Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Lsn 23
ID & SIG
Abrams, Cambodia, Cronkite, Johnson, Operation Junction City, Kent State, search and destroy, Tet Offensive, Vietnam Syndrome, Vietnamization
US
Concentrated on large-scale search and destroy missions against enemy base areas To find and smash each [enemy base camp], one by one, is an essential task, a prime object in conclusively successful campaigning. (DA Pam 4525-2, 1967) Often meant massive bombing followed by ground troops surrounding the area and helicopter-borne troops flying it to clear it
An airstrip capable of handling C-130's would be constructed at the camp and a second similar airfield would be constructed in the vicinity of Katum. These facilities would facilitate future operations in the area.
Stars and Stripes photograph of a 1st Infantry Div soldier in the entrance of a tunnel leading to a VC headquarters during Operation Junction City.
At that site the Special Forces and Civilian Irregular Defense Group camp with an airstrip for C-130s was built.
CPT George Joulwan shows LTC Alexander Haig radios and other material found during Operation Junction City
But the objective of destroying the COSVN forces was not met
Junction City
The official Army history concludes JUNCTION CITY convinced the enemy command that continuing to base main force units in close proximity to the key population areas would be increasingly foolhardy. From that time on the enemy made increasing use of Cambodian sanctuaries for his bases, hospitals, training centers, and supply depots.A turning point in the war had been reached.
Vietnam Studies: Cedar FallsJunction City: A Turning Point, Rogers, 1989.
Tet Offensive
On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese escalated to Phase III, the War of Movement Attack gained surprise by coinciding with the Vietnamese lunar new year holiday Designed to foster antigovernment uprisings against the South Vietnamese
Tet Offensive
84,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked 36 of 43 provincial capitals, 5 of 6 autonomous cities, 34 of 242 district capitals, and at least 50 hamlets
Helicopters gave the US the ability to cover all types of terrain, maneuver over large areas, react quickly to enemy attacks, reinforce embattled units, and conduct raids into enemy territory
Local insurgency movement suffered a devastating loss when it surfaced to assume leadership of a general uprising that never materialized
Clandestine shadow government, years in the building, was largely destroyed Tactical military defeat for North Vietnam By coming into the open, the enemy had exposed itself to massive American firepower and lost 137,000 killed in the first nine months of 1968 Allowed US to practice the American way of war
Domestic Issues
Societal Changes
War Protests
President Johnson
President Lyndon B. Johnson listens to tape sent by Captain Charles Robb from Vietnam, July 31, 1968.
Democratic delegates protest the Johnson Administrations policies in Vietnam at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
President Nixon
Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 campaigning for peace with honor Under Nixon the process of Vietnamization the gradual transfer of primary responsibility of the war to the South Vietnamese that Johnson had begun on a small scale after Tet was accelerated Nixons involvement in Watergate, his impeachment, and resignation hamstrung his ability to influence peace negotiations through sustained offensive operations
Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford. By this point the US was traumatized by war-weariness and economic recession. Ford had almost no maneuver room to help the South Vietnamese.
My Lai
On March 16, 1968, an infantry company entered the village of My Lai They found no insurgents but, being psychologically prepared for battle and poorly disciplined, they proceeded to kill between 347 and 504 mostly old men, women, and children Word of the massacre did not reach the American public until November 1969 when it then fueled national outrage and further undermined support for the war
Cambodia
On April 29, 1970, South Vietnamese troops entered the Parrots Beak which extends into South Vietnam to within 30 miles of Saigon Three days later American and South Vietnamese forces entered the Fish Hook, another promontory further north
Cambodia
President Nixon limited the depth of US penetrations to 21 miles and specified that all US forces had to be out of Cambodia within 60 days In all 31,000 US and 43,000 South Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia The operation was a tactical and operational success Many communists fled from their sanctuaries and were denied the use of the important port at Sihanoukville More than 11,000 North Vietnamese were killed compared to only 337 American deaths However, it sparked anti-war protests in the US
Four students were killed and nine wounded at Kent State on May 4, 1970 and two students were killed at Jackson State during protests against a number of issues to include US operations in Cambodia
Defeat
The US concluded a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese in 1973, but the South Vietnamese continued fighting until April 30, 1975 when the North Vietnamese captured Saigon Throughout the 1970s and 1980s boat people fled Vietnam Some 823,000 found refuge in the US
Americans and South Vietnamese who had worked for the US are evacuated from Saigon
US
North Vietnam
US
Diminishing Conventional Limited war support and attrition strategy Long-term Guerrilla and Total war commitment exhaustion strategy
North Vietnam
Vietnam Today
Vietnam remains communist However, since 2001, it has committed to economic liberalization and is trying to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries An April 28, 2005 article in the Economist was aptly titled America Lost, Capitalism Won
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