Growing opposition to Diem’s government from within South Vietnam

• 1963: an elderly monk named Thich Quang Duc, set himself ablaze in protest against Diem’s corrupt regime .

• 1963: a CIA funded a military coup in South Vietnam which overthrew and killed Diem.

• 22 Nov 1963: President JF Kennedy was assassinated. LB Johnson became President of USA

US photojournalist Malcolm Brown who took this ‘iconic’ photograph.

Why did America become involved in a war in Vietnam?

American Presidents during the period of US involvement in Vietnam:

Dwight D Eisenhower (Rep): 1953- 1961 John F. Kennedy (Dem): 1961-1963

Lyndon B Johnson (Dem): 1963-1969Richard Nixon (Rep): 1969- 1974

The ‘Domino Effect’ (Strategic importance of Vietnam

in the context of the Cold War)

In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong won their civil war and established a communist government. USA feared that other countries in the region would fall to communism unless the USA actively prevented it.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Trigger)• President Johnson was ambivalent about escalation of US

involvement in Vietnam.• Robert Macnamara (sec of Defence) and McGeorge Bundy

(national security advisor) were urging full-scale military intervention to prevent the fall of South Vietnam.

• In August 1964 US patrols (gathering intelligence information) in the Gulf of Tonkin (off the North Vietnamese coast) claimed to have been fired upon by .

• US President Johnson used these attacks to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave the president the power to ‘take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the US and to prevent further aggression.’

• By end of 1965 200,000 US combat soldiers had been sent to Vietnam.

• By 1968 there were 500,000 US combat soldiers in Vietnam

Activity: Document-Based Lessons

• Introduction to ‘Reading like a Historian’, Stanford History Educator’s Group, Stanford University, USA. (You Tube)

• Gulf of Tonkin Document-Based Lesson(DBL)• What were President Johnson’s choices and

what position did he take in public and private? (DBL)

1965 - 1969: North Vietnamese-USA struggle

During this phase of the war (under President Lyndon B Johnson’s leadership) the USA sent combat troops (many of whom were teenager

conscript soldiers) soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War. By 1968 c.500,000 US soldiers

were stationed in Vietnam.

1965 - 1969: North Vietnamese-USA struggle (The Players)

USA’s objective:Containment.To stop the North Vietnamese communists taking over in South Vietnam and prevent Vietnam being united as a communist country.

South Vietnam government’s objective:To keep control over South Vietnam and to maintain the support of the US.

North Vietnam’s objective:National LiberationTo unify North and South Vietnam under a communist government.

Viet Cong’s objectiveTo build up support in South Vietnam to help achieve North Vietnam’s objective