Lecture 19 Vietnam War (1)

Richard Nixon is impeached as the US president. He was succeeded by

Gerard Fold who was Americas forgotten presidents who served just 1
term. The one good thing in his tenure is the pulling out of Vietnam
whereas his predecessors were fully involved.

Vietnam is on the outer extreme of South East Asia bordering Cambodia

and Laos. At that time there was no north or south. France had taken over
Vietnam in 1980, and were in power till WW2. The French would call this
region (Vietnam and parts of Laos and Cambodia) French Indo China. For
the French this was just a colony with rubber plantations which served to
be a source of revenue. The French were defeated and occupied by the
Nazis.

In the first year of world war 2, France was defeated and occupied by
Hitler. Inside France there is a group of rebels called the Vichi French who
side with Adolph Hitler. This group is like a Miltia. They back Hitler and the
Nazis. Even after France is defeated, The Vichi French remain victorious
because they were siding Germany. All the French territory is being given
to Germany and its allies. Indo China however is handed back to France,
to the Vichi French. Hence, during World War 2, Vietnam was ruled by the
Vichi French, and whenever the Japanese felt like, they also came over to
assert their dominance by virtue of being Hitlers allies. The Japanese
used to call them the Rice Gnawers. Vietnam clearly wasnt a very happy
place during the 6 years of WW2. For the locals, an individual comes to
power how decides to put a stop to this nonsense.

He becomes a powerful political figure, a cult hero in Vietnam and the

public adores him. He creates an army of peasants which he uses to
attack Japanese and French forces via guerrilla attacks. His name is H
Ch Minh. He was a legendary leader who lead Vietnam to salvation. The
word Minh itself meant freedom. He called his group of fighters the
Vietminh. This group fights the Japs and The French all through WW2. At
the end of WW2, The Axis powers loose, and Japan has to surrender
unconditionally.

Vietnam was finally supposed to be free. But now, France says we are
bankrupt, and we want our colonies in Vietnam back so that their rubber
plantations can help us recover. This obviously wasnt fair because the
whole war was against imperialism and they were going back on the
entire concept. HCM consults America and Britain about the unfairness of
this situation. They instead call Vietnam French Territory and Indo China.
They say the governance would be French. HCM decides to contact Stalin,
who doesnt really seem to care much. He simply tells them to ask for a
role to play in governance.

The French decide to come back. HCM has an army, he is a darling of the
masses. He tells the French that the Vietnamese future will be in the
hands of the Vietnamese. He tells them that he can send the French a part
of the profit, for a prescribed period of time. However the French dont
agree to that, and decide to come into Vietnam physically. HCM simply
says we will not allow this. The French armies are so weakened by WW2
that they cant take over Vietnam by force. The French contact Great
Britain (who send troops from India to Vietnam), America (Who give them
1 billion dollars of aid) and the Chinese (The Kuomintang the
nationalists). These armies and aid take over Vietnam and give it on a
platter to France.

HCM decides to not go down without a struggle. He asks for free and fair
elections and if Vietnamese win, allow them a role in the governance. The
situation is absurd indeed because everywhere else in the world
colonisation is dying down and here it is resurfacing. The French hoped for
HCM to loose, they carried out mass arrests and persecution of his
supporters. HCM still gets 96% majority, and 4% people fail to vote. Hence
nobody is opposing him. The Americans simply call this jinxed and fixed.
Such majority meant communism a one party system. Hence they just
rubbished the election and French took over Vietnam in the form of Indo-
China. HCM wasnt going to let this happen.

At this point HCM has a general - V Nguyn Gip. He is the father of the
nation and he died serving as a military general in 2013. His forces fought
the Japs and the Vichy French in WW2. 1945 on for 8 years he fought the
French and kicks them out. 1954 1960 the US set up a proxy
government in Vietnam and Giap kicks that out as well. 1960 1975 US
destroys Vietnam and Giap defeats that as well. After Vietnam is finally
free neighbouring Cambodia needs help because of Polpot. Giap sends
Vietnamese troops to recue Cambodians. Post this, the Chinese at the
start of the 1980s decide to invade and they too were kicked out. The
Japs tried to set up para-military governments in the latter 80s and Giap
kicked those out as well. He evidently meant a lot to the Vietnam struggle.
HCM (politician) and GG (commander) play a very important role in
Vietnamese freedom.

The question is how Giap could win against such odds. The answer lies in
a 2.5 thousand year old story. In 500 BC China there are 2 kingdoms
perpetually at war. The Shu and the Wu. The Wu whad a smaller army and
they were constantly losing. The emperor the Wu kingdom was Hu Wu. He
gives out a challenge for ANYBODY to train his armies to compete you
succeed you get anything you want, you fail, you get beheaded. In the 5 th
year a monk appears and takes up the challenge. He asks for full control
of the armies via training sans interference.

The emperor takes the monk for a walk, showing him the kingdom,
gardens, harem. The emperor tells him about the 500 women inside the
harem, and tells him to teach these women to fight. The monk agrees. He
has 14 women called, and arms them with swords and spears. He calls the
senior most two deputy generals. He shows them the act of fighting with
the sword. He then tells them to get the others to fall into line and stage
combat. The women giggle. He gives out instructions once more, clearly
giving them the benefit of doubt saying his own instructions may not have
been clear and he must give them again. (RULE 1 hence fault of
commanding officer). They again giggle. He beheads the two deputies
saying this time there was complete clarity from his side (RULE 2 Hence,
the fault of the subordinate officers) and gives charge to two more. He
gives the same instructions, and this time all women do exactly as
instructed. He gives the emperor a book and says following this will lead
to victory. The Art Of War San Tzu. He was a complete tactical genius.
GG used this book like nobody else ever has. He places emphasis on 2
things knowledge about self, knowledge about enemy and SPIES.

He spoke of spies in a different way. He said, that if you discover enemy

spies amongst you, you must treat them so well that you can send them
back as your own. He himself created double spies. His level of the spy
system had never been achieved before.

VIDEO

San Tzus practices are inspired by a Chinese game called GO which is

similar to chess but it starts with an empty board and involved annexing
more territory by using as few as the pieces as possible. The Vietnamese
too based their strategy on territory, not people and causalities.

VIDEO

The Americans are used to bomb the area where they want to set up a
base in order to clear it of all Vietnamese. Giap starts building parallel
bases underground. There was almost like a parallel Vietnam underground
with a succession of tunnels to connect it. there were schools, hospitals,
even facilities for recreation underground. Nobody needed to be out in the
open. Even soldiers could fight and attack from under the ground.

VIDEO
The Americans would have small, short, thin soldiers to enter headfirst
into the tunnels to find if there were Vietnamese fighters inside. The
mouths of these tunnels were always booby trapped. The people entering
these tunnels first were called tunnel rats. Almost every day, a tunnel rat
would lose some body part or the other. After the tunnel rats, dogs,
trained to hunt and kill were sent inside. The Vietnamese however used
the tunnels to smuggle into American base camps, and steal American
soap, and bathe with it. The dogs were trained to sniff out the Vietnamese
but they actually now smelt like Americans. Vietnamese could actually
jump out and kill Americans.

VIDEO