Free Vietnam by Nigel Cawthorne Page A

Vietnam. A liberal Democrat, Johnson had already begun his 'Great Society' reforms at home, an enormous programme of social welfare legislation that included his 'war against poverty', federal support for education, medical care for the aged through an expanded social security programme, and an extension of African-American civil rights which were still being restricted by state voter registration laws in the South. In February 1966, Johnson met Premier Ky in Hawaii and offered to extend his 'Great Society' to Vietnam, saying, 'We are determined to win not only military victory over hunger, disease, and despair'.
    But Ky was no liberal Democrat and he was losing support at home. When the mayor of Da Nang rebelled against the Saigon government, Ky sent in troops, and America was forced to look the other way while its ally Ky, a military dictator, butchered elected representatives who were exercising the right of free speech.
    If that was not irony enough, the cost of the Vietnam War, both in monetary and political terms, killed Johnson's Great Society. After he left office, Johnson told his biographer Doris Kearns:
    I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved – the Great Society – in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. All my dreams to provide education and medical care to the browns and the blacks and the lame and the poor. But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.
    With South Vietnam virtually in a state of civil war, Johnson realised that his ally could not be relied upon and the prosecution of the war would have to be done by the Americans. All he could do was escalate the war. But even though B-52 strategic bombers dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on the Ho Chi Minh trail, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara estimated that 4,500 men a month were being infiltrated into South Vietnam. B-52s bombed Hanoi and North Vietnam's principal port Haiphong, destroying up to 90 per cent of North Vietnam's oil reserves. But this only served to harden the Communist world's support for Hanoi, while turning allies, such as Britain and France, against US involvement. Civilian casualties mounted. After a visit to South Vietnam, US Representative Clement Zablocki claimed that five civilians died for every one Vietcong killed. The war also began to spill over into neighboring Laos and Cambodia. Westmoreland asked for more men. By the end of 1966, there were 400,000 US troops in Vietnam, but the Vietcong still seemed to be able to attack American bases, seemingly at will.
    The American response grew more extreme. Armour was deployed, particularly the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. These heavily armed 'battlefield taxis' which carried eleven troops, plus the driver, into battle at up to 40 miles an hour achieved some success in a series of battles along the Minh Thanh road in June and July 1966, when the 1st Infantry Division opened Route 13 from Loc Ninh to Saigon and blocked the VC's attempt to withdraw into Cambodia. On 9 July, ACAV's (Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles) broke through the enemy's flanks and decimated elements of the 9th Vietcong Division, killing over 240 VC.
    However, the M113 were vulnerable to anti-tank mines and the men would pack the floor with sand bags, flak jackets, empty ammunition boxes and even C-ration tins full of sand for protection. The VC and NVA were also armed with 57mm and 75mm recoilless rifles and RPG-2 rocket propelled grenades, which turned the inside of the M113 into a blizzard of lacerating metal fragments. Grunts often found it safer to ride on the roof. The tactic devised