Although the US had committed advisors to train the South Vietnamese Army, it was no good as they were still too inexperienced to meet up to the standards of the guerrilla tactics used by the Vietcong. In 1964 president Lyndon Johnson claimed North Vietnamese gunboats had attacked US warships in the Gulf of Ton kin. This resulted in retaliation from America and expanded military commitment to South Vietnam. With Vietcong attacks against military bases in the South increasing, US marines were out ashore to guard Da Nang, south of the de-militarised zone on the 17th parallel. Us Army units were soon being sent to the South with a strategy. This consisted of mainly two points. They were to use their own ‘mainforce’ units to guard vital regions of South Vietnam against the Vietcong and to deter North from more active involvement by bombing selected targets beyond the de-militarised zone.
When US forces were increasingly diverted to the defence of populated areas, they commenced with using the latest in weapon technology. They had the chance to carry this out on the 5th February, 1965 in an operation named Operation “Rolling Thunder”. Operation Rolling Thunder was a frequently interrupted bombing campaign that began on 24 February 1965 and lasted until the end of October 1968. Targets were carefully chosen and raids were carried out on a regular basis. Examples of these targets were bridges, railway lines, roads etc. The plan was for Operation Rolling Thunder to last for eight weeks but it lasted for the next three years. In that time, the US dropped 1 million tons of bombs on Vietnam. When Rolling Thunder failed to weaken the enemy’s will after the first several weeks, the purpose of the campaign began to change. By the end of 1965, the Johnson administration still used air power as an attempt to change North Vietnamese policy, but bombing tended to be directed against the flow of men and supplies from the North. To persuade the North Vietnamese to negotiate, President Johnson restricted the bombing of North Vietnam to the southern part of the country on 31 March 1968, in effect, bringing Operation Rolling Thunder to an end. Other US tactics included “search and destroy” missions and chemical warfare. “Search and Destroy” missions were aided with the use of helicopters, thus giving the Vietcong little warning of attack. If there were signs of a Vietcong presence in a village, the whole village would be destroyed. Chemical Weapons were also used and examples of these were Agent Orange and Napalm. Agent Orange was a chemical dropped that destroys the natural cover of a country and pollutes air, trees, rivers and soil. Napalm is a chemical that sticks to the skin and burns through to the bone. Although these were dropped, they made little difference to the way the war was fought, however they gained the US bad publicity and increased the pressure on withdrawal.
One event that contributed to the reason why America withdrew its forces from Vietnam was the My Lai Massacre. This incident occurred on the 16th March 1968 when US helicopters landed close to the village of My Lai. Three platoons began a search and destroy mission and one of those platoons were ordered to kill villagers suspected of supporting or actually being Vietcong guerrillas. They had no proof who was who so there was brutal killings of innocent civilians and overall, around 175 – 500 people died. This is significant to America’s withdrawal from Vietnam because Americans at home saw the images of the dead bodies of men, women and children on their TV and knew they had been killed by young Americans at war. The Americans public increased the pressure on the Government to withdraw from Vietnam.
Protests were also an influence as to why Americans withdrew their forces from Vietnam. Probably the most famous of these protests is the student protest at Kent University in Ohio in May 1970. Some students joined hippy communities that preached love not war. They protested in a number of ways and some of these include teach-ins on why the US should leave Vietnam; Sit-ins to disrupt the draft offices; Blocking railway lines with human barricades to prevent the movement of supplies and troops and the burning of their draft papers. The protest at Kent University was a peaceful demonstration held by 1500 to 3000 students. The State Governor sent in the National Guard to put down the demonstration, as it was against state law. Little action had taken place until round about midday when the National Guard fired tear gas canisters at the demonstrators. However, the students retaliated by throwing them back, along with rocks and stones. Due to this, the Guard open fired and as a result, four students were shot dead and nine were injured. Although this had an impact on people, anti-war protests went on and not only from students. As well as the contribution of protests to the withdrawal, the events that were occurring, such as My Lai and the Tet Offensive, helped convince Americans that the war could not be won and many turned against the war for a number of reasons, one of them being the number of dead American soldiers.
The Tet Offensive occurred in January 1968, after American Generals were confidently stating victory was in sight. The Vietcong launched a series of attacks on the South, which took the Americans by surprise. All the major South Vietnamese cities and all major US military bases were attacked. However, the attack was never decisive and eventually the Americans forced the North Vietnamese back, though both sides suffered serious losses. 160,000 civilians were killed and over two million made homeless. Television pictures of fighting appeared in American homes and many people were questioning the effectiveness of Johnson’s policies.
The My Lai Massacre was an ‘eye-opener’ as it were, to the American people. This event, together with the Tet Offensive, resulted in the Americans putting increased amounts of pressure on the Government to withdraw. Under mounting pressure, Johnson refused to stand for President in the forthcoming elections and called for peace talks (which began that year in Paris). As a preliminary he halted the bombing of the North. In November 1968, Richard Nixon was elected in his place and he was determined to end the US combat commitment. At this point, America had over 550, 000 troops in Vietnam.
Nixon’s strategy was ‘Vietnamisation’, whereby the Americans would assist the South Vietnamese in material matters but the fighting would be done by the South Vietnamese Army. The defeat of the Tet attackers allowed the withdrawal to begin, although the North Vietnamese Army was still active. Eventually by December 1970, there were 350, 000 American troops in South Vietnam. By September 1972, there were just 40,000. The North Vietnamese took advantage of the weakness of the South Vietnamese and the diversion of US attention by launching a full-scale attack against South Vietnam in 1972. They were halted partly by the South Vietnamese but mainly by US airpower. The damage was extensive and a nine-point plan for peace was drawn up by Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. This was opposed by the South Vietnamese, however, in January 1973, all sides agreed to a ceasefire signed in Paris. It was agreed that Vietnam would be “eventually reunited”.
In conclusion, America’s involvement in Vietnam therefore ended in 1973. The war had cost one billion dollars a day at its peak; she had dropped seven million tonnes of bombs on Vietnam (more than the entire total of participants in World War Two). The cost of the war in 1968 alone was 88,000 billion dollars in comparison to the combined spending on education, health and housing in that year being 24,000 million. There were also many after-effects, both for the people of Vietnam and America and her soldiers. Many soldiers suffered mentally, with a psychological impact of the horrors of the war taking place. A hero’s return may have been expected for the returning US soldiers, however, atrocities such as My Lai gave the American public a growing distaste for the war. Many Vietnam veterans found it hard to get jobs due to reluctant employers. With little hope of earning a living, some soldiers turned to crime as marriages fell apart and jobs were lost. It was not just US soldiers that suffered however, America as a country had effects, in the sense that there was a loss of status superpower. Some people believed that America had lost its role as the ‘world policeman’ and the US had to suffer the indignity of being accused of war crimes before Vietnam, such as the chemicals. Even now, Vietnam continues to preoccupy thoughts, feelings, American culture and their political and economic lives by books, films, music, veterans and more. As well as the US having after effects, there were long-term effects on the people of Vietnam like polluted land due to chemicals and wreckage. The Agent Orange and Napalm that were dropped on Vietnam were linked to cancer; 5.4 million acres of Vietnam forest had been destroyed; There were unexploded land mines and bombs; Bad harvests and more.
The Ceasefire lasted no time at all and the North attacked what was left of the South’s army. By April 1975, the capital of South Vietnam (Saigon) had fallen. It was renamed Ho Chi Minh City and a united Vietnam came into being.
In this essay, I have covered aspects of the Vietnam War that lead up to the inevitable withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam. I have looked at the evidence and I believe that the public and the media had a lot to do with the withdrawal, especially put alongside the events that happened in Vietnam. If images of the Tet Offensive or The My Lai Massacre hadn’t have been broadcast across US televisions screens, the public wouldn’t have realised the horror of the war, put pressure on the Government to withdraw and participated in the backing down of Johnson and the election of Nixon. There are clearly a lot of factors that lead up to the withdrawal in 1973, such as the lack of experience the American soldiers had, the advanced methods of guerrilla warfare and protests. However, for me, the media relate to the public, which evidently participated in the actions taken in, and concerning, Vietnam. I believe that the media and the effect this had on Americans at home was the greatest factor contributing to the withdrawal of forces from Vietnam in 1973.
