Americas Vietnam War

...

2007, p. 93)

North Vietnam was bombed by the US for the first time after this. Now the US was directly involved in a war with North Vietnam, and with the GoT incident used as a springboard for his election, the nation was considered behind him if he decided to further escalate the war.

The incompetence of the Saigon regime in preventing Vietcong attacks, for example when the US airbase near Saigon was attacked by Vietcong, meant the US believed it had to escalate the war to keep the Americans in Vietnam safe from attacks. The US felt the regime they were supporting couldn’t stop the attacks without “pervasive intrusions of Americans into their affairs.” (Sanders, 2007, p. 91)

The Working Group, set up by Johnson to study Vietnam, said that American honour and credibility was at stake and emphasised that the escalation his advisors were pushing for was necessary due to the weak Saigon government and claimed it was “plagued by confusion, apathy, and poor morale.” (Sanders, 2007, p. 92)

The Rolling Thunder Programme was a massive bombing campaign ordered in February 1965 and began in March, from pressure to retaliate against the attack on the American camp in February 1965 near Pleiku that killed 8 Americans and wounded 100. (Sanders, 2007, p. 92)This escalated the war massively as such a large and direct attack, particularly when the Soviet Premier Kosygin was visiting Hanoi, meant the US was keeping Moscow and Beijing involved, as they couldn’t allow such a direct attack on a communist country without also getting involved. (Sanders, 2007, p. 94)

It also led to a further massive escalation of the war, when in spring 1965 Johnson sent large numbers of troops into Vietnam. (Sanders, 2007, p. 93)

The troops were there to protect bomber bases and support the Saigon regime. However, the government was overthrown by the military and replaced with two incompetent leaders. They were very unpopular and lost more territory to the VC, now with 75% of the countryside controlled by them. (Sanders, 2007, p. 97)

This escalated the situation as the ARVN troops wanted to fight less and less the more US troops were sent over, which lead to the US getting more entrenched in Vietnam. 75,000 troops were increased to 125,000 troop numbers in July 1965. (Sanders, 2007, p. 97)

Despite these troops being sent over, they were unable to match the effective guerrilla tactics employed by the VC, meaning more troops had to be sent in. Their position became increasingly demoralising as this idea of sending in more troops to combat the VC became a self fulfilling loop leading to 200,000 troops fighting at the end of 1965, and the end of 1966 had 385,000. (Sanders, 2007, p. 99)

The repeated increase of troop numbers along with the inability of the Saigon regime to fight the VC effectively prevented the situation from deescalating. As the war progressed with more and more political investment in the situation, Johnson felt had to escalate the war as he was trapped in the commitment he made to the war by using it during his election campaign, along with his advisors and military experts calling for more escalation. The Saigon regimes incompetence also led to escalation as it had shown to be unable to handle the situation at all without heavy US involvement.

Reference List

1. (Sanders,V. (2007) The USA and Vietnam 1945-1975. London: Hodder Murray)

2. (Anderson,D. (2005) The Vietnam War. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan)

3. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon3/doc158.htm