Why did America become involved in Vietnam?
- The non-A classless society where all property is owned publicly. government of South Vietnam looked in danger of being overthrown by the communist-backed Vietcong Tactic used by a small group against a larger army, normally using hit and run tactics or surprise attacks..
- The USA was operating a policy of An American policy to try and stop communism from spreading, to restrict it from spreading to other countries. and they feared the An American idea that if one country fell to communism, others would follow - like a row of dominoes. - that if one country fell to communism there could be a knock-on effect in neighbouring countries. Vietnam was a wobbly domino!
- Under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the USA had given millions of dollars to prop up the French in Vietnam, and had sent military advisers to support Ngo Dinh Diem鈥檚 corrupt, anti-communist government. The failure of these two policies had shown that providing money and military advisors to train the army of South Vietnam was not enough to stop communism. Force was needed and this meant American soldiers in a combat role.
- Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in November 1963. South Vietnamese forces overthrew his government the day before he and his brother were captured and killed. This opened the door for the USA to get involved in order to ensure 鈥榮tability鈥 and beat back the communist threat.
- In August 1964 the destroyer USS Maddox, an American naval vessel, was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, just off the coast of North Vietnam, by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. This provoked President Johnson into retaliating with military attacks in North Vietnam.
The USA's tactics under President Johnson
American tactics in Vietnam can be summed up by the acronym BEAST.
- Bombing - President Johnson ordered the bombing of strategic military targets in North Vietnam, including air raids on the capital city, Hanoi, and bases and supply routes for the Vietcong. This was code-named Operation Rolling Thunder. The USA would ultimately drop 3 million tonnes of bombs in Vietnam - more than all the bombs dropped in Europe during World War Two. However, bombing was highly inaccurate due to the jungle landscape and the lack of industrial targets in North Vietnam.
- Escalation - President Johnson slowly increased the number of American troops on the ground in Vietnam. In 1965, two battalions of US Marines were deployed to protect military bases at Da Nang. This represented a shift away from 鈥榤ilitary advisors鈥 to combat troops. In July 1965, Johnson sent another 100,000 troops, and a further 100,000 in 1966.
- Air and artillery - American troops were sent on patrols, to be supported by air and artillery if attacked by the Vietcong. This demoralised soldiers, who realised they were being used as bait to draw out the enemy.
- Search and Destroy - From 1965, the American military began a policy of sending soldiers into the jungle and villages of Vietnam to 鈥榯ake the war to the enemy鈥. This often meant soldiers were easy targets for Vietcong guerrilla attacks as the Vietcong were far more adept in the jungle than the American soldiers. This tactic also led to a high number of civilian casualties, destruction of villages and atrocities like the The place where US soldiers massacred hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, on 16 March 1968, during the Vietnam War. It has become a symbol of US war crimes in Vietnam. all of which damaged the USA鈥檚 reputation.
- Technology - The USA relied on high altitude bombers to drop heavy bombs in North Vietnam. They used jets to dump napalm, a chemical that burnt skin to the bone, on suspected Vietcong strongholds. They used Agent Orange, a powerful defoliant, to destroy jungle cover. Helicopters were used to deploy (search for) and destroy guerrilla combatants. Television propaganda was used in the USA to report the 鈥榖ody count鈥 of estimated Vietcong casualties.