The strengths and advantages that the NVA and VC had led to the US taking drastic measures to try and defeat them, including the use of chemical weapons. It was obvious the Americans wanted to try and win the war quickly as they ignored professional scientists negative views on the use of chemical weapons. This would lead to even more frustration of the public as the Government was ignoring professional at what seemed to be sensible advice.
As S&D missions were seeming to have no effect on the VC, the US decided to use its airpower to even more devastating effect. Chemical weapons, such as Agent Orange and napalm were used to defoliate the forests and expose the hidden VC, so they could then be tracked down on the ground with guidance from helicopter and also bombed from the air. This worked in the sense that they did expose some VC, but it did also have an effect on the US as well.
For one, any civilians caught in the napalm dropped by aeroplane they would experience extreme pain and serious burns, also giving off a thick smoke making it hard to breathe. The defoliants would also destroy farm lands and crops, meaning that the US would be very unlikely to win the hearts and minds of any SV affected by the chemical weapons and also making them more likely to join the VC. Also not only did the defoliants kill farm land and crops but they gave off a toxin call dioxin which could cause cancer to those who handled it a lot. It was also known to cause birth defects, skin complaints, vomiting and headaches. The VC decided they needed to do something to counter act the US chemical weapons attack, as they could no longer find cover just under the thick foliage. So they began building tunnels and moving around in them, the US interpreted this as a victory as the VC were being forced to hide. Not only did the VC escape the chemical weapons, but also regular bombing and S&D missions, which meant soldiers were getting even more frustrated as it had now become hard to kill the VC, the Us knew it was going to be harder for them now but they claimed it was a victory as the VC were fleeing to the underground. When US troops tried to take over VC tunnels it became very difficult as the VC would leave booby traps at the entrances and could wait in the tunnels to ambush entering US soldiers. Also when the tunnels were searched after the war had ended they were around 250 kilometres in total length; with underground kitchens, weapon stores, dormitories, hospitals and rest areas. The tunnels proved to actually be an advantage to the VC. On the ground they hide under foliage and still risk bombing, but underground they were almost completely safe from air attack.
By the time the tunnels had been built, it was obvious the psychological effect that the VC were having on US soldiers was taking its toll, and the My Lai massacre is just one of the bigger stories where US soldiers had tortured and murdered innocent people in cold blood. It seemed soldiers were taking out their frustration on the Vietnamese people. It was likely there were more cases of US troop brutality which had been successfully kept under wraps by the US government, unlike the My Lai massacre.
The main reason deemed responsible for the way US troops used torture to interrogate suspects, was the fact that many young soldiers had been conscripted, and therefore had very little training and weren’t trained in these kind of situations, they got frustrated very easily, and when a friend or a team mate died in the war, they could not handle the trauma of it all; and so decided to take it out their revenge on possibly innocent Vietnamese people. This obviously meant they were not capturing the hearts and minds of the people they tortured or the people living in Vietnam who were aware of this brutality. So this would likely make more SV people join the VC, and not only that but it roused the media and more stories were made to portray the US as the losing “side” in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam war was practically nothing compared the scale of the death in the WW’s but because of the media recording actual events happening it seemed much worse in comparison.
Even the Western World who essentially being policed by Uncle Sam were beginning to change their opinion on the war as it went on, they would see such horrors as the My Lai massacre in the news, but less of how the VC troops acted in possibly just as bad ways; such weird and sickening stories were heard from US troops how the VC had decapitated soldiers and put their heads on spikes coming out of the ground.
Eventually many traumatised and/or injured soldiers returned to America, and a Vietnam veterans protest was held, it turned out to be one of the most influential and emotional protests which took place during the Vietnam war. Veterans were seen in crutches and wheelchairs throwing down all their medals and honours they were given from the Vietnam War, it was a very emotional time for them and obviously had a dramatic effect on they way the public thought about the War in Vietnam. Some of the public realised that for so many veterans to turn up to try and end the War it must be much more horrific than the media had already shown them. This itself inspired more people to join the protests.
By the time of January 1968, the US believed they were on the brink of forcing the NV into peace talks, victory was in sight and a certain amount of complacency had crept into the US forces. When an attack came they were surprised and caught very much off guard. On the 31st January 1968 the first major battle inside all of the cities and towns of SV began, the Tet Offenzive. Despite huge VC/NVA loses during the last few years, the NV had a huge amount of troops to stage a colossal battle fought in nearly all the biggest cities and towns in SV during the Tet festival. This attack caused many soldiers to become down hearted as they began to believe they were still far from winning the war, at a time when the US didn’t even think NV had half the amount of soldiers that they were attacked by during the Tet festival.
It was completely unexpected, firstly because of the fact that it was a festival and the NV would be celebrating it as well, secondly US officials and leaders had been saying in the news and on the TV that victory was in sight for the US troops. Immediately the public thought they had been misled by US officials for any number of reasons, possibly to try and stop the riots: ‘The Americans tell us they are winning the War. Well here we are. We’re in the centre of Saigon and this gunfire you can hear is pretty close.’ (Page38, Sauvain). One BBC reporter said this, basically summing up the way the public felt; confused and betrayed.
Yet it seemed the US troops genuinely were not expecting such a large resistance, if any from NV. At least the US troops were fighting on some familiar ground this time, in the cities, the type of warfare they had been trained for. This didn’t stop the media calling the Tet Offensive a complete loss for the US, simply because they knew nothing about the attack, believing NV only had a small amount of troops left in fighting condition until it started, and despite the fact that when it was over 71% of the deaths were VC/NVA and only 2% were US troops.
The Tet Offensive had a devastating and ongoing effect on the US, right up until the start of Vietnamization, it seemed to have a large impact on the public, simply because they had the power to start the offensive people in the US started to fear for the lives of their loved ones even more than before. The biased media pounced upon the chance to expose the US further, showing huge losses for the US, trying to prove that the US weren’t having a big as an effect on the VC and NVA forces as they thought they were. People at home in the US started to realise that it wasn’t worth trying to stop the spread of Communism in exchange for the deaths of many US troops.
After the Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre the protests in the US began to get more serious, the resistance formed by the VC and NVA caused even more people to join the protests. The protests were caused by many things, such as the media involvement in the War, thing like the My Lai massacre, the Tet Offensive was just a spark to begin an uproar of colossal protests.
Such was the time of the protests, they were made even vaster because of the “hippie” movement and the want to ‘make love not war’. Many believed the War was immoral and that the US had no right to impose its views on a poor nation like Vietnam. Some scientists criticised the use of chemical weapons because of the effect it had on people and the environment. All of these factors and many more escalated the protests, which all had a massive effect on the US presence in Vietnam. Thus putting more pressure on the US government to end the war, whether they won or not, but just to stop all the deaths of US soldiers.
The younger generation of the US public were making themselves heard as many people of their own age were being sent to fight in the horrific Vietnam War because of the draft system. Such as the protest in Kent State University which began on Saturday 2nd May where over 800 people rallied against the War, one university building was burnt down. Then on Sunday everything settled, but then on Monday 4th May the protests took a sinister turn.
Guardsmen had been brought in to help the police as the protests got stronger, yet they were untrained in this kind of scenario and might panic easily. When they ran out of their primary weapon, tear gas, and some protesters were still advancing towards them, they resorted to using their guns. By the end of the atrocity four students were dead and some other injured.
The consequences of the shootings were disastrous; it sparked hundreds of protests, especially in universities. The public were so angry because America was a democracy where strikes and protests are supposed to be legal. So when people in their early twenties were shot at Kent State University it was essentially a murder against an unarmed youth. This put huge pressure on the US government to try and end the war peacefully and quickly.
LBJ had been trying to end the war peacefully since 1966, but his efforts only really became urgent after the My Lai massacre and the Tet Offensive (both in 1968). This was when the media had really started to be very biased against the war and when major protests began. Things like the Kent State disaster made it even more difficult for the government and put them under more pressure from the media and even more pressure to bring the War to a peaceful end.
The US offered NV an ultimatum, they would stop bombing NV if they would begin peace talks, where the NV would not try and take advantage of the lull in bombing. NV accepted the offer and so peace talks began in 1969 and eventually ended in 1975.
The peace talks were difficult for the US because they are a democracy and every decision made had to be accounted for by an electorate or to a parliament. Whereas NV just had a small group of seven people chosen by ruling Communist party. Also in 1969 Richard Nixon came into power in the US. Who’s main policy had been to bring the Vietnam War to an end.
The peace aims proposed by the NV were:
- US withdraw all their troops.
- Return to the Geneva agreement.
- SV would be left to manage its own affairs.
- Peaceful reunification without “foreign” (US) involvement.
Détente was playing a big part in US relations with Vietnam and the rest of the Eastern world, as relations improved with Communist China and also the Soviet Union. This was also because China and the Soviet Union’s relations had worsened making it easier for Nixon to make a cease fire with each of them separately.
The peace talks went on and Vietnamization was playing a bigger part in the war, as the US were trying to expand the ARVN as well as getting its own troops out. This was good for troops which had been taken out but bad for those still waiting to be taken out; as they lost all enthusiasm to fight. S&D missions became Search & Avoid missions because none of the US soldiers wanted to die for what seemed a lost cause, as they would be leaving the war soon anyway. Many more soldiers took refuge in drugs and alcohol as they got “bored” of the war as it seemed pointless to go and risk their lives when they would probably be leaving soon anyway, they just wanted to get away from all the death and horror of the war, this even led to fragging. Fragging even became popular, this was the “accidental death” of an over enthusiastic officer usually with a fragmentation grenade. Soldiers simply did not want to die if they were going to leave the war anyway. It was likely this would encourage even more people to join the protests if Americans were killing their own instead of killing the enemy.
For four years the ground war was very quiet as the NV was finding it very difficult to recover form the huge losses during the Tet Offensive, but then in 1972 the NV attacked SV with even more power than in 1968, with tanks and artillery. NV expected an easy victory as most US troops had left Vietnam. Nixon was unable to use its minimal ground forces in Vietnam so he launched a huge bombing offensive, codenamed Linebacker. They bombed NV with huge force destroying lorries, tanks, railway lines, roads and storage depots, the port at Haiphong was devastated by the huge B-52 bombers. Smart bombs guided by lasers were used to hit small targets which had previously been tricky to hit. This was not simply just to stop the NV invasion on SV, but also to try and force the NV into signing a cease fire.
Although the renewed bombing caused protests in the US it was the only way Nixon could stop the NV taking over SV and leaving the peace talks all together. It was possible that the Soviet Union or China would intervene but that’s why Nixon had been meeting with them both to try and make better relations with them. When neither of the Communist super powers had stepped in, NV gave in to the US bombing three months after they had restarted. In the Paris peace talks the NV indicated they were willing to make a deal and Kissinger accepted Le Duc Tho’s cease fire as a basis for a peace settlement. Yet the talks stalled once more and Nixon stepped up the pressure by launching the biggest bombing raids to date during the Christmas of 1972. Over 36 000 tonnes bombs were dropped on NV in a matter of a few days causing mass destruction.
The bombing during the Christmas of 1972 had the desired effect as peace talks in Paris in January 1972 and at last led to a final agreement made between Dr Henry Kissinger and the NV spokesmen Le Duc Tho, and as a result they were awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for their handling of the cease fire agreement. The cease fire was made in such a way that it would bring a peaceful end to the war, yet it seemed so unsupervised, as the US was leaving Vietnam, that their was nothing to stop the North just taking over the South. This is why SV refused to sign the document, and any reception to the cease fire in SV was muted.
US reduced funding to SV as they thought it wasn’t worth while since the cease fire had already been signed, and also because Nixon was too involved in the Watergate scandal which was dominating the media. Eventually Nixon was forced to leave office, making the cease fire agreement even more useless than it had been while he was in power. Many believed the cease fire was just a chance for the NV to completely get rid of US involvement and to give them time to prepare for the imminent invasion on SV.
To the US public it had looked like the US government had done everything in its power to try and bring a peaceful end to the Vietnam War, as they cleared mines from NV waters to keep their end of the bargain. In turn prisoners of War were returned and it looked like a happy ending to the US public. Although to the government it probably looked inevitable that at one time or another NV would attack and eventually succeed in the takeover of SV. Then the inevitable happened and by 1975 the NV had taken over Saigon and SV had been captured.
Contrary to popular US public belief it wasn’t only their furious protesting that caused the US government to bring US troops out of Vietnam; their were other factors which also had a big impact on the Vietnam War, more political factors.
One example was the happenings in the cold War and also other Communist issues. As we saw throughout the Paris Peace talks Nixon had continuously tried to improve US relations with the Communists, visiting China and the Soviet Union respectively. This “thaw” in the Cold War meant that the Communists would hate the US much less than they did previously and thus make it more likely for them to stop advancing towards Western Europe so quickly. There was also doubts to whether the US domino theory actually had any relevance to what was really happening in East Europe and Indo-China. China, the biggest and one of the most powerful Communist countries, had many easy targets next to it, yet they did not attack any of them, and showed no signs of aggression towards them. This questioned the reliability of the Domino theory and other US “hunches” about the Communists. If it was true that the Communists weren’t actually going to invade West Europe, then the Vietnam War became pointless, as the US was only defending NV to try and stop Communism expanding towards West Europe. Yet if the Communists were just expanding but not in anyway thinking of taking over the rest of West Europe it means that many US and Vietnamese soldiers died in vain.
Obviously some soldiers and some members of the US public would have realised these weaknesses in the domino theory, thus causing even more people to join the protests against the Vietnam War, adding to the pressure to end the war. Yet if the massive flaws in the Domino theory had been exposed more publicly it would have been likely it would have caused enormous protests as the whole war would have been deemed immoral by a lot of the US public. The US government could save itself a lot of embarrassment by ending the war quickly rather than it being proven that thousands of American youth’s had died for no good reason.
America didn’t admit it, but the massive cost of the War would have played a huge part in the decision for the US to start Vietnamization, the total cost of the War was around £100 000 000 000 (One hundred billion pounds). This led to inflation and high taxes, which of course could only mean bad news. We only need to look at what happened to Germany after WWI too see what can happen to a country when a country simply doesn’t have enough money to pay for a war. The amount of money being spent in Vietnam also meant that no other US troops were receiving proper funding, and also more US home based things were not receiving as much government funding, such as hospitals and public transport.
The reasons I have raised in this essay all played a key part in the decision for the USA to withdraw its forces from Vietnam in 1973, although some were more important than others, and some didn’t seem as big as they were at the time, but actually played a part throughout the whole period that US forces were present in Vietnam. Such as the US’s arrogance towards the war, which I think was the most important reason for the US withdrawing its forces completely from Vietnam by 1973. This is because when the Us went into the war they hoped to use their superior firepower on the ground and from the air to easily over power the primitive weaponry of the VC and NVA. Just because they were poor didn’t mean they didn’t have any common sense or very useful allies, such as China, so the VC went ahead and used their knowledge of the jungles and the Ho Chi Minh trail to out smart the US marines who had been trained in warfare with heavy machine guns and tanks. The highly trained marines were dying as they underestimated the determination of the VC. This meant some of the US public had to be drafted in, with little training they would be sent into battle, where friends would inevitably die in some of the most horrific conditions, and many of these untrained soldiers couldn’t handle the pressure and it showed when such things like the My Lai massacre happened, proving the un-professionalism of some of the US troops as they couldn’t contain their anger and decided to take it out on civilians. This meant that protests would become more fierce back in the US and also more SV civilians would join the VC and the US failed to capture their hearts and minds by torturing them or by cooping all the different villages together in strategic hamlets. You could also blame the un-professionalism of a lot of the US troops for the Tet Offensive as they would be unable to spot any of the thousands of VC and NVA troops infiltrating inside the main cities and towns of SV before they launched their major attack. This in turn caused more and more protests in the US which were deemed as the main reason why the US withdrew its troops from Vietnam in 1973. The Tet Offensive and the My Lai massacre (both in 1968 when the drafting in of un trained troops was at a peak) were seen as major events which were regarded as turning points in the war, from the US winning the war too the US losing the War. All of this coming from one thing, US forces being ignorant of the fact that the VC and NVA were determined and influenced by the NV’s powerful leader, Ho Chi Minh.
This ignorance towards the poor and apparently diminutive country by the US led to a year where everything seemed to go wrong for the US, 1968. When both the My Lai massacre and the Tet Offensive occurred, both spawning a whole number of problems for the US government, and above all creating more protesters.
I think the US had realised they had made this colossal mistake right at the beginning, so they used the Vietnam War as an excuse to try and improve relations with China and the Soviet Union, in an attempt to thaw the Cold War. I think the US knew when they signed the cease fire and pulled its last remaining troops out of Vietnam that SV would be eventually taken over, that’s why they used their position to its advantage, to try and end the Cold War. In a way, the US offered SV to the Communists as a peace offering, as if too say we will let you have this, and we ask in return is that we continue improving our relations as we had begun before the end of the Vietnam War, even thought, in reality, the US could no longer stay in Vietnam no matter what due to all the reasons I have raised in this essay.
