Page 138 - NS-2 Textbook

THE COLD WAR ERA 131

On the afternoon of 24 October word was received stilt of inlperialist expansion into the region. During
that many of the Soviet ships had either stopped or World War II Vietnam was occupied by the Japanese. It
tnrned back. Secretary of State Dean Rusk is reported to declared its independence following the Japanese defeat
have remarked, "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the in 1945. The French, howevel~ tried to reassert their con-
other fellow just blinked." On 26 October a Soviet char- trol in a war that lasted from 1946 to 1954. In that year the
ter ship was stopped, boarded, and searched and al- French suffered a major defeat by Conummist forces led
lowed to proceed when fOtmd not to be carrying any by Ho Chi Minh at Dien Bien Phu, leading to complete
contraband. TI1is established the right to stop and search French withdrawal two years later. After the French de-
suspected quarantine violators. feat a Geneva accord established a demilitarized zone
Later that day, President Kennedy offered to end the (DMZ) along the seventeenth parallel between North
quarantine and promised not to invade Cuba if the Sovi- and South Vieh1am, just as was done in Korea following
ets would remove their missiles. Unwil1ing to challenge World War II. TIle Conummists tmder Ho Chi Minh were
the superior Anlerican sea power f Khrushchev capitu- given control of North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, ini-
lated. Nuclear holocaust was averted, and the world tially placed trnder French control, soon came trnder the
breathed easier. Khrushchev's attempt to overcome control of anti-Conumrnist Nationalists led by Baa Dai.
American nuclear superiority had failed. Determined TIle partition was supposed to be temporary until free
leadership coupled with sea power had preserved the elections would unify the country two years later.
peace; the Navy had indeed not let the nation down. In 1955 a new leade,; Ngo Din Diem, was chosen by
President Kennedy summed it up clearly: "Events of Oc- Baa Dai. He organized the government into the Republic
tober 1962 indicated, as they have all through histOlY, of Vietnam and declared himself president. He was
that control of the sea means security ... peace ... [and] backed by u.s. President Dwight Eisenhower and the
victory. The United States must control the seas if it is to Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
protect our security." Communist China and the Soviet Union poured as-
Khrushchev and the Soviet Union had been checked, sistance into North Vieh1am. Fearing that this would
but as a result, the buildup of Soviet sea power that had soon lead to expansion southward by North Vieh1am,
begun after the setback in Lebanon was given top prior- President Eisenhower offered South Vietnam milita,y
ity. It moved forward with great momentnm under the aid, including 700 advisors, and economic assistance in
leadership of the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet the amotrnt of $200 million a year. Initially this American
Union, Sergei G. Gorshkov. By the 1970s, that momen- aid brought great prosperity to South Vieh1am. Howeve,;
tnm would give the Soviets a navy second only to that Dieln ran a corrupt and dictatorial government, com-
of the United States, with a powerful Mediterranean posed largely of politicians and military officers who had
squadron, the world's largest submarine force, an aircraft earlier sided with the French. TIley carried with them a
carrier with vertical-takeoff planes, an amphibious force legacy of defeat and were never fully supported by the
with naval infanhy embarked, and impressive new population. Ho Chi Miuh, on the other hand, was re-
merchant, oceanographic, and intelligence collection garded as a hero by most Viemamese, both in the North
fleets as 'vell. and the South, because of his role in the defeat of the
In the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, the French. These facts would bear heavily on the eventual
United States and the Soviet Union agreed in 1963 to es- outcome in the embattled country.
tablish a direct communications link-the famous "hot- When it came time for the 1956 elections to deter-
line"-behveen the two governments for use in the event ntine national unification and type of goverrunent, Diem,
of a future crisis. In 1972 President Nixon and Premier fearful of defeat at the polls, refused to allow them. Civil
Brezhrlev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty war flared immediately. Commlmist rebels in the South,
(SALT I), the first of several such treaties. One provision called the National Liberation Front (NLF), or Vietcong,
contained an antiballistic missile (ABM) defense system received the support of Commtmist North Viemam.
agreement (henceforth called the ABM Treaty). Under They resorted to massacre and terrorization of the peas-
this treaty, no fmther antiballistic missile systems could anhy to force support of the NLF. When he took office in
be developed by either country. Another provision froze 1962, President John Ke'Uledy, following the advice of
the numbers of land-based and sea-latrnched ballistic the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, de-
missiles (ICMBs and SLBMs) at then-existing levels. cided to increase the number of American military ad-
visers in South Vietnam to 23,000 by the middle of 1963.
TIley soon were piloting helicopters and rehlrning Viet-
THE VIETNAM WAR
cong fire. The NLF, now reinforced by thousands of
Vietnam had been a part of French Indochina since the troops from North Vieh1am, were spreading their control
mid-1S00s, when France had acquired control of the area over the countryside, murdering about 500 village lead-
now comprising Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as a re- ers, teachers, and businessmen each month. In response