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The Vietnam War
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Cold War Review
• Containment was successful through the 1950s –Truman Doctrine
–Marshall Plan
–Korean War
• BUT…in 1945, US gov’t became concerned with threat of Communism in Asia
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Vietnam
• Controlled by France since 1887 • 1945: Ho Chi Minh leads war for
independence – USA concerned revolution would
result in Communist government
• Truman and Eisenhower sent aid to France
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Vietnam
• 1954: France withdrew troops • Vietnam divided at 17th
parallel • Ho Chi Minh took over the
North • Ngo Dinh Diem became
Democratic leader of the South
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Vietnam
• Eisenhower & Kennedy supported Diem in South Vietnam
• Sent military advisors to put down Communist supporters in S. Vietnam
• Nov. 1963: Diem assassinated – Led to chaos in S. Vietnam
• LBJ inherited Vietnam “problem”
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Gulf of Tonkin
• 1964: USS Maddox attacked by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin
• Congress issued the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave LBJ broad powers to “defend Vietnam at any cost”
• Led to escalation of US involvement in Vietnam
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Escalation
• LBJ began sending U.S. troops in 1965 –Goal: CONTAIN
COMMUNISM • By 1968, over 500,000 U.S.
soldiers were fighting in Vietnam
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Fighting in Vietnam
• US troops were battling the Vietcong –Vietcong: supporters of Communism in South
Vietnam • Problem: –difficult to tell who the enemy was –Vietcong used guerilla tactics to combat U.S.
military superiority –Jungle made fighting difficult
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The Tet Offensive
• 1968: the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive against U.S. forces in South Vietnam
• American anti-war movement grew – LBJ announced he would not run
for re-election • = a turning point, as the US
began to withdraw from Vietnam
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Election of 1968
• Chaos of 1968 led Americans to demand peace and stability
• Republican Richard Nixon won election
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Nixon and Vietnam
• “Peace with Honor” • Vietnamization:
gradually withdraw U.S. troops & replace them with South Vietnamese soldiers
• secretly sent U.S. troops Cambodia & ordered bombings of Laos
Led to biggest protests in US
History
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Ending the War
• 1973, the U.S. & North Vietnam agreed to a cease fire –the U.S. withdrew
troops from Vietnam • 1975, North Vietnam invaded
South Vietnam –unified the nation under a
communist government
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Impact of Vietnam
• Vietnam was the longest & most divisive war in U.S. history
• Of the 3.3 million U.S. soldiers who served: –58,000 were killed –303,000 were wounded – 15% were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder after the war –Many vets faced hostility from other U.S. citizens
when they returned home
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Impact of Vietnam
The war changed foreign policy • Containment ended as Americans became
cautious of the U.S. role in the world • Congress limited a president's ability to send
troops without a declaration of war by passing the War Powers Act in 1973
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Impact of Vietnam
The war changed America at home • People began to lose faith in the honesty of
gov’t leaders during the Johnson & Nixon years • The $176 billion cost of the war led to high
inflation in the 1970 & weakened LBJ’s Great Society
• The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 years old