AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE VIETNAM WAR

BY
IZZAH ZULKAFLI
1128390
HIST 4150 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

DR. WAN SUHANA WAN SULONG

Introduction
The Vietnam War was a long, costly battle that involved North Vietnam
against South Vietnam. The North Vietnam was allied by their supporters
from the south, Viet Cong and South Vietnam was aided by its principal ally,
the United States. The war that happened in 1954 was the result of the rise
of communist leader, Ho Chi Minh and his party that adopted communism as
its principle basis, the Viet Minh. The war was pretty much related to the
Cold War which involved the United States and the Soviet Union. There were
millions of casualties and most of them were Vietnamese civilians and some
tens thousands of Americans. The United States was involved in the war in
their effort to stop the spread of communism throughout the countries in
Southeast Asia. Though at first, the public though not the entire population,
gave their support to the involvement of U.S., towards the end, when
everything spilled out, there were bitter divisions among Americans. Before
Richard Nixon was about to announced as the new President of the United
Sates, there were already divisions among the Americans since it was when
they were informed about what actually happened. They only knew that at
the beginning, the U.S. was really committed to stop communism but after
some time, they got so involved in the war and things were not getting any
better. By 1975, the country united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a
year after the communist forces took control of Saigon at the end of the
Vietnam War since the United States failed in their mission due to some
reasons.

Geneva Conference
Geneva Conference took place in 1954 which was participated by the
Soviet Union, United States, France, United Kingdom and Peoples Republic of
China. The purpose of this conference was to solve several problems related
to Asia. Their main concern was the long and bloody battle between
Vietnamese nationalist forces under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and the
French who intended to continue colonial control over Vietnam. After the fall
of France, Indochina was under Japanese control. Ho Chi Minh went against
Japan then declared the first Indochina War against the French. In 1949, the
United States was really committed to reject communism out of Southeast
Asia so they wanted to give assistance to France to fight against the
communist leader. Despite being supported by the United States, the France
withdrew from the battle because they were at disadvantage since they were
draining both the national treasury and public patience. France suffered
worst military defeat as their base was captured by the Vietnam.
In 1954, Vietnam defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu and by this
time, the United States had financed about 80 percent of the French war

effort. The United States had committed itself financially, politically and
emotionally to prevent a communist victory there. Among the things that
were agreed during the conference was France would withdrew from North
Vietnam which also means that Vietnam would be temporarily divided for
two years until election. However, this was opposed by the United States
because they knew it that Ho Chi Minh would win the election. This was
because they had a strong support of South Vietnamese and if that happens,
the communism would rise in the country. The United States then developed
a policy to establish a new anti-communist government in South Vietnam
and began supporting them financially apart from giving military assistance.
The United States was worried about the influence of the communism
for instance, domino theory. They thought that if communism began to
emerge in Vietnam, then the rest particularly its neighboring countries will
follow suit. So, this was the justification of United States for going strong in
its resistance against the communist.
Apparently, apart from the United States, there were others who
dissatisfied with the final declaration about the division of Vietnam and the
election as a whole. The Viet Minh which was formed in China in 1941 led by
Ho Chi Minh, an organization that was responsible for the Vietnamese
independence from French rule, were particularly unhappy about the
decision since they had initially won oat Dien Bien Phu. During this time, the
allied countries of Vietnam, China and Russia, were hoping to put an end to

the current situation in Vietnam as they wanted to get closer to the

noncommunist world particularly the United States and Western Europe.
Ngo Dinh Diem
Emperor Bao Dai was pressured by the United States to appoint Ngo
Dinh Diem as prime minister in June 1954. The devout Catholic was known as
anti-French and anti-Communist nationalist. His connection with some
organizations made him famous among various American religious and
political leaders. Diem won over their supports to become the leader of
South Vietnam. Throughout his tenure as a Prim Minister, American policy
was closely linked to his success or failure. Diems family was originally
practicing Buddhism but then converted to Catholicism. Diems brother, a
provincial governor, was executed by the Viet Minh and as a result, his
anticommunism boosted and became stronger more than ever. Around this
time, he was proposed by Ho Chi Minh to join his government but obviously,
Diem rejected the offer mainly because of what they did to his brother.
Washington was committed in creating a modern, anti-Communist,
independent nation-state in Vietnam but they did not really trust the French
in realizing the hope. Therefore, the United States directly communicated to
President Diem in 1954 and commenced the training and arming of the
South Vietnamese Army (Army of the Republic of Vietnam). President
Eisenhower sent a letter to Diem hoping for his support and with the help

from United States, to reform the government by taking control of the

people.
The beginning of his rule was not very smooth but somehow he
managed to control the government in Saigon. Unfortunately, Diem was not
really up to the expectation of Washington and his supporters that had been
secretly supporting him. He was not a very successful leader and being a
Catholic

in

predominantly

Buddhist

country

made

him

at

great

disadvantage. It was actually unclear as to why he did not concern too much
about this matter for he was not trying to overcome the problem. It probably
because he only focused to maintain his rule and ignored the hate he was
getting. He crushed any resistance to his government. The creation of a
dictatorial regime in the South happened with the help of Ngo Dinh Nhu, his
chief political advisor-cum-brother-in-law as well as head of the secret police.
Whatever policies he adopted throughout his rule was mainly to gain
popularity. In 1956, he replaced all the elected village councils with his
appointed officials and the only thing that he considered was their loyalty to
him. Besides that, he also appointed Catholics to take up some positions in
the government and military office based on their religious affiliation. This
action, to the Buddhists, seemed to be some kind of alienation of the
dominant group in Vietnam and not only did he ignore the Buddhist, he also
did nothing to earn the trust of the peasants who were dominants of the
population.

Consequently, all these problems were threatening his position as he

was losing in power. About 10,000 Viet Minh departed to north in complying
with the Geneva accords. Diem referred to them as Viet Cong or Vietnamese
communist. As a result, he launched mass arrests of anyone who had some
kind of anti-Diem sentiments in themselves. As a result, about 100,000
people were arrested with many of them were tortured and thousands were
executed. The Viet Minh were becoming anxious about what more did Diem
attempt to do so the survivors desperately appealed to Hanoi to permit
armed struggle against Diem but it was spurned.
Later on in December 1960, the anti-Diem forces were made clear that
a guerilla war against Diem and his Americans backers had to happen. Those
who opposed the governance of Diem united and formed National Liberation
Front (NLF). Although they were together regardless of different parties, they
had only a nominal power and the one who exercised the real leadership was
the southern branch of the Workers (Communist) Party. During that time, NLF
was following instruction from Hanoi despite being independent in their own
state.
NLF was initially formed for some purposes. They aimed to remove the
colonial regime of American imperialists and Ngo Dinh Diem who was
basically following the order from the United States despite being in power.
NLF wanted to form a government of national democratic union. They were
very determined to eliminate the present constitution of the dictatorial
powers if Ngo Dinh Diem. They wished to have an election to elect a new

National Assembly. Besides that, they wanted to implement freedom of

speech and religion, they thought that they had the right to stand for what is
right without discrimination. They also hoped to release all the political
prisoners and abolish concentration camps as a measure to object all
antidemocratic laws. There were several other purposes of their ojohwn
personal interests including to unite Vietnam as a country.
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was officially elected as the new President of United
States on January 21, 1961. During this period, there were very few military
personnel of United States in Vietnam which was less than 1,000. They were
considered as advisors and became part of the training and arming of the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). After two years, they greatly
increased in number to more than 16,000 and they would also engage in
combat missions though not openly. The situation deteriorated during the
spring and summer of 1963. The war between Diems government and the
National Liberal Front became worse. Diems actions for being biased
towards the Buddhists as he was in a great favor of Catholics had
jeopardized his position. The restrictions imposed on Buddhists angered
them so much that they led a protest against Diems government. Ngo Dinh
Nhu, as previously mentioned, the brother-in-law of Diem used his power as
head of secret police led a great force to repress the action. One of the
memorable protests was by the Buddhist monk Quang Duc who sat in the
lotus position and set himself on fire. The terminal act of protest took place

on a busy intersection in Saigon. Malcom Browne, a reporter who was

forewarned about the event was present. His pictures along with description
shocked the Americans and all the people across the globe as it received a
huge international intention. The public opinion was very intense.
This even triggered Kennedy. Diem was then forced to reform,
pressured to settle with the Buddhists and rid himself of Ngo Dinh Nhu but it
did not happen. Even worse, rumors had it that Diem and Nhu began to
make approaches to Hanoi for a settlement and this panicked American
officials though it was not yet confirmed to be true. Washington on the other
hand thought this could be the occasion for an American withdrawal. As a
result, the Kennedy administration decided to replace Diem by a coup. It
started off with discussions with the generals, led by the new ambassador to
Saigon, henry Cabot Lodge. The period of the discussions was between
Augusts until the early fall of 1963. Washington did not really agree to this
coup plan because chancer are they might fail but it was insisted by Lodge
that any opposition to this would mean giving up on reformation of the
government. This just could not be stopped. Lodge was pressured that if he
wanted to proceed with the plan to overthrow Diem, then he must succeed.
Otherwise, he must try to stop it.
Diem was eventually overthrown on November 1, 1963 and he along
with his brother were killed. The Americans actually had no idea about these
events as they were intentionally to be kept secret from the public to avoid
any outrage. Although they knew that Diem allied with the United States and

somehow the Americans had an idea that he was overthrown by some of his
own generals because of his weak leadership.
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as the 36 th President of the Unite
States on November 22, 1963. Among the first things he did was sending
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to Saigon to analyze the situation.
The staff who were previously in Kennedy administration are now belong to
Johnson. When Kennedy was still leading the mission, Johnson was among his
strong supporter and now he himself hold the responsibility as the
commander in chief. Johnson publicly announced that he would continue
what Kennedy was doing forcefully, not only for the sake of its continuation.
Johnson was convinced by Robert McNamara that they could win the war.
Policymakers and elected officials had never agreed to anything as to
how they would proceed in Vietnam. Johnson was persistently persuade by
Democratic Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield to seek a truce and
subsequent neutralization of South Vietnam which would also mean that they
will become a Communist-controlled state. McGeorge Bundy however forced
Johnson to do whatever it takes in overcoming the domino theory that was
a concern of former President Eisenhower. McGeorge reminded the President
that if they were to neutralize South Vietnam, it will threaten anti-Communist
forces in the region and as mentioned previously, would become a
communist state along with the northern part of Vietnam. In other words,

both part of Vietnam will unite as one communist state. He also suggested
that the same thing would also happen to Thailand and that the influence in
Hanoi and Peking will subsequently increase. Above all, the United States
could lose their credibility in South Korea and Taiwan. They would need to
commit more than ever, otherwise, it means further retreat. McGeorge said
they have to proceed unless they have come to a situation that they could
not afford to continue anymore. He stressed that if they were to give up, it
means they have betrayed the trust of the new regime and Saigon and all
anti-Communist Vietnamese. The United States could not afford to lose the
election and there were enough of these people to win votes. He insisted
that the forces must be strengthen and new, stronger leadership in the U.S.
effort is necessary.
Johnson did not make any major decisions until after the 1964 election,
when he hoped to become President legitimately. The United States at the
same time was aware about a possibility of them not winning the state with
the current policies. Johnson sought advices from his old political friends. In
one of his conversations, he even spoke to chairman of the powerful Senate
Armed Services Committee, Senator Richard Russell. They mainly talked
about overcoming the communist threat in Vietnam. In 1954, there were
major communist threats in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia and led to
many organizations were established for defense purpose. One of them is
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which against any attempt from
communist to change the nature of politics in Southeast Asia. The countries

that signed with SEATO included Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, United

States, United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand. United States
aimed SEATO to change the political scenario of Southeast Asia region while
naming Cambodia, southern Vietnam and Laos as vital areas. The United
States used the treaty as a tool in their justification of the war.
In preparation for the war, Johnson requested prior approval from
Congress should they launch any military acts in the future. He sought the
approval even though he was not really confident about the war. The Gulf of
Tonkin incident is another attack of North Vietnam towards the American
destroyers in international waters. As a result, Johnson sought revenge by
launching bombing attacks on the North and he was granted broad warmaking powers by the Congress which he immediately exercised. The war
escalated greatly in February 1965 as bombing was already underway in the
South, expanded to North Vietnam. Number of American troops was
increasing and the bombing attacks was named as Operation Rolling
Thunder. Johnson ordered the first combat unit of U.S. marines to South
Vietnam in March 1965 and subsequently ground forces in July 1965.
Apparently, it now became an American War as not only there were aiding
the South in military supplies, but they actually went to the war. The
American public was actually not made known of the real situation but only
the gist of it. There were about half a million American forces by 1968 in
Vietnam and the government already convinced that they would win the war.

There was an incident happened which became the turning point of the
Vietnam War. About 85,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces broke
into the major cities of South Vietnam and launched their attacks on January
31, 1968. The effectively organized attacks, known as Tet Offensive, named
for the lunar New Year holiday called Tet, involved more than 100 cities and
towns in South Vietnam. This was planned by the leader of the Communist
Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) to provoke the anti-communist South
Vietnamese and urge the United States to re-consider its support of the
Saigon regime. United States and South Vietnamese managed to delay the
Communist attacks however, the offensive has gotten out of hand. The new
coverage was huge and the American public was especially shocked and
horrified to find out about what happened. As a result, they disapproved of
the war effort. The casualties were very high but North Vietnam scored the
victory led to U.S. withdrawal from the war.
Tet Offensive
Viet Cong forces began the Tet Offensive by attacking 13 cities in
central South Vietnam. Within twenty-four hours, other places throughout
South Vietnam also became the targets of PAVN and Viet Cong forces.
Numerous cities and towns including government buildings were attacked in
South Vietnam along with the U.S. or ARVN military bases. The total attacks
was amounted to more than 100. It was really an intense battle. Many people
in the cities sought for refugee near Saigon and other cities as well. Not less
than 34 provincial centers and 64 district towns were attacked by the

combined NLF and North Vietnamese troops. Every major city in the south
was no exception. General Westmoreland was in a dire need of more military
forces to help the existing U.S. army but it was not granted by President
Johnson. He was seeking peace towards the end of his tenure as a President
so he decided to halt the bombing attacks in the north although during that
time, bombing attacks in the south remained. Tet offensive made the people
realize that the victory of the U.S. was not going to happen as proclaimed.
Agent Orange
The Vietnam War was especially brutal and most of the ground fighting
took place in jungles. The troops were sent on search and destroy missions
and it was difficult to differentiate enemy with civilians. They were counting
bodies after the war to determine who owned the victory. They won if there
were more enemies killed than Americans. There was a lot of bombs dropped
during the jungle fighting. Within 1961 and 1972, the U.S. military aimed at
destroying the forest and jungle cover that were used by their enemy when
they were fighting in the Vietnam War. They sprayed powerful mixtures of
herbicides around all routes used by enemy including their military bases
and on crops that might be used to supply enemy troops. Unfortunately, not
only the enemy troops, but the non-combatant peasant population of South
Vietnam were also affected.
Agent Orange was the most effective type of herbicides that was
commonly used by the United States army. Throughout the battle period, not

less than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam. Agent
Orange is very dangerous as it causes many health issues such as paralysis,
swelling, birth defects and also led to various cancers. Hundreds of
thousands of people were killed or terribly affected by the Agent Orange. In
addition, some serious birth defects also happened involving half a million
children in Vietnam and millions of people suffered from cancer and other
illness.
Nixons Policy
Since President Johnson decided to withdraw from the election, Richard
Milhous Nixon became the next president in January 1969 and he aimed to
make peace in Vietnam. Hence, the mandate from the people. He promised
the Americans that he would ended the war in Vietnam as during this time,
the public really wanted it to end especially when they realized they have
been deceived all along about what happened in Vietnam especially on to
what extend that United States became involved in the war. Little did they
know previously, from just going to aid the South Vietnam in effort to
eradicate the spread of communism in the country, the United States was
very much involved in the fighting. They could not turn a blind eye to the
reality anymore as many Americans were killed in the long lasting battle
when they could have avoided the war but just due to the personal interests
of their leaders, those horrible things happened. Nixon convinced the people
that his secret plan would work and the war could be ended. Those silent
majority who did not really support the anti-war movement were in favor of

Nixon. There were two parts of his secret plan which are Vietnamization
and de-escalation.
By Vietnamization it means, Nixon was gradually withdrew the
American troops from ground battle and left the fighting to the South
Vietnamese whereas they increased their artillery and aerial bombardment.
Consequently, the American casualties reduced significantly. The deescalation happened when Nixon decided to send the American troops to the
Cambodia which he claimed to cut off military and material supplies to the
north. Nixon was totally wrong when he thought that this can help to weaken
the communist power in Vietnam because his act led to instability in
Cambodia and subsequently helped Khmer Rouge rose to power. Khmer
Rouge apparently represented the worst of communism and this has turned
Cambodia into a total communist state. Political unrest happened and so
many people were killed. As a result, anti-war protests grew and caused
huge discontentment among armed forces in 1970. There were also some
known figures that joined the protests.
Pentagon Papers
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara thought that the war was
disturbing. In 1967, he requested a group of his advisors including Daniel
Ellsberg to prepare a history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. While working
on the document, Ellsberg began to become one of those who opposed the
war particularly the American involvement. Ellsberg who is now working with

RAND Corporation and a colleague, Anthony Russo secretly copied large

sections of the report secretly in 1971. They were seeking involvement from
several senators in the classified document but it was turned over. They
eventually passed the book to Neil Sheehan of the New York Times which he
began to publish articles about the documents and even some part of it.
However, he was urged by Attorney General John Mitchell to stop releasing
articles about the documents and handed the document back to the
Pentagon. Court granted authorization to Mitchell to restrain the publication.
After the New York Times, now the Washington Post had the document from
Ellsberg himself. They did not publish the documents instead, some articles
were released.
These documents were really important as it recorded all involvements
of the United States in the Vietnam War and its development. It showed that
the U.S. government had been being deceptive about the war for years.
There was big gap between what actually happened in the war with what the
American public was told and informed about the war. They did not know
about the huge total of casualties, let alone the public fund that was used in
aiding the military effort.
As a result, the Congress passed War Powers Act in 1973. Since then,
there was limitation to presidents power. They can no more send troops
overseas without approval from the Congress and in hope to prevent another
similar event to Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Eventually, Nixon and his secretary
of state Henry Kissinger were able to put an end to Americas involvement in

Vietnam after five years of negotiations. They signed a treaty in 1973 namely
Paris Peace Agreement which able to pull out American troops although
subsequently, it gave some control of South Vietnam to North Vietnam.
Factors of the U.S. Loss
The United Sates when they decided to aid the South Vietnam,
was not really prepared militarily. They immediately started to send the
Americans for military training and many of them were still young. Looking
back to the history, the United States had so little experience in war. After
World War II, the Korean War was the first real like shooting that Americans
joined. They were also engaging with the communist power of China and that
was really the only time that they did such thing. China had become
communist in 1949 and they were instantly recognized as a major world
power for its famous Great Firewall. Korea was divided into North Korea which
was led by the communist leader, Kim Il Sung and South Korea led by
Syngman Rhee which was the first President of South Korea. They were
initially united as one state but because of the constant fighting of these two
parties, they were divided until the present days and the fighting had cost
about 100,000 lives. The United States responded to the current situation of
North Korea and South Korea in June 1950. The anxious President Truman
who feared the spread of communism thought that the North Korean invasion
of South Korea was instigated by the communism and turned up, it was a
false alert.

It really seemed that the United States was impressed by the way
British handled the spread of communism in Malaya. British had a special
force in their effort to eradicate the spread of communism there during that
time. Inspired by the British, the United States, too, formed a special force
named Green Berets in 1952 and as the name suggests, they all wore a
green beret. A small group of them was detached to Vietnam in 1957. They
were trained physically and mentally and at the same time, aimed to counter
guerilla warfare around the world. The wearing of a unique green beret was
permitted by President Kennedy who had so much interest in these elite
corps. The numbers were increasing from 2,500 to 10,000. They desperately
needed to win the battle because they were already in three major crises
which were the failure of Bay of Pigs invasion, an issue regarding the
construction of Berlin Wall and a negotiated settlement between the proWestern government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement. So
they wanted no more failure because they would lose their credibility as a
supposed great power.
Most of the armies were very young so to fight with much more
experienced forces was actually tough. The American troops began to lose
motivations upon seeing so many from their side were either killed or badly
injured. They were receiving continuous attacks from the opposition. One of
the rules is that they could not leave anyone behind meaning that, if
someone from their force were killed, they still had to bring back the person.

As a result, their moral has worsen. They were drunk from too much drinking
therefore they could not focus on the war.
They were also greatly challenged by the Viet Cong who mastered the
geography of Vietnam as they know each and every corner of the country.
Inspired by other country, they used guerilla warfare in their fighting. The
United States knew very little of this kind of warfare which gave them great
disadvantage compared to the Viet Cong. In one incident, when the United
States army was going towards the north, they took the advantage of the
U.S. weakness to attack their jets. The Viet Cong mainly attacked their
enemies at night.
Consequences of U.S. Involvement
Since the United States failed to eradicate the spread of communism in
Vietnam, the northern and southern part eventually united as a communist
state. Consequently, the Viet Cong was disbanded. The total cost of the war
was very huge which not less than USD 1 Billion. The casualties were
especially high. About 58,000 Americans and not less than three million of
Vietnamese people were killed.
As a result to the American involvement, they also began to lose the
public trust. Previously, the government still had the support of its people
though during that time, they knew how bad the governance in the United
States was. They knew that the government has been misusing the public
fund and they were not given some of their rights. However, it seemed that

they could not tolerate it anymore. The people thought that the government
has gone too far in deceiving them and using the money for what they
supposed not to involve in.

Conclusion
The Vietnam War can be considered as a remarkable event of
American history. The people of America lost their trust in the government
for they were trying to cover up lies after lies and the end, they were caught
off guard especially when the documents Pentagon Papers were exposed to
the public. The fact that the divisions among the people was actually caused
by divisions among Vietnam was shameful. Even at the beginning, Ho Chi
Minh sought help from the United States to achieve independence in Vietnam
but

turned

out,

because

of

anti-communism

sentiment

among

the

Americans, they decided to aid South Vietnam instead in hope to crush Ho

Chi Minh and his part as a whole. The communism is not necessarily a good
thing but did the United States not interfere in the Vietnamese affairs, many
of those terrible things could have been stopped. The government obviously
did the wrong thing. Sending young people to the military training and after
a short period of the military training, they were already sent to fight their
enemies though it was practically not something they should have meddled
in. The selfish American government put the lives of the people on the line
due to their personal interests. Obviously, some of these leaders just wanted
to show off what they have got to the people in hope that they would win the
election.

References
Agent Orange. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange (25
April 2015).
Davidson,

Philip

B.,

Vietnam

at

War:

The

History,

1946-1975.

http://books.google.com.my/books/about/Vietnam_at_War.html?
id=seXWfsD46QQC&redir_esc=y (20 April 2015).
Lawrence, Mark A., The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, 27
August

2010.

http://books.google.com.my/books/about/The_Vietnam_War_A_Concise_
International.html?id=WF4JJxywdbEC&redir_esc=y (21 April 2015).
Milestones:

1961-1968.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/tet

(23 April 2015).

Tet Offensive. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive (26
April 2015).
Vietnam War History. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnamwar-history (22 April 2015).
Young, Marilyn B., John J. Fitzgerald and A.Tom Grunfield. The Vietnam War: A
History in Documents. Oxford University Press, 2002.