1 gen 1955 anni - The Vietnam War

Descrizione:

With the anti-communist actions taking place at the time due to the US, an increased amount of support for the communist side rose within Vietnam, creating a group of communists called the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong was made up of South Vietnamese opponents of the government, and a large number of communists from northern Vietnam who were taking orders from Ho Chi Minh. Peasants who did not support the Viet Cong faced violence from them. The Viet Cong started a guerilla war with the South Vietnamese government. Using the Ho Chi Minh trail (a trail that passed through the center of Vietnam) the Viet Cong sent in reinforcements and supplies for their fighters. These fighters attack South Vietnamese government officials, forces, and buildings. They also attacked American Air Force supply bases.

In response, the South Vietnamese government launched their 'hamlet program', which involved moving peasant villages from Viet Cong-controlled areas to areas controlled by the South Vietnamese government. The Americans helped this by supplying building materials, money, food, and equipment for the villages being built. However, this policy backfired, as the peasants resented it, and corrupt officials pocketed money that was meant to buy supplies for the villages.

By 1962, Kennedy was sending military personnel to help the South Vietnamese fight off the Viet Cong, however, Kennedy did not want to go into a war without clear aims and a clear way of getting out of it; as seen in the Korean War, he knew military personnel would not end this, and if he would continue to intervene in this conflict in Vietnam he would have to do more than just send troops. Unfortunately, Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and his successor Lyndon Johnson was more prepared to take the US to a full-scale conflict in Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism.

In 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats opened fire on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, the US Congress then passed something called 'the Gulf of Tonkin resolution', which gave the president power to take all needs necessary to prevent any further aggression. It effectively meant that Johnson could take the US into a full-scale war if he felt it was necessary and he very soon did. In 1965, the US started 'Operation Rolling Thunder', which was a giant bombing campaign against North Vietnamese cities, factories, army bases, and the Ho Chi Minh trail (this campaign went on for 3 years). A month after the campaign had started, 3500 US marines, and combat troops came ashore at Da Nang. The War had officially begun.

VIET CONG TACTICS

Guerilla Warfare:
- did everything in small, unnoticeable groups to avoid big battles
- Did not wear a uniform
- had no base camps
- did hit and runs
- hidden away in villages to not be easily seen since they had no uniform
- booby traps, 11% of American soldiers died to traps

Civilians:
- always prepared to kill peasants who co-operated with their opponent
- killed an estimated 27,000 civilians

Supplies:
- had 40,000 workers along the Ho Chi Minh trails which they used to receive their supplies from north Vietnam because the trail was constantly being bombed by the US. They used the workers to keep the trail working at all costs

Commitment:
- a total of 1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers died in the war, far more than the US and the South Vietnamese. Showed how determined they were to the war, they simply did not give up ever.

US TACTICS

Bombing:
- bombed North Vietnamese military, industry, and the Ho Chi Minh trail, along with bombing Vietnam's neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia, because the countries were sympathetic to the northern Vietnamese
- To some extent the bombing worked, damaged North Vietnam's war effector and damaged supply routes. However, air power could not defeat them, even major air raids didn't stop the northern Vietnamese. And, many civilians died as a count of the bombings, making a lot of Vietnamese against the US.

Search and destroy:
- setting up heavily armed US bases along the coasts, where helicopters would descend full of troops who would then go into villages looking for Viet Cong troops to destroy and kill
- Viet Cong troops were killed, by so were many civilians who were mistaken for Viet Cong
raids were often based on inadequate information
- unexperienced troops often walked into traps
- this tactic made the US and South Vietnam very unpopular among the peasants

Chemical Weapons:
- 'Agent Orange', a highly toxic weed killer sprayed from planes onto jungles to find Viet Cong soldiers
- 'Napalm' used to destroy jungles, also burn through the skin to the bone of humans and animals
- Many civilians were killed or injured as a cause of the chemical weapons used.

Conscription:
- sent in many inexperienced soldiers, mostly 19 years-old
- new soldiers knew little to nothing about Vietnam and some didn't care about communism and just wanted to go home
- to keep up morale amongst new soldiers, they signed only a 1-year contract, which backfired since as soon as they started to gain experience, they would leave
-this was done to keep up the number of soldiers

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