Conflict from u. S. Escalation in 1965 to the fall of saigon in 1975. He argues that the United States was in vietnam to prove the viability of capitalism and the american system of government. His class is about an hour, 15 minutes. So we talked about the kind of the leadup to the American Intervention of vietnam on tuesday. Were going to look at the war today. Before we kind of jump into the actual war, any questions concerning the stuff we covered on tuesday . No. I am that good, arent i . So i want you guys to pay especially good attention today, because as it turns out, this is the only thing im actually qualified to teach. [ laughter ] i didnt know there was a war in korea until i read the textbook with you guys. But the vietnam war is your thing. Ive tried to present concise history of the war and hopefully it makes some sense to you. So on tuesday, were talking about how starting in 1964, as a result of developments in hanoi, North Vietnam under its new leader starts to escalate the insurgency in Southern Vietnam. And it escalates to a point where by late 64 we effectively have a state of war in Southern Vietnam. We have big war, as i mentioned, in Southern Vietnam. And then at that point, the position of the americans is what do we do about whats going on . Do we just effectively allow the south to fall or do we do more than merely send advisers to preclude a collapse of this proamerican, anticommunist regime in saigon. In response to the escalation and this existence of a state of war in Southern Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson decides to deploy combat troops, it begins with 3,000 marines and it keeps going up from there. He deploys these combat troops to Southern Vietnam and at the same time he initiates a sustained Bombing Campaign against the north. The idea being that the north needs to be punished for all the troubles in the south as far as johnson and his advisers are concerned, whatever difficulties the americans are facing in the south are all the result of this collusion by hanoi of this involvement by hanoi. As we established on tuesday, as it turns out, the insurgency in Southern Vietnam was begun by southerners against the wishes of hanoi. So johnsons approach is to fight the insurgents in the south with American Military personnel and to bomb the north for its support of this state of war in Southern Vietnam. Thats significant because for the people of northern vietnam, this is all lost on them. As far as theyre concerned, the americans are bombing us for no reason that we can understand and thats one of the reasons why the bombing will be counterproductive. If anything, it inspires northers to fight more valiantly once they get deployed to the south. They eventually buy into the narrative presented to them that the effect that the american war in vietnam is unprovoked american aggression against our poor, innocent people. Now, always keep this in mind, right, we talked about this on tuesday. As far as johnson and his team are concerned, its important to do something about vietnam. At a minimum, as to prove that the u. S. Is not a quote unquote paper tiger, as mao has been saying about the u. S. And to demonstrate resilience in the american cold war. If you dont take anything else from todays lecture, please remember this, the vietnam war was never about vietnam for the United States. Its about the larger cold war. Its about its about the credibility of the presidency, its about the credibility of the United States. Its about the credibility of the entire american system, right . People kind of try to rationalize how vietnam, which had been so small before had suddenly become so important to the United States. The cold war context that accounts for why vietnam becomes so important. Its also that same cold war context that accounts for why johnson, even though he really doesnt want war in vietnam, ends up intervening and matching what happens. Keep this in mind, yes, vietnam is small and from the perspective of the big powers, its technically ins coinsle. It assumes an importance that is tremendous. We talked about cuba earlier. The world almost ends because of cuba. Thats what the cold war does. It gives this importance to places which otherwise would become completely small. This is about much more than vietnam itself. If you fail to recognize that, nothing about the vietnam will make sense to you. Always, always keep this many mind. As far as the conduct of the war itself in vietnam is concerned, thats the purview of an American General by the name of william wes moreland. And his entire approach is predicated on this search and destroy tactic and body counts. So basically what he seeks to do to achieve victory is kill as many enemy troops as he can. So whenever americans go into combat, once combat is over, they have to count how many vietnamese bodies are left behind. And based on the numbers provided, he measured how successful the u. S. Was in the war in terms of finding the enemies, they recognize theyre no match for American Forces. If anything, the troops will try to avoid as much as they can actually engaging americans in combat. Theyll go after troops of the South Vietnamese regime feeling confident about their odds against them, but try to avoid major combat with american troops. And so thats why westmoreland does this. They have to go out and search for enemy troops, find them and then destroy them, right . So for your typical american soldier in vietnam, the war is its not easy. Essentially youre Walking Around until you make contact. And contact usually means until somebody starts shooting at you. Vietnam is very interesting because of that. Something like 90 of the cases, its always the other guys opening fire first. And thats ironically enough how westmoreland wants it. They have to draw these guys out, make them initiate contact at which point american troops can fire back and then call for artillery support and air support and destroy communist units that way, right . But if youre the american soldiers involved in that enterprise or the marines involved in that enterprise, its not particularly fun. Youre Walking Around, effectively, waiting to get shot at. The last thing you want to be is the first guy walking through the jungle, right . So typically whenever platoons go out and embark on these search and destroy missions, we rotate who is on point. Because you know if its always you, its a matter of time before you get shot. So thats why. Its a really, really kind of traumatic experience for people your age, right . The average age of the combat soldier in the vietnam is 19 years old. Theyre kids, right . And then youre in vietnam and this is your job, to walk around until somebody shoots at you. Ill show you images in a moment. This is a situation we have by mid, late 1965, right . The hard liner is firmly in charge in hanoi, right . Then we have a general, running things in saigon. His picture is on this slide. Hes the counterpart in the south. And then as before the war began, the North Vietnamese are obtaining significant support from the chinese and the soviets. Theres countless other countries that offer material, political, moral support, but ultimately what really allows hanoi to wage that war is the Material Support they get from the chinese and the soviets. And then in saigon, we have got the americans, obviously, right, who provide significant military and economic assistance, but then unbeknownst to many people, theres other countries that contribute assistance, including troops, to the anticommunist struggle. Some of the flags you see here, which you probably cant recognize, but so weve got beyond the u. S. , whats the white flag with the circle . South korea. Very good. South korea. The one next to it, whats the one next to it . Australia. And the one above it, thailand. Excellent, very, very good. So those theyll actually be australian troops in vietnam. There will also be thai troops in vietnam. There will be South Koreans also fighting in vietnam. I talked to some veterans from the North Vietnamese side and they said they were terrified of the south korean troops. They were ferocious troops and the communist north creates a special unit to deal with the South Koreans because theyre thought to be so intimidating from the perspective of communist forces. Also little known fact, 35,000 canadians will volunteer to serve in vietnam. Canada itself doesnt fight in vietnam, but 35,000 canadians volunteer because they think thats the good fight, which is brought why you lost the vietnam war. Were great fighters. Were great fighters. Heres 65, right . Marines, initially 3,000 of them landing in Southern Vietnam. Theyre expecting action and what they get is young vietnamese women with leis. You that in that upper lefthand corner. And then theres the bombing of the north. Spring of 65, the war becomes americanized through the deployment of this first contingent of u. S. Troops in the form of marines and then the beginning of these sustained bombing runs against northern vietnam. Kind of cool picture. I got this from the vietnamese archives. The americans bomb and of course the North Vietnamese population will rally to defend the homeland. What do you guys notice about the picture . Who is featured predominantly in this picture, right . Kids. And thats when you try to understand why they win and the u. S. Loses, for the vietnamese, this is a total war situation. Right . For americans, vietnam is there only if you have to fight in vietnam. For everyone else, its pretty much life as it was before. For the people of North Vietnam, because of the state of war and because of the bombing, every man, woman and child, effectively starts contributing to the war effort in one way or another, right . So, a lot of the guys end up being drafted and send south to fight. The women are being employed to fill in bomb craters or else to go to the south, not to fight, but to serve as nurses, as medics and so on and so forth. And then kids end up being cooped, as part of your school curriculum, you study math and history and all that great stuff in the morning, and in the afternoon, you put out fires. Thats usually more of an impromptu thing. You fill in bomb craters, contribute to the rebuilding of bridges, so on and so forth. Everyone in the north is mobilized for the purposes of the war effort which helps the cause. Recognize him . John mccain. John mccain. The archives in vietnam, they have this photo collection and im going through stuff. And theres a picture of mccain got shot down in 67. His plane crashed in a lake in hanoi. If you go to hanoi, theres a plaque where mccain was captured. It was a big deal for them. We captured john mccain and tortured him. But thats not on the plaque. This was mccain moments after he was shot down. I guess one of the first photos that was taken of mccain. I sent that to his office and i got a response back. I said, here is a picture of the senator after he was captured. This is what the war was like for American Marines and soldiers. Basically, youre Walking Around through jungle. Its again, Vietnamese Forces know how vulnerable they can be if theyre exposed. They go in the deepest areas of the country, usually mountainous, jungle regions and they wait for the americans to come to them. Now, Something Like 3 million americans serve in vietnam. You see these guys, vietnam vet. Their license plate. As it turns out, only 20 of americans who served in vietnam were actually in combat. The overwhelming majority of americans who served in vietnam were not in combat. Of the 20 in combat, 10 only ever actually experienced combat. So only a minority of americans who served in vietnam actually did the stuff that you see in the picture and is movies. And those are the guys who sometimes suffer various from various ailments. Again, the nature of the war was such it was hard for a 19yearold to cope with. For a lot of americans, the war was actually the best time of their lives. If you were 19 years old stuck in an Airconditioned Office in saigon, things could be good. And that was the reality for most americans who were in vietnam. So people always ask, at one point, almost 600,000 americans in vietnam, how could the u. S. Have lost . Again, most of these guys are effectively support personnel. Theyre not actual ground forces. Theyre not soldiers. Theyre not marines who are out there searching for communist forces. That partially explains why the outcome was not what american policymakers intended. I told you about this search and destroy tactic developed by westmoreland. American troops go deep in the jungle, search for the enemy and destroy the enemy. But these kinds of pictures start coming out and people start thinking of search and destroy as what . You search peoples homes and then you destroy the homes. Exactly. So among the things that end up playing against the american effort and that account for its unpopularity is ironically enough the very name of the tactic that westmoreland used. For most americans, for Many Americans, not most, but for many, search and destroy came to mean, american troops going into vietnamese peoples homes, searching those homes and then setting them on fire. Of course, that kind of explains why very quickly many people turn against the war. We dont want our country to be involved in searching peoples homes and just destroying them. As it turns out, search and destroy meant searching for the enemy in the jungle and destroying the enemy, not going after innocent peoples homes. Thats westmoreland. Hes a real interesting character. Some people consider him a hero who given the chance could have won the vietnam war. Some people think that it was the way civilian policymakers ran the whole thing that accounted for the tragic outcome. Others will tell you that the u. S. Effectively lost the vietnam war because of westmoreland, because of the way he chose to deal with the communist presence in Southern Vietnam. So hes a great guy to some, hes viled by others. And just like so many other issues when it comes to vietnam, theres no consensus on westmoreland. Like so many issues having to do with vietnam, he was either great or he was really, really bad. Remember, right . People are never particularly objective when it comes to vietnam. Its all good or all bad when it comes to policies, to policymakers, or in this particular case, to the american commander responsible for military affairs. Cover of life magazine, the war will be extensively covered by the world media, including the american media. And so the war effectively becomes in escapable if youre an american citizens. If its not on the magazines youre reading, on the tv news youre watching or the radio programs that youre listening to, right . People listen to the radio during that period. And initially its fine, right . These are brave americans and of course theyre going to suffer casualties, but as casualties mount and as these images start coming into peoples living rooms, night after night, month after month, year after year, people become disillusioned, right . Relatively speaking, american casualties in vietnam were low. If you compare to the casualties suffered by their enemies, but for americans, to see American Kids dead, American Kids wounded really had an impact. And so the American People generally will kind of accept the cost of the war through 65, 66, 67. Starting in 68 we start witnessing a much more vocal movement opposing the war in vietnam. Its these kinds of images which were relatively well received initially which in time start really kind of affecting the american position visavis the war in vietnam. These are the big three on the american side. You recognize johnson in the middle, flanked on his left by mcnamara, the secretary of defense, and on his right, the secretary of state. Those are kind of the architects of the war in vietnam. And those are the individuals who will effectively be blamed, we should say, for getting the u. S. Involved in the vietnam war. As we talked about on tuesday, right, its unfair to pin all of this on johnson, right . His predecessors, kennedy, eisenhower, before him, really made consequential decisions which i would argue made it almost impossible for johnson to just avoid an increased american commitment in vietnam. So, yeah, technically, american combat troops enter vietnam under johnsons watch. But in a way, thats kind of the logical culmination to a process set in motion earlier when the u. S. Starts helping the french fight its own war. Speaking of the motivations, right, this whole domino theory, issue of credibility, this whole idea that if we dont hold the fort in vietnam, than other countries will fall and well have a domino effect. Theres great quotes about what would happen if we didnt do anything about vietnam. My favorite, having lived in hawaii for a long time, was johnson saying if we dont stop them in vietnam, well be fighting them on the beaches of waikiki. Thats what the thinking was. And from the evidence, it really seems to be legitimate. They truly genuinely believe, at least for a period, that unless they acted in vietnam, unless they did something about vietnam, long term, the u. S. Would face a much bigger threat by from the communist bloc. So again, its not vietnam itself informing american decisionmaking. Its the whole cold war context. This is an interesting chart. U. S. Troop strength in vietnam. You see under johnson. Its a gradual process of escalation. It peaks in 68. We have close to 600,000 soldiers and marines in vietnam. Nixon becomes president and the number starts to decline. So its a gradual escalation which, by the way, also some people have used to explain why the u. S. Lost by being so gradual, johnson effectively gave the other chance the other side a chance to adapt, right . The idea being that if johnson had gone all out from the beginning, the u. S. Could have won. But by affecting a gradual escalation, johnson basically allowed his enemies to adjust to circumstances and eventually too prevail. Everybody gets blamed for the outcome of the war in vietnam. As ive argued, no one really looks at what the other side did right, which is really unfortunate and is how you can understand the outcome of the vietnam war. Well touch upon that a bit next, actually. Any questions at this point . No. Cole . So in 65 theyre enacting this seek and destroy strategy to try and win the war. But no war had been fought this way. There were no objectives, there were no changing lines between americans and the enemy. So what did they picture as victory . How was this going to end with this as the strategy . The idea was that you would get to a point where you would be killing so many enemy troops that they wouldnt have enough new people to fill the ranks of these depleted units. You would reach this i think the threshold of pain or Something Like that. If i kill two people, they bring in two more. If i kill ten at one point, theyll only be able to bring in eight more. After a while, theyll have to surrender. Thats the rational. Thats the approach. We call this kind of a war of attrition. Westmoreland and other people around him thought that was a sensible strategy. After it turned out, hanoi managed to bring more than enough people to fill the ranks of depleted units. If in some instances the United States were hurting, then they just changed the way they would deal with the american presence in vietnam. They might fight less and do more diplomatically on the international level. Cody . Is there a connection between westmorelands affinity for the kill counts and Robert Mcnamaras hes always obsessed with numbers. Is there a connection with that . Thats one of the reasons why westmoreland kind of gets the job, right . Hes a numbers guy. Mcnamara is a numbers guy. The whole body count thing, right, we feed the body count and mcnamara can look at all of this and look at the numbers from that side and that side and the american numbers and you can reach a magic formula at one point where youll be able to declare victory. And thats also, by the way, the problem with body counts. An american combat unit, you get steak one night if you have a good body count. Maybe youll be attempted to inflate the body count. Right . Or else, if you happen to have killed incidentally someone who was a civilian to avoid the repercussions, you might say, well, that was actually an enemy combatant. Thats the problem with all of this. When you rely on numbers, they can be easily manipulated for whatever reasons and give you a completely distorted pishlcture whats going on. Jade . Basically the tactic was analogous to world wars war of attrition, then . Kind of. Except theres no front, theres no you just kill. And you kill its not about territory. You just kill people and then you go wherever to kill more people. Thats basically its a war of attrition. And the way that if you look at numbers, theres that parallel to world war i. Lets look at what hanoi is doing, right . So effectively, the war in Southern Vietnam becomes at least partially americanized starting in 1965. And upon seeing this, they decide to respond in kind. That has the americans bring in more troops, he will bring in more troops to fight in the south. Its a matching of resources, both human and material. The North Vietnamese strategy, its important to understand what the other guys were thinking to make sense of the outcome. These guys are very much aware of their own limitations, of how powerful the u. S. And its allies are. Their whole strategy is with respect to the u. S. , isolate the United States. In the south, try to isolate their units and try to minimize their ability, reduce their ability to bring the full bear of the military might to bear on communist forces. You isolate the American Forces that way. And then diplomatically, internationally, same thing. Try to make the americans look like criminals. Try to get the world to turn on the u. S. So the u. S. Ends up with no friends in the world. No one willing to support its military enterprise in vietnam. With respect to the u. S. , its about isolating the americans. With respect to the regime in saigon, the strategy there is to crush that army. Thats the army that communist forces really want to defeat. They know theyre no match for the americans, but they stand a chance against the army of the rival regime in saigon. And thats their main target. The bulk of their military operations will be districted at other vietnamese units. And as they try to crush those units, they do what they can to discredit the regime in saigon. They keep calling a lackey of americans with no legitimacy whatsoever, and it partially works. And then this is key to everything, they do their best to take advantage of the soviet dispute. I told you, right, if you want to make sense of the cold war, if you want to make sense of your own lives, i would argue, understand the sinosoviets. Its so important. What hanoi decides to do is to play the chinese against the soviets. Hanoi kind of puts itself in the middle of this metaphorical love triangle, right, and plays games with both and will go to the chinese and ask for this much. And back and forth that way. And sure enough, through this manipulation of the dispute between beijing and moscow, hanoi gets maximum support from its allies. And that support is absolutely invaluable to allow hanoi to stay in the fight and ultimately prevail. Theres no question that the vietnamese who fought the americans and their allies were very courageous people. But none of the victories they secure would have been possible without the guns, the hardware provided by the soviet union and china. Thats key to all of this. Thats why throughout the war hes engaging the soviets and the chinese to get assistance from them. Here is an image of North Vietnamese forces in combat. A lot of the soldiers were concerned, those guys were as well equipped, as disciplined, as professional as any other soldiers in any regular army including the u. S. Armed forces. I would argue that you get to a point where North Vietnam troops are more disciplined than american troops. Americans have always had been good at maintaining discipline within their armed forces. Were talking about a North Vietnam army that is as professional as any in the world. Theres this idea that the u. S. Lost against a bunch of peasants. A lot of the North Vietnamese soldiers were from peasant families. But by the time they entered the south, they had been well trained, given good guns, and they knew what they were doing as much as the americans themselves knew what they were doing. You might have herd of the ho chi minh trail, this is a network of roads that was used by North Vietnam to bring troops and supplies into the south. Talk about duplicity right. Hanoi is using laos and coamboda because those are neutral countries. But they will be condemned for violating the sovereignty of neutral states. They werent neutral at all because both cambodia and laos allowed North Vietnam to use their territory for the sake of infiltrating supplies into the south. You have images like trucks carrying supplies and then troops slowly walking down the ho chi minh trail. It take place two months to go from the north to the south. Depending on how intense the u. S. Bombing is, it could take longer. We have these guys from vietnam who were here last semester. One of the individuals has travelled down the ho chi minh trail at a very, very high point in the war, took him six months to go from hanoi, from the north, to the south. Because the becoming was so intense, they had to zigzag their way through. When you fight the americans and their allies, you have to be resourceful. And americas enemies proved incredibly resourceful. Another reason why they prevail in the end. They start digging tunnels, these complex tunnel systems. Sometimes right under american and allies bases. If you go to vietnam, one of the popular Tourist Attractions is this area. Its a guy popping out of a hole in the ground. They build these really narrow tunnels to kind of pop up whenever they needed to shoot and hide whenever the americans would start shooting back. Thats one of the reasons why the war was so frustrating for american troops. You would get shot at and when its time to shoot back, theres no one to shoot at. I have these slides here. Theyre underground cities. You have places to eat, places to sleep, places to do whatever human beings do on a regular basis. Places where you can look after the wounded, where you can look after store the dead and so on and so forth. And americans realize we have to do something about this and they develop special units and individuals to go into those tunnels. They call them tunnel rats. If you were short, that quite possible would become your assignment. A lot of shorter guys would try as much as they could to avoid serves in the army or the marines because youre short, youre perfect for that job. As you can imagine, its an absolutely terrifying thing to go into those tunnels. And the way they were built was so that a vietnamese person could go through, but the average american couldnt. A lot of the vietnamese are relatively small compared to americans. Only smaller americans could go in and so navigating through these tunnels, if you visit it, you can experience a white guy tunnel, its big enough that i could go in and im fine, but you could try the real thing. I got stuck and i freaked out and didnt want to do it. If youre claustrophobic, youll die before you make it through the other end of the tunnel. Its the real thing. Theres bugs and whatever was in there, except land mines, so im told anyway. Some of the students did the tunnel and next thing i know, youre yelling and screaming. If one person panics, then everybody panics. That was the highlight of my trip. That was fun. Theres the guy. After 64, after 63, he is in charge. Here he is with the troops. Hes not as charismatic as ming. Hes toasting with mao and other highranking people from china. The chinese would, again, provide the bulk of the small arms used by communist forces in Southern Vietnam. I dont know how well you can see, but the rectangular one, theyre holding hands. Whenever people get friendly in parts of asia, its never a boy holding hand with girl, unless youre but guy, guy, if youre good friends, you hold hands. Its to show the solidarity between the vietnamese and the chinese. They were as close as lips to teeth, that was the big thing they would always say, right, as lips to teeth. By most accounts, and i kind of agree with that, the turning point of the vietnam war is the 1968 offensive. For reasons we touched upon earlier, by early 68, the war is basically at an impasse. Theres no progress. No one can claim that theyre close to victory. And hes not the most patient guy. Hes losing patient. To break the stalemate, he decides to order this huge coordinated offensive against towns and cities across South Vietnam. Up to this point, communist forces have operated primarily in remote, jungle, rural areas. Cities have been spared the horrors of war. He figures, that the americans probably dont expect attacks on cities. So he orders an attack on pretty much every major town and city in Southern Vietnam. He decides to enhance the element of surprise. He launches the attack on the coming of the Lunar New Year for east asians. Traditionally during that time in vietnam, there had been no fighting. It was a truce observed. Its basically christmas, new year, easter, take all of the american holidays together, that doesnt come close to what it represents to the vietnamese. People take off for weeks and they go to see their families. Its huge. He figures that the americans will never expect it, the rivals will never expect it, and when we strike, South Vietnam army units will be completely depleted because at that time people go back to their relatives on the country side. And the calculation was reasonable. He thinks that once the attack is launched and with the inevitable success that communist forces will enjoy, the people will recognize that the americans will be defeated, saigon will collapse and they would rise, there would be a massive upheaval in the south that would convince here, because nobody wants us in vietnam and all these counts, les one miscalculated. There was no mass upheaval and despite some quick and initial successes, eventually the americans and the South Vietnamese counterattack and the whole Campaign Ends up a disaster. Militarily, the tet offensive is an abject disaster for les one, Something Like 40,000 troops, North Vietnamese and vietcong are killed. The whole war, the u. S. Loses 48,000 soldiers and marines in one campaign. Hanoi loses 40,000 North Vietnamese and vietcong soldiers, thats skilled, tens of thousands more are wounded. So total military disaster, but then to les ones great surprise, psychologically, its a huge victory over the United States, because of the way the American People will respond to the tet offensive, this dramatic military defeat becomes a critical victory for hanoi. Whats interesting is that les one never thought that would happen. Its simply an accident that the americans responded the way they did, and they respond the way they did mostly because of certain images ill share with you in a moment. So america gets hit really hard psychologically. Thats not lost on johnson, and within a few weeks after the tet offensive, johnson goes on tv and tells the American People that, from now on, the u. S. Will commit itself to resolving the war diplomatically and also johnson wont be running for a second term as president. That rarely, if ever, happens. So wont be running for a second term as president. That rarely, if ever, happens. So from what we understand now, johnson wasnt going to run anyway, even before tet made up his mind. Whatever the reality is, for most americans, johnsons decision to not run for a second term was interpreted as an admission of defeat in vietnam, and that kind of amplifies the effects of the tet offensive. The idea the president has been defeated by tet, which can only mean the country will be defeated by tet and by the vietnamese communist opposition, and sure enough, because of tet and its different ramifications, the Antiwar Movement in the u. S. And internationally is dramatically energized, its dramatically emboldened. And just as les one wanted, the United States government finds itself increasingly isolated, isolated not just from the international community, but even from its own people, more and more americans will turn against the war in the aftermath of tet. Its not a majority of americans, but its still a number significant enough to create major headaches for the policymaking elite in washingt washington. Within a year or so after tet, major revelation of a massacre conducted by american troops against vietnamese civilians, which kind of further undercuts the american position in vietnam and internationally. Ill show you pictures in a moment, but yeah, there was this, an American Unit massacred a bunch of innocent civilians in 68, and 69. Photos are released, the news of the massacre gets publicized, and that just contributes to growing the Antiwar Movement and turning more people against the war, essentially things go from bad to worse for the americans, for american policymakers in that 6869 period. So here is a map showing some of the cities that were hit in that communist offensive. So pretty much every major town and city in the south, and here is a photo of vietcong, so remember, the flag, right, thats the vietcong. Vietcong troops going into action in tet. What do you notice about the Person Holding the rfg . Its a woman. Its a woman. This is really interesting, right . Americans always think all these women were fighting for the vietcong. Thats staged. Again, women rarely if ever actually fought in the war. They served, and some of them were soldiers, some of them were snipers and some of them did die in combat, but it was rare for women to be involved in regular combat activities. Usually when women are involved, its as nurses, as medics, as intelligence personnel, but hanoi always tried to put women in its photos because it looked good. Beyond that, its reflected innocence, right . Women invariably are innocent. It added to the nobility of what the vietnamese were trying to do. Listen, were just trying to liberate ourselves. Our women just want freedom, but these bad, evil americans are precluding all of this, so you always see females in these images, when americans get shot down over North Vietnam its always somehow a female that captures them. Thats all staged photos, but again, it makes you look favorably upon the vietnamese and always young females and all calculated, all part of this effort to enhance, to improve the image of their effort while at the same time discrediting the americans and bringing about their isolation. These are some of the more Iconic Images of the tet offensive. Thats the American Embassy in the upper righthand corner. The vietcong will try to take over the embassy. They get through one wall and then they all get killed, but still the idea that the embassy was attacked, right, whats an embassy . Safety. Its sovereign territory, an embassy is sovereign territory, and it comes under attack during the tet offensive and yes, so 19 vietcong go in, they get killed very quickly, right, but so and this is really kind of symbolic of the whole thing, so technically they make it into the embassy, but then they all die. Thats how the whole tet offensive played out but then psychologically, weve been in vietnam for three years. Even our embassy isnt safe. How can we even hope to pacify the rest of the country when we cant even keep our embassy, which is sovereign american territory, safe . Thats one of the elements that really kind of morale and housetohouse fighting, street fighting, bodies of civilians drenched in blood, and this very, very famous photo of marines coming back from action in northern vietnam north and South Vietnam. Youve all seen this, right . This is, this happened in the context of the tet offensive. This is one of the most icon imimages of the war, right . So guy looks like a civilian,is imimages of the war, right . So guy looks like a civilian,hi imimages of the war, right . So guy looks like a civilian, hands tied behind his back executed by it turns out the sigh began chief of police. What kind of allies are we working with, what kind of monsters are these guys . The guy has a shirt, looks like a civilian who is shot point blank in the head. So theres a whole story, so the guy was actually vietcong and had done some really bad things and was kind of a spur of the moment thing and you know, its a very chaotic time and so the chief of police just shoots the guy, but its interpreted in the United States as, well, you know, our own allies are coldblooded murderers. As it turns out, the photographer who took the picture would write to the chief of police and apologize for taking that picture, which was from the photographers own perspective taken out of context by Many Americans, not to excuse, again, the kind of random use of violence but the image really went along with what helping the communist cause in vietnam and really, really hurting the american venture in that same country. You know where that is . Johnson, right . Presumably, so i think it was his soninlaw was in vietnam during the tet offensive and apparently hes listening to recording of his soninlaw, and he broke down and that picture was taken and of course started circulating and i mean, it doesnt look good, right . Its like a president thats been kind of broken by vietnam and again, johnson never wanted vietnam. Johnson wanted the great society. He was going to be a domestic savior and instead we to deal with what he called that bitch of the war this great lady, the love of his life, the great society, right, changing america, but we to give it all up for what he called that bitch of a war and here is a dejected johnson who decides to call the whole thing quits in march of 68. Thats milai, thats the massacre, so somewhere between 200 and 500 civilians are killed. Theres an Army Photographer there and he has got two cameras on him, got a u. S. Military issued camera and got his own camera. The u. S. Military issued he took a bunch of pictures with it and went to the military which of course tried to bury the whole thing. We his own camera with him and did a slide show for his friends and goes this is vietnam and his friends kind of freaked out when they saw this and eventually was reported and thats the newspaper first broke the story in november 69. And it kind of validated the worst assumptions of what americans were doing in vietnam. Most american soldiers and marines in vietnam behaved well, but milai will suggest to many that every soldier, every american is a baby killer, and it really, really hurts the american cause in vietnam. Any questions to this point . What was the tet offensive, we can see how the u. S. And the South Vietnamese were psychologically affected. How were the North Vietnamese affected because of the tet offensive . Were they in shock or more supportive of it . Thats really, really, a great question, carlos. So the north, right, its a communist dictatorship. Communist dictatorships, how do they treat information . Secret. Secret, and they control everything, right . They control everything. So as far as the people in the north are concerned, when they read newspapers, we just scored a huge victory. We lost three soldiers. We killed 40,000 americans. Theyre all inflating the numbers. Theyre never reporting their own casualties. Whenever they report somebody died, its usually to say well, he died killing 20 americans and protecting with his body 50 of his comrades. People in the north, because all the information is controlled by hanoi never get a clear sense of exactly whats happening in the south. Its only when the war is over that the government will notify people oh, by the way, your son died in vietnam four years ago. Get this, right. So you know if your son gets drafted, gets into vietnam, you know, right . In North Vietnam, if your son gets drafted, he gets trained, if he goes to the south, he cant tell you hes going to the south. Sons could only tell their parents theyre going on a special mission somewhere, and the idea was to make your parents think you were going overseas. This way they dont worry about you, because if they know youre going down south, chances are youre not coming back, which most people didnt. So you werent allowed to say if youre a northern soldier you couldnt tell your family you were going to fight in the south, so americans, what did they do in their spare time, write letters home, right . No mail system in the north. And youre not allowed to report on whats happening, because it might go against what the propaganda is spewing, right . So as far as les one in hanoi is concerned, this disaster is on him, but because he controls the newspapers, the radio, all people hear is that oh, there were lots of explosions in the south and were doing awesome. We kill all these americans. We kill all those puppet troops and only lost a handful of individuals, so thats one of the reasons why they always stay in the fight. These guys, the northerners specifically never give up, because they think that as long as the war is, theyre not losing that many people. Only when its all over in 75 do families get notified that oh, yeah, by the way, your father died seven years ago. Your son died three years ago. Thats only when people get to appreciate the real cost of the war. Thats another reason why i would argue les one bins in the end, this manipulation of information which americans couldnt do. You got reporters all over the place. Every time somebody gets hurt, that gets reported, and in this particular case, nothing ever gets reported and what people read in the newspapers and hear on the radio, its all good news. The war is going awesome, even though its not. Does that make sense, carlos . So 68, november, nixon elected president , takes over in 69 and nixons whole thing, peace with honor, right . Nixon becomes president on this platform of peace with honor. And whatever his flaws, nixon proved a good match for les one. Nixon did have a plan, did have a strategy, and it bore fruit. So among the things he does, number one, nixon decides to vie vietnan vietnamize, meaning what . [ inaudible ] exactly, reduce the number of american troops and place more of the burden of fighting on the South Vietnamese themselves. Under nixon, american troops gradually withdraw from vietnam, and at the same time, the size of the South Vietnamese army is expanded. Vietnamization. So 65 the war is americanized, starting in 69, its deamericanized and increasingly vietnamized. As this goes on nixon enters into secret talks with his enemies in hanoi. Theyre secret talks. No one is aware of their existence, only nixon, his National Security adviser Henry Kissinger and kissingers most trusted advisers. Get this, nixons own secretary of state and his secretary of defense dont know about these secret talks. Imagine that. Youre the secretary of state, youre the guy in charge of diplomacy. Your own president doesnt tell you, were actually talking to the North Vietnamese. Really, really interesting stuff. Jesse . Any reason why he didnt tell his secretary of state, especially him . Nixon doesnt trust the state department doesnt trust anyone, and he feels that this is too sensitive an issue to let others know, so only the people he trusts most will be apprised of whats going on. For nixon, secrecy was the key to resolving all of this, 23 we are if were going to solve it diplomatically. As hes undertaking the secret diplomacy and vietnamization, nixon boldly decides to go after communist sanctuaries and supply lines in laos and cambodia, 1970, the u. S. The u. S. Invades cambod cambodia, a year later with air support invades laos. Mixon, im going to go after the supply lines that feed the communist war effort in the south. Ixon, im going to go aft supply lines that feed the communist war effort in the south. Nixon, im going to go afe supply lines that feed the communist war effort in the south. The thing is nixon is supposed to be deescalating the war and now hes invading two other countries, that didnt sit particularly well with a number of people in the u. S. Nixon decides to engage aggressively, moscow and beijing. Nixon recognizes that theyre giving hanoi the guns, allowing it to wage the war. So as hes going after the supply lines, nixon also goes to the soviets, to the chinese, asking for their help in ending the war. And it will bear some dividends, and as hes doing all of this, he bombs on a scale that johnson never did. When johnson announced that he wasnt going to run for a second term, he also curtailed the bombing of North Vietnam, and in 68, just before the election, he suspended all bombing of North Vietnam, so life in northern vietnam kind of goes back to normal. 69, 70, 71, people are happy. 72, nixon needs to end the war, hes talking to the chinese. Hes talking to the soviets, and he starts bombing the heck out of North Vietnam, really, really intense Bombing Campaigns. So diplomatic pressure, political pressure, military pressure. Many of these initiatives are very unpopular. Theyre extremely unpopular, but i would argue they worked. In 1973, nixon will get a peace deal from the North Vietnamese, something les one had never wanted to give the americans. Les one never wanted any negotiated deal with the americans. He wanted to beat the americans militarily, but because of the pressure put upon him, his regime and the whole communist war effort generally, by nixon, he has to concede and give nixon the agreement of early 73 providing for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of all u. S. Forces, and the return of all p. O. W. S, including john mccain. Jeremy . What kind of pressure was being put on lesuan . In North Vietnam theyre controlling all the information so they werent having all of the press that was, the president was getting in the United States . So what kind of opposition was he running into . Almost none. Domestically, so and whoever opposes the war, theres a secret police going around in North Vietnam throwing people in jail, and intimidating people. As far as the chinese and the soviets, nixon wants them to tell lesuan to ease off, but because of the soviet split, moscow feels if i put too much pressure on lesuan, hell just turn to the chinese and vice versa. So nothing much comes out of it, except psychologically, when the North Vietnamese see nixon invited to china, being invited to moscow, they get nervous, because they start thinking what if moscow or beijing decides to cut off assistance . So psychologically it has a big impact. It has a really, really big impact on how lesuan and the whole hanoi leadership will look at this, one of the reasons they elected to sign this agreement, because they start questioning the integrity of their own allies bacsically. Nixon plants that doubt in their minds. They never actually curtailed their aid. In fact they increased it when nixon visits their country, they give vietnam even more aid but that still makes lesuan and the hanoi leaders very nervous. U. S. Troops strengthen vietnam under nixon gradual decline but nixon wants piece with honor. He knows again for credibility reasons nixon knows hes not going to win the war but has to do something so it doesnt look like the americans surrender. He knows hes going to lose vietnam but has to win the cold war. The u. S. Has to get out of vietnam in a dignified manner and thats why it takes four years. Nixons strategy with respect to getting out of vietnam is the same one that Charles De Gaulle used to get out of algeria. Nixon basically copies de gaulle who took four years to get france out of algeria. These are the secret talks. The upper lefthand corner, kissinger and his counterpart who is lesuans bff, his number one guy, the only one lesuan trusts just like kissinger is the only one nixon trusts. They are the ones talking secretly so theres three pictures of them and a picture of me when i had promise and a life full of hope and dreams that have been getting crushed. [ laughter ] any idea who the old guy is . Hes hes the little guy with the glasses in all the pictures between kissinger and ledetea snu that guy was the translator, the interpreter. So in the secret talks, each ledeteau and kissinger had their interpreter but at one point, kissinger took a liking to the north serena me see interpreter and said i trust you enough, we only need you. Whenever they would talk the two of them, there would be only one interpreter and it was this little guy, mun ding fong, i tracked him down in hanoi and we became really, really good friends and shared all these really, really interesting stories about the peace talks but whenever he talked about the talks, all we would say was oh, so difficult. So difficult. Very, very difficult. Very difficult. And he talked about the one time that ledetaeu got angry, the americans started bombing and he pounded his fist on the table and is yelling and screaming at kissinger and kissinger is sitting there, and one point kissinger says okay, mr. Special adviser, are you done . He goes yes. Lets try and end this war, and he really respected kissinger. Its interesting. Despite all the americans had done, he really respected kissinger. Really, really interesting character. Nixon, right, so as part of the strategy, were going to engage the soviets were going to engage the chinese. Nixon actually goes to china in february 1972 and then he goes to moscow in may of 1972, and even though hes trying to get the soviets to help, theres not much they can do but it still freaks out lesuan and the rest of the leadership in hanoi. It freaks them enough eventually they decide to cut the war short and give nixon the agreement he so desperately wanted. So these are b52s, carry up to 500, is it i think 100 500pound bombs if memory serves me right. Anyway, they carry a lot of bombs and so typically they were used only in the south, but under nixon, they start flying more regularly against the north. B52, carpet bombing, everything gets destroyed in a two mile long but half a mile wide box and even if youre hiding underground, psychologically it screws with your mind so its also a psychological tool and nixon deploys the b52s against ma you know and the rest of North Vietnam in 1972 and sure enough, right, eventually ceasefire allowing the u. S. To get out. The war will continue in vietnam, but the u. S. Will manage to extricate its forces and for nixon, that was good enough. Let the vietnamese figure it out themselves, right . So all of this was well and good but as i mentioned earlier, some of these policies are very, very unpopular. So in 1970, american troops move into cambodia, and that sparks massive, massive protests across the u. S. , including on university campuses. University students at the time kind of led the movement against the war, right, various organizations were established to oppose the war, the most prominent of which was the students for a democratic society, right, sds. And so in the aftermath of the invasion of cambodia, there is a big student protest at Kent State University in ohio, and the National Guard is brought in, and National Guard just like in any outfit with guns, you get people who are seasoned, people not so seasoned, and then National Guardsmen open fire and a bunch of people open fire and the end of the whole thing, four students are killed. Again, to give you an idea how polarizing, four bums killed at kent state, so for many, including nixon, the people who protested the war were hippies, they were bums, and they almost deserved what happened to them. As it turns out,en one of the kids who got shot was rotc at kent state. Very prowar, but would be condemned as an antiwar activist and his family would be threatened by right wingers because he was seen as part of the protest. He just was standing by and a stray bullet hit him, i think right in the head, and so but yeah, whats interesting is that just a few days later, i think it was two or three more students got killed at jackson state college, but that didnt get any press because it was a black college, right, so white kids die, huge deal, black kids die, eh. But same circumstances, right, same circumstances. Iconic images. Im sure youve seen this picture, right, so a little girl, she basically had clothes but her village was bombed by napolm, like jellified gasoline it burns and shes running and the clothes have burned off her back, and for Many Americans this epitomizes the savagery of the american war in vietnam. As it turns out we know the plane that dropped the napalm on theville wanlg village was flo vietnamese but the whole thing became the responsibility of the u. S. Thats her today, bottom righthand corner. She would survive her wounds and would dedicate herself to helping other people who were victims of the vietnam war. I got this in hanoi. You deploy these planes, you do have an impact but planes get shot down and when planes get shot down, that produces more prisoners of war, which hanoi uses as a bargaining chip, right . So this is the wing of a b52 aircraft that got shot down over hanoi and these guys just farming despite the presence of this massive wing. So yeah, the north adjusted this new normalcy was developed. People its surprising how resilient human beings are, and what normal can come to represent to individuals, and theres an american being taken captive, once again, by a female. That photo was staged. The one with the guys with the weather buffalo, i dont see any reason for staging it, but so that was so nixons policies are again, i would argue effective overall, but they come at a very, very significant cost, and you get to a point where basically in 73, the u. S. Needs the war to stop as much as hanoi needs that war to stop. The american phase of the vietnam war ends in 37 but the vietnam war itself will eventually resume without the americans, lasts for about two years, you have two years of civil war in 75 and the fall of saigon, the victory of communist armies and this humiliation many consider it of the u. S. Which will embolden the communist camp and leftist revolutionaries worldwide. Well stop here, well resume after spring break. Unfortunately we have spring break next week, we wont see each other. Im heartbroken as much as you are, but well finish all that stuff and with other aspects of the cold war after spring break. 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