In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues the Vietnam War was a result of Cold War logic, where the U.S. government misinterpreted decolonization movements as communist threats. There was a brief moment where the U.S. could have supported Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese against French colonization, but since NATO needed French support, the U.S. was forced to back the French. This would later lead to Deja Vu, as the French experience in Vietnam would mirror the American experience the following decade. With French defeat, the US supported the corrupt South Vietnamese regime, which was highly incompetent and oppressive. Inside South Vietnam, a civil war emerged between the National Liberation Front, also called the Viet Cong, and the Army of South Vietnam, called ARVN. At first, ARVN was effective, since it was dependent on American weapons and advisors. With equipment support from the Soviets and Chinese, the NLF beat back ARVN and controlled most of the countryside. Due to the repression of the Diem regime, widespread protests engulfed the country. This resulted in an American supported coup to remove Diem. Unfortunately, his successors were equally corrupt but not as effective, which led successive governments to rise and fall in quick succession. American involvement in Vietnam increased after the false report of an attack on the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy, which gave LBJ the cover he needed to expand the war. American troops flooded into the country, which resulted in North Vietnamese troops coming South to work with the NLF to overturn the government. Combat in Vietnam was brutal and American troops suffered greatly. Civilians were also caught in the crossfire, and tens of thousands were killed, due to military commanders' obsession with body count as a measure of effectiveness. In the end, LBJ was brought down by the war, and Nixon committed treason to win an election and continue the war for another five years, when it could have ended in 1968. Nixon began the gradual withdraw of American troops, but not before invading Cambodia, which destabilized the country and directly led to the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot. Peace in Vietnam finally occurred in 1973, and South Vietnam was conquered a two years later. The legacy of the Vietnam war is tragic. American servicemen were disrespected when they came home. The people no longer trusted the government because of their lies about the war. Americans attempted to avoid large scale foreign intervention until the First Iraq War of 1991. Finally, tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians were killed as a result of the war. Many refugees escaped these countries and came to settle in the U.S., where they are valued members of society. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/history-of-the-american-people-since-1877/donations
