Page 141 - NS-2 Textbook

134 MARITIME HISTORY

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A Navy swift boat speeds up a Vietnamese river to attack the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.

anythlng resembling a battlefront. Instead, guerrillas VIETNAMIZATION
popped up from jungles, villages, and rice fields where
only moments before peaceful-looking farmers had As the peace talks dragged on through 1969, newly
tended their crops. elected President Nixon began withdrawing Americans
The Chinese, Soviets, and other Communist-bloc na- from Vietnam. He insisted that America still sought the
tions kept their North Vietnamese allies amply supplied original objective, to ensure that the South Vietnamese
with weapons, ammlmition, and equipment, mainly had the right to choose and maintain their own form of
through the port of Haiphong. U.S. ships and aircraft government. He believed the way to attain that was to
,vere tmder strict orders not to fire on any Nthh'd COlill- help the Vietnamese take over all aspects of their gov-
try" shipping, even when it was obsen'ed off-loading ernment and military operations.
cargo to the enemy, again out of concern over provoking So, a massive training program called Vietnamiza-
the Soviets or the Chinese. tion was undertaken to prepare the South Vietnamese to
For a time in late 1967, it began to look as though the administer their affairs and operate in an effective
Communists were being beaten in the field. Then on 30 maruler. In the civilian area, training was given to local
Janualy 1968, during Tet, the Buddhist New Year, they government officials, civil servants, teachers, dock man-
struck at major cities all across South Vietnam. They cre- agers, builders, farmers, industrialists, medical person-
ated havoc in Saigon and held the provincial capital of nel, and police forces. An effort called Civic Action
Hue for twenty-five days. helped in nearly every conceivable way to make the
This "Tet Offensive" was eventually beaten back. South Vietnamese self-supporting. Good roads, bridges,
The North Vietnamese and Vietcong suffered many ca- airports, and harbor facilities were built by the Sea-
sualties and gained no Communist battlefield objectives. bees and U.S. Army and civilian engineers, financed
But the offensive stimulated a peace movement in the by American tax dollars. One of the best internal trans-
United States, supported by many college students and portation systems in Asia was created for the struggling
all kinds of leftists and liberals. The president found his nation.
administration lmder increasing pressure to get out of By the end of 1970 some 93 percent of South Viet-
the Vietnam War due to the rising toll of casualties and nam's population had been brought under government
material costs, as well as the growing protests at home. control from a low of only 42 percent three years before.
Finally, President Jolmson announced a tmilateral bomb- A succession of ·weak governnlents after Diem's assassi-
ing halt of North Vietnam and invited Hanoi to peace nation had been replaced by a stable and freely elected
talks in Paris. He announced at the same time that he government headed by President Nguyen Van Thieu,
would not seek reelection. which appeared to be in control of the nation's destiny.