Vietnam Blog

The Tet Offensive: The Turning Point of the Vietnam War

The Vietnamese call it "Chien Tranh Chong My Curu Nuoc" or "The War against the Americans to save the nation." In the course of this war, some 58,000 US soldiers were killed in action, as well as 304,000 wounded. But these figures pale in insignificance beside the horrific casualties suffered by the Vietnamese. Almost 1,400,000 North and South Vietnamese were killed in action.

To this we must add 2,100,000 wounded. It was one of the bloodiest wars in history, and one that took a particularly high toll of civilian lives. The total number of Vietnamese people killed in this conflict will never be known but was probably not fewer than three million, and the total number of casualties not fewer than 8 million.

The number of American soldiers in Vietnam rose from 23,300 in 1963 to 184,000 in 1966. In January 1969 the total number of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam reached its peak - 542,000. Despite this the U.S. Army was unable to subdue Vietnam. This was the first time in history that the USA has been defeated in a war.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was not just one trail but a series of trails. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the North Vietnamese as a route for its troops to get into the South. They also used the trail as a supply route – for weapons, food and equipment. The Ho Chin Minh Trail ran along the Laos/Cambodia and Vietnam borders and was dominated by jungles. In total the ‘trail’ was about 1,000 kilometres in length and consisted of many parts.

The ‘trail’ consisted of dummy routes that served the only purpose of confusing the Americans but was, in places, 80 kilometres (50 miles) wide. It is thought that up to 40,000 people were used to keep the route open. The natural environment gave the trail excellent cover as the jungle could provide as much as three canopies of tree cover, which disguised what was going on at ground level. The American response to this was to use defoliants – the most famous being Agent Orange – to kill off the greenery that gave cover to those using the trail. However, while large areas of jungle were effectively killed off, the task was too great and the Ho Chi Minh Trail was used for the duration of the war against the Americans in South Vietnam.

One way for the Americans to counter the Ho Chi Minh Trail was to build large bases near to it – Khe Sanh was one of these. From these large bases patrols were sent out in an effort to intercept anyone using the route. Regardless of this, it does seem that the task was simply too great for the Americans. Whereas the trail was based on deception and fluidity, the military bases built by the US were static. Therefore, once patrols left these bases they were by themselves. While they could be supported by air, there would always be a time delay between combat on the ground and the arrival of air support. By the very nature of guerrilla warfare, this gave the North Vietnamese the advantage as they had the ability to disappear into the jungle.

APUSH Review: Jeffersonian America

FRQ Question: Early United States foreign policy was primarily a defensive reaction to perceived or actual threats from Europe. Assess the validity of this generalization with reference to United States foreign policy on TWO major issues during the period from 1789-1825.

Between the time period of 1789 -1825, the early United States prolonged foreign policy as a means of defense and protecting themselves from perceived or actual ultimatums from Europe. During the early 18th century Thomas Jefferson believed that keeping the U.S. from getting involved with other countries would be best, thus enforcing the Embargo Act of 1807. This idea of isolationism continued during the 19th century as the Monroe Doctrine avoided meddling with European countries and their conflicts in order to prevent America from becoming a battleground for European countries. These ideals were enforced with the idea of avoiding conflicts and war.

During Jefferson's time in office, France declared war on Europe while Britain declared war on France. Having all of this war, the amount of trade was lowering which caused oppression on the United States. Napoleon created a blockade of Great Britain, and then Great Britain created a blockade of Europe. These blockades were not very sufficient, but during the process 1500 American ships were abducted and the sailors were forced into the British navy. From this happening, Jefferson ordered the Embargo Act, which ended the trading with foreign countries from U.S. merchants. This act was used in order to keep the U.S. out of war by keeping American ships away from the blockades. This act was not obeyed entirely because many Americans would smuggle goods to different ports. From 1804-1809, the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts were passed.

These acts were passed to prevent America from entering the war with France and the British. The Embargo Act didn't allow any trade between America and any foreign countries in order to prevent American ships from being abducted in the blockades being formed. Many being disobeyed this act, which then lead to the Non-Intercourse Act in 1809. This act allowed American merchants to trade with ports other than British. In 1809, the act was discarded but was then replaced by the Non-Intercourse Act, which stated that Americans could trade with foreign nations other than the nations in Europe. This act still failed to keep American ships out of the European ports

When Jefferson learned that Spain had secretly ceded Louisiana to France in 1800, he instructed his ministers to negotiate the purchase of the port of New Orleans and possibly West Florida. Jefferson strategically made this move in order to insure that American farmers in the Ohio River Valley had access to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River—the river was a key to the farmers' economic well-being, as they needed a vent for their surplus grain and meat. Even before the French took over Louisiana, the Spaniards had closed the Mississippi River in 1802. While Jefferson was known to be partial to the French, having the Emperor Napoleon's driving interests for world domination next door was not an attractive prospect; thus, Jefferson acted swiftly.

To his surprise, Napoleon, needing funds to finance a new European war with England, offered to sell Jefferson most of the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. His price of $15 million amounted to approximately four cents per acre for 828,000 square miles, doubling the size of the nation. Although Jefferson understood that the U.S. Constitution said nothing about the purchase of foreign territory, he set aside his strict constructionist ideas to make the deal—Congress approved the purchase five months after the fact. Jefferson then outfitted a twenty-five man expedition to explore the new lands. Led by his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and Army Captain William Clark, these adventurers took two and one-half years to cover 8,000 miles. They traveled up the Missouri River, across the Continental Divide, and down the Columbia River to the Pacific before retracing their steps to St. Louis. The expedition is considered one of the great exploratory quests in human history.