Hi, I'm Griffin Johnson the armchair historian today's episode how America's mission in Vietnam failed
This video is sponsored by war thunder more on that later
Good morning Vietnam and everywhere else
The Vietnam conflict is one of the most controversial chapters in US history and helped define an entire generation
Its enduring notoriety can be traced to a number of factors these included
unprecedented media coverage and
widespread distrust of the American government to
Help understand this watershed moment were asking the question of how a global superpower suffered such a humiliating defeat
Before we talk about America's defeat in Vietnam
We'll have to talk about Vietnam under French rule which started in the latter half of the 19th century
Since Europeans are just so great at listening to native people and respecting their pre-existing geographic borders
They decided to call this region which includes modern-day Laos Cambodia and Vietnam
Indochina presumably because it's sandwiched between India and China
it was all very subtle and creative France quickly and decisively established themselves in this region quelling any
uprisings and forcing local rulers to cooperate with French colonial administrators
but this changed during the Second World War in
1940 France was occupied by Germany leaving their colonial territory largely undefended and Japan was quick to seize this opportunity
Some initially saw the Japanese as Asian liberators
But were quickly disillusioned by the sheer brutality of the new regime and nationalist sentiments began to sweep the nation
calling for self-governance
once the Allies had secured victory in
1945 the French returned to Indochina and everyone was just so happy to see them especially the Vietnam
Independence League were Viet men this group of armed insurgents was led by the once exiled
Intellectual Ho Chi Minh, who is staunchly?
anti-colonialist at
This point the United States was in a bind as they once supported the Viet Minh against the Japanese during the Second World War
but French stability was seen as an important element in stopping communism from spreading into Southeast Asia and men's
Anti-colonialist stance was something decidedly Bolshevik in influence. Despite French calls for support during the
1940s and 50s the United States ultimately decided not to send troops to Vietnam by
1954 friends had completely pulled out of Indochina after seven long years of bloodshed
splitting the area between Communists aligned North Vietnam and an
Unpopular and generally corrupt Western aligned South Vietnam, but peace wouldn't last long
in
1955 fighting continued but this time between north and south
President Kennedy, like Eisenhower was hesitant to put boots on the ground in Vietnam after the humiliating defeat of France
But after Kennedy's assassination in 1963 vice president, lyndon, b johnson
seeing communism threatened the status quo in asia once more ramped up US involvement after the late summer of
1964 when it was claimed that two US ships that were aiding the South Vietnamese military
Came under attack by communist forces in the Gulf of Tonkin
Congress soon gave President Johnson the authority to send US troops and by early
1965 thousands were deployed now that we know why exactly
America found itself in Vietnam, let's find out how it all went wrong
The American soldiers in Vietnam were fighting two enemies whose battle tactics were well honed through years of combat against the French and Japanese
the first were southern
Insurgents called the Vietcong and the second were the more organized North Vietnamese Army were NVA
The NVA was well supplied by the Soviet Union and China and fought with aggressive guerrilla tactics that the US was in most ways
for
Us general william Westmoreland led the American army in Vietnam and waged a strictly attrition based defensive war
Westmoreland was known to have let politics dictate his decision-making process as policymakers in Washington
Instead wanted statistics and numbers to show that they were winning
Success was measured by body counts
but counter-intuitively the more bombs that were dropped and the more people that were killed the more support the North Vietnamese gained
The US was attempting to wage a conventional war as they did in Korea
But the non-uniformed Vietcong were highly mobile and unidentifiable avoiding direct
Confrontations whenever they could relying on ambushes booby traps and similar tactics to grind at US morale
The result of this strategy was that there were no actual front lines
while the Vietcong frustrated US troops in the south the NVA commander roll wings off also knew that a conventional war was
Impossible to win and focused on winning over the people through an extensive propaganda network
He is quoted saying do not fear the enemy for they can only take your life
Fear the media far more for they will destroy your honor the Americans meanwhile believed that their attrition strategy
Was successful and Westmoreland was predicting an imminent end of world
But unbeknownst to him Vietnamese forces were effectively using the Ho Chi Minh Trail to move large amounts of supplies through neutral Laos
Despite being bombed almost every hour
By 1968 the US illusion of imminent victory was shattered by the Tet Offensive the Google campaign saw over
80,000 NBA and Vietcong troops attacked more than 800 cities throughout the country
Including the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon much of the fighting such as in Wei became the war's bloodiest battles
Despite launching such an ambitious attack the NVA made few if any tangible gains
But it struck a devastating blow to American morale not only back in the United States
But also in the field at home the leaking of the Pentagon Papers
Also dispelled any justifications for the war and revealed atrocities such as the My Lai massacre
Further increasing an anti-war sentiment across the country and a so-called
credibility gap began to grow between what the public was told and what they believed as
William, Westmoreland himself would later say it's the first war we've ever fought on the television screen and the first war that our country ever
fought where the media had full rein
the casualties suffered in the war
were now seen in a new light with so many men having been lost thus far on the other side of the world and they
Weren't even winning while the NVA could strike at any time faced with a crushing li- public opinion
The American government was forced to withdraw the nation's forces in
1973 and two years later the NVA finally captured Saigon ending the conflict
Now a word from our sponsor war thunder war thunder is a realistic vehicle combat game that is free to download on
PlayStation 4 Xbox one and PC you can battle alongside millions of other players with thousands of
Meticulously reproduced historically accurate tanks aircraft and ships from world war ii to even vietnam
They've actually added attack
Helicopters recently some of which were used during the vietnam war if you use my link in the description below you can register and receive
a free premium tank
aircraft and three days of premium account time
Start playing today and you can join the action in massive online battles on land air or at sea