Lecture 20 Vietnam (2)

In 1945, in the dying months of WW2, HCM becomes a complete public

favourite. A lot of events lead up to the American Invasion. The build up
and aftermath matter more than the event itself. In 1945, before Japan
surrenders, Vietnam goes through a massive famine due to natural
factors (less rainfall) and manmade factors (Rice being stored in granaries
and depriving the public of food).

The northern part of the country with 10 million people, 1 million died of
starvation. 1/10th of the population dying is actually quite serious. There
were mass graves. HCM has his guerrilla fighters the Vietminh conduct
raids on the granaries, and the grain is then distributed among the
people. HCM says, dont use firearms, because you may injure common
people, minimize collateral damage. Of the guards (French and Japs)
surrender, dont unnecessarily kill them.

The French has re-entered Vietnam using American, Britain and Chinese
help. They stayed on for 9 years. (1945-54) During this time, HCMs forces
keep attacking French soldiers. Finally in 1954, HCM won a conclusive
battle against the French. The French even tried paratroopers to protect
their bases, but could not do so. Their last base was called Dien Bien Phu.
(DBP) This battle was very significant in French and American history. This
is because US is constantly offering aid to Vietnam.

French are losing Dien Bien Phu and the French contact the US for help.
This is also the time of the end of the Korean War where US hasnt
conclusively won. The US president at this point is DD Eisenhower. He
suggests that they should bomb North Vietnam with 3 nuclear strikes. The
reasoning he gives is that if DBP falls then Vietnam followed by Laos and
Cambodia would all become communist. Japan may follow, as may India.
This was dangerous from the view of the ideological war. His theory was
called the domino effect and was repeatedly used by American politicians.
It just helps to create a sensation of fear.

DBP is a base which people dont even know about. It was barely known,
let alone popular. In order to get the budget approved for DBP, You could
link it to Vietnam, then Korea, then Japan, then Philippines, then India,
Then Pakistan, Then the middle east, and then Europe. If it gets taken
over by the communist, ALL THESE places may turn communist. This
theory is always used to justify extreme steps. (Example: Cuba and
Soviets, France and Burkha/Burkhini). This is to insight fear.

Fortunately, the US congress refuses to assign nuclear weapons, and

hence DBP falls. On the night this last French base falls, three US military
advisors were present. These 3 were captured alive. Then they were
paraded around the whole base, whatever was left of it. General Giap
marches these people through a series of sticks. These were arranged in
perfect symmetry. On each stick was an impaled head of a Frenchmen.
Everybody on the base had been killed. Giap just allows these 3 to walk
out with a very strong message.

He said, he didnt know why the French or the Americans were here. There
was no logic. You have beautiful cities, we have jungles. This concept just
isnt justified. Communicate to your superiors that this region isnt
French Indo China, Its Vietnam. This reached Washington like a challenge,
like a dare.

The US tried to set up a proxy government in Vietnam. They made up the

Vietnamese north and south, the north being communist and the south
being democratic. They came up with a puppet for the geographical area
of South Vietnam. His reign began in 1955 and ended in 1963. His name is
Ngo Dinh Diem and his brothers name is Ngo Dinh Thuc. Both of them are
conservative catholic. They make them ruler and arch bishop of Vietnam
respectively. The two of them are basically puppets to run the country and
religion of the southern part of the country.

US creates this divide, and entices a certain kind of people to come down
south. To do this, they came up with a slogan the Virgin Mary is headed
south. Hence, they made it appear that if youre catholic, go south. If
youre Buddhist, stay in the north. Because Vietnam basically had
Buddhists and Christians. Then, they took the most important cities from
the north and south, Hanoi and Saigon respectively. 1955 63, Diem is
given unlimited authority to create a stark divide between the two
regions, and to keep communism out. Diem takes extreme steps.

Communism meant equality, hence Diem started targeting each

organisation which was attempting equality. Even an orphanage was
communistic as it tried to give orphans lives equal to those kids who had
parents. He had people arrested and beaten almost to the points of death.
Even the US realize that their puppet is becoming an embarrassment.
Time magazine clicks a photo of a Buddhist monk setting himself up on
fire. US realizes their plan has backfired. This happens in 1960. This is also
when US is going through the CBC, and Kennedy is trying to up the space
race.

After the CBC. The CIA tell America that something needed to be done
about Ngo Diem. The CIA stage a coup at Saigon in 1963. The Vietnamese
army storms the presidential palace with a tank. Diem tried to hide inside
his bedroom. They just literally kill him. He is assassinated, and then
comes thuc. He too is assassinated. Now, they needed a new ruler
because otherwise the north would come down and capture the south.
The puppets set up by the US, had been killed by the US. This was
shocking.

The US now decides to replace Ngo to make sure that HCM stays in the
north. This replacement is the US ARMY. Us sanctions 5000 ground troops
to South Vietnam. The marines are told, that they may have to encounter
soviets who maybe trying to impose communism. They, as members of
the free, capitalist world needed to fight these people off, as a part of their
divine duty.

The first set of marines which arrive find neither soviet communists nor
hard core communist Vietnamese. HCM is very famous even in the south.
This creates a sense of disgruntlement. The troops get confused. GG and
HCM use guerrilla tactics. The US kept increasing their budget for fire arms
in Vietnam. Lindon B Johnson said that US would bomb Vietnam into
stone-age.

The US pretty much carpet bombed Vietnam. This was TOTAL WAR where
it was all or nothing. No civilian casualties were kept in consideration.
They also used napalms. Lindon B Johnson asked the parliament how
important Vietnam was. Could they pull out? The parliament says it is not
very important, we can pull out. Johnson asks them why his predecessors
were firm on it? The parliament said it was because US needed to take a
strong stance against communism and the soviets, and Vietnam was just
the chosen place for the stand.

Before the invasion and bombing, US gets the UN to declare certain

regions in South East Asia as de-militarized. Us get UN troops to de-
militarize Cambodia and Laos. The idea behind this is that if these two
dont have weapons, while the war against Vietnam is going on, they
maybe tempted to join in. Their territory isnt going to be entered, but this
was just a way to make sure they remain neutral during the war. There
was a concept of the HCM trail which was above the ground, under it and
in the jungles. This trail was used to transport things. The US used to
bomb this trail. Some parts of this trail also went to Laos and Cambodia.
The US wasnt allow to bomb it in these nations after de-militarization BUT
THEY STILL DID. US literally torched a lot of villages, a lot with napalm.
(Petroleum Jelly which keeps burning until your skin starts melting off it
is completely brutal). The US carpet bombed the HCM trail for 10 years,
even in Laos and Cambodia. Half a million Cambodians died who had no
relation with the Vietnamese War.
Each increase in bombing is responded to via guerrilla tactics and strikes.
In 1968, the US launch Operation Phoenix. This was the brink of lunacy.
The concept of phoenix is a bird rising from its own ashes. People with
bad human rights records in US are let out of prison and are trained by the
US military to carry out assassinations in rural Vietnam and make sure
that people who are siding to fight with the north, receive a deterrent.
Their families are being killed. These special new US forces enter each
house in the village, and kill everybody except one person who can run to
the next village to spread the news.

It was basically a message to all of Vietnam so as to say that communism

is losing, the soviets are not your friend, dont support it or you shall be
killed. As the death tolls kept increasing, journalists and reporters started
taking photos. At the beginning, US generals were shown as heroic.

But after phoenix, it all changed. The US were portrayed as DEVOURING

the Vietnamese. The first pictures from phoenix were deadly. These photos
were accompanied with articles. Journalists working alongside the US
army clicked photos. Initially the US wanted these pictures to be shown as
these were a symbol of their heroism. However, pictures from this village
came to be known as the Millay Massacre of Vietnam. This entire village
was raped, lined up and shot dead just because these people were
accused of being Vietnamese communists. Camera men began testifying
that they saw the marines killing 100s of people. People began
understanding, even in the US, that these were crimes against humanity
and nature. Even the black movement started using these photos so as to
say that Vietnamese werent even racist, they werent evil. Why were we
killing them?

This was just a punch in the face of Russia in the battle against humanity,
coming out in Vietnam.

One year after the Milay Massacre (1970), in 1971 US is backing West
Pakistan as it is decimating east Pakistan. India fights a war to redeem
East Pakistan i.e. Bangaldesh. As Indian troops enter Bangladesh, the US
troops enter the Bay of Bengal. In the Bay of Bengal there are two Russian
submarines. There is a cold war stand off right here.

Public sentiment in the US is turning against the war. A photo of a 5 year

old girl running out of the village, naked, has skin dropping off her body,
the village had been napalmed. This photo was an indication that we
needed to pull out. There were huge public protests in America, saying
that America needed to pull out. There came about draft dodgers, nobody
wants to go to Vietnam. (DD People who receive training but escape and
never turn up for duty). This is when the Uncle Sam posters came up to
tell these DD that the country needed you. But, people were unwilling to
go to Vietnam to fight there. Peoples conscious was working.

Marines from Vietnam were coming back either as hardened killers, or

suffering from trauma. One sniper on being interviewed said that Vietnam
was absolute, perpetual chaos. A sniper is in a safe place and he chooses
his targets and keeps killing. He said what helped him keep his sanity was
that there were 3 sounds, click, lock, fire which became my life pattern.
People being killed were not humans any longer, there were no faces to
these bodies which he saw.

US also destroyed areas of land, they partnered with Dow chemicals who
produced a mix of 7 different pesticides which were then spread over land,
so that no vegetation could ever take place here. This chemical was agent
orange which was a de-foliate. After agent orange, nothing grows here for
65 years. US dropped 65 tonnes of this substance per square killometer.
Till today, nothing grows in these regions. This was annihilation of the
region and the people in entirety. Nothing grows in these regions till date.

In 1975, the Vietnam war finally saw an end. General Giap is finally
victorious. The US said, they killed so many more people, they shouldnt
be losing, but Giap tells them that is immaterial. The Vietnamese officially
get their independence in 1975, when they should have in 1945.

One of the most touching stories which gave the war a sense of
personalisation was by an independent photographer Larry Barros. He
would accompany helicopters and click photos. There was a lethal weapon
US came up with, which would spew 6000 bullets per minute. The mouth
of this gun could be directioned. US soldiers told kids to wave out to this
helicopter, calling it the magic dragon. Kids would just be ripped into
pieces. This was just pure evil.

Larry accompanies these missions. He finds two girls on a swing. The girl
on the swing has nothing below her knees, and the one pushing has one
leg. He finds this disturbing because he has a daughter the same age. The
girl sitting has fresh wounds, and bandages made up of tree barks. These
are rotting. The mini-gun had blown her legs off. He tried to get both
treated. The one with no legs dies of gangrene. The one legged girl gets treated at a US
hospital, her name was Tron. He used her to personalize the war. He looks after them and
does the best for them. Months before the ceasefire, 2 hours later, he decides to go and visit
them. He was travelling in an unmarked helicopter which gets mistaken for a soviet
helicopter and gets shot down.
His camera survived the crash. His personal connect with one Vietnamese helped to awaken
the conscious of the people in America. 1 million wasnt a statistic you were killing, these
were people, individuals who had lives.

The Vietnamese war was Americas worst mistake. Its darkest period.