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The Vietnam War

1. Under whose Presidency did the US become

involved in Vietnam?

2. What was the Historical SignificANCE OF Dien

Bien Phu?

3. Who was Ho Chi Minh and what was the Ho

Chi Minh Trail?

4. What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

5. What was operation Rolling Thunder?

6. What is Agent Orange?

7. What is the historical significance of the Tet

Offensive

8. What is Vietnamization?

French Indochina

• By 1500’s the French come to Vietnam in search of spices.

• Attempt to convert the Vietnamese to Catholicism.

• Several missionaries are murdered which prompts France to send it’s navy for protection.

• France takes control of all Indochina (Vietnam, Loas, and Cambodia)

Maps of Indochina: Laos,

Cambodia, and Vietnam

French Indochina

• Vietnamese come to hate French

imperialism.

• Most Vietnamese are Peasant Farmers,

the French want to make profits so they

turn the land into giant plantations and turn

the Vietnamese into tenant farmers.

• This means great profits for the French

and great hardships for most of Vietnam.

French restrict freedom of speech and assembly.

French Jailed several Vietnamese Nationalists.

All this does is make Vietnam more ripe for revolt.

Ho Chi Minh• Vietnamese begin to

rebel against French

rule.

• By 1940’s they are

ready for full scale

revolution.

• The most important

leader is Ho Chi Minh.

• Wanted Independence

for Vietnam and to turn

it into a Communist

country.

Ho forms the League for

the Independence of

Vietnam known as the

VIETMINH.

“Rich people, soldiers,

workers, peasants,

intellectuals, employees,

traders, youth, and

women who warmly love

your country! Let us unite

together! As one mind

and strength we shall

overthrow the Japanese

and French.” –Ho

Ho receives help from the U.S. to defeat Japan

during WWII.

On September 2, 1945 a half a million Vietnamese

gather in Hanoi to celebrate their independence.

American Planes circle overhead and the band plays the Star

Spangled Banner.

Ho Chi Minh reads a speech that was modeled after Thomas

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

Ho Chi Minh’s: Declaration of Independence,

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

“All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness"

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America m 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

Fear of Communism

• The Soviets dominated most of Eastern Europe.

• The Chinese communist were fighting for control

of China.

• Truman fears the spread of communism and for

containment purposes supports the French in

their efforts to retake control of Vietnam.

• French soldiers enter Vietnam and retake

control, sending the Vietminh into the jungle to

prepare for another guerrilla war.

“If ever the tiger

pauses, the

elephant (France)

will impale him on

his mighty tusks.

But the tiger will

not pause, and

the elephant will

die of exhaustion

and loss of

blood.”

1950: U.S. enters the struggle

between France and Vietnam.

Over the next four years the

U.S. spends 2.6 Billion on the

war.

In 1953 newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower continues sending

money to help the French in Vietnam and introduces the Domino Theory.

Compares countries on the brink of Communism to a row of Dominoes, waiting

to fall one after the other. “You have a row of dominoes set up, You knock

over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that

it will go over very quickly.”

Dien Bien Phu• Despite Massive U.S. aid, the French

could not retake Vietnam.

• May 1954 is the final blow when the

Vietminh overran the French outpost at

Dien Bien Phu.

A French military base that

the Vietminh gain control of,

French surrender and begin

to pull out of Vietnam.

Dien Bien Phu

Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai(left) with Vietnamese President

Ho Chi Minh (center), Premier Pham Van Dong and Vice-

Premier Ho Lung.

• After fall of Dien Bien Phu,

French surrender and begin to

pull out of Vietnam.

• May- July 1954: France, Great

Britain, Soviet Union, United

States, China, Laos, and

Cambodia meet in Geneva

Switzerland with the Vietminh

and the anti-communist

nationalists from the South.

• Geneva Accords: temporarily

divides Vietnam along the 17th

parallel. Communist leader Ho

Chi Minh control the North from

city of Hanoi. While anti-

communist nationalists

controlled the South from the

city of Saigon

• Geneva Accords: temporarily

divides Vietnam along the 17th

parallel. Communist leader Ho

Chi Minh control the North from

city of Hanoi. While anti-

communist nationalists controlled

the South from the city of Saigon

Ho Chi Minh in the North

• Ho’s government was brutal and

repressive.

• Wins popular support in the North by

breaking up large plantations and

redistributing the land to the peasants.

• By fighting off the Japanese and the French

in the name of an independent Vietnam he

had become a national hero.

Ngo Dinh Diem

• Ngo Dinh Diem:

President of South

and strong anti-

communist.

• He realizes Ho’s

popularity and refuses

to take part in the

countrywide election

of 1956.

Ike and Diem

• U.S. thinks that if there

is a countrywide election

that Ho will win so they

support the cancellation

of the elections.

• Furthermore, they will

give military aid and

training to Diem in return

for a stable anti-

communist government

in the South.

Diem Fails the U.S.

• He leads a corrupt government.

• He violently suppresses any opposition.

• Offered little or no land distribution to the peasants.

• Restricts Buddhist religious practices.

Vietcong (VC)

• 1957 Vietcong (Vietminh)

begin attacks on Diem

government

assassinating thousands

of govt. officials.

• Ho Chi Minh Trail: Ho

supplies the VC with w/

weapons via a network of

paths along the borders

of Vietnam, Laos, and

Cambodia

John Kennedy and Vietnam

• Kennedy was fearful

of attacks that

Democrats were soft

on communism.

1. Increases Financial

Aid to Diem

2. Sends thousands of

military advisors to

train the S.

Vietnamese troops.

• Diems popularity continues to fall.

• Strategic Hamlet Program: Moves all villagers into protected areas.

• This greatly upsets villagers who had seen no land reform from Diem and were now being forced to leave their home villages were their families had lived for generations and where their ancestors were buried.

Further Attacks on Buddhism

• Fed up with Buddhist protests against his

regime Diem imprisons imprisons

thousands of Buddhist clerics and orders

their temples destroyed.

• Several monks and nuns publicly burn

themselves to death.

• American officials ask Diem to stop the

persecution but he refuses.

Diem Must Go

• On November 1, 1963 a U.S. supported military coup toppled Diems regime.

• Against Kennedy’s wishes Diem is executed.

• A few weeks later Kennedy is assassinated and the question of Vietnam falls to the New President Lyndon B. Johnson

After Diem

• After Diem’s death S. Vietnam is in Chaos.

• Military leaders try to grab power.

• Vietcong only getting stronger.

• New U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson

does not want to

be labeled soft on

communism.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• August 2, 1964: N. Vietnamese patrol

boat fires a torpedo at an American

destroyer the U.S.S. Maddox which

was in the Gulf of Tonkin off the N.

Vietnamese Coast.

• Torpedo missed it’s target – But the

Maddox inflicts heavy damage on the

patrol boat.

2 Days Later…

• Maddox and another Destroyer are sailing

of the coast of N. Vietnam.

• Technicians report that they were shot at

by enemy torpedoes.

• The Maddox opens fire.

• Crew later said they had neither seen nor

heard hostile gunfire.

LBJ’s Response

• Launches bombing strikes on N. Vietnam

• Asks congress for “all necessary powers”

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• Congress approves Johnson’s request called the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on August 7, 1964.

• It gives him broad military powers in Vietnam.

• LBJ does not tell congress or the American people that the U.S. had been leading secret raids against N. Vietnam or that the Maddox was in Gulf of Tonkin to gather info for the raids.

• LBJ had prepared the resolution months beforehand and was just waiting for the right moment to pass it through congress.

• 2005 National Security Advisory released secret documents that made it clear no attack had occurred

Tonkin Gulf Resolution gives LBJ the authority

to use military power against N. Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder• February of 1965: The

first sustained bombing N. Vietnam. (3/1965 –11/1968

• By June More than 50,000 U.S. soldiers were battling the Vietcong.

• Much of the nation supported Johnson and the containment of Communism in Vietnam.

• Wins 1964 Presidential Election.

Rolling Thunder

2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968

(More tonnage then all sides on WWII)

LBJ Reluctant to Send Ground Troops

• Said he was, “not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”

In March of 1965 after advising

closely with Secretary of Defense

Robert McNamara and Secretary of

State Dean Rusk he begins sending

tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to

Vietnam.

Sec. Of Defense: Robert McNamara Sec. Of State: Dean Rusk

Escalation

• August 7, 1964: Congress gives LBJ war

powers on

• June 1965: More than 50,000 U.S. soldiers were

battling the Vietcong.

• By the end of 1965: U.S. had sent more than

180,000 Americans to Vietnam

• 1965 poll showed 61% of Americans

supported the U.S. policy in Vietnam,

while only 24% opposed it.

• By 1967: the number of U.S. troops in

Vietnam is 500,000.

• 1965 poll showed 61% of Americans supported the U.S. policy in Vietnam, while only 24% opposed it.

• By the end of 1965 U.S. had sent more than 180,000 Americans to Vietnam

• ARVN: Army of the Republic of

Vietnam

VC: Ho’s Guerilla army that fights

against U.S.

• Gen. William Westmoreland:

The American Commander in S.

Vietnam who continues to request

more troops.

• Westmoreland had no trust in the

ARVN.

• By 1967 the number of U.S.

troops in Vietnam is 500,000.

JUNGLE WARFARE

• Jungle terrain and enemy’s guerilla tactics turned the war into a frustrating stalemate.

• Vietcong lacks high powered weaponry of U.S. forces.

• VC: use hit and run, ambush tactics, and knowledge of the jungle to confuse the U.S.

• Jungles were laced with booby traps and land mines.

• VC used a system of tunnels to attack and disappear quickly.

Blending In

• Attacks could happen in cities or in the

countryside.

• Vietcong moved secretly in and out of the

civilian population making it hard for U.S.

soldiers to tell who was friend and who

was the enemy.

A South Vietnamese soldier beats a farmer with the blunt end of a knife for allegedly supplying inaccurate information about the movement of Viet Cong guerrillas in a village west of Saigon. Jan. 9, 1964.

The body of an American paratrooper killed in action near the Cambodian border is raised to an evacuation helicopter in Vietnam in 1966. More than 58,000 Americans were killed and 350,000 wounded in the war.

A South Vietnamese woman mourns over the body of her husband, found with 47 others in a mass grave near Hue in April 1969.

Veterans of the Vietnam conflict take part in an anti-war protest by piling their medals, decorations and awards in front of the U.S. Capitol on April 26, 1971. A veteran adds his helmet to the pile.