Lesson 26: Vietnam: In Search of a Strategy

INTA 4803 TP WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

Vietnam: In Search of a Strategy

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"We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away
from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

President Lyndon B. Johnson, Oct. 1964

"I see light at the end of the tunnel."

Walt W. Rostow, National Security Adviser, Dec. 1967
(Also attributed to and used by others.)

Lesson Objectives

• Understand the timeline of events that led to the decision for major U.S. troop deployments to Southeast Asia in 1965.

• Be able to articulate the issues and discussions surrounding the 1965 decision to escalate the war in Vietnam.

• Understand the evolution of U.S. objectives and strategy for the Vietnam War.

• Describe the defoliation campaign in SEA, its goals and magnitude. Analyze its impact and consequences.

Study Guides

• What were the U.S. objectives in Vietnam? What was our strategy?

• What were the North Vietnamese objectives in Vietnam? What was their strategy?

• What nations fought with the U.S. in Vietnam?

• What were the arguments for not escalating the war in the summer of 1965? What were the arguments favoring escalation?

Assignment

Readings:

"Causes of the Vietnam War"
Andrew J. Rotter
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
John Whiteclay Chambers II (ed)
Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 1999
• Also available as "Vietnam War (1960-75): Causes" (Answers.com)

"The Jungle War: 1965-1968" (detailed timeline)
The United States in Vietnam, 1945-1975
The History Place

"Operation Rolling Thunder" (2 Mar 65 - 2 Nov 68)
Air Force Magazine, March 2005

"Recommendations of Additional Deployments to Vietnam,"
Notes for Memorandum from McNamara to Lyndon Johnson, 20 July 1965
Accessed from Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy. Vietnam
Mt. Holyoke College

• This doucment is a report from Secretary of Defense McNamara on consultations with Gen. Westmoreland in Saigon July16-20, 1965.
• This memorandum was the topic of a series of meetings July 21, 1965, with the president and senior leaders on the future of U.S. involvement in Vietnam (see next reading).

"Meetings on Vietnam, July 21, 1965" (download)
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Meeting Notes File, Control Number 23a
Accessed from Presidential Timelines: Lyndon Baines Johnson

• This doucment, formerly classified "TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY," summarizes a series the meetings preceeding the decision to escalate the U.S. troop strength in VIetnam.

Supplemental Resources

On Strategy : A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War
Colonel Harry G. Summers, US Army
Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1982

The Pentagon Papers (Gravel edition)
Mike Gravel (ed)
Boston: Beacon Press, 1971

NOTE: Many of the Pentagon Papers are accessible at the Mount Holyoke College American Foreign Policy Web site
Look for the links beginning with "The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition".

"The Pentagon Papers and Their Continuing Significance" (cached)
The Vietnam Veterans of America

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