HISTORY ESSAYS

Grade 12 2023
Vietnam Essay
How did America lose in Vietnam?
Vietnam managed to avoid defeat by the United States of America in the armed conflict that
existed between those countries from 1961-1973 through their shear determination to
support the nationalist cause, as well as their ingenuity and ability to improvise under
difficult conditions. The Americans on the other hand failed to deal with the guerrilla
warfare of the Viet Cong, did not “win the hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people and
lost the political will to fight as their own media became critical of the war.
Americans could not seem to recognize that, in the eyes of most Vietnamese people, North
and South Vietnam were one country and the communist Ho Chi Minh, was the legitimate
leader of a united Vietnam. Vietnamese people could see little difference between the
Japanese invaders of World War 2, the French colonists who returned after the war and
were defeated in 1954 or their American supporters who later propped up the corrupt Diem
government of South Vietnam. While America expected to be welcomed as a liberator from
communism, the Vietnamese believed America had come to colonise, enslave and exploit
them.
The capitalist government of South Vietnam would never be popular with the Vietnamese
people and therefore it was impossible for the Americans to defend it indefinitely. They
offered no relief, social programmes, or land reforms to the poor, as did communist North
Vietnam. President Diem was a Christian who showed great intolerance and disrespect to
the Buddhist majority in South Vietnam, which increased his unpopularity.
In 1961, the Kennedy administration involved Americans in Vietnam in a purely support and
advisory role to the South Vietnamese regime. The intention was for America to win over
the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people. Under American observation, South
Vietnam set up “protected hamlets”, prison-like compound, to isolate civilians and guard
them from contact with the guerrilla fighters. This proved to be unsuccessful because it was
impossible to separate guerrilla fighters from the civilians.
In 1965, the American marines first became active in Vietnam under President Johnson.
Cold war propaganda made this crusade against communism a popular in the USA. Their
mission was to seek and destroy Viet Cong soldiers supported by North Vietnam. These
guerrilla fighters were difficult to locate, or to identify. American and South Vietnamese
forces were attacked and the small bands of combatants would then retreat and vanish
without a trace- or simply blend in with the civilian population.
The Americans began to adopt extreme and cruel methods which were captured by TV news
crews and newspaper media and presented to a shocked US public at home. U.S. forces
burned civilian villages. They dropped napalm bombs on civilians whom they suspected to
be giving support to the Viet Cong guerrillas and attempted to make the enemy more visible
by destroying vegetation with the chemical defoliant known as “Agent Orange”
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During operation Rolling Thunder the Americans began to carpet bomb North Vietnam as
well as the Ho Chi Minh trail along which supplies were transported from North Vietnam.
The trail also passed through the independent countries of Laos and Cambodia. American
forces had no legal mandate to carry out these bombings against the neighbouring
countries. North Vietnam responded to this by invading Laos and Cambodia and installing
communist governments there.

The Viet Cong fighters would use networks of tunnels to hide themselves and their support
mechanisms from the Americans. They would also construct booby traps from bamboo and
other local materials. The American soldiers were extremely demoralised by being under
constant threat from an invisible enemy. For the American soldier, success meant to be able
to return home safely. For a Viet Cong soldier, success meant victory – death was the only
other alternative.

Also demoralising for the American soldiers was the shifting public opinion at home. By the
time 500 000 soldiers had been conscripted to fight in Vietnam in 1968, hundreds of billion
dollars had been spent on the war, many Americans had begun to protest the war and
demand that it be stopped. The public was also tired of the mounting death toll (14000)
among the conscripted soldiers, a disproportionate number of whom were poor and / or
black.

The Vietnam war became particularly unpopular when the Mai Lai Massacre was tried in an
American court of law. A U.S Army lieutenant Carrey and his platoon massacred an entire
village that was suspected to have assisted the Viet Cong. Photographs and details of this
massacre appeared in the media to a shocked American public.

The Viet Cong had close to fifty thousand soldiers killed in the Tet Offensive of 1968, during
which they briefly invaded the South Vietnamese capital Saigon and occupied the American
embassy there. These events were extremely concerning to the American public, who saw
the failure to protect the embassy as a clear defeat.

During the escalated bombing of 1968, President Johnson was hoping to force Ho Chi Minh
to the negotiating table, but the veteran nationalist replied in an open letter to Johnson that
he would never negotiate with the Americans, no matter how many bombs they dropped.

President Johnson did not run for re-election because of his failure in Vietnam, and Richard
Nixon took office in 1969 amid promises to get out of Vietnam through a process he called
“Vietnamisation”. He sought “exit with honour” by equipping and training the South
Vietnamese Army to fend for themselves. The fighting was stopped by 1973 and Vietnam
was united under one communist regime by 1975.

One can now see that the Vietnam War presented an impossible situation for the American
military and that their political agenda was flawed. America failed to understand that the
Vietnamese people were solidly behind the communist government of veteran nationalist
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Ho Chi Minh and that they were prepared to fight an indefinite guerrilla war to resist
American intervention. The excessive, and extensively televised military tactics showed that
America was unable to contend with guerrilla warfare in Vietnam and made them
increasingly unpopular among the Vietnamese population – and at home.

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Black Power Movement Essay
The Black Power Movement in the late 1960s was, for a short time, very effective in
promoting Black self-reliance and activism against racism in northern cities. Their grievances
were: poor housing in ghettos, poor education, high unemployment, poor job opportunities
and police brutality. In 1968 there were riots and anger at the assassination of Martin Luther
King. Even though the Civil Rights Act had been passed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in
1965, American Blacks felt the lack of real social change.
The BPM was a philosophy, not a political movement. They rejected the racial term
“negro” and replaced it with “black”. They sought the development of black social and
cultural institutions, rather than being accepted into white society.
The key players in the Black Power Movement were Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X and
the Black Panther Party.
Stokely Carmichael: “The only way we gonna stop them white men from whoopin’ us is to
take over.” He was arrested 27 times during his involvement with the SCLC during the CRM
in the south. After being released from prison, he made his famous “Black Power” speech,
encouraging African Americans to unite and form a sense of community. He also formed
the slogan “Black is Beautiful”, promoting black (and rejecting white) notions of style and
fashion. His followers wore Afro hairstyles and African style clothing. He expressed the right
of black people to defend themselves if attacked.
Malcolm X Spent 10 years in prison, where he became a Muslim, joined the Nation of Islam
and rejected his surname “Little” and replaced it with “X”, as a statement that, as a black
American, his ancestry and identity had been robbed during slavery. He made fiery speeches
and was critical of Martin Luther King’s non-violence: “If they make the Ku Klux Klan non-
violent, I’ll be non-violent”. “You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do
anything to get your freedom. Then you’ll get it.” He did not support the multi racial
Freedom March on Washington in 1963, as it meant joining hands with the white oppressor.
He developed the reputation as a dangerous revolutionary when he demanded freedom “by
any means necessary”.
The Black Panther Party was a militant group, formed in Oakland Ca. in 1966, led by Huey
Newton & Bobby Seal. They intended to end white capitalist control and police brutality
against blacks. They opposed blacks being conscripted to fight in Vietnam to defend a racist
white government. They wanted decent housing and schools for black communities, black
juries for court cases involving blacks, and freedom for blacks held in “white jails”. They set
up self-help schemes in the ghettos.
They set up ghetto clinics to advise blacks on health, welfare, and legal rights. They provided
meals for the poor. They set up patrols to prevent police brutality in the ghettos. They
adopted Mao’s slogan “power flows from the barrel of a gun”. They killed 9 police officers in
gunfights between 1967 and 1968. Pastor George Clements: “Black Panthers refused to be
ignored.”
By 1970, the Black Panthers broke up as 27 of their members had been killed in shootouts
with the police and several more of them were sent to prison.
Angela Davis was an important member of the Black Panther party. She was immediately
recognisable by her large Afro hairstyle and was famously acquitted during a politically
charged murder trial, during which she had many active supporters. She later became
involved with the women’s rights movement.

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At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, 2 black American athletes were sent home for
showing the black power salute on the medals podium. Boxing icon Muhammad Ali lost his
world boxing title and went to prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam. There was a lot of
sympathy among African
Americans for these sporting heroes.
Black Power conferences encouraging black participation led to black mayors being elected
in several cities and programmes to improve black housing and facilities were put in place. It
promoted
economic and social equality through black business and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Although they produced some benefits, the radical nature of the Black Power Movement and
their willingness to use violence, rejecting the work of the immensely popular Martin Luther
King, limited the amount of support that they got from both black and white Americans. It
also limited the life of the movement to a few years.

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Black Consciousness Movement Essay
The Black Consciousness Movement successfully used its aims of self-reliance in challenging
the apartheid system in South Africa in the 1970s. While its aims were to promote self-
respect and confidence amongst the black population, the BCM ultimately forced the
relatively new idea on colonialists that black people had rights and should be dealt with as
equals.

The BCM was, rather than a political movement, a philosophical school of thought intended
to empower black people psychologically against the crushing realities of apartheid. Bantu
Steve Biko, the movement’s founder, believed that the black man
must first believe in himself before he could ever hope to take over and run the country.
The South African Students Organisation (SASO), which Biko founded in 1968, was an
important foundation for Black Consciousness in South Africa, as it included black students,
professionals, and intellectuals. Many came from the “bush colleges” that existed under the
Bantu Education system, but they would go on to become leaders in their communities.

The term “black” was a direct challenge to the apartheid authority’s preferred term “non-
white” – it included Indian and Coloured people as well as Africans, or any cultural group
that was being disadvantaged and oppressed under apartheid. The use of the term
“black” was intended, therefore, to reject “white” as the accepted human standard.

The fundamental aim of the BCM was to promote self-respect and confidence in
black people. They believed that liberation could only be achieved through promoting a black
identity, culture, and history as well as to mobilise all black people to reject separate
development and challenge apartheid. Steve Biko opposed the Bantu Education Act as well
as the Homelands Act as being particularly harmful to blacks. He once pleaded with
homeland leaders not to contribute to the divisions that separated SA blacks. Referring to
the BEA, he also asserted that the mind of the oppressed is the greatest weapon of the
oppressor.

SASO was a blacks-only student movement that broke off from the white dominated
student union, NUSAS. This was not out of racism towards the white liberals in NUSAS, but
Biko observed that the challenges facing black students were far different than what was
being prioritised by the white dominated union. In the manner of the American Black Power
Movement, as well as the Pan African Congress, Biko’s group did not want to include
whites, who had a superior social, economic, and legal status. The message to white liberals
was if they sympathised with blacks, let them go and convince their own people not to be
racist. Biko therefore refuted claims that the BCM was a parallel form of racism. He merely
thought it was time for black people to do things for themselves.

The Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU), which staged a massive strike in Durban in 1973,
was also included in the broad based BCM. The Black Communities Project assisted poor
black people with economic cooperatives, literacy campaigns, health projects, cultural
forums, advice clinics and social upliftment projects. The Black People’s Convention (BPC)
was formed as an umbrella body for BCM organisations with similar views. Secret links
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existed between the BCM and the exiled ANC from the early 1970s.

The South African Students Movement (SASM) was established in 1971 as a student’s
representative committee in Soweto. The Action Committee later changed its name to the
Soweto Students Representative Council and issued militant newspapers, such as THRUST.

The government confiscated copies of THRUST when it lashed out against the teaching of
certain subjects in Afrikaans. The SSRC planned a massive protest for
16 June 1976 on this very issue. Many teachers and parents joined the students in a
peaceful march that turned into a massacre when the police opened fire upon them. This
sparked riots in townships throughout South Africa, as well as global condemnation. This
widespread outrage both globally and domestically indicated
that the apartheid system was doomed to fail sooner or later.

A famous photo of the death of Hector Pieterson taken by Sam Nzima circulated worldwide
and added to emotions.

In the wake of the Soweto uprising, all the Black Consciousness groups were banned,
including the black student organisations. 12000 students left SA to join ANC and PAC
military training in neighbouring countries. Steve Biko was arrested and killed in police
custody in 1977. Nevertheless, the teaching of Afrikaans as a medium in black schools was
discontinued after the uprising.

Regardless of the setbacks and the tragic loss of its founder Steve Biko, we can accept that
the Black Consciousness Movement used its aims in self-reliance to challenge the apartheid
regime. The union movement and self-help schemes
reduced the dependence on whites, while the Soweto Uprising, a BCM inspired event, was
an important turning point in the struggle against apartheid, leading into the open rebellion
of the 1980s.

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Negotiated Settlement Essay

“We refuse to live under an ANC government. There will be a war in South Africa. That
day we will fight like our forefathers and we will win.” This uncredited quote came from a
Conservative Party member, during a time when others were negotiating for a peaceful
transition to democracy in South Africa prior to the 1994 elections. There was much
violence in South Africa during this time, coming from many quarters and only
compromise and negotiation could guarantee a peaceful outcome. We can therefore
credit the negotiators for their role in bringing about a peaceful transition of government
after 27 April 1994.

The possibility of peaceful Democratic change in SA became apparent when NP President

FW De Klerk announced in parliament on 2 Feb 1990 that he was going to unban the
ANC, PAC and SACP and release Nelson Mandela from prison.

The first talks between the ANC and the NP government, known as the Groot Schuur
Minute, took place at the president’s residence in Rondebosch in May 1990. Obstacles to
real negotiations were discussed, including security legislation, troops in the townships, the
state of emergency, the on-
going violence, the position of the homelands, political prisoners, the armed struggle,
economic sanctions, and the return of exiles. Prominent among the exiles was ANC
President Oliver Tambo, who was still living in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Pretoria Minute was the second discussion, which took place in August 1990. This was
a breakthrough meeting in which the ANC agreed to suspend the armed struggle against
the National Party government in exchange for the government’s lifting of the state of
emergency.

The beginning of real discussions on democratic change in SA took place in 1991, when
CODESA 1 was formed at the World Trade Centre (now Emperor’s Palace) in Kempton Park,
east of Johannesburg. the ANC, SACP and COSATU formed the Tripartite Alliance, which
wielded much leverage against the NP, as they could threaten to put rolling mass action in
place if they were displeased with National Party demands. They also had COSATU head
Cyril Ramaphosa, who was able to face off well against the NP’s Rolph Meyer in
negotiations. The IFP, CP and PAC boycotted these negotiations, which were short-lived, as
the June 1992 Boipathong massacre occurred when a group of Inkatha Freedom Party
supporters, not part of the negotiations, attacked an ANC funeral in the Free State. In
September 1992 a crowd of protesters was mowed down by soldiers in the Ciskei in what is
known as the Bisho massacre. A third force, consisting of NP government agents, were
suspected of fuelling (and enabling) these attacks.

The need for a negotiated settlement eventually prevailed and CODESA 2 was convened.
Surprisingly for the existing government, it was SACP’s Joe Slovo who came up with the
“Sunset Clause”, which created the Government of National Unity. All parties who won 5%

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or more of the vote got to take part in the first democratic government under this
agreement. The NP did not expect a solution so agreeable to them to come from Slovo, as
they had believed him to be a most dangerous character and their arch enemy while he was
in exile for many years.
Negotiations came to a halt once more and the nation stood at the brink of an armed
conflict when SACP leader Chris Hani was assassinated outside his Boksburg home by
a Polish national in April 1993. Hani had played a crucial role in convincing the more
militant ANC cadres to negotiate with the National Party and it was only a televised plea
for calm by Nelson Mandela that kept the situation resulting from Hani’s death from getting
too far out of hand.

The negotiations started again in 1993 soon thereafter and this time the CP and the PAC joined in
the negotiations. The PAC had agreed to end the armed struggle after their armed wing, APLA,
carried out two attacks against the white population in Cape Town: St James Church and the
Heidelberg Tavern.

The negotiators arrived at an Interim Constitution with 9 provinces and a Bill of Rights put
forward with elections scheduled for April 1994. They also agreed on a system of
proportional representation. The IFP was still unhappy with not being able to rule an
autonomous KwaZulu and declared that they would boycott elections.

The AWB also disapproved of the Interim Constitution, as displayed by their driving an
armoured car through the window of the World Trade Centre where the Codesa talks were
being held – and then occupying the building. This outrageous act by 200 white racists did
not end the conference, but merely served to solidify the belief that elections had to go
ahead and an agreement between the ANC and government had to be reached.

There was opposition from a group of homeland leaders afraid of losing their privileges. The
Concerned South African Citizens Group (COSAG) consisted of Lucas Mangope of
Bophutaswana, Oupa Gxozo of the Ciskei, the IFP and the Conservative Party. The AWB got
involved and attempted to invade Bophutaswana, but this failed and so did COSAG.

The Shell House Massacre occurred at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg in March 1994. A
month before the elections were scheduled, armed IFP supporters marched on Shell House
(now Lithuli House) and a pitched battle with ANC guards resulted in the death of 53 people.
As 300 more people died in violence around the country, hopes for peaceful elections were
fading. Right wing militants were setting off bomb blasts in election venues, party offices and
in downtown Johannesburg with the intention of undermining the elections. A bomb was
even detonated at JHB Airport on election day.

Finally, at the eleventh hour, a meeting between Mandela, De Klerk and Buthelezi resulted in
the IFP joining the elections as well. Right wing Afrikaners formed the Freedom Front and
joined the elections also. This resulted in a peaceful and successful democratic election on
27-29 April 1994.

It can now be seen that it was negotiation and compromise that enabled South Africa’s
transformation into a stable democracy. The efforts of our leaders and negotiators paved
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the way forward to the elections, even though others, whether members of political parties
or a third force, used warring tactics to try and stop them.

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