EFFECTS OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM
Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. As is well documented, the division of Vietnam was supposed to be temporary but the proposed elections of 1956 were cancelled by the US and South Vietnam. Ultimately, this disagreement over the future of Vietnam was not settled until the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime in 1975. However, while the war in Vietnam ensued, there were also civil wars in Laos and Cambodia. There were also significant developments in the rest of the region.
In Laos...communists came to power.
Despite an agreement involving the Superpowers (signed in 1961) which intended to neutralize Laos, the Civil War continued throughout the 1960's. The situation rapidly deteriorated from 1970 onwards following US bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (North Vietnam used the border areas of Laos and Cambodia to transport troops and supplies into South Vietnam). By 1975, the Communist Pathet Lao had removed the Royalist factions and seized power.
In Cambodia...communists came to power.
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King Sihanouk was removed from power by a US-backed coup in 1970. Sihanouk was attempting to create a neutral Cambodia (with regard to the war in Vietnam) and had permitted North Vietnamese troops to use border areas as part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This new government was opposed by the Communist Khmer Rouge who, using Sihanouk as a puppet, seized power in 1975. The Khmer Rouge established Democratic Kampuchea under the leadership of Pol Pot. This new regime was extremely totalitarian and Maoist in nature, basing itself on China during the Great Leap Forward. As such, immediately after the fall of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge began driving Cambodians out of major cities in order to create an 11th century-style agrarian society. 1975 was declared to be Year Zero- the beginning of the elimination of previous culture and society in order for it to be replaced by new revolutionary ideals. The ensuing Cambodian Genocide lasted 4 years and killed an estimated 25% of the total Cambodia population (or 2 million people).
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In Thailand…the military prevented a communist takeover.
Years of military rule was ended by a student-led revolution in 1973. These military dictatorships had been very supportive of the US and South Vietnam but the new government, apart from attempting to install more democracy, managed to secure US air force withdrawal. Upon the collapse of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to Communist forces in 1975, Thai public opinion swayed away from the government and back towards right-wing anti-Communist politicians. Although there was still much political instability in Thailand throughout the rest of the 1970’s (there were a series of military coups), the country did not become Communist.
In Malaysia...there was a slow evolution of a modern industrial economy.
Malaysia was officially created in 1963 and consisted of the old British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah). The marginalisation of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) within Malayan society had already occurred before 1960 (this period is known as the Malayan Emergency). The elimination of the MCP as a serious threat was achieved by exploited Malayan-Chinese ethnic tensions and the issue of Malayan citizenship. Many Malays initially opposed independence from the British because of the fear of Chinese domination in Malayan society and opposed extending citizenship to ethnic Chinese. As the MCP became more radical, they alienated moderate ethnic Chinese who wanted to gain Malayan citizenship. Therefore, the Malayan Emergency ended in 1960 and Malaysia was created in 1963, despite opposition to its creation from the leaders of Indonesia and the Philippines (see what happened to these countries below).
In Singapore…developments were also underway that would transform it into an economic powerhouse in the region.
Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965 following race riots between ethnic Chinese and Malays. As the majority of Singaporeans were of Chinese descent, whereas the majority of Malaysians were of Malay descent, it was decided to expel Singapore from the Malaysian Federation as it was clear that these racial differences could not easily be resolved and would likely lead to more violence in both Singapore and what had been Malaya. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew, Singapore introduced far reaching and effective economic reforms within an authoritarian framework which remained pro-Western.
In Indonesia… the left-leaning Sukarno was removed from power and replaced by right-wing authoritarian (but crucially pro-Western and anti-Communist) Suharto in 1965.
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This development precipitated the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66 which was responsible for purging Communists (and many innocent ethnic Chinese). Many historians estimate that between 500,000 to 1 million were killed during this period.
Throughout the coup against Sukarno (who appeared to be gradually aligning Indonesia with China and the Soviet Union and was strongly supported by the Indonesian Communist Party) and the Indonesian Killings, Suharto was strongly supported by the CIA and MI6 (UK intelligence services) who provided anti-Communist forces with lists of known Communist targets. The effect of the Indonesian Killings was to eliminate the Indonesian Communist Party and firmly align the country with the West. |
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In the Philippines… Right-wing politician Ferdinand Marcos won the Presidential Election of 1965.
Staunchly anti-Communist and pro-Western, Marcos imposed martial law in 1972 and his rule was notorious for its corruption and repression. Along with his wife Imelda, Marcos effectively created a “Kleptocracy”, using public funds to finance their lavish lifestyles. Following allegations of electoral fraud in 1986, the Marcos’ were sent in exile but Imelda was allowed to return following the death of Ferdinand in 1989.
Summary
- The American defeat in Vietnam disguised the fact that the USA were actually winning the Cold War by 1975
- By 1975, developments in the rest of Southeast Asia meant that the US defeat in Vietnam would not affect the rest of the region (apart from Laos and Cambodia)
- The US defeat in Vietnam convinced the Soviet Union that the US was in decline and helped to distract the Soviet leadership from their own problems.
So why did the US fight a war in Vietnam? Well largely because of ultimately misguided ideological and doctrinal principals such as the containment of Communism and the fear of the Domino Theory in Southeast Asia. There was also a lack of a coherent long-term strategy which culminated in a lack of proactive decision and a tendency to allow US Foreign Policy in Vietnam to “drift” into one setback after another. For example, supporting Ngo Dinh Diem for so long and then supporting his removal by the military allowed the United States to be dragged into a conflict that would prove very difficult to win. In many ways, Suharto (Indonesia) and Marcos (the Philippines) were similar figures to Diem but were not removed from power until the Cold War was ending or over.
Maybe more significantly, a memo from Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense) to President Johnson in 1965 (part of the leaked Pentagon Papers) indicated that containing China was the real objective by fighting the war in Vietnam:
If this is true, then the Johnson administration failed to account to the ancient rivalry and enmity between Vietnam and China, as well as the proud history of successful resistance on the part of the Vietnamese.
The traditional view of the war in Vietnam is that the US unnecessarily escalated the conflict, costing millions of lives in the process, only to lose the war anyway. The futility of the war was also underlined by the fact that apart from Vietnam, only Laos and Cambodia became Communist. Therefore, the thinking goes, the American defeat in Vietnam had no significant impact on the outcome of the Cold War. In this sense, in the words of American journalist William Shawcross, the war in Vietnam was just a “cruel sideshow”. It didn’t matter.
The war in Vietnam was the only American disaster in the Cold War (compared the USSR who had several disasters) and created a moral crisis among the American people. The soul searching that occurred in the American media was amplified to such an extent that many Soviets believed that the USA was actually in crisis. It wasn’t; to many Americans it felt like it was. The fallout from Vietnam may have created a false sense of security among the Soviet leadership as, by 1975, it was actually the USSR that was entering a period of crisis. This was not obvious at the time because the Soviet Union’s lack of free speech did not create the transparency to openly discuss problems and therefore Communist officials had unwittingly managed to hide serious issues from their superiors and keep them in the dark.
However, there is another interpretation of the war that suggests that the war in Vietnam was not completely without purpose. Some historians have suggested that by fighting the war where they did, US actions provided much-needed breathing space for the emerging economies of Singapore and Malaysia in particular. In 1967, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand created the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which apart from sharing intelligence with each other to thwart Communist insurgents, also promoted economic growth among its members.
The traditional view of the war in Vietnam is that the US unnecessarily escalated the conflict, costing millions of lives in the process, only to lose the war anyway. The futility of the war was also underlined by the fact that apart from Vietnam, only Laos and Cambodia became Communist. Therefore, the thinking goes, the American defeat in Vietnam had no significant impact on the outcome of the Cold War. In this sense, in the words of American journalist William Shawcross, the war in Vietnam was just a “cruel sideshow”. It didn’t matter.
The war in Vietnam was the only American disaster in the Cold War (compared the USSR who had several disasters) and created a moral crisis among the American people. The soul searching that occurred in the American media was amplified to such an extent that many Soviets believed that the USA was actually in crisis. It wasn’t; to many Americans it felt like it was. The fallout from Vietnam may have created a false sense of security among the Soviet leadership as, by 1975, it was actually the USSR that was entering a period of crisis. This was not obvious at the time because the Soviet Union’s lack of free speech did not create the transparency to openly discuss problems and therefore Communist officials had unwittingly managed to hide serious issues from their superiors and keep them in the dark.
However, there is another interpretation of the war that suggests that the war in Vietnam was not completely without purpose. Some historians have suggested that by fighting the war where they did, US actions provided much-needed breathing space for the emerging economies of Singapore and Malaysia in particular. In 1967, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand created the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which apart from sharing intelligence with each other to thwart Communist insurgents, also promoted economic growth among its members.