Download PDF of this full issue: v12n2.pdf (6.4 MB)

The War in Context: The Vietnam Ordeal

By VVAW

The Reagan administration has been saying that America must get over its "Vietnam Syndrome" and join the fight in Central America. Vietnam was one hell of a "syndrome": 55,00 dead American troops, 300,000 disabled, and one of the major causes of our present economic disaster. What was Vietnam? A mistake, a "noble cause" or foreign aggression? In fact it was all of these, depending on where you happened to stand.

The real U.S. involvement in Vietnam started during the Second World War. The OSS (the group that later became the CIA) sent agents to make contact with anti-Japanese guerrillas in Southeast Asia. (The French who had controlled the area where "Vichy" French who, with their Nazi leanings, supported the Japanese.) Of the different Vietnamese nationalists, only the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh had a national network of underground organizations and guerrillas fighting.

Ho Chi Minh met with the U.S. operative Major Patti and they agreed on anti-Japanese actions. The U.S. dropped supplies behind the lines to Ho and the Viet Minh helped Americans downed behind Japanese lines. The first American advisors help train, equip and arm the Viet Minh. In 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed in Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as its president. American planes flew over Hanoi in celebration of the founding. The Vietnamese Declaration of Independence was modeled on the American version and Ho asked the Americans to honor their commitment to independence, citing the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations Charter on self-determination.

U.S. relations with the Vietnamese turned sour. President Truman refused to answer and of Ho's cables or letters. Truman was trying to bring France into economic and diplomatic ties with the U.S. The result was that France got Vietnam—and all her former colonies) in return for close ties with the U.S.

The French return to their former colony was not easy; first, they had to arm and use former Japanese POW's to establish a new foothold. They were able to retake the towns but not the countryside. In 1950 General Giap launched a general offensive against the French which, though it was premature, resulted in 6,000 French killed or captured. What the French government described as a "victory" was portrayed by commentator Bernard Fall as France's "greatest colonial defeat since Montcalm died at Quebec." France turned to the U.S. for aid—at first it was $10 million a year but grew to $1 billion by 1954 so that by the time of the final French defeat at Dien Bien Phu the U.S. was footing 80% of the bill for the war.

With the French out the U.S. moved in. According to international agreement Vietnam was to be temporarily divided into north and south, with free elections to take place nationwide in 1956.

Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese Catholic living in Boston was chosen Premier of South Vietnam which was 95% Buddhist. The U.S. set up MAAG (Military Assistance and Advisory Group) to train a "nationalistic" Vietnamese force of a quarter of a million men. This force was largely made up of Vietnamese who had fought for the French. In 1956 the U.S. refused to go along with the elections because, in the words of President Eisenhower, "Ho Chi Minh would win 80% of the vote in a free election." U.S. involvement continued so did U.S. money and men. American presence rose to 500 under Eisenhower and grew to 15,000 under Kennedy.

At the same time Diem was in trouble; former Viet Minh helped support a number of groups to oppose Diem and France's successor, the U.S. Buddhist unrest rose in the cities and Diem's cronies in the countryside were killed. The U.S. decided to back a coup of Vietnamese generals to topple Diem. Not only did they get rid of Diem and assassinate him, but proceeded to kill off each other monthly and even weekly.

The situation was desperate and more and more American troops were put in to replace Saigon troops who could not or would not fight.

The Saigon government had no real base other than the aid it got from the U.S. got what it paid for: pimps, prostitutes, cowards and gangsters masquerading as a government and a military.

Coupled with this was an incredible arrogance on the part of the U.S. government and military leaders. They simply could not believe that Asians could stand up to the might and technology of the U.S. As the war progressed we went from one stage to another with no real change in the general situation. Strategic hamlets, search and destroy, Vietnamization—all these programs were tried by the French in the past but the U.S. somehow thought they could be pulled off.

The American people were not being told of the plans or policies of the government. To the contrary—Lyndon Johnson ran as a peace candidate in 1964 saying, "I won't send American boys to do the fighting for Asian troops." Americans were told that Vietnam was two countries (overlooking some 2000 years of history) and that the North was invading the South.All of this didn't do much to answer the question of the 19-year old American fighting the South Vietnamese guerrillas. Saigon leaders were portrayed as the Vietnamese version of "Jefferson and Lincoln"—never mind the drug pushing, black marketeering and torture cells.

In fact in order to save Vietnam we had to destroy it. We bombed hospitals to save orphans, sprayed Agent Orange in order to save crops, burned hamlets to save villages, and turned Vietnam into one huge whore house to save Vietnamese culture from Communism.

As GI's in Vietnam we saw the often stark realities of Vietnam and could compare them to the "truth" the American people were being told. We saw the corrupt Saigon generals making money hand over fist while their armies would not fight. We saw the hate in the eyes of the local villagers who never welcomed us with flowers as liberators; the nly Vietnamese who seemed to want us there only wanted greenbacks in exchange for drugs, booze or woman. We saw the enemy fight and had to admire his bravery and tenacity in taking on the U.S. tanks and planes and helicopters with grenades and rifles. We supposedly valued human life while the enemy did not; yet we paid $600 per rubber tree damaged to Michelin and no more than $120 to the family of a Vietnamese child we had killed by mistake. WE fought up hills, winning "victories" with "light casualties" according to the press, but we saw half our friends die so that the company body count could go up (and enhance the career of some officer)—and then we'd give up the hill. The war was not something to be won or lost by the grunt, but 365 days to be survived.

The U.S. tried everything to win. We dropped more than 3 times the total tonnage of bombs dropped by both sides in World War II. We conducted "Operation phoenix" when the CIA and Saigon government killed up to 200,000 suspected members of the Viet Cong. WE defoliated 10% of the land permanently. W bombed, bribed, shot, killed and burned for more than 10 years at a cost of $140 billion—and lost!

Nixon did not pull out because the U.S. was winning but because the Vietnamese were. Some generals today are saying we lost the war but never lost a battle—but what did we "win" at Ky Sanh or in the Iron Triangle or in Laos and Cambodia besides having some holes punched in some career officer's promotion card?

The simple fact is that neither the American people nor the American GI's fighting in Vietnam thought that the goals—real or imagined—were worth the lives and the money being squandered. The war was lost on the battlefield in Vietnam and in the hearts and minds of the American people.

During the war VVAW led 10's of thousands of Vietnam vets in demonstrations against that war. No comparable group of Vietnam vets ever rose to challenge VVAW or our goals. In fact when VVAW brought 1500 Vietnam vets to protest Nixon's renomination, the Republic Party could only come up with 6 vets to support he war (and some of these didn't even support Nixon). Vietnam vets knew firsthand about the real war—and opposed it.

Today the Reagan Administration is trying to get us involved again, this time in Central America. Our allies in this new venture are even more corrupt and more brutal that their counterparts in Vietnam like Diem or Thieu or Ky. Vietnam was not a mistake and neither will be Central American except for the GI's who buy the government lies. Vietnam was not a noble cause except for those who fought to Bring Our Brothers Home after they had made the mistake of going. As foreign aggression, hear the words of General Smedley Butler, one-time commandant of the Marine Corps and twice winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor:

"War is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes . . . How many millionaires ever shoulder a rifle?

"For a great many years as a soldier, I had the suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired did I fully realize it.

"Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the masses who are killed? (They) were made to regard murder as the order of the day . . . Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to do their own readjusting."

"I was," sad Butler of his own role in Central American intervention, "nothing more than a gangster for Wall Street."

Barry Romo
VVAW National Office