The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38

Aug 9, 2023

The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38

In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War as it unfolded in Asia. As John pointed out last week, the Cold War was occasionally hot, and a lot of that heat was generated in Asia. This is starting to sound weird with the hot/cold thing, so let’s just say that the United States’ struggle against communist expansion escalated to a full-blown, boots-on-the-ground war in Korea and Vietnam. In both of these cases, the United States sent soldiers to intervene in civil wars that it looked like communists might win. That’s a bit of a simplification, but John will explain it all to you.

Hey teachers and students - Check out CommonLit’s free collection of reading passages and curriculum resources to learn more about the events of this episode. While The Vietnam War was happening very far away from home, it had a major impact on American soldiers and civilians: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/intro…

Americans with televisions had the war broadcasted right into their living rooms, leading to an immense Vietnam War resistance effort: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/resis…

Want to learn more about the Cold War? Check out these other videos from Crash Course:
USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Crash Course World History #39:
   • USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Cras…

The Cold War: Crash Course US History #37:
   • The Cold War: Crash Course US History…

George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War: Crash Course US History #44:
   • George HW Bush and the End of the Col…

The Cold War and Consumerism: Crash Course Computer Science #24:
   • The Cold War and Consumerism: Crash C…

Post-War Rebuilding and the Cold War: Crash Course European History #41:
   • Post-War Rebuilding and the Cold War:…

Chapters:
Introduction: The Cold War in Asia 00:00
The Korean War 0:28
Eisenhower’s Election 3:05
Cost of the Korean War 3:20
Mystery Document 4:18
Ho Chi Minh 5:19
American Involvement in Vietnam 5:55
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 7:02
Operation Rolling Thunder 8:13
Fighting in Vietnam 8:41
Public Opinion and the Vietnam War 9:38
Nixon’s Plan to Leave Vietnam 10:34
Anti-War Sentiments 11:19
The End of the Vietnam War 11:52
Credits 13:09
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Content

0.12 -> Hi, I’m John Green, this is CrashCourse US History, and today we’re going to talk

3.85 -> about the Cold War again. Really less about the “cold,” more about the “war.”

6.68 -> As usual, we’re not going to focus so much on the generals and the tactics, but instead

10.22 -> on why the wars were fought and what it all meant.

13.04 -> And today we get to visit a part of the world that we haven’t seen much on this series:

16.949 -> [spins] Asia. Not my best work. intro

23.269 -> So, we’re gonna start today with the place where the Cold War really heated up, at least

32.09 -> as far as America’s concerned. Mr Green, it’s Vietnam.

34.769 -> Close, Me from the Past, but like all your romantic endeavors, unsuccessful. The correct

39.329 -> answer is of course Korea. Like MFTP, many Americans have forgotten about the Korean

43.809 -> War, which lasted three years from 1950 to 1953 and is sometimes called the Forgotten

49.039 -> War. But it was real. The Korean War was the first

51.44 -> real like shooting war that Americans were involved in after World War II and it was

55.23 -> the only time that American troops directly engaged with an honest to goodness Communist

59.78 -> power. I’m referring not to North Korea, but to

62.46 -> China, which became communist in 1949 and qualifies as a major world power because it

66.94 -> was, and also is, huge. We love you China. Just kidding, you’re not watching. Because

72.69 -> of the Great Fire Wall. So the end of WWII left Korea split between

75.91 -> a Communist north led by Kim Il crazypants Sung and an anti-communist but hardly democratic

80.95 -> South led by Syngman Rhee. The two were supposed to reunite, but that

84.25 -> was impossible because they were constantly fighting that cost around 100,000 lives.

89.61 -> The civil war between the two Koreas turned into a full-fledged international conflict

93.4 -> in June of 1950 when Kim Il Sung invaded the South, and the US responded. Truman thought

98.81 -> that Kim’s invasion was being pushed by the Soviets and that it was a challenge to

102.25 -> the “Free World.” Truman went to the United Nations and he got

105.42 -> authorization, but he didn’t go to Congress and never called the Korean War a “war.”

110.21 -> Insisting instead that American troops were leading a UN “police action” but that

114.75 -> was kind of a misleading statement. General Douglas MacArthur was in command of

118.06 -> this tiny little police force at the start of the war because he was the highest ranking

121.66 -> general in the region. He was also really popular, at least with the press, although

125.81 -> not so much with other generals, or with the president.

128.78 -> Under MacArthur, UN forces – which basically meant American and South Korean forces -- pushed

132.89 -> the North Koreans back past the 38th parallel where the two countries had been divided,

137.77 -> and then Truman made a fateful decision: The United States would try to re-unify Korea

142.94 -> as a non-communist state. Which, if you’ve looked at a map recently,

146.14 -> you’ll notice went swimmingly. America’s allies and the UN all agreed to this idea,

150.59 -> so up north they went, all the way to the northern border with China at the Yalu river.

155.59 -> At that point, Chinese forces, feeling that American forces were a smidge too close to

159.48 -> China, counter-attacked on November 1, 1950 and by Christmas the two sides were stalemated

164.43 -> again at the 38th parallel, right where they started.

167.78 -> The war dragged on for two more years with the U.S. pursuing a “scorched earth” policy

171.819 -> and dropping more bombs on Korea than had been dropped in the entire Pacific theater

176.21 -> during WWII. The two sides tried to negotiate a peace treaty,

179.24 -> but the sticking point was the repatriation of North Korean and Chinese prisoners who

183.01 -> didn’t want to go back to their communist homelands.

185.27 -> Meanwhile, at home, Americans were growing tired of a war that they weren’t winning,

189.01 -> which helped to swing the election of 1952 for Dwight Eisenhower.

192.15 -> Also he was also running against perennial presidential loser Adlai Stevenson, who was

196.2 -> perceived as an egghead intellectual because his name was Adlai Stevenson.

199.74 -> In addition to helping get Ike elected, the Korean War had a number of profound effects.

204.1 -> First and most importantly, it was expensive, both in terms of lives and money.

209.15 -> In 3 years of fighting 33,629 Americans were killed, 102,000 were wounded and nearly 4

215.74 -> million Koreans and Chinese were killed, wounded, or missing. The majority of Korean casualties

221.44 -> were civilians. The Korean War also further strengthened executive

224.63 -> power in the United States – Truman went to war without a declaration and Congress

228.709 -> acquiesced – this doesn’t mean that the war was initially was unpopular, it wasn’t.

232.55 -> People wanted to see America do something about Communism and allowing Kim to take the

236.56 -> south and possibly threaten Japan was unacceptable. However, the whole idea that you don’t really

240.55 -> need to declare war to go to war, while not new in America, sure has been important the

245.68 -> last 60 years. And the Korean War also strengthened the Cold

247.599 -> War mentality. I mean, this was the height of the Red Scare.

250.9 -> Also, the Korean War set the stage for America’s longer, more destructive, and more well known

255.86 -> engagement in Asia, the Vietnam War. Oh it’s time for the Mystery Document? The

261.759 -> rules here are simple. I guess the author of the Mystery Document.

264.639 -> I’m either right or I get shocked. Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.

268.21 -> "The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the

270.71 -> Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain

275.559 -> free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths.

279.46 -> Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard

283.55 -> of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our

287.849 -> fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

292.84 -> In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

298.68 -> Well Stan that sounds like a Frenchman who really doesn’t want to be French anymore.

303.309 -> So it’s somebody who’s very disappointed by the way the France has been running their

306.779 -> colonies. I’m going to guess that it’s North Vietnamese leader and Crash Course chalk

310.62 -> board person: Ho Chi Minh. Wait Stan says he needs his real name. It’s

317.37 -> Nguyen Sinh Cung. Yes! So, this document it points out that, at least

320.569 -> rhetorically, Ho Chi Minh was fighting for liberation from a colonial power as much as,

324.71 -> if not more than, he was trying to establish a communist dictatorship in Vietnam. But because

329.669 -> of the Cold War and its prevailing theories, the United States could only see Ho as a communist

334.74 -> stooge, a tool of the Kremlin. Under the so-called “domino theory” Vietnam

338.789 -> was just another domino that had to be propped up or else the rest of South East Asia would

342.87 -> fall to communism like a row of, dominos. That wasn’t my best work.

346.539 -> Now, in retrospect, this was a fundamental misunderstanding, but it’s important to

349.409 -> remember that at the time, people felt that they didn’t want the Soviet Union to expand

353.62 -> the way that, say, Nazi Germany had. America’s involvement in Vietnam, like most

357.419 -> things Cold War, dates back to World War II, but it really picked up in the 1950s as we

361.9 -> threw our support behind the French in their war to maintain their colonial empire. Wait,

366.629 -> Stan, how why would we fight with the French to maintain a colonial empire? Oh right, because

370.849 -> we were blinded by our fear of communism. Now, Eisenhower wisely refused to send troops

375.18 -> or use atomic weapons to help the French. Really good call.

378.279 -> And the Geneva Accords were supposed to set up elections to reunite North and South, which

382.43 -> had been divided after WWII, but then we didn’t let that happen.

386.119 -> Because sometimes democracies don’t vote for our guy. Instead, the U.S. began supporting

391.029 -> the repressive, elitist regime of Ngo Dinh Diem as a bulwark against communism.

395.58 -> Diem was a Catholic in a majority Buddhist country and his support of landowners didn’t

399.289 -> win him any fans. But he was against communism, which was good enough for us.

403.389 -> The first major involvement of American troops, then called advisors, began in the early 1960s.

408.089 -> Technically, their role was to advise the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, also called

413.05 -> ARViN. It was doomed. How did they not know this was doomed? Let’s

415.629 -> fight for Arvin. Against this guy. You are scary. Seriously.

421.61 -> Anyway, pretty quickly this advising turned into shooting, and the first American advisors

425.74 -> were killed in 1961, during John Kennedy’s presidency.

428.689 -> However, most Americans consider Vietnam to be Lyndon Johnson’s war, and they aren’t

433.129 -> wrong. The major escalation of American troops started under Johnson, especially in 1965

438.499 -> after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This is one of the great incidents in all

441.61 -> of American history. So, in August 1964, North Korean patrol boats attacked US warships in

447.009 -> the Gulf of Tonkin. As a result Johnson asked Congress to authorize

450.599 -> the president to take “all necessary measures to repel armed attack” in Vietnam, which

456.71 -> Congress dutifully did with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

460.509 -> So why is this one of the great incidents in American history? Because the whole patrol

463.779 -> boats attacking warships thing? That didn’t happen. None of that stuff happened except

468.819 -> we did actually go to war. Now, in retrospect, this seems like a terrible

472.749 -> idea but it was very popular at the time because to quote the historian James Patterson, “Preventing

477.899 -> Communism, after all, remained the guiding star of American policy.”[1] Wait a second,

481.979 -> did I just say to quote historian James Patterson, like the crime novelist? Oh it’s a different

487.369 -> guy apparently. That’s a bummer. He doesn’t write his own books because he’s

490.729 -> so busy with his secret career - being a historian. So, the number of American troops began a

495.149 -> steady increase and so did the bombing. The frightfully named Operation Rolling Thunder

499.979 -> began in the spring of 1965. And in March of that year two Marine battalions arrived

504.889 -> at Danang airbase authorized to attack the enemy. No advising about it.

509.33 -> But, Johnson didn’t actually tell the American public that our troops had this authorization,

513.889 -> which was part of a widening credibility gap between what the government told Americans

518.009 -> about the war and what was really happening. Let’s go to the ThoughtBubble.

521.699 -> By 1968 there were about half a million American soldiers in Vietnam and the government was

526.05 -> confidently saying that victory was just around the corner. But then in January Vietnamese

530.38 -> forces launched the Tet Offensive and while it was eventually repelled, the fact that

534.399 -> the North Vietnamese were able to mount such an offensive cast doubts on the claims that

538.61 -> U.S. victory was imminent. The Vietnam War itself was particularly brutal,

542.569 -> with much of the ground fighting taking place in jungles. Rather than large-scale offensives,

546.99 -> troops were sent on search and destroy missions and often it was difficult to tell enemy from

551.329 -> civilians. Capturing territory wasn’t meaningful, so commanders kept track of body counts. Like,

556.17 -> if more enemy were killed than Americans, we were winning.

560.089 -> In addition to jungle fighting, there was a lot of bombing. Like, more bombs were dropped

564.11 -> on North and South Vietnam than both the Axis and Allied powers used in all of World War

570.819 -> II. The U.S. used chemical defoliants like Agent Orange to get rid of that pesky jungle,

574.35 -> and also napalm, which was used to burn trees, homes, and people.

578.43 -> Television coverage meant that Vietnam was the first war brought into American living

582.18 -> rooms. And people were horrified at what they saw. They were especially shocked at the My

586.25 -> Lai massacre, which took place in 1968 but was only reported a year later, in 1969. These

592.18 -> draftees were young, and disproportionately from the lower classes because enrollment

595.88 -> in college or grad school earned you a deferment. So unlike previous American wars, the burden

601.029 -> of fighting did not fall evenly across socioeconomic class.

605.009 -> Thanks, ThoughtBubble. So, as Americans at home became increasingly aware of what was

608.75 -> going on in Vietnam, protests started. But it’s important to remember that the majority

612.73 -> of Americans were not out in the streets or on college campuses burning their draft cards.

618.009 -> Right up through 1968 and maybe even 1970, most Americans supported the Vietnam War.

624.05 -> During the 1968 presidential campaign, Richard Nixon promised that he had a secret plan to

628.519 -> end the war and appealed to the silent majority of Americans who weren’t on board with the

632.709 -> anti-war movement. So, the first part of Nixon’s secret plan

635.509 -> was “vietnamization” -- gradually withdrawing American troops and leaving the fighting to

640.54 -> the Vietnamese. The second part involved more bombing and

643.55 -> actually escalating the war by sending American troops into Cambodia in order to cut off the

648.44 -> so-called Ho Chi Minh, named for this guy, a supply line that connected north to south.

654.31 -> Not only did this not work, it also destabilized Cambodia and helped the Khmer Rouge to come

659.22 -> to power. The Khmer Rouge represented the absolute worst

662.3 -> that Communism had to offer, forcing almost all Cambodians into communes and massacring

667.18 -> one third of the country’s population. So, not a great secret plan. By 1970 the anti-protests

674.98 -> had grown and discontent within the armed forces was enormous.

678.99 -> Vietnam veterans, including future almost-president John Kerry, were participating in protests.

683.269 -> And things got even worse when in 1971 the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers,

688.649 -> classified documents that showed that the government had been misleading the public

692.31 -> about the war for years. Congress eventually responded by passing the

696.029 -> War Powers Act in 1973 which was supposed to limit the president’s ability to send

700.85 -> troops overseas without their approval and prevent another Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

705.709 -> John: How does that work out, Stan? Stan: Not great.

710.139 -> John: Yeah. I’ll say. After five years of negotiations, Nixon and

714.61 -> his secretary of state Henry Kissinger were able to end America’s involvement in Vietnam.

719.35 -> In 1973 the Paris Peace Agreement made it possible for America to withdraw its troops,

724.199 -> although it left North Korea in control of some of South Vietnam.

724.55 -> The war between North and South Vietnam however continued until 1975 when the North finally

729.589 -> conquered the South and created a single, communist Vietnam.

732.8 -> The Vietnam War cost the United States more than $100 billion spent, 58,000 Americans

737.879 -> died as well as between 3 and 4 million Vietnamese people

741.49 -> And Vietnam was the first war in America that we definitively lost. We lost it because we

747.16 -> didn’t understand the Vietnamese and we didn’t understand why they were fighting.

751.25 -> To return to the historian James Patterson, “the unyielding determination of the enemy

755.449 -> … wore down the American commitment, which proved to be far less resolute.”[2]

760.069 -> America expected that its superior technology and wealth would eventually wear down the

764.36 -> Vietnamese and they’d just give up communism. But the Vietnamese weren’t fighting for

769.629 -> communism. They were fighting for Vietnam. This fundamental misunderstanding combined

773.579 -> with the government’s dishonesty changed American’s relationship with their leaders.

778.06 -> Before Vietnam, most Americans trusted their government, even when they knew it did horrible

782.459 -> things. But, after the war, and largely because of it, that trust was gone. Thanks for watching.

788.089 -> I’ll see you next week. Crash Course is made with the assistance of

790.99 -> all of these nice people and also through your support at Subbable.

795.339 -> Subbable is a voluntary subscription service that allows you to support crash course at

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801.939 -> So if you enjoy and value Crash Course, I hope you’ll consider supporting us through

804.959 -> Subbable. If you can’t afford to do so, that’s fine. We’re just glad that you’re

808.81 -> watching. You can click my face or there’s also a

810.75 -> link in the video info. Thanks again for watching Crash Course and as we say in my hometown,

814.46 -> don’t forget to be awesome.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmLkuhG0