The History Book

312

I AM NOT

GOING TO

LOSE VIETNAM

THE GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT ( 1964 )

I

n the aftermath of World War II,

the states of Southeast Asia

struggled to create stable

political systems, and the region

became embroiled in the Cold War

between the United States and the

Soviet Union. In few places were

the battle lines as sharply drawn as

in Vietnam. After French colonial

rule came to an end in 1954,

Vietnam was divided at the

Geneva Conference into North

Vietnam, with a communist

government under Vietnamese

communist revolutionary leader Ho

Chi Minh, and the US-backed South

Vietnam. In 1960, Ho Chi Minh,

with support from communist

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Intervention in

Southeast Asia

BEFORE

1947 The Truman Doctrine,

pledging American support for

free peoples, guides US foreign

policy in Southeast Asia.

1953 Cambodia wins its

independence from France.

1963 President Ngo Dinh Diem

of South Vietnam is killed in a

US-backed military coup.

AFTER

1967 The Association of

Southeast Asian Nations,

ASEAN, is established to

promote stability in the region.

1973 The Paris Peace Accords

ends US combat in Vietnam,

but does not end the conflict

between North and South.

1976 The Socialist Republic

of Vietnam is proclaimed, and

Saigon is renamed Ho Chi

Minh City. Many flee abroad.

The US fears communism

is spreading across

Southeast Asia.

The US increases its

military presence as a

response to communist

successes in the region.

US president Johnson uses the incident to justify military

intervention in Vietnam, widening the frontiers of the Cold War.

Southeast Asian nations

want independence

from colonial rule.

Covert American activity culminates in a US

warship being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After a war with France,

Vietnam splits between

a communist North and a

US-backed South.

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313

The US Navy destroyer Maddox

was sailing off the coast of North

Vietnam when it came under attack.

This incident was the spark that led

to the Vietnam War.

See also: The construction of Angkor Wat 108–09 ■ Stalin assumes power 281 ■ Nazi invasion of Poland 286–93 ■

The Berlin Airlift 296–97 ■ The Long March 304–05

THE MODERN WORLD

superpowers Russia and China,

set up the National Liberation

Front (NLF) in South Vietnam, and

started a guerrilla war to unite the

country under communist rule.

Tensions steadily rose until 1964.

In August of that year, the US Navy

destroyer Maddox was operating

off the coast of North Vietnam in

the Gulf of Tonkin, monitoring radar

and radio from northern coastal

installations, to support attacks

made by the South Vietnamese

navy. North Vietnam, believing the

Maddox was linked to raids on its

coastal targets, launched a torpedo

attack. Two days later, the Maddox

reported once again coming under

fire. This second attack has since

been disputed, but US president

Lyndon B. Johnson, recognizing that

South Vietnam could not prevail on

its own against a communist-led

guerrilla movement that already

controlled much of the country, used

the skirmish to pass the Gulf of

Tonkin Resolution in Congress. This

allowed him to take any measures

necessary to deal with threats to

US forces in Southeast Asia.

US intervention

The US feared that if Vietnam

became a communist regime, other

countries in the region would soon

follow. Using the Gulf of Tonkin

Resolution, Johnson poured troops

into the South and bombed North

Vietnam by air. Huge numbers of

civilians were killed, but despite

their technological superiority, the

Americans failed to crush the Viet

Cong guerrillas. American troops

suffered high casualties and

gradually became demoralized.

The specter of communism

The Vietnam War was the first

televised war in US history. As

the public watched horrific events

unfolding, an increasing number

opposed the conflict. Around the

world, peace movements organized

large anti-war demonstrations.

The communists’ Tet Offensive

of 1968, a series of fierce attacks on

more than 100 cities and towns in

South Vietnam, crushed US hopes

of an imminent end to the conflict,

and peace talks were initiated in

1969. In March 1973, the last
      American troops withdrew from
      Vietnam, and in April 1975
      South Vietnam fell to the North.
      US policy-makers consistently
      misinterpreted Asian nationalist
      movements for Soviet-inspired
      communism. Ultimately, however,
      what the US feared never came to
      pass, and with the exception of Laos
      and Cambodia, the region remained
      out of communist control. ■

Pol Pot’s brutal regime

During the Vietnam War, North

Vietnam used Cambodia to

channel soldiers and supplies

to the South along the Ho Chi

Minh Trail. In 1970, a joint US–

South Vietnamese force invaded

Cambodia to flush out the

Viet Cong. The US also heavily

bombed Cambodia. The military

destabilization in Cambodia led

to a surge of support for Pol Pot,

the leader of the Kampuchean

Communist Party, or Khmer

Rouge, a guerrilla movement

that seized power in 1975.

Pol Pot’s brutal regime intended

to style the country into a

classless agrarian society

inspired by Mao Zedong’s

Cultural Revolution in China.

The entire population was

marched to the countryside and

forced to work as rice farmers.

Over the next 44 months, around

2 million people—a quarter of

Cambodia’s population—died,

either killed or starved. The

fields where people died became

known as the “Killing Fields”.

After three years of terror, Pol

Pot was driven from power by

a Vietnamese invasion.

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