Vietnam: Origins and Guerrilla WarID & SIG:Slide 3Key PlayersSlide 5Slide 6Slide 7The French PeriodSlide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Beginnings of the US PeriodSlide 21Guerilla WarDefinitionsPrerequisites and Other Conditions Required for or Conducive to an Insurgency FM 90-8Conditions in South VietnamInsurgent LeadershipSlide 27Slide 28External SupportMao on Guerrilla WarfarePhases of DevelopmentSlide 32Slide 33NextVietnam: Origins and Guerrilla WarLsn 32ID & SIG:•Dien Bien Phu, Diem, domino theory, French in Vietnam, guerrilla war, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Mao, Military Assistance Advisory Group, Navarre, Viet CongKey PlayersPresident Kennedy will begin US involvement in Vietnam using counterinsurgency techniques.When Kennedy is assassinated, Johnson becomes president and escalates US involvement.Nixon becomes president in 1968 promising “peace with honor.”Key PlayersGeneral Westmoreland commanded US forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968Creighton Abrams succeeded WestmorelandUS troop levels peaked in 1968 at over 500,000Key PlayersHo Chi Minh was the political leader of the Viet MinhGeneral Vo Nguyen Giap led North Vietnamese military forcesThe Viet Cong soldier was tough, disciplined, and in it for the long haulKey PlayersVietnamese civilians were often caught in the middle of the fightingCollege students were among the most active war protestersJournalists like Walter Cronkite did much to influence public opinionThe French Period•Between 1859 and 1893, the French established a large southeast Asian colony consisting of the modern states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos–Indochina would become an important supplier of rubber•The French lost their influence in Indochina in World War II–After Hitler defeated France, the Japanese moved into Vietnam, occupied strategic points, and ultimately stationed 35,000 soldiers in Indochina–French colonial administrators remained nominally in charge through the Vichy government until March 9, 1945 when the Japanese arrested all French officials and civilians in the country and all but destroyed the French military there–In the last days of the war, Japan acceded to Vietnamese demands to regain its precolonial 1858 boundariesThe French Period•In 1941 Ho Chi Minh secretly returned to Vietnam after 30 years abroad and began organizing the Viet Minh, a communist guerrilla movement hoping to take advantage of the World War II situation–During the war, the US worked with Ho to harass Japanese and rescue downed US pilotsHo Chi MinhThe French Period•Ho Chi Minh put Vo Nguyen Giap in charge of training a guerrilla force during World War II and on December 22, 1944, Giap created the first unit of the Vietnam People’s Army•Giap had been a history professor in Hanoi until 1940 and a part of various nationalist and communist organizations•His wife had died in a French prison in 1943•Giap was second only to Ho in the communist movement in IndochinaGiap and Ho Chi MinhThe French Period•When Japan surrendered in August 1945, the Allies divided Vietnam to aid in disarming the Japanese (Chinese were to disarm the north and British were to disarm the south). •Even before the Allies arrived though, the Viet Minh proclaimed Vietnamese independence from France and set up the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam in Hanoi•In the south the Viet-Minh were weaker and could only establish a shadow governmentThe French Period•In Sept 1945, Ho unsuccessfully asked for US recognition–Instead the Allies honored the French request for restoration of its pre-war Indochina colonies (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)•In Oct 1945, French troops returned to Vietnam and guerrilla fighting began almost immediatelyFrench Far East Expeditionary CorpsThe French Period•In Dec 1946, the Viet Minh launched their first large scale assault on the French–The Viet Minh learned they could not go toe to toe with the French and reverted to flexible, low-level attacks with a strong emphasis on mobility•In 1949, Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek in China and the US began its “containment” policy–Vietnam now was much more important to the US and in 1950 it authorized aid and advisors to French–The US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) Viet Nam was activated and by mid-1954 about $1 billion worth of equipment had been delivered to the FrenchThe French Period•The French struggled for a strategy, always seeking to fight a set-piece battle against the illusive Viet Minh•Even the French inflicted casualties, they could not break the Viet Minh’s means of military and political resistance•General Henri Eugene Navarre assumed command of the French Union Forces in 1953 and began a plan to free the Free Expeditionary Corps from all static defense missions and conduct aggressive and mobile offensive operationsThe French Period•In the meantime, the French built a series of air-supplied “hedgehog” positions designed to protect vital centers against Viet Minh attack•Dien Bien Phu, designed to block the communist advance into Laos, was one such hedgehog positionThe French Period•Dien Bien Phu was in a valley less than 10 miles long and 6 miles wide•Eight battalions of 15,000 French soldiers were garrisoned there•In March 1954, the Viet Minh took up positions in the hills overlooking the French outposts and began to bombard the French with artilleryFrench paratroopers run for cover during the 55 day siege of Dien Bien PhuThe French Period•The monsoon season served to curtail the French air support necessary to deliver supplies and the Viet Minh siege prevented a relief force from reaching the garrison•The French asked the US to help and President Truman considered using the atomic bomb but did not•On May 8, 1954, the French surrenderedThe French Period•The loss of Dien Bien Phu was devastating to French morale and world opinion•The French needed reinforcements and supplies in large numbers–French law forbade the use of French draftees outside of Europe–The US was willing to send supplies but not soldiers (especially so soon after Korea)Lieutenant General Samuel T. Williams became commander of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam in 1955. MAAG-V’s strength was 342 men.The French Period•The war was becoming increasingly unpopular in France and the French government began to negotiate•Hostilities ended on July 20, 1954 with the Geneva Accords which divided