Turning Point:
In the Vietnam war American Soldiers were ordered to perform executions upon prisoners. “”Then Lieutenant Calley and Meadlo pointed their rifles into the ditch and fired, people were diving on top of each other (Zinn, 479).” The executions were so large that they were considered a massacre. This massacre was covered up until a letter got out from a GI Ron Ridenhour, (Zinn, 479). The CIA started an operation called “Operation Phoenix”. In this operation, they rounded up suspected civilians (around twenty thousand) and executed them for being possible members of the Communist Underground (Zinn 478). South Vietnamese civilians were afraid constantly due to Operation Phoenix. No one seemed to be winning, for American troops would push the Northern troops back and then the Northern troops would push American troops back. There didn’t seem to be an end in sight during the middle of the war. The Vietnam war was America's first clear defeat for the American empire was created after World War 2. (Zinn 501).
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America entered the war in Vietnam in 1964 under Johnson’s presidency and they left in 1973 under Nixon’s presidency. America’s main cause for being in the war was to try to stop the communist North Vietnamese from taking over the South. On August 2nd a US destroyer called the Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedoes. The Maddox and another US boat was attacked two days later. Johnson used the attacks to help him gain support for going into the war. Johnson gathered the congressional leaders and told the senate that the North Vietnamese attacks were an "open aggression on the high seas (Johnson)" He didn't say that the attacks were easily avoidable. On August 7th 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was the congressional approval for America to join in the Vietnam War. The turning point of the Vietnam war was when Nixon began the Vietnamization program because this led to the American troops leaving Vietnam and the South losing the war.
President Nixon took the US troops out of Vietnam because people would advise him to and he created the Vietnamization program. The Vietnamization program involved taking out troops but still supported South Vietnam with weapons and training. There were almost no American soldiers left in Vietnam which left the South Vietnamese government to fight alone. "Richard Nixon advocated Vietnamization withdrawing American troops giving South Vietnam greater responsibility to fight the war, (Digital History)." This quote explains how Nixon took away the US troops and left South Vietnam to fight for itself.
As a result to the American troops leaving due to Nixon’s Vietnamization program, South Vietnam lost the war with the North. South Vietnam didn't have a large army to fight back so they had to surrender. South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, and Vietnam became one country again (Digital History).North Vietnamese troops entered the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon in late April 1975 (Zinn, 498). All American personnel who were in Saigon had grabbed their things and left before it was taken over. (Zinn, 498). |
The Vietnamization program was the turning point of the Vietnam war and caused it to end the war after a couple of years. If American troops had stayed, the fighting would have continued for a few more years until one side surrendered or the American troops were taken out. With North Vietnam controlling all of Vietnam, Vietnam became a communist country.