Vietnam |
United States |
French
colonialism/mercantilism abuses locals and embarrasses U.S.
anti-colonial stand - Vichy / Nazi collaboration angers Washington |
World War II -
FDR's anti-colonialism evident in the Atlantic Charter
- FDR displays anti-French temperament for his aides |
Japanese occupy
Indochina - French collaboration / submission with / to Japanese
tarnishes French colonialist / white supremacist image with
Vietnamese populace - Vietnamese anti-Japanese resistance becomes
synonymous with Vietnamese independence |
anti-French
temperament permeates Indochinese OSS operations - OSS establishes a
relationship with Ho Chi Minh (ICP) -
guerrilla teams created to harass Japanese and rescue downed pilots
- based upon OSS reports State Dept. views Ho as "nationalist" |
A-bomb forces
rapid/unexpected Japanese surrender - French Indochina left in
political vacuum - Ho unites Japanese resistance into anti-French
independence movement - Viet Minh controlled by ICP - Ho calls upon
Washington for
moral support and official recognition |
OSS delays French
return to colony - OSS assists Ho's rise to power - gives unofficial
recognition to Ho government - OSS support leaves Vietnamese populace
believing official U.S. support for independence/Ho exists in
Washington - Washington withholds official recognition |
French claim
return to Indo China as anti-communist campaign - French label Viet
Minh, Viet Cong - French pressure and global [Cold War] politics
forces U.S. to reevaluate its opinion of Ho Chi Minh |
Red Scare,
Containment Doctrine, Iron Curtain Speech, Soviet a-bomb, Fall of
China, Rosenbergs, etc. shakes America - State Dept. now views Ho as
"communist" not "nationalist" - "China
Lobby" and "Friends of Vietnam" under attack by HUAC -
State Dept. terminates relationship with Ho Chi Minh |
Viet Minh/Ho
abandoned Hanoi and wage guerrilla war for independence - French lose
support of populace to independence movement and Cong terrorism - Ho
intertwines nationalism-communism - Ho cements "father of his
country" image |
U.S. indirectly
finances 80% of French effort war effort through Marshall Plan -
French colonialism becomes intertwined with American Cold War
Containment Policy |
Giap defeats
French at Dein Bein Phu - Geneva Accords call for temporary partition and
free elections -
Ho and Viet Minh become recognized government of independent
northern Viet Nam - become known as the Hanoi Government |
Eisenhower refuses
to intervene to save French colony/army - US prefers French out of
Viet Nam, sees Accords and newly created southern zone as opportunity
for "nation building" without French colonialism - Domino
Theory dominates
Washington temperament |
Hanoi govt./Ho
balk at canceled elections and vow to reunite nation - brutal land
reform imposed in north -
communist rule oppressive/murderess |
(U.S.) SVN refuses
to sign Accords - cancels pending election - U.S. claims partition
permanent - new American "can-do" attitude of
"nation-building" begins in south - U.S. seeks alterative
to Ho Chi Minh, finds Ngo Dinh Diem in New Jersey |
Viet Cong (Viet
Minh) heighten anti-West activity with terrorist and guerrilla
tactics - concentrated communist indoctrination effort begins -
battle for "hearts and minds" becomes a communist
speciality - later a bad American joke |
|
NLF (Viet Cong)
control southern villages via shadow governments - assassinations,
terrorism, atrocities commonplace - Cong discipline southern rural
populace to communist doctrine |
U.S. tries to
legitimize permanent partition with treaty - SEATO confirms U.S.
containment policy - Diem controls cities, black market, and military
but has no presence in country-side - "pacification" /
Strategic Hamlet program fails |
NLF / NVA
coordinate effort - infiltration regularized - despite Strategic
Hamlet program
Viet Cong maintain consistent terrorism and taxation over southern peasants |
JFK advisers build
ARVN - ARVN ineffective - SVN viewed as unstable - JFK abandons Diem
- Diem assassinated in coup -
counter insurgency effort failing - JFK assassinated |
NVA invade south -
Da Nag threatened - Saigon threatened - Ho Chi Minh Trail opened -
infiltration of men and supplies into southern zone virtually unchecked |
LBJ views
containment policy political liability seeks "free hand"
over limited intervention -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed -
troop commitments and bombings begin |
Ho paints U.S. as
French colonists - builds national effort of liberation - American
"pacification" effort proves clumsy and ineffective |
LBJ's
"beautiful lady" (Great Society) stops full American
commitment to war - LBJ tries to hide his "ugly whore" as
second-page news - War fought as SEATO containment effort - LBJ
argues "guns and butter" is possible |
NVA and VC deploy
circular front - trade-off control of ground for control over contact
- NVA and VC control frequency of engagements and therefore body counts |
pacification
strategy employed - control of the country-side elusive - search and
destroy missions
degrade into an attrition policy ("body count" reporting
permeates news) - attrition begets escalation - over one half million
American troops committed by early '69 |
Soviet/Chinese
supply line guarantees prolonged capability of Vietnamese war effort |
LBJ Policy: Korean
lesson makes conquest of north improbable - Chinese intervention
feared - limited war under Cold War rules invoked - Soviet's comply |
NVA and VC are
committed to liberation - troops motivated, patriotic, and effective |
Vietnamization of
the War fails - ARVN unmotivated and ineffective - supported
(maintained) by U.S. fire power - home-front draft accelerated -
anti-draft protest accelerated |
Tet Offensive -
tactical defeat-strategic victory - Viet Cong broken - infiltration
of northerners to fill VC units necessary - Hanoi nows controls NLF /
VC - southern representation in a united Viet Nam now unlikely |
late '67 LBJ seeks
negotiated peace -
claims light at end of tunnel -
Westmoreland returns home, creates sense of victory - Tet Offensive
an embarrassment to LBJ and Westmoreland - media portrays military
victory as strategic defeat - Tet marks the "end of getting in
and the beginning of getting out" |
Ho sends secret
feelers to Washington - hints at possible negotiated peace -
Ho dies - crusade survives |
juxtaposition of
"light at the end of the tunnel" rhetoric and Tet Offensive
creates "creditability gap" between government and press -
negative press fuels anti-war protest - protest against draft becomes
protest against war; mainstream |
Hanoi government
seeks to manipulate western press - commits to Paris Peace Talks
(sincerity questionable) - disputes over northern infiltration,
recognition of SVN, role of VC during negotiations, and American
bombing, prove insurmountable hurdles - talks degrade into squabble
over table assignments - peace effort stalls |
LBJ quits - calls
for bombing halt, looks for "deal" (peace) -
"deal" sunk by SVN - SVN decide to wait for Nixon - Nixon
claims secret plan to end (win) war |
NVA control
highlands of northern South Vietnam - Nixon continues bombing of Ho
Chi Minh Trail - begins secret bombing of Cambodia - American
re-effort to halt infiltration fails |
Nixon revitalizes
Vietnamization - begins slow withdrawal of American ground troops -
supplements withdrawals with escalated bombing - draft lottery and
Nixon's "silent majority" speech silence protest, temporally |
Kissinger begins
secret talks with NVN - Nixon ready to concede continued NVA
occupation of northern South Vietnam - Hanoi sensing victory 'ups the
ante' - POW list altered - Kissinger accepts new (shortened) POW list
and continued NVA occupation of SVN |
Mi Li, Pentagon
Papers, Cambodian Invasion, re-ignites protests - Kent State Massacre shakes
American populace - Archie Bunker (All in the Family)
questions commitment - Nixon facing re-election seeks any deal he can
get - Nixon begins to make concessions |
Kissinger gets
LBJ's deal four years later - SVN protest ignored by Washington |
Nixon
"plays China Card" - visits Moscow/Beijing to lessen blow
to failed containment effort - Nixon ready to dump SVN |
NVA assaults south
- Saigon conquered - Ho Chi Minh City becomes new capital of south -
south dominated by Hanoi - no political roll for NLF (VC) |
Nixon re-elected,
announces "peace with honor" - withdraws from Viet Nam -
promises continued support for SVN - Nixon swept from office by
Watergate - War Powers Act passed - Ford and Congress dump Vietnam -
containment effort fails - détente lessens blow |
Vietnam united -
communist doctrine brutally imposed on southern populace - large
percentage of farm land rendered unusable by war - herbicides, land
mines, communist economic policies, and diminished manpower forces
Vietnam to import rice |
Domino Theory
fails to materialize - détente (China Card) eases red scare
panic into neo-isolationism - U.S. refuses recognition of Viet Nam |
Hanoi, politcally
dependent Moscow and at odds with China, attempts to re-build -
lingering French-American influence of Saigon leaves Ho Chi Minh City
the "sin city" of Viet Nam - sundry NVA officers executed
for involvement with black market - Western culture never driven from south |
"arrogance of
power" checked - sense of inadequacy permeates weak foreign
policy - détente lessens stakes - collapse of (Soviet)
communism ends containment policy - Russia joins NATO - POW issue
makes recognition of Vietnam political liability |