Vietnam War

 

Yet again I notice a massive oversight:  I’ve done blogs on all those obscure wars no one really cares about, but haven’t addressed this one directly, though I have done so in other blogs.  This war actually occurred in my own lifetime and veterans exist in my presence, though I’m not aware of any relatives who fought.  My uncles were WWII veterans and too old by this time, most of my male cousins were too young, the only one possibly old enough was in college and probably exempt from the draft for that reason.

 Golf.  My brother likes to play golf, a hobby I don’t share – my preference is shooting guns at the range.  So sometimes they pair him up with a partner.  One time his partner wound up being an elderly veteran.  My brother asked him, “WWII?” which prompted Mr. War Guy to respond, “how old do you think I am?  No, Vietnam.”  Well, with the war 40 years ago and no children serving, that means US Vietnam war veterans (enlisted men, NCOs and junior officers) would be at least 60-70 years old by now; senior officers and generals would be long dead.  By now the WWII veterans are dead, and absent magic, so would be our AEF and Civil War veterans as well.  As noted earlier, the last veterans of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) died in the early 1950s.

 Draft.  This was the last war for which we actually drafted soldiers – we switched to a volunteer military in 1973.  The Selective Service is still in existence and I happily registered when I turned 18 in January 1987, but my subpar hearing kept me out of West Point, ROTC, JAG, and the National Guard.   

 Movies.  There are plenty of movies about the war. I don’t think I’ll try to mention all of them, but those of them that I will mention, I will cite chronologically in the narrative.  I’m also seeing some Vietnam War segments in “The Umbrella Academy”, to the point where the character (Klaus, #4) is still wearing his combat uniform back home far away from combat.   See below….

 Background.  Among other items which French Emperor Louis Napoleon, aka Napoleon III, accomplished between 1848 and 1870 – the biggest being expanding Paris to its current 20 Arrondissement size and giving us those wide avenues – the other foreign policy “thing” he did outside Mexico was taking “Indochina” from China and making Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia a French colony.  Hanoi and Saigon received a French treatment, the latter becoming the de facto “Paris of Southeast Asia” – just as Beirut was the “Paris of the Middle East” and Bucharest fancies itself the “Paris of Eastern Europe”. 

 During WWII the Japanese took Indochina away from France, while the Germans took France away from France.  We sent advisors to Vietnam to help a communist guy, Ho Chi Minh, train his own rebels, the Viet Minh, to fight against the Japanese.  They did so with the understanding and expectation that after the war, Vietnam would become independent, but the US saw fit to give it back to France.  A new guerilla war broke out, and by 1954 the Viet Minh had defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu.   Promised elections never materialized, so by 1956 Vietnam was separated into North (communist) and South (pro-US, another mish-mash corrupt democracy). 

 By the late 1950s the North Vietnamese began a campaign to take over South Vietnam.  [Movie:  “The Quiet American” with Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine.]  The US sent advisors, but not ground troops.  [Movie: “Go Tell The Spartans” with Burt Lancaster].  By late 1963 the guerilla war was going poorly for the North Vietnamese until Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated.  This threw the South Vietnamese regime into turmoil and allowed the North Vietnamese to get back on track.

 Gulf of Tonkin & Ia Drang.  By 1964 the communists were on the verge of winning the war.   President Johnson got US forces sent to Vietnam by 1965, with the first encounter between US ground troops and the NVA at Ia Drang.  This deployment was the only strategic surprise we enjoyed against the North Vietnamese.  [Movie:  “We Were Soldiers” with Mel Gibson].

 Tet 1968.  [Movie:  “Full Metal Jacket” with Matthew Modine and Adam Baldwin.  This is actually my favorite Vietnam War movie.]  The story had been that the war was going great (from 1965-68) and we were winning.  We really had not much idea how many forces the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) had, just a vague estimate, so comparing what we understood to be enemy casualties – the body count – with what we believed was the enemy’s troop strength, came up with a fairly arbitrary assessment of our progress.  In January 1968, during the Vietnamese New Year holiday time (analogous to Chinese New Year) the North Vietnamese launched simultaneous attacks across South Vietnam.  Half of Hue was taken, and VC guerillas even infiltrated the US Embassy compound in Saigon.   Eventually all those gains were wiped out with heavy casualties, putting the NVA/VC so far behind that it would take until 1972 to rebuild to the point of making another general offensive.   But the huge surprise of a general offensive when Westmoreland, McNamara, and the President had been telling the American people that the enemy was on its last legs killed the administration’s credibility – the sad irony being that in the aftermath of the offensive the NVA/VC were in fact in a very weak position.  [Movie: “Platoon”].

 Westmoreland out, Abrams In.   “Seek & Destroy” vs “Clear And Hold”.  [Movie:  “Hamburger Hill”].   Part of the problem was that US General Westmoreland was using a strategy called “seek and destroy”.  US/ARVN units would seek out enemy forces, engage them, push them away, then leave the area, which would be reoccupied by the enemy in our absence.  Unless we knew for certain that we had literally killed all the enemy soldiers, this strategy was doomed to failure.

 In 1969 General Westmoreland was replaced by General Abrams.  Abrams had a better idea:  after clearing a village or area of enemy troops, hold it with a garrison force and move to the next province over.  Now you’ve secured the area.  Overall this works better, but with one major catch:  it takes a lot of troops, both US and ARVN, to make it work.  From 1972-73 we were drawing down troops, leaving the ARVN to fight by themselves.  The South Vietnamese didn’t have enough troops on their own to make “clear and hold” work. 

 Over the Border.  Another problem was that, politically, neither Johnson nor Nixon could justify a comprehensive campaign of invading North Vietnam, destroying the NVA up there, and conquering Hanoi.  Even if we succeeded in clearing all of South Vietnam of the NVA and VC, what then?  We’d have to keep US troops in South Vietnam indefinitely.   If you want the war to end, and for us to be able to bring our troops home, you are going to have to invade North Vietnam and decisively defeat the North Vietnamese Army.   And if you can’t do that, you’ve entered a war you will never win.  So what’s the point?

 Easter Offensive 1972.  As noted, the Tet Offensive depleted the NVA/VC to the point where it took until 1972, four years later, for them to launch another one.  At this point we still had troops in VN but were drawing them down.  Even so, the ARVN managed to hold off the NVA and this offensive was another failure.

 April 1975.   By now, the US troops had gone and US support for South Vietnam was at its lowest.  The North’s patience was rewarded when the ARVN collapsed and NVA forces were able to overrun South Vietnam and crash the gates into Saigon, which fell by April 30.  By now it was GAME OVER for South Vietnam.

 Office.  I work with Vietnamese clients.  Half of them are named Nguyen, the rest Tran, Huynh, Pham, Phan, Luu, etc.  They come mostly from South Vietnam, Saigon in particular (no one is going to call it Ho Chi Minh City).   It’s rare that I get any clients from North Vietnam, though my office manager is originally from north of Hanoi – she was a little girl when the Japanese occupied her part of the country. 

 M16s & Helicopters.   The two biggest flavors which distinguish this war for us Americans are the M16 rifle – taking over from the M14 – and helicopters bringing troops in and out of battle. 

 At the risk of doing NORML more favors, I’ll bring up this issue.  I’ve been watching “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific”, both of which take place during WWII and focus on US soldiers in Europe and the Pacific.  Almost all of them smoke.   As noted in a prior blog, I do not and never have.  Barring personal experience and not having any friends who do smoke, I gather that nicotine calms and relaxes you without impairing your judgment.  Sure enough, these soldiers seem very relaxed after a cigarette but can function and talk normally.  Any long-term health issues are eclipsed by a concern of surviving the next battle and the war as a whole.  They have more immediate concerns than lung cancer.

 Vietnam is the first war where you see US soldiers smoking marijuana.  When Napoleon sent his troops to Egypt, alcohol was absent due to Egypt being a Muslim country.  However, hashish, which is highly concentrated cannabis, was available and rapidly proved very popular with the French soldiers, who persisted in enjoying it despite Napoleon’s express prohibition.  They even brought it back to France with them.  In “Platoon”, Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe) and his supporters enjoyed marijuana.   There was even a real-life soldier, Peter Lemon, who had blazed up in a firebase, just when the enemy decided to attack.  He fought just as well as anyone else and even won a medal – the Congressional Medal of Honor.  https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/medal-of-honor-peter-lemon-was-high-on-marijuana-he-single-handedly-fought-off-two-waves-of-vietcong.html

 

Well, that ends my long-overdue analysis of this controversial and fairly recent US conflict….