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GCSE Modern World History Edexcel Unit 4 Controlled Assessment CA5: Vietnam, 1960–75 Focus Edexcel Unit 4 is examined by Controlled Assessment. In this chapter you will find what you need to help you succeed if you are taking the Controlled Assessment option CA5: Vietnam, 1960–75. The Controlled Assessment has two parts: ◆ an enquiry into the nature of the military conflict itself ◆ an analysis (split into two sections) of representations of how people in the USA reacted to the war. The three tasks for 2010 and 2011 have already been published and this Exam Focus will deal quite specifically with all three. In this chapter: ◆ Exam Focus gives useful information on what you have to do in each of the three Edexcel Controlled Assessment tasks and advice on how to tackle each of them. ◆ Information, sources and activities about the Vietnam War that you can use during your research plus suggestions for how to further your research using the internet.

This chapter covers ◆

Edexcel’s Vietnam 1960–75 Unit 4 Controlled Assessment Option CA5

It is designed for use alongside this book:

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The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: Acknowledgements Bao Ninh: extract from The Sorrow of War (Vintage, 1994); Neil Young: song lyrics from ‘Ohio’ (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, 1970). Photo credits p.7 Associated Press/Topham/Topfoto; p.12 Nguyen Kong (Nick) Ut/Associated Press/PA Photos; p.13 Topham Picturepoint/Topfoto; p.15 t Topham Picturepoint/Topfoto, b David King; p.20 © Bettmann/CORBIS; p.24 t CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images, b Topham Picturepoint/Topfoto; p.26 © The Herbert Block Foundation; p.27 t © Popperfoto/Getty Images, b Cartoon by Garland published in the Daily Telegraph on 11 January 1967, British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent © Telegraph Media Group Limited 1967. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders prior to publication. If contacted, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any omissions or errors at the earliest opportunity. Although every effort has been made to ensure that website addresses are correct at time of going to press, Hodder Education cannot be held responsible for the content of any website mentioned in this book. It is sometimes possible to find a relocated web page by typing in the address of the home page for a website in the URL window of your browser. © Ben Walsh & Christopher Culpin 1996, 2001, 2009 First published in 1996 by Hodder Education, An Hachette UK Company 338 Euston Road London NW1 3BH Second edition published in 2001 This third edition published in 2009 Impression number 5 4 3 2 1 Year 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Other titles in the series: Edexcel GCSE Modern World History 9780340981825 GCSE Modern World History CD-ROM 1 International Relations Dynamic Learning Network Edition 978 0340 990490 GCSE Modern World History CD-ROM 2 Depth Studies Dynamic Learning Network Edition 978 0340 990506 GCSE Modern World History CD-ROM 3 Twentieth Century British History Dynamic Learning Network Edition 978 0340 990513

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Permission is given to download and make copies of this resource for students in your own institution only. It may be loaded to a VLE or to student computers but may not be passed on beyond the purchasing institution. Any other use is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any means with prior permission in writing of the publishers.

Exam focus Controlled Assessment is different from the rest of your examinations in a number of ways: • You will know in advance what aspects of the history of the Vietnam War you will be answering questions on. • You will be given in advance the representations that you have to study. • You will even be given in advance the three questions that you have to answer. • When it comes to the writing up – the ‘exam’ – you can take your planning notes into the session with you, so there is much less sheer memory work involved. You will have two and a half hours to write up your work under controlled conditions. ‘Controlled’ means that you will write up (or word-process) your answers at school, under the eyes of a teacher or invigilator. This, of course, is to make sure that it is all your own work.

The course There are three distinct phases to your controlled assessment course.

Phase 1 Preparation

Phase 2 Research

It is one of the rules of Controlled Assessment that the topic must be new to you, so you won’t have previously studied the Vietnam War for any of the other Units of your GCSE course. However, you probably know something about it, from films and TV. Now is your opportunity to study it properly and answer some important questions about it. Pages 5–20 familiarise you with the basic facts and key issues.

You will be given the first question of your assignment (called Part A). You will then have several lessons to do your own research and plan how to answer this question. During this time you can freely use books and the internet, and discuss your work with your friends and your teacher. The pages which follow will provide a flying start to your research. You might then write up your answer to this first question (see Phase 3) or you might move straight on to the next two questions (Part B). You then have two weeks to research around them and plan your responses.

Phase 3 Writing your responses You will write up (or word-process) your responses under controlled conditions. This means that you may not communicate with anyone else. You can use your plan and notes but nothing else. If the writing is split into more than one session, you will not be able to take anything from the room.

The questions The Controlled Assessment consists of three tasks: • Part A is an enquiry into the conflict itself. • Part B(i) compares two representations of how people in the USA reacted to the war. • Part B(ii) examines three representations (the two from B(i) and one more), again about how people in the USA reacted to the war.

It is up to your teacher how to organise the writing up. You might answer all these questions in a single two and a half hour session, or in one session for Part A then one later session for Part B, or you might answer all three questions in three separate sessions.

The writing up There is no word limit, but there is a time limit: you will just have two and a half hours to do all the writing up! So share your time out according to the marks available: • Part A is worth 20 marks – so you should allow one hour for this. • Part B(i) is worth 10 marks – so you should allow half an hour for this. • Part B(ii) is worth 20 marks – so you should allow one hour for this.

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GCSE Modern World History

Unit 4 Representations of History

The Part A Enquiry Edexcel provide a choice for the Part A task. There are two enquiries set for the period 2010–2011, each with two bullet points: ENQUIRY 1 The nature of the military conflict in Vietnam: • The extent of success of the military tactics used by the South Vietnamese Government and the USA. • The extent of success of the military tactics used by the Vietcong.

ENQUIRY 2 Turning points in the Vietnam War: • The significance of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, 1964. • The significance of the Tet Offensive, 1968.

Your Part A task will focus on just one of these bullet-points. Your teacher might let you choose which of the four bullet points to focus on, or everyone in the class might do the same. Edexcel does not present these bullet points as questions, but an enquiry needs a question to drive it. For example: • • • •

How successful were the military tactics used by the South Vietnamese Government and the USA? How successful were the military tactics used by the Vietcong? How significant was the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 in the course of the Vietnam War? How significant was the Tet Offensive of 1968 in the course of the Vietnam War?

Tips for research • Be sure to use several sources of information – at least five. They needn’t all be books: they could be websites, TV programmes or museums – anything that is relevant. • The most important thing to remember is to answer the question. So select only information which will be relevant to your answer. • Select some quotations which will support what you want to say. These can be from anywhere you have researched – books, websites and so on. Quotations need not be words only; they could be pictures or cartoons. Again, remember that relevance is crucial. • Identify where the quotation came from. Think about who said, or wrote, or drew the quotation and how this affects its value. • Whichever question you are answering, you will need criteria to make a judgement. In Enquiry 1 you will need criteria to enable you to decide what ‘successful’ means. In Enquiry 2 you will need criteria for ‘significance’. • At the end, reach your own conclusion.

Tips on planning your answer Your task is to use all this information to answer the question. First note what you should not do! • The question is not ‘Tell us everything you’ve found out about …’ That is the kind of project you might have done back in Year 6! Instead your aim is to analyse. This means thinking about the issues in the question – ‘How successful ... ?’ in Enquiry 1 and ‘How significant ... ?’ in Enquiry 2 – and organising all that you have researched towards your own best answer to that question. The examiner is expecting a carefully constructed piece of extended writing with a series of paragraphs which consider each of the points that you have researched. So, towards the end of the research phase you need to:

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• Organise all you have found into two A4 pages of clear notes which you can take with you into the writing up session. These notes will summarise the information you need to answer the question. • Draft a one page plan for your answer. You can also take this with you into the writing-up session.

This is what Edexcel say you can take with you into the writing-up session for Part A: • two A4 sheets of notes • a plan on one side of A4. The style of the notes depends on what you find most useful. They might be in the form of bullet points, key words or spider diagrams, but not complete sentences or paragraphs. They should include really good quotes. You are only allowed two sides of A4 paper, so make sure that everything you include is worthwhile and helps you answer the question. If you want to reach Level 4 you need to have an overview of the whole answer and develop an argument, which means having a clear sense of how the different parts of the analysis fit together and which part is more important. So make sure you: • Start with a brief introduction outlining the issue and your argument. • Think about the best order for your paragraphs to make the most powerful argument. Make your main point in your first big paragraph. Select good information to support what you want to say. • Support your argument with selected quotations from sources you have found. Comment on the value of these sources. • Now deal with your other points, paragraph by paragraph. • Sum up your argument in a brief conclusion.

Before you can concentrate on your enquiry, you need some background.

DATE

ACTION

1954

Vietnam is divided into North and South Vietnam.

1959

The North Vietnam army creates the Ho Chi Minh Trail to carry supplies down to South Vietnam.

1960

North Vietnam creates the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (usually called the Viet Cong).

1961

Around 16,000 American ‘advisers’ help to organise the South Vietnam army.

1962–63

The Viet Cong use guerrilla tactics against South Vietnam’s army and government. More American advisers and equipment arrive.

1964

North Vietnamese patrol boats fire on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. The American Congress gives President Johnson the authority to do whatever he thinks is necessary.

1965 February

Operation Rolling Thunder – a gigantic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Factories and army bases are bombed, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the capital of North Vietnam, Hanoi.

March

The first American combat troops (3,500 marines) come ashore at Da Nang.

June–September

A major Viet Cong offensive.

November

Battle in La Drang Valley. The Communists suffer heavy losses.

1966

American forces build heavily-armed camps. They control towns. The Viet Cong largely control the countryside.

1967

Continuous running battles between American and Communist forces around the North–South Vietnam border. The Communists are unable to force out American troops.

1968 January

The Tet Offensive: a large-scale Communist attack on over 100 major towns and cities in South Vietnam. Even the American embassy in Saigon is attacked. Some of the fiercest fighting of the war takes place. The city of Hue is almost flattened by intense fighting. Tet is a defeat for the Communists but is also a major shock to the American military and public who thought the war was almost won. Intense fighting continues throughout 1968. Casualties on both sides mount.

October

Controlled Assessment CA5: Vietnam, 1960–75

Background information 1: Vietnam War timeline

Operation Rolling Thunder finishes after three and a half years. More bombs have been dropped on North Vietnam than all the bombs dropped on Germany and Japan during the Second World War.

1969

The USA begins its policy of ‘Vietnamisation’. This means building up the South Vietnam army and withdrawing American combat troops. American air power continues to bomb North Vietnam. Intense fighting continues throughout the year. This includes the Battle for Hamburger Hill in May.

1970–71

The fighting spreads to Cambodia. US Secretary of State Kissinger and North Vietnam leader Le Duc begin secret peace talks

1972

Most American forces are now out of Vietnam. A major Communist offensive in March captures much ground. Most land is recaptured by the South Vietnam army by the end of the year. American heavy bombers bomb Hanoi and Haiphong.

1973

Ceasefire signed in Paris and end of draft in the USA. The last US troops leave Vietnam.

1974

Major North Vietnam Army offensive against South Vietnam.

1975

South Vietnam capital Saigon falls to Communists; US officials are evacuated by helicopter.

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Background information 2: How did the USA get involved in the Vietnam War? Focus Task How did the USA get increasingly involved in Vietnam?

1 Draw a timeline of the period 1945–65. 2 Mark on it increasing American involvement using the following headings: ◆ No direct American involvement ◆ Financial support ◆ Political involvement ◆ Military involvement 3 Write annotations to show the date on which each of these phases started and what events triggered the increasing involvement. 4 Choose two events that you think were critical in increasing the USA’s involvement in the war in Vietnam. Explain your choice. 5 In 1965 the USA was the world’s most powerful country and its forces were facing an underground army helped by North Vietnam, a small and poor country. In pairs or small groups, suggest reasons why the US forces had not succeeded in defeating their enemies after three years. Keep a list of your ideas and see if they turn out to be right as you work through the chapter.

SOURCE

1

A poor feudal nation had beaten a great colonial power . . . It meant a lot; not just to us but to people all over the world. Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap commenting on the victory over France in 1954.

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The Second World War: Vietnam fights the Japanese Vietnam had a long history of fighting outsiders. Before the Second World War Vietnam (or Indochina as it was called then) was ruled by France. During the war the region was conquered by the Japanese. They ruled the area brutally and treated the Vietnamese people savagely. As a result, a strong anti-Japanese resistance movement (the Viet Minh) emerged under the leadership of Communist Ho Chi Minh. Ho was a remarkable individual. He had lived in the USA, Britain and France. In the 1920s he had studied Communism in the USSR. In 1930 he had founded the Indochinese Communist Party. He inspired the Vietnamese people to fight for an independent Vietnam. When the Second World War ended, the Viet Minh controlled the north of the country and were determined to take control of the whole country. The Viet Minh entered the city of Hanoi in 1945 and declared Vietnamese independence.

1945–1954: Vietnam fights the French The French had other ideas. In 1945 they came back wanting to rule Vietnam again but Ho was not prepared to let this happen. Another nine years of war followed between the Viet Minh and the French. Ho was supported by China, which became a Communist state in 1949 under Mao Zedong. The Americans saw the Viet Minh as the puppets of Mao and the Chinese Communists so they helped the French by pouring $500 million a year into the French war effort. Despite this the French were unable to hold on to the country and pulled out of Vietnam in 1954. A peace conference was held in Geneva and the country was divided into North and South Vietnam until elections could be held to decide its future. These elections were never held.

1955–1963: Civil war in Vietnam In 1955 the Americans helped Ngo Dinh Diem to set up the Republic of South Vietnam. They supported him because he was bitterly anti-Communist and was prepared to imprison or exile Communists. He belonged to the landlord class, which treated the Vietnamese peasants with contempt. He was a Christian and showed little respect for the Buddhist religion of most Vietnamese peasants (see Source 4). Diem’s regime was also extremely corrupt. He appointed members of his family or other supporters to positions of power and refused to hold elections, even for local councils. The Americans were concerned and frustrated by his actions, but as Dulles said, ‘We knew of no one better.’ The USA supported Diem’s regime with around $1.6 billion in the 1950s. Diem was overthrown by his own army leaders in November 1963, but the governments that followed were equally corrupt. Even so, they also received massive US support. SOURCE

2

It was generally agreed that had an election been held, Ho Chi Minh would have been elected Premier . . . at the time of the fighting, possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader. President Eisenhower writing after the Vietnam War.

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N

CHINA NORTH VIETNAM

Dien Bien Phu

Haiphong

Hanoi

Gulf of Tonking 17th parallel – border between North and South Vietnam agreed 1954

LAOS

g kon Me

Hue Da Nang

er R iv

THAILAND

The actions of these anti-Communist governments increased opposition to the South Vietnam government among ordinary people and among influential Buddhist priests (see Source 4). The government’s actions also increased support among the ordinary peasants for the Communist-led National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, set up in December 1960. This movement was usually referred to as the Viet Cong. It included South Vietnamese opponents of the government, but also large numbers of Communist North Vietnamese taking their orders from Ho Chi Minh. Peasants who did not support the Viet Cong faced intimidation and violence from them. The Viet Cong also started a guerilla war against the South Vietnamese government. Using the Ho Chi Minh trail (see Source 3), the Viet Cong sent reinforcements and ferried supplies to guerrilla fighters. These fighters attacked South Vietnamese government forces, officials and buildings, gradually making the countryside unsafe for government forces. They also attacked American air force and supply bases. By 1962 President Kennedy was sending military personnel (he always called them ‘advisers’) to fight the Viet Cong. In 1963 and 1964 tension between North and South Vietnam increased and so did American involvement (11,500 troops by the end of 1962; 23,000 by the end of 1964).


SOURCE

The Gulf of Tonkin incident SOUTH VIETNAM CAMBODIA

Saigon

Mekong Delta 0

200 km Scale

Key Communist-controlled areas in the mid 1960s

President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, was more prepared than Kennedy to commit the USA to a full-scale conflict in Vietnam to prevent the spread of Communism. His resolve would soon be tested. In August 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats opened fire on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. In a furious reaction, the US Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. (For more information see page 19.) The Resolution gave Lyndon Johnson the power to ‘take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression and achieve peace and security’. It effectively meant that he could take the USA into a full-scale war if he felt it was necessary, and very soon that was the case. On 8 March 1965, 3,500 US marines, combat troops rather than advisers, came ashore at Da Nang. America was at war in Vietnam. SOURCE

Ho Chi Minh trail

4

CHINA INDIA VIETNAM

AUSTRALIA

The location of Vietnam. SOURCE

5

In 1963 the military did not anticipate being in Vietnam for a long haul. They expected to withdraw the force of 16,000 military advisers by the end of ’65, and that the first unit of withdrawal would be completed within 90 days, by the end of December 1963. Robert McNamara, US Defence Secretary under President Kennedy and then President Johnson.

Quang Duc, a 73-year-old Buddhist priest, burns himself to death in protest against the attacks on Buddhist shrines by the government of South Vietnam in 1963. SOURCE

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I have today ordered to Vietnam the Air Mobile Division, and certain other forces which will raise our fighting strength from 75,000 to 125,000 men almost immediately. Additional forces will be needed later, and they will be sent as requested. President Johnson announces the arrival of US combat troops in Vietnam in 1965. In reality US military ‘advisers’ were already fighting on the ground and US pilots were flying regular missions to support the South Vietnamese army.

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Why did the Americans become increasingly involved in Vietnam?

SOURCE

7

First is the simple fact that South Vietnam, a member of the free world family, is striving to preserve its independence from Communist attack. Second, South East Asia has great significance in the forward defence of the USA. For Hanoi, the immediate object is limited: conquest of the south and national unification. For Peking, however, Hanoi’s victory would only be a first step towards eventual Chinese dominance of the two Vietnams and South East Asia and towards exploitation of the new strategy in other parts of the world. Robert McNamara, US Defence Secretary, explaining in 1964 why he supported the policy of sending US troops to Vietnam. SOURCE

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This was the type of war that we’d had no experience with before, and we were on a learning curve … and some of our policies were kind of trial and error in character. General William Westmoreland, commander, US Forces, Vietnam.

Weblinks

For President Johnson, speaking in 1965 justifying the war, see: http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc12.html For President Johnson explaining why the USA had to extend its involvement in Vietnam in 1965 see: http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc10.html

For the US State Department’s justification for the US involvement in the war, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietna m/psources/ps_north.html

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Containment Containment meant stopping the advance of Communism wherever it looked like it was gaining ground. So for example, the USA supported the French in Vietnam because they thought the Vietnamese were allied to Communist China. The USA also supported the French in Vietnam because they wanted to keep the support of France against Communism in Europe. The Cold War was also in full swing there, with the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, the Berlin Blockade and many other tense events.

Domino Theory This was closely linked to the policy of containment. President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State JF Dulles were convinced that China and the USSR were planning to spread Communism throughout Asia. The idea was often referred to as the Domino Theory. If Vietnam fell to Communism, then Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, and possibly even India might also fall – just like a row of dominoes. The Americans were determined to resist the spread of Communism in Vietnam which they saw as the first domino in the row.

COMMUNISM

American politics Political issues back in the USA also played a role in American involvement in Vietnam, particularly at election time. The Americans elect a new President every four years. In the 1950s and 1960s for all candidates it was a sure vote winner to talk tough about Communism and a sure vote loser to look weak on Communism. So for example in his 1960 election campaign, John F Kennedy promised to continue the tough policies of President Eisenhower.

The military–industrial complex Another controversial view held by some historians is that powerful groups within the USA wanted a war. In 1961 President Eisenhower himself warned that America had developed a powerful ‘military–industrial complex’. The government gave huge budgets to the military commanders. These budgets were spent on weapons contracts which went to huge corporations. Thus, both the military and big business actually gained from conflict. Eisenhower did not accuse business and military leaders of anything, but in his last speech as President he warned the American people not to let these groups become too influential. Some historians believe that this was a factor in American involvement in Vietnam but it is hotly disputed by others.

With hindsight it is easy to see that the American decision to get fully involved in the war was a huge gamble. True, their firepower and technology were totally superior to the Communist forces, but they were fighting a war in a distant land, to support a government which had lost the support of many of its own population, against an enemy who had already won the hearts and minds of many ordinary Vietnamese people. But did the Americans know that at the time?

By 1968, the USA had 500,000 troops in Vietnam and the war was costing $20 billion a year. Casualties were mounting as you can see from Source 9. SOURCE

Mainly advisers

Mainly combat troops

500

400

300

15

200

10 100 5 0 1960 61

0 62

63

64

Kennedy

65

66

Johnson

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

US dead (thousands)

US troops and advisers in Vietnam (thousands)

600

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Background information 3: How did the USA get out of the Vietnam War?

74

Nixon

US troops and deaths in Vietnam, 1960–74. US troops were not the only foreign soldiers in the war. About 46,000 Australian and New Zealand troops fought too.

The Tet Offensive Despite the American firepower, early in 1968 the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, attacking over 100 cities and even the US Embassy in Saigon (for more on this important incident, see page 20). Although US and South Vietnamese troops rapidly re-took every town lost, the Tet Offensive was a huge shock to Americans, who up to that point thought that they were winning the war. The Tet Offensive undermined support for the war at home and called into question the military strategy in Vietnam. President Johnson reached the conclusion that the war could not be won without a greater effort than the USA was prepared to put in. He began to negotiate with the Communists and a peace conference began in Paris in March, 1968. He also decided not to stand for re-election as US President.

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In November 1968 Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States. From 1969 to 1973 he and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger worked tirelessly to end US involvement in Vietnam. This was not easy because the bigger question of how to contain world Communism – the question that had got the USA into Vietnam in the first place – had not gone away. Nixon and Kissinger did not want to appear simply to hand Vietnam to the Communists. They used a range of strategies. In 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive but were unable to conquer South Vietnam. In Paris in January 1973, Le Duc Tho, Nixon and the South Vietnamese President Thieu signed a peace agreement (see Source 10). Nixon was jubilant. He described the agreement as ‘peace with honour’. Others disagreed, but the door was now open for Nixon to pull out all US troops. By 29 March 1973, the last American forces had left Vietnam. Pressure on the USSR and China

In 1969 the USSR and China fell out. Indeed late in 1969, it seemed possible that there would even be a war between these two powerful Communist countries. As a result, both the USSR and China tried to improve relations with the USA. • In 1970 Nixon began Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the USSR to limit nuclear weapons. He asked Moscow to encourage North Vietnam to end the war. • Nixon also started to improve relations with China. In February 1972 Nixon was invited to China. As with the USSR, he asked China to pressure North Vietnam to end the war.

Peace negotiations with North Vietnam

From early 1969, Kissinger had regular meetings with the chief Vietnamese peace negotiator, Le Duc Tho. ‘Vietnamisation’ of the war effort

In Vietnam Nixon began the process of Vietnamisation – building up South Vietnamese forces and withdrawing US troops. Between April 1969 and the end of 1971 almost 400,000 US troops left Vietnam. Bombing

Nixon increased bombing campaigns against North Vietnam to show he was not weak. He also invaded Viet Cong bases in Cambodia, causing outrage across the world, and even in the USA.

US strategies to extricate US troops from involvement in Vietnam. SOURCE

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1 Immediate cease-fire. 2 Release of all prisoners of war within 60 days. 3 Withdrawal of all US forces and bases. 4 Full accounting of men missing in action. 5 Self-determination for South Vietnam. The main points of the peace agreement of January 1973.

SOURCE

11

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS . . . the nation began at last to extricate itself from a quicksandy war that had plagued four Presidents and driven one from office, that had sundered the country more deeply than any event since the Civil War, that in the end came to be seen by a great majority of Americans as having been a tragic mistake. . . . but its more grievous toll was paid at home – a wound to the spirit so sore that news of peace stirred only the relief that comes with an end to pain. A war that produced no famous victories, no national heroes and no strong patriotic songs, produced no memorable armistice day celebrations either. America was too exhausted by the war and too chary [cautious] of peace to celebrate. Reaction to the agreement of January 1973 in the American magazine Newsweek, 5 February 1973. SOURCE

12 HISTORY OF VIET CONFLICT – MURKY START, UNCERTAIN END Headline in the Los Angeles Times, 24 January 1973.

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Now that you have got some idea of the ‘Big Picture’ of the Vietnam War, you can start on the research for your enquiry for Part A. First we are going to focus on: • How successful were the military tactics used by the South Vietnamese Government and the USA? • How successful were the military tactics used by the Viet Cong? Here are some suggested strategies for making sure your research stays focused on your particular question.

Focus Task Step 1 Find out about the tactics

Work in groups, pairs or on your own. ◆ If you are investigating The tactics used by the USA see pages 12–13. ◆ If you are investigating The tactics used by the Viet Cong use pages 14–15. Use these pages to help create a diagram like this, but much larger.


How to tackle Enquiry 1: The nature of the military conflict in Vietnam

Reasons Tactics In the inner circle record all you can find out about the tactics used by the side you are studying. ◆ In the next circle record the reasons why they used these tactics. Compare your diagrams. Add to yours anything that you can learn from the evidence your partner has gathered. ◆

Step 2 Evaluate how successful the tactics were and why

Success in warfare depends on several factors. Here are some possible factors for success. Use the table below to collect evidence about each of the factors and how successful they were. Successful tactics need:

Evidence

Quotations

Success? Give mark out of 5

Well-trained soldiers The right technology Reliable supplies and equipment Support from the local people Motivated and committed soldiers Other 1 Other 2

Use the same pages as you used for Step 1 but you can also study pages 16–17.

Remember also that the internet has a wealth of material on the Vietnam War that could help you with your research if you want to look deeper. A list of useful sites can be found on pages 12 and 15.

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Weblinks

For weapons used by the USA in the war, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietna m/trenches/weapons.html

Examples of short clips of US soldiers, helicopters, planes, tanks and tactics can be found at: http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Sea rch.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=enUS&assetType=film&p=vietnam%20war &src=standard http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/822 -66/Archive-Films http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/528 -257/Archive-Films

How successful were the military tactics used by the South Vietnamese government and the USA? Bombing On 7 February 1965 the USA launched Operation Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder involved extensive bombing raids on military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. It was the beginning of an air offensive that was to last until 1972. The list of targets was soon expanded to include towns and cities in North and South Vietnam. The list also included sites in Laos and Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh trail. More bombs were dropped on North Vietnam than were dropped in the whole of the Second World War on Germany and Japan. To some extent bombing was effective. • It certainly damaged North Vietnam’s war effort and it disrupted supply routes. • It enabled the USA to strike at Communist forces even when it was reducing US ground forces in Vietnam after 1969. • From 1970 to 1972, intense bombing campaigns against Hanoi (North Vietnam’s capital) and the port of Haiphong forced the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. However, US air power could not defeat the Communists – it could only slow them down. The Viet Cong continued to operate its supply lines. Even after major air raids on North Vietnam in 1972, the Communists were still able to launch a major assault on the South. The cost of the air war was horrendous. The Communists shot down 14,000 US and South Vietnamese aircraft. In 1967 the American Life magazine calculated that it cost the USA $400,000 to kill one Viet Cong fighter, a figure that included 75 bombs and 400 artillery shells.

Chemical weapons

SOURCE

12

13

The US developed a powerful chemical weapon called Agent Orange. It was a sort of highly toxic ‘weedkiller’. It was used to destroy the jungle where the Viet Cong hid. The Americans used 82 million litres of Agent Orange to spray thousands of square kilometres of jungle. Napalm was another widelyused chemical weapon. It destroyed jungles where guerrillas might hide. It also burned through skin to the bone. Many civilians and soldiers were also killed by these chemical weapons.

A ten-year-old Vietnamese girl runs naked after tearing her burning clothes from her body following a napalm attack. This photograph became one of the most enduring images of the war.

From 1962 the South Vietnamese government pursued a programme called the Strategic Hamlet programme. This meant moving peasant villagers from Viet Cong controlled areas to areas controlled by the South Vietnamese government. The USA supplied building materials, money, food and equipment for the villagers to build new, improved farms and homes. However, the Strategic Hamlets Programme often converted peasants into Viet Cong sympathisers. They resented working, without pay, to dig moats, plant bamboo stakes and erect fences against an enemy that was no threat to them. They also resented the corrupt South Vietnamese officials, who often pocketed the money which was meant to be spent on seed, fertiliser and irrigation as well as medical care, education and other social benefits.

Search and destroy Bombing could not defeat a guerrilla army. The US commander General Westmoreland developed a policy of search and destroy. He established secure and heavily defended US bases in the south of the country and near to the coasts. From here, US and South Vietnamese forces launched search-anddestroy raids from helicopters. They would descend on a village and destroy any Viet Cong forces they found. Soldiers had to send back reports of body counts. Search-and-destroy missions did kill Viet Cong soldiers, but there were problems.


The Strategic Hamlets Programme

• • • •

SOURCE

14

The raids were often based on inadequate information. Inexperienced US troops often walked into traps. Innocent villages were mistaken for Viet Cong strongholds. Civilian casualties were extremely high in these raids. For every Viet Cong weapon captured by search-and-destroy, there was a body count of six. Many of these were innocent civilians. • Search-and-destroy tactics made the US and South Vietnamese forces very unpopular with the peasants. It pushed them towards supporting the Viet Cong.

US troops on a search-and-destroy mission in Vietnam. These were sometimes called ‘Zippo raids’, after the Zippo cigarette lighters that were often used to burn villages.

13


How successful were the military tactics used by the Viet Cong? In early 1965 the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) had about 170,000 soldiers. They were well supplied with weapons and equipment from China and the USSR, but they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned by the South Vietnamese forces and their US allies. The Communist forces were no match for the US and South Vietnamese forces in open warfare. In November 1965 in the La Drang Valley, US forces killed 2,000 Viet Cong for the loss of 300 troops. This did not daunt Ho Chi Minh. He believed that superior forces could be defeated by guerrilla tactics. He had been in China and seen Mao Zedong use guerrilla warfare to achieve a Communist victory there. Ho had also used these guerrilla tactics himself against the Japanese and the French. The principles were simple: retreat when the enemy attacks; raid when the enemy camps; attack when the enemy tires; pursue when the enemy retreats. Guerrilla warfare was a nightmare for the US SOURCE army. Guerrillas did not wear uniform. They had no known base camp or headquarters. They worked in small groups with limited weapons. Concrete They were hard to tell apart from the peasants in trapdoors the villages. They attacked and then disappeared into the jungle, into the villages or into their tunnels (see Source 15). The aim of guerrilla attacks was to wear down Kitchen the enemy soldiers and wreck their morale. This Tripwire was very effective. US soldiers lived in constant mine Sleeping fear of ambushes or booby traps. Booby traps Smoke quarters Booby outlets could be simple devices such as tripwires or pits trap Ventilation filled with sharpened bamboo stakes. Weapons shaft like these were cheap and easy to make and very effective in disrupting US patrols. One of the most Rest of unpopular duties in a patrol was going ‘on tunnel complex point’. This meant leading the patrol, checking Tunnel hospital Booby trap for traps. There were other more sophisticated for seriously Well Water-filled U-bend wounded traps such as the Bouncing Betty land mine. This to stop spread of would be thrown into the air when triggered and gas leaks would then explode causing terrible injuries to Storage cache for food, A Viet Cong tunnel complex. To avoid the worst effects of American air power, the Viet the stomach or groin. Booby traps caused about weapons and explosives Cong built a vast network of underground tunnels, probably around 240 km of them. 11 per cent of US casualties. Another 51 per cent of casualties were caused by small arms fire in ambushes or ‘firefights’. SOURCE The Viet Cong and NVA quickly learned to fear American air power, so when they did attack they A Spike Trap Pit tried to make sure it was close-quarter fighting. This meant that US air power or artillery could Crossbeam Lock A diagram showing one type of not be used because of the danger of hitting their booby trap. A trap pit is a large own troops. This tactic was sometimes known as Bamboo top trap box with a bamboo top. ‘hanging on to American belts’. 4m Stakes are made of sharpened Axle Ho knew how important it was to keep the bamboo or barbed spikes and used to line the box. When a population on his side. The Viet Cong fighters man steps on the trap he will were expected to be courteous and respectful to fall into the pit. The top turns the Vietnamese peasants. They often helped the on an axle; therefore, the trap peasants in the fields during busy periods. does not need to be reset to

15

16

2 12 m

14

4m

work again. The pit is often prepared as a defensive obstacle and then made safe by locking it in place with a crossbeam (so it can be crossed safely by the enemy) until the desired time of use.

17

However, the Viet Cong could be ruthless – they were quite prepared to kill peasants who opposed them or who co-operated with their enemies. They also conducted a campaign of terror against the police, tax collectors, teachers and any other employees of the South Vietnamese government. Between 1966 and 1971 the Viet Cong killed an estimated 27,000 civilians. The greatest strength of the Viet Cong fighters was that they simply refused to give in. The Viet Cong depended on supplies from North Vietnam that came along the Ho Chi Minh trail. US and South Vietnamese planes bombed this constantly, but 40,000 Vietnamese worked to keep it open whatever the cost. The total of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese dead in the war has been estimated at 1 million – far higher than US losses. However, this was a price that Ho Chi Minh was prepared to pay. Whatever the casualties, there were replacement troops available. A Viet Cong poster.

SOURCE

18

SOURCE

19

In the military respect, it is easier to destroy the puppet troops than the American troops, for the American troops have not had much fighting with us, thus are optimistic and have patriotic pride. The puppet troops [South Vietnamese forces] have lost a lot of battles and now have little enthusiasm to fight. Therefore, our plan is to wipe out the puppet troops. On the other hand our propaganda will emphasise the slogan ‘Find the Americans to kill’. We need to use the methods most suited for destroying the American troops – guerrilla forces encircling the American troops’ bases. This upcoming spring and summer, we are aiming for killing about 10,000 Americans as already planned and for the next few years, we should at least kill 40,000 to 50,000 Americans. This is a new goal which will determine our victory. Along with trying to lessen the Americans’ strength, we should try to cause great loss of American aircraft, at the same time, curb their activities. . . . We must not neglect the political war. I just talked about the possibility and necessity to strengthen the political war. Even though the US brings in more troops to Vietnam, they will fail to weaken our political power. In fact, our political power is likely to be enhanced and the US will be isolated and fail miserably. The more troops the US brings in, the more military bases it builds, the larger area it occupies, the more sophisticated weapons it uses, the more B.52 bombs it drops, the more chemical poisons it uses, the worse the conflict between our people and them becomes, the more our people hate them.


SOURCE

Extracts from a letter written in 1965 by Le Duan, Secretary of the North Vietnamese Communist Party and one of Ho Chi Minh’s closest associates. The letter was explaining how North Vietnam was planning to react to the large scale arrival of US forces in 1965. A Chinese poster commenting on the Vietnam War.

Weblinks

For weapons used by the Viet Cong in the war, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietna m/trenches/weapons_02.html

For North Vietnam’s tactics and policies, see: http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc18.html and http://vietnam.vassar.edu/docnlf.html

SOURCE

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. . . Kien knows the area well. It was here, at the end of the dry season of 1969, that his Battalion 27 was surrounded and almost totally wiped out. Ten men survived from the Unlucky Battalion, after fierce, horrible, barbarous fighting. That was the dry season when the sun burned harshly, the wind blew fiercely, and the enemy sent napalm spraying through the jungle and a sea of fire enveloped them, spreading like the fires of hell. Troops in the fragmented companies tried to regroup, only to be blown out of their shelters again as they went mad, became disoriented and threw themselves into nets of bullets, dying in the flaming inferno. Above them the helicopters flew at tree-top height and shot them almost one by one, the blood spreading out, spraying from their backs, flowing like red mud. The diamond-shaped grass clearing was piled high with bodies killed by helicopter gunships. Broken bodies, bodies blown apart, bodies vaporised. No jungle grew again in this clearing. No grass. No plants. ‘Better to die than surrender my brothers! Better to die!’ the Battalion Commander yelled insanely; waving his pistol in front of Kien he blew his own brains out through his ear. Kien screamed soundlessly in his throat at the sight, as the Americans attacked with sub-machine-guns, sending bullets buzzing like deadly bees around him. Then Kien lowered his machine-gun, grasped his side and fell, rolling slowly down the bank of a shallow stream, hot blood trailing down the slope after him. Extract from The Sorrow of War. This was a novel by Bao Ninh, a North Vietnamese soldier who fought the Americans in Vietnam in 1969. The novel was based on his experiences.

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Other issues The Americans were fighting against a committed and experienced guerrilla army. But there is more to winning a war than just tactics.

Issue 1: Morale and experience In the early stages of the war the majority of US troops were professional soldiers who had volunteered for the forces as a career. For the most part morale was good and they stood up well to the conditions. However, after 1967 an increasing number of troops in Vietnam had been drafted. • Many of these were young men who had never been in the military before. The average age was only 19. Many recruits had just left school. This was their first experience of war. Sixty per cent of the Americans killed in Vietnam were aged 17–21. • The soldiers knew very little about the country they were fighting for. They often cared little for democracy or communism and just wanted to get home alive. In contrast the Viet Cong were fighting for their own country, and a cause many of them believed in. • In theory American troops came from all walks of life. In reality the majority of combat troops were from poor and immigrant backgrounds because those privileged enough to be going to university could delay the draft and many were able to use their influence to avoid the draft altogether. • There were tensions between officers and troops. Many officers were professional soldiers. They wanted to gain promotion. In Vietnam this meant gaining as many kills as possible. Most soldiers on the other hand just wanted to stay alive. There is evidence of ‘fragging’ – troops killing their own officers. One estimate suggests that three per cent of officer deaths were caused by their own troops.

Focus Task

Sources 21–28 are going to be very useful whichever side you are studying. They are all American sources but they also reveal quite a lot about Viet Cong tactics. Start by discussing the sources. 1 Which of sources 21–28 would you put under the following headings: ◆ Morale ◆ Inexperience ◆ Neighbours ◆ ‘Hearts and minds’? Some sources might belong under more than one heading. 2 Choose one or two sources and discuss: ◆ What your sources reveal about Viet Cong tactics. ◆ What your sources reveal about the success of Viet Cong tactics. ◆ What your sources reveal about the success of American tactics.

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Many soldiers turned to drugs when they were not fighting. Large numbers of servicemen sold food, drugs and equipment on the black market. Around eighteen per cent of US casualties were caused by factors other than combat, such as illness, car and aircraft crashes, suicide, murder and drug abuse. There were over 500,000 incidents of desertion (although this figure included single individuals who might desert several times). To tackle these problems General Westmoreland introduced a policy of giving troops just a one-year term of service to help morale, although in reality this backfired because as soon as the soldiers gained experience they were sent home.

Issue 2: Vietnam’s neighbours Neighbouring countries were sympathetic to the Viet Cong. Political considerations meant that the USA could not send their forces into North Vietnam or neighbouring Cambodia and Laos. This gave the NVA and Viet Cong a huge advantage. They were able to retreat to these other countries to reinforce their losses and get new equipment, ammunition, etc. They also used these states to supply their forces along the Ho Chi Minh trail (see Source 2 on page 5). In fact, the Americans did send unofficial missions into these neighbouring countries and did bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other targets. However, they were never able to officially enter these states with their full force.

Issue 3: ‘Hearts and minds’ From early in the war President Johnson spoke of the importance of winning ‘hearts and minds’ in Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1968 he mentioned it in 28 speeches! The trouble was that US tactics were based on attrition – killing large numbers of the enemy. This inevitably led to large numbers of civilian casualties. This in turn led the Vietnamese people to support the Viet Cong which caused concern back in the USA.

21

I remember sitting at this wretched little outpost one day with a couple of my sergeants. We’d been manning this thing for three weeks and running patrols off it. We were grungy and sore with jungle rot and we’d suffered about nine or ten casualties on a recent patrol. This one sergeant of mine said, ‘You know, Lieutenant, I don’t see how we’re ever going to win this.’ And I said, ‘Well, Sarge, I’m not supposed to say this to you as your officer – but I don’t either.’ So there was this sense that we just couldn’t see what could be done to defeat these people. Philip Caputo, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps in Vietnam in 1965–66, speaking in 1997. SOURCE

25

Over the years Cambodia, the border area of Cambodia, and, er … and Laos, were used freely by the enemy, but, er, our … by … by virtue of the policy of my government, we could not fight the overt war or deploy troops overtly, military troops, into those countries. General William Westmoreland, commander, US Forces, Vietnam. SOURCE

27

An increasing number of recruits scored so low on the standardised intelligence tests that they would have been excluded from the normal peacetime army. The tour of duty in Vietnam was one year. Soldiers were most likely to die in their first month. The large majority of deaths took place in the first six months. Just as a soldier began gaining experience, he was sent home. A rookie army which constantly rotated inexperienced men was pitted against experienced guerrillas on their home ground.

SOURCE

22

The attitude of the enemy was not comparable to what our attitude would have been under the circumstances. He was ready, willing and able to pay a far greater price than I would say we would. General William Westmoreland, commander, US Forces, Vietnam. SOURCE

23

My casualties in my company were relatively light and I say relatively light. I lost seventeen killed and about 43 wounded so the unit was almost combat ineffective with those kind of casualties, but fortunately we were able to weather that particular piece of the battle. Lieutenant Colonel George Forrest, US Army, commenting on one battle with Viet Cong fighters. SOURCE

24


SOURCE

You would go out, you would secure a piece of terrain during the daylight hours, [but at night] you’d surrender that – and I mean literally surrender … you’d give it up, because . . . the helicopters would come in and pick you up at night and fly you back to the security of your base camp. Lieutenant Colonel George Forrest, US Army. SOURCE

26

On one or two occasions, the chiefs recommended US military intervention in North Vietnam and stated that they recognised this might lead to Chinese and/or Soviet military response, in which case, they said, ‘We might have to consider the use of nuclear weapons’. Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defence. SOURCE

28

How do you distinguish a civilian from a Viet Cong? Well of course he shoots at you or he’s armed. But how about what happens after a firefight and you find bodies out there, but no weapons? And we were told this … well, if it’s dead and Vietnamese, it’s VC. Those were the exact words. Philip Caputo, US Marine.

From Four Hours in My Lai by Michael Bilton, 1992.

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How to tackle Enquiry 2: Turningpoints in the Vietnam War Enquiry 2 focuses on either: • How significant was the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 in the course of the Vietnam War? or • How significant was the Tet Offensive of 1968 in the course of the Vietnam War? Here are some suggested strategies for making sure your research stays focused on your particular question.

Focus Task

Work in groups, pairs or on your own. Step 1 Find out about your incident and where it fits in the war

1 Check out the date for your incident on the timeline on page 5. Use pages 6–8 to find out what was happening in the Vietnam War before that date. 2 Find out as much as you can about the incident you are studying: ◆ If you are studying the Gulf of Tonkin incident see page 19. ◆ If you are studying the Tet Offensive of 1968 see page 20. 3 Go back to pages 5–10 and find out what happened after the incident. Step 2 Consider it as a turning point

Your enquiry is about turning-points. A turning-point is an event after which things are never the same again. 4 Fill in the spaces on this table to record what you have found out and to help you judge how much of a turning point your incident was. The War before the .................. incident

The War after the ................. incident

Turning point?

Turning point?

The course of the war changed a lot

The course of the war did not change much OR The course of the war was changing anyway

18

Who was winning? Who was losing?

Who was winning? Who was losing?

What seemed likely to happen next?

What seemed likely to happen next?

Remember also that the internet has a wealth of material on the Vietnam War that could help you with your research if you want to look deeper. A list of useful sites can be found on page 20.

SOURCE

29

There was absolutely no gunfire except our own, no PT boat wakes, not a candle light let alone a burning ship. None could have been there and not have been seen on such a black night. US Admiral James B. Stockdale, ‘Another Gulf, Other Blips on a Screen’ from The Washington Post, 7 August 1988.

In August 1964 North Vietnamese warships attacked United States warships, the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy, in the Gulf of Tonkin, (see Source 3, page 7). President Johnson claimed that the US warships were attacked twice, that the USA did nothing to provoke these two attacks and that North Vietnam was the aggressor. In fact, there is doubt over Johnson’s version of the whole incident. Although the North Vietnamese definitely did attack the U.S.S. Maddox on 2 August, it does appear that the USA provoked this attack by supporting South Vietnamese commandos operating in North Vietnam by using the US warships to identify radar stations along the North Vietnamese coast. As to the second attack, many government officials and historians argue that the second incident, which allegedly happened on 4 August 1964, never occurred (see Source 29). Because of President Johnson’s claims, the United States Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This allowed President Johnson ‘to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any [US ally] requesting assistance in defense of its freedom’. In essence, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution permitted Johnson to increase the United States’ involvement in North and South Vietnam. President Johnson’s predecessor, President Kennedy, had sent Americans to support the South Vietnamese government against North Vietnam. As tension between North and South increased, Kennedy increased the numbers of Americans in Vietnam to about 16,000 by the time of his assassination in November 1963. However, Kennedy was cautious about becoming too involved. He insisted that these Americans were simply ‘advisors’ to the South Vietnamese government and said he was determined that the USA would not ‘blunder into war, unclear about aims or how to get out again’. Johnson was much more prepared to commit the USA to a full-scale war in Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave him the powers he needed. Early in 1965, under Johnson’s orders, 3,500 US marines waded ashore at Da Nang in South Vietnam. There was no pretence that these were just ‘advisors’. The US was at war in Vietnam. By 1968 there were 500,000 US troops fighting in Vietnam.


How significant was the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 in the course of the Vietnam War?

Focus Task How significant was the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 in the course of the Vietnam War?

Before the Gulf of Tonkin incident:

How can we do more to fight communism in Vietnam?

After the Gulf of Tonkin incident:

How can I win the war in Vietnam?

Many historians believe that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was the key event that allowed President Johnson to escalate US commitment to a full-scale war in Vietnam. From this point on, it was a war between the USA and the Viet Cong. Your task is to create a presentation to explain why the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a significant turning point in the Vietnam War. Use the information and sources here, as well as further research on the internet if you need to. You need to cover: ◆ What President Johnson said happened in August 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. ◆ What really happened. ◆ Why Johnson gave this account of the incident. ◆ How the incident affected the attitude of the US Congress towards the war. ◆ How US involvement in Vietnam changed.

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SOURCE

30

US Marines pinned down by Viet Cong snipers in the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive, January 1968.

Weblinks

Short compilation of film from the Tet offensive: http://video.google.com/videoplay?doci d=-1040370051523878916

Text of Walter Cronkite’s influential broadcast following the Tet offensive, February, 1968: https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt /history398/Cronkite_1968.html

SOURCE

31

The Tet Offensive was the decisive battle of the Vietnam War because of its profound impact on American attitudes about involvement in Southeast Asia. In the aftermath of Tet, many Americans became disillusioned … To the American public and even to members of the administration, the offensive demonstrated that US intervention … had produced a negligible effect on the will and capability of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. Extract from The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War by James Wirtz.

20

How significant was the Tet Offensive of 1968 in the course of the Vietnam War? From 1965 to 1967 the official view of the war was that it was going reasonably well. The US and South Vietnamese forces were killing large numbers of Viet Cong. Although they were struggling against guerrilla tactics they were confident that the enemy was being worn down. This confidence was shattered early in 1968. During the Tet New Year holiday, Viet Cong fighters attacked over 100 cities and other military targets. One Viet Cong commando unit tried to capture the US embassy in Saigon. US forces had to fight to regain control room by room. Around 4,500 Viet Cong fighters tied down a much larger US and South Vietnamese force in Saigon for two days. In many ways the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the Communists. They had hoped that the people of South Vietnam would rise up and join them. They didn’t. The Viet Cong lost around 10,000 experienced fighters and were badly weakened by it. However, the Tet Offensive proved to be a turning point in the war because it raised hard questions in the USA about the war. • There were nearly 500,000 troops in Vietnam and the USA was spending $20 billion a year on the war. So why had the Communists been able to launch a major offensive that took US forces completely by surprise? • US and South Vietnamese forces quickly retook the towns captured in the offensive, but in the process they used enormous amounts of artillery and air power. Many civilians were killed. The ancient city of Hue was destroyed. Was this right? • Until this point media coverage of the war was generally positive, although some journalists were beginning to ask difficult questions in 1967. During the Tet Offensive the gloves came off. CBS journalist Walter Cronkite asked ‘What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning this war’. Don Oberdorfer of The Washington Post later wrote (in 1971) that as a result of the Tet Offensive ‘the American people and most of their leaders reached the conclusion that the Vietnam War would require greater effort over a far longer period of time than it was worth’.

Focus Task How significant was the Tet Offensive of 1968 in the course of the Vietnam War?

Before the Tet Offensive:

How can I win the war in Vietnam?

After the Tet Offensive:

How soon can I get out of Vietnam and how can I do it?

Even though the Tet Offensive was a defeat for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, many historians believe it was the key event that convinced President Johnson the war was unwinnable. From this point on Johnson and his successor Nixon were looking for ways to withdraw American troops from Vietnam. Your task is to create a presentation to explain why the Tet Offensive had this effect. Use the information and sources, and further research on the internet if you need to. Your slides should cover: ◆ What the Viet Cong did. ◆ The outcome of the Tet Offensive in military terms. ◆ How it affected the media. ◆ How it affected American public opinion. ◆ How it affected American politicians. ◆ How the Tet Offensive brought previous concerns to a head and acted as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.

The Part B Enquiry The focus for Part B questions is always: How did people in the USA react to the war in Vietnam? You will be given two representations by your teacher and then have two weeks to research them, make notes and plan your answers to Part B(i) and B(ii). The first question in Part B is an easy start. You just have to compare these two representations. The Task says: Study representations 1 and 2. They are both representations of the way in which people in the USA reacted to the Vietnam War. How far do these representations differ?

Tips on comparing the representations 1 Take time to make sure you understand everything about a representation. Read what it says, study what it shows. Study the attribution, which tells you more about the background. 2 In order to compare the two representations, you need to look for the key features of each: • Nature: What kind of item is the representation? A picture? A cartoon? A newspaper article? An extract from a textbook? • Origin: What date was it made? What did people in the USA feel about the Vietnam War at that time? • Purpose: Why did the author/writer/artist/historian (whoever made the representation) make it? What was their point of view? Use a table like this to record notes for your comparison: Representation 1

Representation 2

Nature Origin Purpose

3 Use the timeline, page 5, and the text on pages 22 to 23 below to research how to fill in the table above and the analysis diagram below. 4 Analyse the representations using a diagram like this but bigger. Write notes about the information in each representation in the outer areas marked R1 and R2. Then write notes about anything that is common to both, in the ‘Both’ segment.

R1

Both

R2

A ‘representation’ is an interpretation, an opinion about something, often made afterwards. It might be what a historian has said, but it could just as well be a photograph, film, museum exhibition, TV programme, poem, cartoon or painting. A representation shows how the topic is seen by others. (See page 22 for more on representations.)



A representation is not just the text/picture/film or whatever. It includes the attribution – who wrote it, when, why, who for – in other words, everything in the information you are given with the representation.

Look for: • Obvious differences – for example, is one a cartoon, the other a textbook extract? • When were they made? Is there a big time difference? • Which gives more information? Does one cover more aspects than the other? This is what Edexcel say you can take with you into the writing-up session for Part B(i): • One A4 page of notes, plus • a plan on one side of A4.

Tips on planning your answer 5 The table and the three segments of your diagram will give you a plan for your response. • Remember to back up each point you make with a detail or quote from the representation. • Add a last sentence which sums up how all the details add up to the overall impression given by the representation. • Remember that you have only half an hour to write your response.

For top marks, be ready to say something about how much they agree or disagree.

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What is a representation? SOURCE

A

The Tet Offensive was the decisive battle of the Vietnam War because of its profound impact on American attitudes about involvement in Southeast Asia. In the aftermath of Tet, many Americans became disillusioned … To the American public and even to members of the administration, the offensive demonstrated that US intervention … had produced a negligible effect on the will and capability of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. An extract from The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War by James Wirtz.

What is a representation? Representations are impressions, judgements, about some piece of history. They could be the writings of historians or journalists, but they could also be films, paintings, adverts or novels. They might be created at the time, or afterwards. For example here are some possible representations: 1 An historian’s written account (Source A) This representation analyses how one battle in the war, the 1968 Tet Offensive, affected US public opinion. It was written by a respected US historian, James Wirtz. It was written 23 years after the event it analyses, but don’t go thinking it is therefore ‘unreliable’ or ‘inaccurate’. It is the job of historians to analyse past events and Wirtz did a lot of research into hundreds of newspapers, to create his ‘representation’ of the impact of the war. 2 A photograph Click on this link and look at this famous photograph of the Vietnam War. (This is also shown on page 12.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Th%E1%BB%8B_Kim_Ph%C3%BAc This representation is completely different. It is the most famous photo of the Vietnam War, voted ‘Photo of the Year’ in 1972. The girl is Phan Thi Kim Phuc, and she was just nine years old when she, and her village, were napalmed. She was badly burned and nearly died. In fact, the air raid was not carried out by US planes, but the photo came to stand as a representation of all that was terrible about the Vietnam War: the killing and maiming of innocent people by high tech tactics. 3 A cartoon Click on this link and look at a 1967 cartoon by Herblock entitled ‘There’s money enough to support both of you! There, now doesn’t that make you feel better?’ (This is also shown on page 26.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/herblock/gallery/13.htm Cartoons are often representations. Cartoonists have to sum up situations in a simple, easy to understand, drawing. They do not have to be laugh-out-loud funny, but provide an impression, and often a judgement, of what the cartoonist, and the readers, are thinking. In this case the cartoonist portrays President Johnson’s plans for spending money on US urban needs – better housing, health, education – being neglected for the cost of the Vietnam War, portrayed as a fancy, be-jewelled, over-dressed mistress. 4 A song Click on this link and read (or listen to) the lyrics from a song called ‘Ohio’ by Neil Young written in 1970 after the killing of four student anti-war protesters at Kent State University. http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/lyrics_ohio.htm A song can be a representation too. The Vietnam War produced several pop songs and protest sings. This one sums up the mood of 1970, as US public opinion began to turn against the war. Notice the reference to ‘Nixon’s bombing’ – the president being blamed for escalating the war. 5 Films Films are representations as well. Edexcel won’t set you to watch a film for your controlled assessment but your teacher might well ask you to examine one and you can include them in your research. The war has featured in over 100 films. Click on this link for a list of some of the most notable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_film

22

The Part B(ii) Enquiry This grows out of your work on Part B(i) but a third representation will be introduced.

Step 1: Understand the context Apart from the fact that you now have an extra representation to consider, the other big difference between question B(i) and B(ii) is that, whereas B(i) focuses on what the representations say, in B(ii) you need to pay more attention to the historical context. • What was the situation at that time? • What do you know about that context which helps to explain why the representation says what it does? That is why the attribution is so important. It tells you who wrote it, when, why and who for. That is also why your background knowledge is so important. It tells you many other things that are important for putting the representation in context. Use pages 24–27 to find out more about the context of your representations and to see some examples of representations.

Step 2: Make notes You are allowed to take two A4 pages of notes into the writing-up session.

Step 3: Plan your answer

The question is: Study representations 1 and 2 again and representation 3 which your teacher will give you. Choose the one which you think is the best representation of the way in which people in the USA reacted to the Vietnam War. Explain your choice.



As with Part A, decide which style of notes you find most useful (this is not necessarily the same style that your friend uses!). It could be bullet points, spider diagrams, key quotes, key words – whatever works for you. Go through each representation in turn, making notes on it and using the attribution and your background knowledge to put it in context.

When you think you’ve noted all you can about the context of the three representations and their nature, origin and purpose, you should plan your answer. Look again at the question for Part B(ii). Obviously it all hangs on the word ‘best’. To decide which representation is ‘best’ you need some criteria. Edexcel suggest three: • How accurate is it? This means looking not just at the facts themselves (are they correct?) but at the overall impression given by the representation – does it tally with the history you have found out? • How objective is it? What is the author’s point of view? What message is the representation trying to give? • How comprehensive is it? This means looking at whether you think the representation is full, balanced and tells the whole story. Has the author selected details to suit the message the representation is trying to give?

This is what Edexcel say you can take with you into the writing-up session for Part B(ii). It is the same as for Part A: • Two A4 sheets of notes – bullet points, spider diagrams, mind maps, quotes, key words – but not complete sentences or paragraphs, plus • a plan on one side of A4.

NOTE: Edexcel seem to have a rather narrow view of what ‘best’ means. That is, factually accurate, unbiased and complete. This may not always be true. The comedy series Blackadder was obviously often inaccurate and neither objective nor complete. It was, however, entirely successful in the author’s purpose, which was to make people laugh. • If you use two criteria to compare the representations you can get up to 15 out of 20. To get beyond 15 you must use three criteria. • Plan to write one paragraph about each of your criteria for each representation. • Remember to support every point you make with a detail or quote from the representation. • Finally, using your three criteria, make a judgement about which representation is ‘the best’.

Step 4: Writing it up As with the other questions, you will have done most of the hard thinking before you go into the last hour of your Controlled Assessment writing-up time. You will have your two pages of notes and your plan. Remember to use your plan, and keep referring to the representations to support what you want to say.

For top marks remember: • Be clear about what your argument is right from the first sentence and tie everything into this. • Select the best quotes or references from the representations to support the points you make. • Leave time to pull it all together in the last paragraph. This is where you give your own judgement about which representation is ‘the best’, and explain why.

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SOURCE

32

The Vietnam War and the media The Vietnam War was covered extensively by the American and world media, probably in more detail than any previous war.

Early stages of the war

CBS News journalist Walter Cronkite in Vietnam reporting in February 1968. He was regarded as the most trusted man in America.

In the early stages of the war, newspaper, radio and TV journalists largely followed the official line of policy. There were some small disagreements when the media reported the Buddhist protests against Diem (see Source 4 on page 7); one US Army spokesman also snapped ‘Get on team!’ to an American journalist when several US helicopters were shot down at Ap Bac in 1963, but on the whole the media supported the government. Even when the situation escalated and US forces became directly involved in the war the relationship between the US military and government and the media remained relatively good. The US Army created MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) to liaise with journalists. Journalists could be accredited by MACV and they would then get transport to war areas, interviews and briefings with commanders, and regular reports. In return they were expected not to reveal any information which would help the enemy. Between 1964 and 1968 only three journalists had their accreditation removed. Back in the USA editors rarely wanted to publish bad news stories about Vietnam. A major concern was that they did not want to be accused of undermining the war effort. For example, Seymour Hersh, the journalist who broke the story of the My Lai Massacre, had to try several newspapers before he could find one willing to publish the story. There were also commercial considerations. TV networks were reluctant to broadcast off-putting scenes of violence and destruction during peak viewing times because they were worried viewers would switch channels.

Later stages of the war, 1967–8 By 1967–8, however, the tone and content of reporting from Vietnam was beginning to change for two reasons. • Television was taking over from newspapers as the most important source of news for most Americans. Television can be edited of course but it presents a more raw account of war. Improving technology also meant that TV crews could take lightweight cameras very close to the conflict zones. As early as 1965 the US TV network CBS had shown US Marines using Zippo lighters to set fire to Vietnamese villagers’ homes. During the Tet Offensive of 1968 (see page 20) TV viewers saw South Vietnamese police chief Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong suspect (see Source 33). To see such casual violence beamed into the living rooms of the USA was deeply shocking to the average American. SOURCE

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33

A Viet Cong suspect is executed in the street by South Vietnamese police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan in February 1968.

SOURCE

34

The Marines who carry out patrols like this in the Mekong Delta are convinced they are winning their war against the VC. They point out as evidence of their success the number of VC dead and the number of VC defectors. But to do this they have needed the support of thousands of well trained troops, of barrack ships, helicopter gunships, air support and the river Marine force to contain and destroy what amounts to scattered handfuls of Viet Cong in these parts. Text of a TV report by a journalist on patrol with US Marines in the Mekong Delta in 1969.

SOURCE

35

The horrors of war entered the living rooms of Americans for the first time during the Vietnam War. For almost a decade in between school, work, and dinners, the American public could watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home. Though initial coverage generally supported US involvement in the war, television news dramatically changed its frame of the war after the Tet Offensive. Images of the US-led massacre at My Lai dominated the television, yet the daily atrocities committed by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong rarely made the evening news. Moreover, the anti-war movement at home gained increasing media attention while the US soldier was forgotten in Vietnam. Coverage of the war and its resulting impact on public opinion has been debated for decades by many intelligent media scholars and journalists, yet they are not the most qualified individuals to do so: the veterans are. Extract from a blog called the Warbird’s Forum. The author is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran.


• At the same time doubts about the whole war effort were intensifying. One of the most famous TV reporters was CBS’ Walter Cronkite. He reported throughout the Tet Offensive as US forces devastated large areas of the South Vietnam city of Hue in their efforts to destroy Viet Cong and NVA fighters. It was during the Tet Offensive that Cronkite declared, to his TV audience, that he thought the war was unwinnable. There were others who were quick to agree. President Johnson later remarked that if he lost the support of Cronkite he would lose the support of ‘Middle America’.

What was the impact of the media coverage? The issue of media coverage has been the subject of intense debate, as you can see from Sources 35 and 36. US Admiral Grant Sharp and General Westmoreland both claimed that the media undermined the war effort. Plenty of other commentators have put forward the view that the media crippled the war effort in Vietnam. SOURCE

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What was the effect of television on the development and outcome of the war? The conventional wisdom has generally been that for better or for worse it was an anti-war influence. It brought the ‘horror of war’ night after night into people’s living rooms and eventually inspired revulsion and exhaustion. The argument has often been made that any war reported in an unrestricted way by television would eventually lose public support. Researchers, however, have quite consistently told another story. Daniel Hallin, Professor of Communications at the University of California, writing on the Museum of TV website.

However before you accept this viewpoint uncritically, here are some alternative arguments. • American attitudes were turning against the Vietnam War by 1967 anyway. The media reflected the changing views rather than creating them. • Casualties and war weariness were the reasons why support for the war dropped – not the media. • Shocking scenes were very rarely shown on TV. Less than 25 per cent of reports showed dead or wounded, and usually not in any detail. • Research shows that from 1965–70 only 76 out of 2,300 TV reports showed heavy fighting. • In a sample of almost 800 broadcasts from the time, only 16 per cent of criticisms of government policy came from journalists. The majority of critical comments came from officials or the general public.

Focus Task Why is the role of the media in Vietnam a controversial issue?

Study the information and sources on these pages and prepare a presentation on this question. You will need to explain: ◆ How the reporting angle changed. ◆ The importance and influence of television. ◆ The case that the media undermined the war effort. ◆ The case against this view. If you are feeling very brave you could decide on which side of the debate you stand! You could also research this issue on the internet, as there is a great deal of debate still going on.

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SOURCE

37

This confused war has played havoc with our domestic destinies. Despite feeble protestations to the contrary, the promises of the great society have been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam. The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed the promised dimensions of the domestic welfare programs, making the poor – white and Negro – bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home. The war has put us in the position of protecting a corrupt government that is stacked against the poor. We are spending $500,000 to kill every Viet Cong soldier while we spend only $53 for every person considered to be in poverty in the USA. It has put us in a position of appearing to the world as an arrogant nation. Here we are 10,000 miles away from home fighting for the socalled freedom of the Vietnamese people when we have so much to do in our own country. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King speaking in the USA in April 1968.

Weblinks

See newsreel clips of anti-war demonstrations at: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/889 -40/Archive-Films and http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/827 -38/Universal-Studios SOURCE

38

The anti-Vietnam War protest movement in the USA In 1968–1969 there were massive protests against the Vietnam War. Anti-war feeling reached deep into all areas of American society. But two groups were particularly prominent in the anti-war movement.

Civil Rights campaigners When President Johnson was elected in 1964 he promised to create a ‘Great Society’. By this he meant better living standards, health care and other benefits for all Americans. He did manage to deliver on some of his promises but the horrendous cost of the Vietnam War undermined his most ambitious plans. As Source 37 points out, the Vietnam War had highlighted racial inequality in the USA. There were relatively few African Americans in college in the USA which meant that fewer of them could escape the draft. As a result, 30 per cent of African Americans were drafted compared to only 19 per cent of white Americans. Furthermore, 22 per cent of US casualties were black Americans, even though this group made up only 11 per cent of the total US force. One high profile African American athlete, the boxer Muhammad Ali, made his own stand by refusing to obey the draft on the grounds of his Muslim faith. He was stripped of his world title and had his passport removed. Ali was a follower of the radical Black Power group Nation of Islam. These groups all opposed the draft. How could they fight for a country which discriminated against them at home. As some of them pointed out, ‘the Viet Cong never called us nigger’.

Students One of the most powerful sources of opposition to the war was the American student movement. Many of these young people did not want to be drafted to fight in a war they did not believe in, or even thought was morally wrong. They had seen the media reports from the front line, especially the massacre at My Lai in 1968 (see below). Instead of Vietnam being a symbol of a US crusade against Communism, to these students Vietnam had become a symbol of defeat, confusion and moral corruption (see Source 39). Students taunted the American President Lyndon B Johnson with the chant ‘Hey, Hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?’ Thousands began to ‘draft dodge’ – refusing to serve in Vietnam when they were called up. The anti-war protests reached their height during 1968–70. In the first half of 1968, there were over 100 demonstrations against the Vietnam War involving 40,000 students. Frequently, the protest would involve burning the American flag – a criminal offence in the USA and a powerful symbol of the students’ rejection of American values. In November 1969, almost 700,000 anti-war protesters demonstrated in Washington DC. It was the largest political protest in American history.

The My Lai Massacre, 1968 My Lai was a village in South Vietnam in an area where Viet Cong guerrilla fighters had been inflicting heavy casualties on US soldiers. On 16 March 1968, men of C Company of the 23rd US Infantry Division entered the village. They were angry at the men they had lost and frustrated at not being able to find their elusive enemy. They were told that there were Viet Cong hiding in My Lai. The soldiers began to set fire to houses and opened fire indiscriminately. Although it soon became clear that there were no Viet Cong in the village, the killing went on. Women were raped, children shot and elderly people were bayoneted. Three hundred Vietnamese died. News of the massacre filtered out in late 1969. The Company commander, William Calley, was tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, the reputation of the USA had received a serious blow and calls to end the war were strengthened.

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“There’s Money Enough To Support Both Of You – Now, Doesn’t That Make You Feel Better?” – An American cartoon from 1967. © The Herbert Bloch Foundation

39

One does not use napalm on villages and hamlets sheltering civilians if one is attempting to persuade these people of the rightness of one’s cause. One does not defoliate [destroy the vegetation of] the country and deform its people with chemicals if one is attempting to persuade them of the foe’s evil nature. An American commenting on US policy failure in Vietnam.

SOURCE

40

Anti-war demonstrations often ended in violent clashes with the police. At Berkeley, Yale and Stanford universities, bombs were set off. The worst incident by far came in 1970. At Kent State University in Ohio, students organised a demonstration against President Nixon’s decision to invade Vietnam’s neighbour, Cambodia. Panicked National Guard troopers opened fire on the demonstrators. Four students were killed and eleven others were injured. The press in the USA and abroad were horrified. Some 400 colleges were closed as two million students went on strike in protest at the action. SOURCE

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SOURCE

Tin Soldiers And Nixon’s Bombing We’re Finally On Our Own This Summer I Hear The Drumming Four Dead In Ohio Gotta Get Down To It Soldiers Are Gunning Us Down Should Of Been Done Long Ago What If You Knew Her And Found Her Dead On The Ground How Can You Run When You Know The Kent State University demonstrations in Ohio, 4 May 1970. Lyrics to a song by Neil Young commenting on the events at Kent State. There were many protest songs in this period.

SOURCE

42

Focus Task How did US cartoonists represent the Vietnam War? Sources 38 and 42 are two of a series of cartoons to be presented in an online exhibition. Your task is to write a caption for one of the cartoons which explains the point being made. Your caption needs to be in two parts: ◆ a brief twenty-word summary ◆ a more detailed explanation which internet users can select if they want to know more. This should be about 150 words. You can refer to later events even though these cartoons were published in 1967.

Cartoon by Garland published in the Daily Telegraph, 11 January 1967 British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent © Telegraph Media Group Limited 1967.

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