Background to the Vietnam War

Vietnam had been a French colony since the late 19th century. With the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese Army had temporarily taken over the country. During this time, clandestine insurgent movements arose against this foreign occupation of the country and began fighting the Japanese Army. The biggest guerrilla force was the Viet Minh, which was led by the communist leader Ho Chi Minh. After the war, this guerrilla army continued their struggle, but this time against the French government, which had returned to Office.

After the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, at which the French lost the war to the Viet Minh, the Geneva Accords had divided Vietnam into two zones at the 17th parallel, a northern zone would be ruled by the leader of the Viet Minh, Ho Chi Minh, and a southern zone would be governed by the State of Vietnam, headed by former emperor Bao Dai. But as soon as South Vietnam became an independent country, a new communist guerrilla force emerged in the south: the Viet Cong. This new insurgent force would militaryly be backed and supplied by North Vietnam thorough a complex network of jungle trails known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. In 1955, South Vietnam’s prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem became the President of the Republic, replacing Bao Dai. As Diem was a staunch anti-communist politician, he received support from the Eisenhower Administration.

Summary of the Vietnam War

The United States of America had been providing aid, military equipment and training to South Vietnam since 1954. This support increased when Ngo Dinh Diem took office in 1955. As the Viet Cong’s military build-up gained strength and the number of terrorist attacks rose, so did the US aid to South Vietnam; more US helicopters, armed personnel carriers and thousands of military advisers landed in South East Asia. In 1961, the new US Administration assured Diem of more aid in molding a fighting force that could resist the communists. Kennedy believed that the guerrilla tactics employed by special forces such as the Green Berets would be effective in a "brush fire" war in Vietnam.

Nevertheless, corruption was rampant in South Vietnam, and, by 1963, Diem’s government was so discredited that the United States did nothing to stop a military coup orchestrated by dissident generals. Then, a series of short-lived and unstable governments followed, proving no more effective against the insurgency. The catalyst for deeper US involvement came in August 1964, when north Vietnamese torpedo boats shot at a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. This is known as the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident." As a result, President Lyndon Baynes Johnson began a series of air strikes on naval bases in the north. By the end of 1964, there were 23,000 US military advisers in Vietnam.

US involvement escalated in 1965, when the first US combat units were sent to fight in Vietnam. The conflict would eventually spilled over the borders of Laos and Cambodia, when undercover bombing operations were authorized by the US government to destroy the North Vietnamese Army secret camps from which the Viet Cong launched attacks against South Vietnamese and American military bases and villages. Stretches of land on the borders with Cambodia and Laos had become jungle-covered guerrilla sanctuaries where the North Vietnamese Army hid their military build-up.

American involvement in this protracted war peaked in 1968, when the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive. Although this communist offensive in South Vietnam failed to achieve its objectives, suffering a great number of casualties and losing the ground they had gained, a biased US media at the time reported it otherwise, and the Vietnam War became even more unpopular. As a consequence of the hippies demonstrations, the Nixon Administration was forced to apply a new policy in South East Asia: the Vietnamization of the war, which consisted in the withdrawal of US troops in stages, training and supplying the South Vietnamese Army personnel so they could take over the war. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued.

Background

Bombing of the trail system had begun on 14 December 1964 with the advent of Operation Barrel Roll. Due to increasing US intelligence of the build-up of North Vietnamese regimental-size units operating in South Vietnam, American planners in Washington and Saigon decided that the bombing in southeastern Laos should be stepped up, deciding to implement Operation Steel Tiger.

The Operation

Although Operation Steel Tiger was started by the 2nd Air Division, on April 3, 1965, it was continued under the direction of the Seventh Air Force when that headquarters was created on 1 April 1966, and was concluded on November 11, 1968, with the initiation of Operation Commando Hunt. The purpose of Steel Tiger was to stop the flow of men and materiel on the enemy logistical routes collectively known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route to the North Vietnamese.

The policy of vietnamization began in February 1969 and extended until 1973. Although it was a deliberate policy enforced by the Nixon Administration, the name was rather accidental. At a January 28, 1969, meeting of the National Security Council, GEN Andrew Goodpaster, deputy to GEN Creighton Abrams, commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, said the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (South Vietnam’s Army) had been steadily improving, and the point at which the war could be "de-Americanized" was close. Melvin Laird, the Secretary of Defense, agreed with the point, but not with the language: "what we need is a term like ‘Vietnamizing’ to put the emphasis on the right issues." Nixon immediately liked Laird’s word.

Vietnamization fit into the broader Nixon Administration detente policy, in which the United States no longer regarded its fundamental stategy as containment of Communism, but a cooperative world order in which Nixon and his chief adviser Henry Kissinger were basically "realists" in world affairs, interested in the broader constellation of forces, and the biggest powers. Nixon had ordered Kissinger to negotiate basic U.S.-Soviet policy between the heads of state via Kissinger and Dobrynin, with the agreements then transferred to diplomats for implementation. In like manner, Nixon opened high-level contact with China. U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and China were seen as far more important than the fate of South Vietnam, which certainly did not preclude South Vietnam maintaining its own independence.

The Malayan Emergency was the colonial government’s term to refer to the conflict. The insurgent army called it the Anti-British National Liberation War. The rubber plantations and tin mining industries convinced the government to use the word "emergency" instead of "war" since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyd’s insurers if it had been called a "war." Although the communists had been defeated by 1960, communist leader Chin Peng renewed the war seven years later. That new war would last until 1989, and became known as the Communist Insurgency War. Despite the fact that Australian and British armed forces had fully withdrawn from Malaysia years earlier, the insurgency was again defeated by the Malaysian government.

Background to the Malayan Emergency

After World War II the Malayan economy lay in shambles as major social problems broke out, such as unemployment, low wages, scarce food, and high inflation. These economic problems caused social malaise and considerable labor unrest. From 1946 to 1948, a large number of strikes took place in Malaya. The British administration tried to mend Malaya’s economy quickly, as revenue from Malaya’s tin and rubber industries was important to Britain’s own post-war recovery. In order to deal with the protesters who rioted and caused problems, the colonial government passed several measures which included arrests and deportations. As a result, protesters became increasingly ideological militant and biased to the extreme left.

Summary of the Malayan Emergency War

The Malayan Emergency War broke out on June 16, 1948, when three European plantation managers were killed at Sungai Siput, Perak, by the Malayan National Liberation Army. It was the first overt act of war. To counteract the insurgent attacks, the British Army’s Director of Operations in Malaya, Harold Briggs, developed an overall multi-faceted strategy called the Briggs Plan. One aspect of it was the forced relocation of some 500,000 rural Malayans from squatter communities on the fringes of the forests into guarded camps known as New Villages. These villages were newly constructed in most cases, and were surrounded by barbed wire, police posts and floodlit areas, the purpose of which was both to keep the inhabitants in and the guerrillas out, cutting off the insurgents from their supporters amongst the population. Although People resented it at first, the majority soon became content with the better living standards in the villages. They were given money and ownership of the land they lived on. Removing a population which might be sympathetic to guerrillas was a counter-insurgency technique which the British had used before, notably against the Boer Commandos in the Second Boer War (1899–1902).

At the begining of the Malayan Emergency conflict, the British deployed 13 infantry battalions in Malaya: 7 Gurkha battalions, 3 British battalions, two battalions of the Royal Malay Regiment and a British Royal Artillery Regiment, which was used as infantry. Nevertheless, this force was too small to effectively fight the communist terrorists, and more infantry battalions were needed in Malaya. So, the British brought in more units, such as the Royal Marines, three battalions from Royal Australian Regiment, and a Special Air Service unit. The Australians would become extremely skillfull in this counter-insurgency war. Along with the SAS, they became the British lethal weapons in the jungle guerrilla war against the Malayan National Liberation Army. Operating deep in the jungle behind the enemy lines, the Australians and SAS wreaked havoc on the enemy.

As the North Vietnamese boats approached, shooting 50mm shells as they bore down on the USS Maddox, the Amercian crew fired three warning shots, but the torpedo boats continued to advance. The Maddox then opened fire on the approaching boats with torpedoes being fired by both the North Vietnamese and the US ships. As the North Vietnamese boats were heavily damaged, they returned to shore. Only one shell had hit the US destroyer.

On August 4, 1964, two US destroyers were again attacked in the middle of the Gulf of Tonkin. Radar images on the C Turner Joy indicated that they were being approached by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Both the Maddox and the C Turner Joy fired repeatedly into the stormy night. Later that day the commander of the ships said that he was not certain of this second torpedos attack, but the next day he told Secretary of Defence Robert S McNamara that he was definitely sure that they had been attacked.

When he was notified of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, President Lyndon B Johnson decided that he needed the support of Congress in order to act. On August 4, he had lunch with the National Security Council to discuss the situation in Vietnam. He was given approval for a proposed air strike, which was carried out the next day. The President announced the action on television as strategic North Vietnamese targets were destroyed including a petroleum storage unit in the town of Vinh.

In the early 1960s, Australian support for South Vietnam was in keeping with American policy of stemming the tide of communism, initially enjoying broad popular support. However, as Australia’s military involvement increased, a strong anti-war movement developed, especially when the Australian government announced in 1964 the dispatch of a taskforce which included conscripts called up under the National Service Scheme. To a large extent, this new opposition to the war focused upon conscription, which had been an issue in Australia dating back to the First World War. Considerable portions of Australian society were opposed to the war on political and moral grounds. The Vietnam War was the longest and most controversial war Australia has ever fought.

In April 1965, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced the government had received from South Vietnam a request for further military assistance. As a result, the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) was attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, participating in several operations in Bien Hoa province, in 1965. One of the most famous military engagements in the war was the Battle of Long Tan, which took place on August 18, 1966. During the battle a company from 6RAR, despite being heavily outnumbered, fought off a large enemy assault of regimental strength. 18 Australians were killed and 24 wounded, while at least 250 Viet Cong were killed. It was a decisive Australian victory and is often cited as an example of the importance of combining and coordinating infantry, artillery, armor and military aviation. Another unit which took part in the military operations in Vietnam was the Australian SAS, which operated behind enemy lines. Cerebral and audacious, the men of these elite unit wreaked havoc on the Viet Cong infrastructure, causing a lot casualties. In 1969, the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5RAR) fought a combined communist force of North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong in the village of Binh Ba, about 4 miles north of Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province; this is known as the Battle of Binh Ba, which was a another decisive Australian victory; 110 VC guerrillas were killed, but only 1 Australian soldier got killed.

Negative Impact of Media On The Vietnam War Outcome

Even trained military personnel sometimes have difficulties in withstanding the horrors of war. During the Vietnam War it was the first time that the horrors of an armed conflict entered the living rooms of Americans. For almost a decade in between school, work, and dinners, the American public could watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home. At the beginning the media coverage generally supported U.S involvement in the war, but television news dramatically changed its frame of the war after the Tet Offensive. Images of the U.S led massacre at My Lai dominated the television, yet the daily atrocities committed by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong rarely made the evening news. Thus, the anti-war movement at home gained increasing media attention while the U.S soldier was forgotten in Vietnam.

Coverage of the war and its resulting impact on public opinion has been debated for decades by many intelligent media scholars and journalists, yet they are not the most qualified individuals to do so: the veterans are. Journalists based in Saigon daily reported facts about battles, casualties, and the morale of the troops, yet only a soldier could grasp the true reality of war. The media distortions, due to television’s misrepresentations during the Vietnam War, led to the American defeat, not on the battlefield but on the political and social arena.