was the vietnam war necessary

Fearful of losing power as well, South Vietnamese generals secretly received American approval to overthrow Diem. He created a research team to assemble and analyze Defense Department decision-making dating back to 1945. 5, pp. The VC have the initiative, the information said. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign called for the capture of Saigon before 1 May. "[85]:200201 Most Vietnamese people were Buddhist, and they were alarmed by Dim's actions, like his dedication of the country to the Virgin Mary. Most obviously, he might have dismissed the document as irrelevant, since he remained convinced that the United States was on course to achieve its basic objectives in Vietnam. After the French defeat in the First Indochina War and the withdrawal of troops from Indochina pursuant to the 1954 Geneva Conference, the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam, while the U.S. assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state. [85]:19 John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator, said in a speech to the American Friends of Vietnam: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam."[106]. Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail. Direct link to Davin V Jones's post That is simply how they v, Posted 6 months ago. In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. [71]:76. Group 559 was tasked with expanding the Ho Chi Minh trail, in light of the near constant bombardment by US warplanes. With the Pentagon Papers revelations, the U.S. publics trust in the government was forever diminished. In this groundgreaking reinterpretation of America's most disatrous and controversial war, Michael Lind demolishes enduring myths and put the Vietnam War in its proper contextas part of the global conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Yet the report plainly suggested that the scale of Americas involvement in Vietnam was out of line with that countrys actual importance to the United States. Calculating U.S. The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam persuaded Kennedys successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to further increase U.S. military and economic support. [40]:96[93] This followed an American psychological warfare campaign, designed by Edward Lansdale for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and which falsely claimed the US was about to drop atomic bombs on Hanoi. Women were enlisted in both the PAVN and the Viet Cong, many joining due to the promises of female equality and a greater social role within society. Hostilities escalated into the First Indochina War in December 1946. [289]:4,10, The U.S. dropped over 7million tons of bombs on Indochina during the war, more than triple the 2.1million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II and more than ten times the amount dropped by the U.S. during the Korean War. In addition to the Catholics flowing south, over 130,000 "Revolutionary Regroupees" went to the north for "regroupment", expecting to return to the south within two years. Phase 1. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in VietnamWashington, November 6, 19637:50 p.m.", "Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Lessons for Today", "Vietnam Study, Casting Doubts, Remains Secret", "Making More Enemies than We Kill? Tens of thousands of soldiers received dishonorable discharges for desertion, and about 500,000 American men from 1965-73 became draft dodgers, with many fleeing to Canada to evade conscription. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. [168][167]:495 In the following Battle of Hu American forces employed massive firepower that left 80 percent of the city in ruins. Kennedy advisors Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow recommended that U.S. troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down, thrown on the defensive, and driven back from major populated areas. These actions were part of a diversionary strategy meant to draw U.S. forces towards the Central Highlands. ", "Newly released documents on the land reform", "America's Stakes in Vietnam Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June 1956", United States Army Center of Military History, "It's Time to Stop Saying that JFK Inherited the Bay of Pigs Operation from Ike", The case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam Presidential Studies Quarterly, "A Special Supplement: Kennedy's Private War", "304. [365][366] On 10 November 2017, President Donald Trump issued an additional proclamation commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.[367][368]. Brandishing a captured Chinese machine gun, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara appeared at a televised news conference in the spring of 1965. But revelations of the 1968 My Lai Massacre,[40]:518521 in which a U.S. Army unit raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "Green Beret Affair", where eight Special Forces soldiers, including the 5th Special Forces Group Commander, were arrested for the murder[190] of a suspected double agent,[191] provoked national and international outrage. Thuc's anniversary celebrations occurred shortly before Vesak had been bankrolled by the government, and Vatican flags were displayed prominently. [321], As of 2013, the U.S. government is paying Vietnam veterans and their families or survivors more than $22billion a year in war-related claims.[322][323]. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. pp. However, "their methodology was reviewed and criticized as invalid by authors. [37] However, the figures do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers. Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights. Gabriel Garca Mrquez, a Nobel Prize winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, when he visited in 1980: The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Guenter Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of PAVN/VC military forces was probably closer to 444,000. was not arguing that the United States should end the war any time soon. The origins of American involvement in Vietnam date back to the end of the Second World War, when the Vietnamese were struggling against the continued French colonial presence in their country. [36], US reports of "enemy KIA", referred to as body count were thought to have been subject to "falsification and glorification", and a true estimate of PAVN/VC combat deaths may be difficult to assess, as US victories were assessed by having a "greater kill ratio". The defeat marked the end of French military involvement in Indochina. Neither the United States government nor Ng nh Dim's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. That was the sole country Communist Vietnam ever invaded, forever undercutting the domino theory the wars foundational lie. Only after 1975 would Americans see what the C.I.A. Vietnam: The Necessary War - Michael Lind - Google Books In 1961, the U.S. had 50,000 troops based in South Korea, and Kennedy faced four crisis situations: the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion that he had approved on 4 April,[118] settlement negotiations between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement in May ("Kennedy sidestepped Laos, whose rugged terrain was no battleground for American soldiers. It was additionally aimed at bolstering the morale of the South Vietnamese. More than 20% of South Vietnam's forests and 3.2% of its cultivated land was sprayed at least once. Americas alliances remained intact, and American-Soviet relations moved toward dtente, not war. [97]:468. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post "John F. Kennedy expan, Posted 2 years ago. The report also questioned the contention that defeat in Vietnam would cause governments around the world to doubt the willingness of the United States to live up to its international commitments. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The Vietnam War (article) | 1960s America | Khan Academy At this phase they were outfitting the Viet Cong forces and standardising their equipment with AK-47 rifles and other supplies, as well as forming the 9th Division. [151] The Marines' initial assignment was the defense of Da Nang Air Base. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. By Mark Atwood Lawrence March 29, 2018 41 President Lyndon Johnson conferring with officials about the Vietnam War,. Vietnam: The Necessary War Michael Lind Simon and Schuster, Jul 30, 2013 - History - 336 pages 0 Reviews Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's. The United States Department of State wanted to encourage a coup, while the Defense Department favored Dim. Furthermore, throughout the war there was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by officers and commanders due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara. [260][261][262], Although a small number of women were assigned to combat zones, they were never allowed directly in the field of battle. Direct link to Jeff Kelman's post How come there was a "Vie, Posted 7 years ago. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called credibility gap developed. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. [40]:702704, On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked Xun Lc, 40 miles (64km) east of Saigon. Three days after the announcement of the incident, the administration persuaded Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression an expansion of the presidential power to wage war that is still used regularly. Under a broad free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. [259]:71. For example, the website "African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War" compiles examples of such coverage,[278] as does the print and broadcast work of journalist Wallace Terry whose book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984), includes observations about the impact of the war on the black community in general and on black servicemen specifically. [161] The PAVN/Viet Cong had furthermore developed strategies capable of countering U.S. military doctrines and tactics (see NLF and PAVN battle tactics). The death of conscription changed the calculus of American military engagement by dictating how conflicts would be fought and who would do that fighting. Opponents of the war felt vindicated. Called the American War in Vietnam (or, in full, the War Against the Americans to Save the Nation), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict (see Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/opinion/vietnam-war-necessary.html. Nixon sought to deflate the anti-war movement by appealing to a silent majority of Americans who he believed supported the war effort. "[286] The issue was solved in early 1968 with the issuance of the M16A1, featuring a chrome-plated bore, which reduced fouling, and the introduction of a cleaner-burning powder. [124]:201206 During the battle the South Vietnamese had lost 83 soldiers and 5 US war helicopters serving to ferry ARVN troops that had been shot down by Vietcong forces, while the Vietcong forces had lost only 18 soldiers. [94][95][40]:9697 The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-funded $93million relocation program, which included the use of the Seventh Fleet to ferry refugees. [40]:116 The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time. Commitment of U.S. (and other allies) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. Thieu, mistrustful and indecisive, remained president until 1975, having won a one-candidate election in 1971. [40]:218219 Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish. He instituted the death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956. To defy this conventional wisdom, particularly at a time when thousands of Americans had already died to uphold it, would have required exceptional intellectual and political courage. "[128] The numbers for U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964. study asserted that damage to national credibility would be limited and temporary. Would anyone know as to why it is called this? As one State Department memo put it, If there is a Moscow-directed conspiracy in Southeast Asia, Indochina is an anomaly.. For the war between India and China, see Nathu La and Cho La clashes For a full history of wars in Vietnam, see List of wars involving Vietnam. As he spoke to his national television audience, President Lyndon Johnson sought to bolster flagging public support for the Vietnam War by highlighting the calamities that might befall the United States if the Communists prevailed. [200]:357 William Westmoreland, no longer in command but tasked with investigation of the failure, cited a clear dereliction of duty, lax defensive postures and lack of officers in charge as its cause. The opponents were locked in a cycle of escalation. [134], President Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963. [114]:24, The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,[40]:119120 and, in May, Group 559 was established to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos. L c Th and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister Nguyn Th Bnh and a reluctant President Thiu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973. [97]:18 Despite Johnson and Westmoreland publicly proclaiming victory and Westmoreland stating that the "end is coming into view",[162] internal reports in the Pentagon Papers indicate that Viet Cong forces retained strategic initiative and controlled their losses. During World War II, Japanese forces invaded Vietnam. [266] Female combat squads were present in the Cu Chi theatre. Daniel Ellsberg and Patricia Marx, his wife, center, at the Watergate hearings. "[316] General William Westmoreland admitted that the bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented. The PAVN's own official records of their losses across all three offensives was 45,267 killed and 111,179 total casualties. [83], The primary military organizations involved in the war were the United States Armed Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, pitted against the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) (commonly called the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, in English-language sources) and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, more commonly known as the Viet Cong (VC) in English language sources), a South Vietnamese communist guerrilla force. [85]:377379[40]:88 The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 convinced many Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was an example of communist expansionism directed by the Soviet Union. And in a rare acknowledgment of the suffering of the Vietnamese people, he wrote, The picture of the worlds greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one.. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara addressing reporters at a news conference on Sept. 7, 1967. [45]:275 Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties. Unlike the American women who went to Vietnam, both South and North Vietnamese women were enlisted and served in combat zones. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In a covering note, Helms assured Johnson that the C.I.A. [250]:77 During their visits to transit detention facilities under American administration in 1968 and 1969, the International Red Cross recorded many cases of torture and inhumane treatment before the captives were handed over to South Vietnamese authorities. [89], On 7 May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. Instead, he expanded the war by invading Cambodia, which convinced Daniel Ellsberg that he had to leak the secret history. [202], In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing the number of Americans to 265,500. [343] Meta-analyses of the most current studies on the association between Agent Orange and birth defects have found a statistically significant correlation such that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange at any point in their life will increase one's likelihood of either possessing or acting as a genetic carrier of birth defects. South Korea would later ask to join the Many Flags program in return for economic compensation. The DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor Bo i, who had governed under Japanese supervision. Forces. [85]:369. March 16, 1968: U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai. On 15 October 1969, the Vietnam Moratorium attracted millions of Americans. At the Geneva Conference, the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.[90][91]. By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The Vietnam War lasted about 40 years and involved several countries. If the town could be taken, the provincial capital of Pleiku and the road to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. Still, one was the perceived nuclear threat and the spreading of communism or the domino theory that the American government used to justify the war. Was The Vietnam War Necessary Or Pointless? - A Bus On a Dusty Road (Later investigations showed the attack never happened. Vietnam War Timeline - ThoughtCo There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period. [264][265] Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. Almost everyone today thinks that America's war in Vietnam was a mistake. Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun. The Supreme Court ruled that its publication was legal.[192]. Discontent with Dim's policies exploded in May 1963 following the Hu Pht n shootings of nine unarmed Buddhists protesting against the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the Buddha's birthday. "[119][120], Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed that Dim and his forces had to ultimately defeat the guerrillas on their own. American troops did not pull out of the war until 1973. Why did the United States become involved in Vietnam? Its not difficult, though, to imagine why he would have ignored it. Forces Ambushes Moving VC/PAVN Units. Civilians flooded the airport and the docks hoping for any mode of escape. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines[97]:556 all agreed to send troops. Nixon appealed to the "silent majority" of Americans who he said supported the war without showing it in public. [citation needed] Operation Masher would have negligible impact, however, as the PAVN/VC returned to the province just four months after the operation ended. Minh's regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General Nguyn Khnh. Fully disillusioned at last, McNamara argued in a 1967 memo to the president that more of the same more troops, more bombing would not win the war. The Vietnam War was a proxy war between the United States, the Soviet Union then . [202] In the post-Tet environment, membership in the South Vietnamese Regional Force and Popular Force militias grew, and they were now more capable of providing village security, which the Americans had not accomplished under Westmoreland. One major issue Kennedy raised was whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the United States. [71]:58 Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956. [176] In a speech before the National Press Club he said a point in the war had been reached "where the end comes into view. Or it may be that Johnson simply could not see past pervasive assumptions about the monumental stakes of the war. [188]:189 By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.[189]. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Sino-Vietnamese War. The program killed 26,369 to 41,000 people, with an unknown number being innocent civilians. A devout Roman Catholic, Dim was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative. [97]:224 Three days later, he declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with himself as president. [241] Rummel estimated that American forces committed around 5,500 democidal killings between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000 killed. President Harry S. Truman subsidized their effort to take back their Indochina colonies. Working under the domino theory, which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many other countries would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he stopped short of committing to a large-scale military intervention. Ngo Dinh Nhu, who exerted political power in Vietnam, dies at 87", "Opinion | The Women Who Covered Vietnam", "The Stars, The Earth, The River | Northwestern University Press", Chinese Support for North Vietnam during the Vietnam War: The Decisive Edge, "North Vietnam's Master Plan | HistoryNet", "A History of U.S. Communications Security; the David G. Boak Lectures", "Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War", Human Rights in Vietnam: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations: House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session, "Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death", "Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones', "Read Gabriel Garca Mrquez's Moving Vietnam Piece", "Vietnam Is Admitted to the U.N. 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[201] While U.S. forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations throughout the country, with casualties double US casualties in 1969, and more than triple US ones in 1970. The M14 was a powerful, accurate rifle, but it was heavy, hard-recoiling, and especially unwieldy in jungle fighting, as it was unsuited for the combat conditions, often suffering from feed failure. As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses and generally avoided contact, Creighton Abrams conducted operations aimed at disrupting logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN. He had officials secretly draft a resolution for Congress to grant him the authority to fight in Vietnam without officially declaring war. With his approval ratings dropping in an election year, Johnson called a halt to bombing in much of North Vietnam (though bombings continued in the south) and promised to dedicate the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than reelection.
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