Vietnamization

Vietnamization is an American term for the process of turning primary responsibility for fighting in Vietnam back over to South Vietnam as the American military forces began to shrink. Developed during the first Nixon administration largely in response to the anti-war public opinion in the U.S. and to the frustration of fighting a war which seemingly couldn't be won, this process was part of a broader policy, the Nixon Doctrine, wherein Nixon asserted that the defense against Communism in Asia should be conducted primarily by Asian rather than by American forces. The program required helping both the SouthVietnamese military and the civilian population. ARVN had to be improved and given modern equipment at the same time that the economy had to be improved and the populace made to feel secure.

Of these three elements of Vietnamization, perhaps security was the most important. Without security, nothing else would succeed. RVN Presidnet Nguyen Van Thieu sponsored the People's Self-Defense Force and issued, against the wishes of his advisors, half a million weapons to ordinary citizens. Both the Americans and the South Vietnamese saw the importance of dealing with the VC infrastructure. The U.S. forces shifted gears, now working to protect the South Vietnamese at the village level. The populace had to be brought into the governmental process and provided with economic opportunity. To their credit, the South Vietnamese began to make the program work, handling refugees, making progress in land reform, and improving agriculture.

The war didn't stop, of course. It was now being fought less and less by U.S. troops and more and more by ARVN. The North made a serious attempt to defeat South Vietnam and sieze control of both halves of the former country in 1972 when it launched an invasion using conventional means. Known variously as the Spring Offensive or the Easter Offensive, this military effort by the PAVN ultimately failed when ARVN, with the help of U.S. air support and American troops and advisors still in the country, stopped the North. Vietnamization would continue on past the last withdrawal of American troops and eventually, in 1975, North Vietnam would move south to defeat the government of Nguyen Van Thieu.

Readings:

1. Kolko, pp. 356-469
2. Langguth, pp. 533-592

Military Operations:

1972 Spring Offensive

Questions for consideration and further discussion:

1. What elements came to bear on the Nixon Administration that made Vietnamization desirable?
2. Do you think the American public saw Vietnamization as a logical approach to the Vietnam War or as a "bail-out"?
3. Given the depth of VC infiltration into the South Vietnam populace, why did Thieu think arming the population might work?
4. Why might the U.S. have waited until this point before giving South Vietnam the modern weapons which which it could defend itself?