Chapter 285
Chapter 285
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: US Military Intervention
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The United States had no spare attention left to keep fussing over Korea's North China separation scheme.
Washington was too busy dealing with the immediate Vietnam problem.
"Do you know how much budget we've poured into South Vietnam? Just the national budget subsidies since the 1950s have exceeded five billion dollars."
And despite all that money, the results were disastrously poor.
Forget any expedition into North Vietnam—the entire South Vietnam was in uproar from Viet Cong uprisings.
The Republican-controlled Congress attacked the issue fiercely.
"What have you done with all that money? Eaten it as cake?"
In truth, the Democrats weren't entirely without a defense.
"Don't forget that Barry Goldwater's presidency was part of the time the Republicans claim we wasted money!"
"President Barry Goldwater cleanly sorted out Cuba, that socialist flag-waving nuisance in our backyard. But the Democrats? You've spent even more money and let the situation deteriorate just as badly, haven't you?"
The White House desperately needed results in Vietnam just to counter the Republicans' ferocious offensive.
"Mercenaries aren't the answer. They produce decent results, sure, but they've never rooted out the reds."
"Then what's your alternative?"
"Your Excellency, there's only one option. Deploy the troops."
The White House staff argued that this was the chance to send in U.S. forces and crush South Vietnam in one fell swoop.
"If we deploy our troops, won't that make a Northern campaign difficult?"
"Your Excellency, we can worry about that later. Right now, it's crucial to show that South Vietnam is stabilized."
The cornered president had no room for choice.
To avoid losing the election, he had to demonstrate South Vietnam being solidified as a firm foothold for the free world.
Once the White House's intentions solidified, the U.S. military began war preparations.
"First, we'll use destroyers to provoke an aggressive response from the enemy."
Every war needed a pretext, just like any other.
Waging war without one would likely end up like that 140% manly fiasco.
"Begin the operation."
With the White House's final approval, South Vietnamese special forces boarded armed boats and raided two islands off the North Vietnamese coast.
"Shock and awe, you red bastards."
On the same day, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Maddox began heading north along the North Vietnamese coast.
"How about it? Tense, right? Don't you want to respond?"
The Maddox loitered in and out of North Vietnam's radar detection range, needling the Vietnamese side.
"This is a deliberate provocation by the American imperialists. We mustn't take the bait."
Even as North Vietnam debated its response policy, the Maddox kept pressing northward.
"What if that American destroyer is participating in the operation as part of the South Vietnamese navy's forces? Suppose later we claim it was donated to the South Vietnamese navy. How will the people view our military for failing even to respond?"
"If the imperialists are scheming that, we can't just sit on our hands sucking our thumbs."
After agonizing deliberation, North Vietnam decided to intercept the U.S. destroyer.
"Still, just in case, chase it off with warning shots."
The North Vietnamese navy scrambled torpedo boats to threaten the destroyer.
In response, the U.S. Navy deployed A-4 Skyhawk light attack aircraft launched from the destroyer and a carrier to strike the torpedo boats.
"You threatened us first with those maneuvers, so this is self-defense."
The Vietnamese navy suffered six casualties, including four dead from the torpedo boat damage.
It was far too harsh a punishment for just firing a few machine gun rounds.
"Don't send good soldiers against those crazy American imperialists."
Intimidated by America's "self-defense," North Vietnam held back additional forces.
Unexpectedly, with North Vietnam not retaliating and going quiet, the U.S. Navy's envisioned "engagement scenario" fell apart.
"If they got hit, they should've swarmed out with torpedo boats, firing torpedoes and machine guns in a frenzy. Why are they holding back?"
It was a tricky situation for the U.S. Navy.
"What do we do? The White House ordered us to create a picture of North Vietnamese reds attacking no matter what."
After much deliberation, the U.S. military came up with one idea.
"There was no engagement? Who besides us knows that? We just claim there was—what's the problem?"
The U.S. destroyers filed false reports claiming they had been attacked by the North Vietnamese navy amid foul weather.
"They fired torpedoes and machine guns at us. The Stars and Stripes? Of course it was flying."
Once the U.S. military reported the North Vietnamese provocation, the U.S. Congress erupted in outrage.
"Dare those North Vietnamese scum attack our navy in the Gulf of Tonkin?"
Even the Republicans, who viewed the Lyndon Johnson administration unfavorably in every way, came out demanding a hardline response in Vietnam.
"The President of the United States is authorized to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack by North Vietnam."
Through the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution," Congress granted the Lyndon Johnson administration free rein on war-related matters.
The resolution passed unanimously with bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans.
Thus, the United States and North Vietnam entered a state of war.
"Those American imperialists have lost their minds. Who said they could start a war?"
True to its role as the leader of the communist bloc, Moscow took the issue to the UN.
"Resolution? You know that doesn't fly between us."
The United States vetoed the Soviet resolution.
Of course, a single veto couldn't sweep the issue under the rug.
Before Moscow could escalate its backlash, Washington sent an envoy for backchannel talks.
"In truth, we have no intention of attacking North Vietnam. We're just trying to shore up South Vietnam, our sphere of influence."
"You can promise that?"
"In the Czechoslovakia matter, we respected your sphere. Now it's Moscow's turn to show some goodwill."
With the U.S. bringing up Czechoslovakia, the Soviets couldn't press further on Vietnam intervention.
'We've done our best here.'
Moscow informed Hanoi of America's promise against northward advances.
"We got assurances from Washington that there'll be no invasion from the north. Rest easy."
North Vietnam trusted the Soviets' promise dubiously but had no other hopes to cling to.
You couldn't expect much from the former suzerain that had dropped to third place behind Korea.
'We've managed fine on our own without the Soviets anyway.'
North Vietnam decided to keep up the offensive until the Americans arrived.
"Before the imperialists come is when we make our stand."
North Vietnamese regular forces and the Viet Cong ramped up their offensive pace.
They swiftly crushed South Vietnamese units isolated like dots amid the liberated zones.
At the same time, they avoided tough opponents like South Vietnamese special forces and mercenaries as much as possible.
In this manner, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong whittled away over 50,000 South Vietnamese army troops.
The South Vietnamese authorities were furious at these defeats.
"It's all because the reds hiding behind our army are supplying intel and materiel."
They collaborated with the CIA to run the Phoenix Program nonstop.
Hundreds were dragged into camps daily, to the point where there wasn't enough steel and timber to build more.
Despite their all-out efforts to round up reds, the rear-guard communists showed no sign of thinning out.
With the situation like this, even the U.S. Far East Expeditionary Command wasn't optimistic about the war.
Far East Expeditionary Commander General Westmoreland believed that for the operation to succeed, the U.S. military would need to commit in massive numbers no matter what.
"To succeed in this mission, we'll need at least 100,000 troops at minimum. The South Vietnamese army is useless."
Coming from a commander with experience in the Military Assistance Command Vietnam advisory group, the White House nodded to the demand.
"We'll support you as the general says."
While awaiting the main force's arrival, Westmoreland focused on supporting the South Vietnamese army first.
The U.S. ground forces were still small-scale, not enough to influence the battlefield yet, but the Americans had something else to turn the tide instead of ground troops.
Air power.
"Justice has arrived from the skies!"
Whenever fighting broke out between South and North Vietnamese forces, U.S. aircraft swarmed in and unleashed devastating firepower.
"No way? Fighters, light attack planes, bombers, gunships—rotating in like that? Is that even right?"
"Yeah, that's our U.S. military."
The U.S. military demonstrated a murderous level of air support that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese had never experienced.
Relax for just a moment anywhere, anytime, and U.S. aircraft would swoop in to turn people to dust.
"Where do you think you're resting easy? If you want rest, rest forever underground."
The U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine aviation rotated in to hammer the ground relentlessly.
Along with this ferocious assault, the North Vietnamese offensive came to an end.
"From now on, hide thoroughly in the jungles."
North Vietnamese commander Vo Nguyen Giap decided to switch to a protracted war strategy using the vast jungles, just as he had against the formidable French.
Once the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese pulled back from frontal slugfests, the efficiency of U.S. air power plummeted.
"Have the reds switched from offense to defense?"
If the reds changed strategy, the U.S. military could change too.
"At least we have precedents to reference—lucky us."
U.S. Expeditionary Commander General Westmoreland borrowed strategies from generals who had succeeded against reds in the Far East before.
First, build unbreakable blockades that reds couldn't cross, then sweep the reds inside the area.
Once one "region" was cleared, move the main force to the next.
This was based on the strategies of French ace General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, who had inflicted fatal damage on North Vietnam before, and Alexander von Falkenhausen, the nemesis of the Chinese Communists.
The U.S. planned to systematically wipe out the reds using this proven pacification strategy.
"By the end of 1968, we'll sequentially finish off the reds in the southern regions starting from the Mekong Delta."
Clearing just the reds near the capital would be enough to convince Americans in Vietnam that South Vietnam was stabilizing.
"We trust only the general."
The White House expressed satisfaction at Westmoreland's proposed timeline.
That much would prevent Vietnam from being a point of attack in the election.
For the first time since deciding to intervene in Vietnam, the president felt a sense of relief.