.S. and the ARVN cooperatively launched a military campaign to wipe out communist troops ensconced in Cambodian borders. In this first campaign where the ARVN took a major role, they achieved initial success. On the surface, it appeared that South Vietnamese forces had performed well in the incursion. President Nixon and many allied leaders saw the campaign as an encouraging sign of the policy success ¹¹.

However, a later study conducted by Major Jeff Hacket pointed out a different view. In this incursion, the ARVN had used their best-trained units to face an enemy who was more concerned about their self-preservation rather than fighting. Moreover, they also relied heavily on U.S. air and artillery support to inflict the enemy. Thus, the ARVN in the Cambodia incursion seemed to be portrayed more capable than they actually were ¹². As a matter of fact, the later events indicated that Hacket was right.

The weakness of the ARVN was quickly highlighted in its second test, Operation Lam Son 719. Conducted in southern of Laos, the U.S. ground forces and advisors this time were legally prohibited to participate in the operation due to the Cooper-Church amendment passed in December 1970. For the first time, the ARVN conducted a large operation without major U.S. supports. Unfortunately, Lam Son 719 soon turned out to be a disaster.

Most South Vietnamese commanders proved themselves ineffective and unable to coordinate air and artillery support in a large conventional operation ¹³. At the end of the operation, at least 5,000 ARVN troops were killed and wounded but no major objective was achieved ¹⁴. At that time, the numbers of U.S. military personnel continued to decline. There were only 160,000 U.S. troops remained by late 1970 ¹⁵. By early 1972, the U.S. had roughly 40,000 troops in South Vietnam, only 5% of them were combatant ¹⁶.

On 30 March 1972, the NVA conducted a massive military campaign, known as the Easter Offensive, in three major tactical zones in South Vietnam. The offensive was conducted in the belief that it could possibly influence the 1972 U.S. presidential election by increasing anti-war sentiment among the public as well as improved their bargaining position at the peace talks in Paris ¹⁷. Moreover, with the constant U.S. troop withdrawals, Hanoi believed that the ARVN could be easily defeated. And they might be right.

The major weakness in defence of the ARVN was once again brought to the surface. In fact, without massive U.S. air support, the ARVN could hardly have held An Loc, defend Kon Tum, or reoccupied Quang Tri ¹⁸. Despite the poor performance of the ARVN in the Easter, the U.S. continued to withdraw their troops from South Vietnam and left the main objective of Vietnamization, which was to build a new and capable South Vietnamese forces, unresolved.

Conclusion

Through the Vietnamization program, Nixon had done what he had promised American people, the U.S. combat troops had completely withdrawn from South Vietnam. However, it was the only goal Vietnamization could achieve. The other goal which was to mould the ARVN into a viable fighting force turned out to be a failure. Even though South Vietnamese army was equipped with the latest U.S. weapons and technology, they still lacked leadership, training, and morale. In fact, with only four short years, the U.S. had overestimated the ability of the ARVN to match up to the experienced and well-trained NVA. Last but not least, the Congress decision to cut off funding to South Vietnam after the resignation of Nixon in 1974 eventually brought Vietnamization to its ultimate fate.

References:

1. Jeffrey, K. (1998), "Nixon's Vietnam War", p.40.

2. Wells, W., "The 'secret plan' ploy", Retrieved April 5, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/opinion/20iht-edwells.3229758.html

3. Nixon, Richard M., "Vietnamization Speech", Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/richard-milhous-nixon/vietnamization-speech-1969.php.

4. "Vietnamization: Lasting Effects on South Vietnam", Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://www.studyworld.com/Vietnamization.htm, para.4.

5. "Vietnam Studies: The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army", p.88.

6. Anderson, D. L., "The Military and Diplomatic Course of the Vietnam War", Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/anderson.htm .

7. Clarke, Jeffrey J. (1988), "Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965-1973", p.318.

8. Pauker, Guy J. (1971), "An essay on Vietnamization", p. 47.

9. "Vietnam Studies: The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army", p.91.

10. Wetterhahn, Ralph (Jan. 1997), "Escape to U Taphao", Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/escape-to-u-taphao-112/.

11. Shaw, J. M. (2005), "The Cambodian Campaign: The 1970 Offensive and America's Vietnam War", Lawrence KS: University of Kansas Press, p.153.

12. Hacket, J. (2008), "The Cambodian Incursion: Tactical and Operation Success and its Effects on Vietnamization", p.19.

13. Prados, J., "Vietnamization: Success or Failure?", Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://www.vva.org/veteran/1207/vietnamization.html

14. Tucker, Spencer C. (2011), "The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War - 2nd Edition", p. 619.

15. "The United States Pulls Out of Vietnam", Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/ritas-site/united-states-pulls-out-vietnam.

16. Bruce, Palmer J. (2002), "The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam", p. 120.

17. Palmer, D. R. (1978), "Summons of the Trumpet: The History of the Vietnam War from a Military Man's Viewpoint", p.310-311.

18. "Vietnam, The End 1975", p.21, Retrieved February 22, 2014 from http://ehistory.osu.edu/vietnam/essays/theend/0021.cfm

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Vietnamization: In Theory and In Reality - The Vietnam War

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The "Secret Plan" of Nixon After the stunning Tet Offensive, American public, who was already cautious about the war in Vietnam, now changed their views even more dramatically against it. Anti-war protests and demonstrations increased rapidly in numbers and size throughout the nation. American people now demanded for peace more than ever before.

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Objective 9.2 - Nixon and Vietnamization

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A secondary school revision resource for GCSE History about modern world history, Vietnam and the war in Vietnam

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What Was the Tet Offensive?

As the celebration of the lunar new year, the Tet holiday is the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar. In previous years, the holiday had been the occasion for an informal truce in the Vietnam War between South Vietnam and North Vietnam (and their communist allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong).

In early 1968, however, the North Vietnamese military commander General Vo Nguyen Giap chose January 31 as the occasion for a coordinated offensive of surprise attacks aimed at breaking the stalemate in Vietnam. Giap, in coordination with North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, believed that the attacks would cause Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces to collapse and foment discontent and rebellion among the South Vietnamese population.

Furthermore, Giap believed the alliance between South Vietnam and the United States was unstable-he hoped the offensive would drive the final wedge between them and convince American leaders to give up their defense of South Vietnam.

Did you know? In February 1968, in the wake of the Tet Offensive, the respected TV journalist Walter Cronkite, who had been a moderate and balanced observer of the war's progress, announced that it seemed "more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." President Johnson reportedly told an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

Khe Sanh Attacked

In preparation for the planned offensive, Giap and his troops in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a series of attacks in the fall of 1967 on isolated American garrisons in the highlands of central Vietnam and along the Laotian and Cambodian frontiers.

On January 21, 1968, PAVN forces began a massive artillery bombardment of the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located on the principal road from northern South Vietnam into Laos. As President Lyndon B. Johnson and General William Westmoreland focused their attention on the defense of Khe Sanh, Giap's 70,000 poised to begin their true objective: the Tet Offensive.

Tet Offensive Begins

On the early morning of January 30, 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked 13 cities in central South Vietnam, just as many families began their observances of the lunar new year.

Twenty-four hours later, PAVN and Viet Cong forces struck a number of other targets throughout South Vietnam, including cities, towns, government buildings and U.S. or ARVN military bases throughout South Vietnam, in a total of more than 120 attacks.

In a particularly bold attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, a Viet Cong platoon got inside the complex's courtyard before U.S. forces destroyed it. The audacious attack on the U.S. Embassy, and its initial success, stunned American and international observers, who saw images of the carnage broadcast on television as it occurred.

Though Giap had succeeded in achieving surprise, his forces were spread too thin in the ambitious offensive, and U.S. and ARVN forces managed to successfully counter most of the attacks and inflict heavy Viet Cong losses.

The Battle of Hue

Particularly intense fighting took place in the city of Hue, located on the Perfume River some 50 miles south of the border between North and South Vietnam.

The Battle of Hue would rage for more than three weeks after PAVN and Viet Cong forces burst into the city on January 31, easily overwhelming the government forces there and taking control of the city's ancient citadel.

Early in their occupation of Hue, Viet Cong soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting civil servants, religious leaders, teachers and other civilians connected with American forces or with the South Vietnamese regime. They executed these so-called counter-revolutionaries and buried their bodies in mass graves.

U.S. and ARVN forces discovered evidence of the massacre after they regained control of the city on February 26. In addition to more than 2,800 bodies, another 3,000 residents were missing, and the occupying forces had destroyed many of the city's grand temples, palaces and other monuments.

The toughest fighting in Hue occurred at the ancient citadel, which the North Vietnamese struggled fiercely to hold against superior U.S. firepower. In scenes of carnage recorded on film by numerous television crews on the scene, nearly 150 U.S. Marines were killed in the Battle of Hue, along with some 400 South Vietnamese troops.

On the North Vietnamese side, an estimated 5,000 soldiers were killed, most of them hit by American air and artillery strikes.

"What I saw was probably the most intense ground fighting on a sustained basis over several days of any other period during the war," Howard Prince, a U.S. Army captain, later told NPR.

"We didn't know where the enemy was, in which direction even," Mike Downs, a Marine captain, told NPR.

Impact of the Tet Offensive

Despite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure to inspire widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for the North Vietnamese.

Before Tet, Westmoreland and other representatives of the Johnson administration had been claiming that the end of the war was in sight; now, it was clear that a long struggle still lay ahead, shaking their confidence in their ability to win the Cold War. Westmoreland requested more than 200,000 new troops in order to mount an effective counteroffensive, an escalation that many Americans saw as an act of desperation.

"You had the incredible rose-colored reports coming from General William Westmoreland, who was the American commander in Vietnam," Mark Bowden, author of the book Hue 1968, told NPR. "[He was] assuring the American people that the end was near, that the enemy was really only capable of small kinds of ambushes in the far reaches of the country."

Antiwar Movement Grows

As antiwar sentiment and Vietnam War protests on the home front gathered strength, some of Johnson's advisers in the White House that had supported past military buildup in Vietnam (including soon-to-be Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford) now argued for scaling back U.S. involvement.

On March 31, a beleaguered President Johnson declared that he was limiting the bombing of North Vietnam to the area below the 20th parallel (thus sparing 90 percent of communist-held territory) and calling for negotiations to end the war. At the same time, Johnson announced he would not run for re-election that November.

Though peace talks would drag on for another five years-during which more American soldiers were killed than in the previous years of the conflict-Johnson's decision to halt escalation after the Tet Offensive marked a crucial turning point in American participation in the war in Vietnam.

Sources

Military Victory But Political Defeat: The Tet Offensive 50 Years Later. NPR.
U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
Jan 30, 1968 CE: Tet Offensive. National Geographic.
Tet Offensive at Fifty. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Tet Offensive: 1968, Definition & Date - HISTORY

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The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks against more than 100 cities and outposts in U.S.-supported South Vietnam.

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Listening In: JFK on Vietnam (November 4, 1963)

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Citation: C N Trueman "John F Kennedy and Vietnam"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 27 Mar 2015. 19 Apr 2018.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a fervent believer in containing communism. In his first speech on becoming president, Kennedy made it clear that he would continue the policy of the former President, Dwight Eisenhower, and support the government of Diem in South Vietnam. Kennedy also made it plain that he supported the 'Domino Theory' and he was convinced that if South Vietnam fell to communism, then other states in the region would as a consequence. This Kennedy was not prepared to contemplate.

Kennedy received conflicting advice with regards to Vietnam. Charles De Gaulle warned Kennedy that Vietnam and warfare in Vietnam would trap America in a "bottomless military and political swamp". This was based on the experience the French had at Dien Bien Phu, which left a sizeable psychological scar of French foreign policy for some years. However, Kennedy had more daily contact with 'hawks' in Washington DC who believed that American forces would be far better equipped and prepared for conflict in Vietnam than the French had been. They believed that just a small increase in US support for Diem would ensure success in Vietnam. The 'hawks' in particular were strong supporters in the 'Domino Theory'.

In 1961, Kennedy agreed that America should finance an increase in the size of the South Vietnamese Army from 150,000 to 170,000. He also agreed that an extra 1000 US military advisors should be sent to South Vietnam to help train the South Vietnamese Army. Both of these decisions were not made public as they broke the agreements made at the 1954 Geneva Agreement.

It was during Kennedy's presidency that the 'Strategic Hamlet' programme was introduced. This failed badly and almost certainly drove a number of South Vietnamese peasants into supporting the North Vietnamese communists. This forcible moving of peasants into secure compounds was supported by Diem and did a great deal to further the opposition to him in the South. American television reporters relayed to the US public that 'Strategic Hamlet' destroyed decades, if not hundreds, of years of village life in the South and that the process might only take half-a-day. Here was a super-power effectively orchestrating the forced removal of peasants by the South Vietnamese Army who were not asked if they wanted to move. To those who knew about US involvement in Vietnam and were opposed to it, 'Strategic Hamlet' provided them with an excellent propaganda opportunity.

Kennedy was informed about the anger of the South Vietnamese peasants and was shocked to learn that membership of the NLF had increased, according to US Intelligence, by 300% in a two year time span - the years when 'Strategic Hamlet' was in operation. Kennedy's response was to send more military advisors to Vietnam so that by the end of 1962 there were 12,000 of these advisors in South Vietnam. As well as sending more advisors to South Vietnam, Kennedy also sent 300 helicopters with US pilots. They were told to avoid military combat at all costs but this became all but impossible to fulfil.

Kennedy's presidency also saw the response to the Diem government by some Buddhist monks. On June 11 th 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, committed suicide on a busy Saigon road by being burned to death. Other Buddhist monks followed his example in August 1 963. Television reported these events throughout the world. A member of Diem's government said:

Another member of Diem's government was heard to say that he would be happy to provide Buddhist monks with petrol.

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John F Kennedy and Vietnam - History Learning Site

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a fervent believer in containing communism. In his first speech on becoming president, Kennedy made it clear that he would continue the policy of the former President, Dwight Eisenhower, and support the government of Diem in South Vietnam. Kennedy also made it plain that he supported the 'Domino Theory' and he ...

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Tactics used in the Vietnam War - The Vietnam War - Edexcel - GCSE History Revision - Edexcel - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about and revise the Vietnam War with this BBC Bitesize GCSE History (Edexcel) study guide.

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Lyndon B. Johnson's Speech on The Vietnam War 1966

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During the Second World War Southeast Asia had been under Japanese control, but in 1945 the French re-occupied Indo-China. A nationalist group, the Vietminh, eventually surrounded and wiped out the French occupying army and America was dragged into fighting a costly and disastrous war in Vietnam.

At the Treaty of Geneva in 1954, Indo-China was divided into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, although it was agreed to hold elections in 1956 to unify the two parts of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem, the ruler of South Vietnam, refused to hold elections.

Ho Chi Minh was a communist, who was supported by China. In 1960, he set up the [ National Liberation Front (NLF) in South Vietnam, which started a guerrilla war Guerrilla war: A type of warfare that uses unusual tactics, and in-depth knowledge of local surroundings, to defeat opponents both physically and psychologically. ] to take over South Vietnam from Diem and his American backers.

The Americans called the NLF guerrillas the Vietcong, and supported Diem with military advisers and money.

Diem's government was made up of rich Christian landowners. It was corrupt and unpopular and persecuted the poor Buddhist peasants. By 1963, most of South Vietnam's rural areas were under Vietcong control - the [ ARVN ARVN: Army of the Republic of Vietnam, created by the French in 1950. ] (South Vietnamese army) could not defeat them.

In 1963, the US supported a military coup, which murdered Diem and put a military government in South Vietnam.

In August 1964, sailors on the American warship USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin claimed they had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, allowing the American President Lyndon B. Johnson to take direct military action in retaliation.

In February 1965, the Vietcong attacked American air bases and killed American soldiers. President Johnson declared war against North Vietnam.

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During the Second World War Southeast Asia had been under Japanese control, but in 1945 the French re-occupied Indo-China. A nationalist group, the Vietminh, eventually surrounded and wiped out the French occupying army and America was dragged into fighting a costly and disastrous war in Vietnam.

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Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War? | 5 Minute Video

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Vietnam War - Dwight D. Eisenhower's Influence

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Drawn History: What is Domino Theory? | History

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French Rule and Dien Bien Phu Information Sheet.pdf