Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh tried to free Vietnam from the French Colonial System. In 1942 he allied himself with the

Americans against the Japanese. At the end of

the war he hoped the U.S. would support his

nationalist movement, but the U.S. Needed the French on their side of

the cold war. Ho Chi Minh sought help from the

Soviets.

Harry Truman with Jack Benny • Because of the charges of being soft on Communism, and that the “Democrats lost China” Truman gave aid to the French war against vietnamese independence.

Dwight Eisenhower• President Eisenhower

extended this idea with his Domino effect. But in 1954 the Geneva Accords split Vietnam in two parts, and provided for a free election in two years. The U.S. felt the communists would win the election, and arranged to cancel the election.

Ngo Dinh Diem President of South Vietnam

• The CIA helps to install Ngo Dinh Diem’s pro American Government in power in S. Vietnam. The French leave in 1956.

• (Many Asian experts in State Department were removed during Truman’s years… better advice may have been lost. )

J.F. Kennedy• In 1960, the

N. Vietnamese create the S. Vietnamese National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Kennedy Becomes President and sends 16,000 Special Forces into Vietnam

Buddhist Monk Burns himself to death 1963

• Diem is a Catholic and Buddhist Accuse him of Religious persecution. Diem uses “Strategic Hamlet” to relocate villages to separate NLF from rest of people.

Kennedy Supports a military coup• Diem is Corrupt &

incompetent so when the S. Vietnamese army asks CIA for a coup to overthrow him, Kennedy supports it. Diem is assassinated on November 1st .

Kennedy is also Assassinated November 22 1963

President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamera

• Diem’s removal does not help S. Vietnam. McNamera recommends Full scale deployment of U.S. Troops. This requires Congressional approval.

• Gulf of Tonkin Summer of 1964 U.S. destroyer Maddox was engaged in aggressive intelligence-gathering maneuvers — in sync with attacks by the South Vietnamese navy. N. Vietnamese allegedly attacked the Maddox twice and Johnson used this as an excuse to ask congress for permission to escalate the war. Congress produced the GULF of TONKIN RESOLUTION authorizing the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United states, & to prevent further Aggression.”

• In 1965, Lyndon Johnson commented: "For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there."

• In Feb. 1965 Vietcong attack an American Military base and kill 8 American soldiers at PLEIKU.

• OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER begins a continuous bombing run of Vietnam. It failed to intimidate the enemy

• By 1967 there were 500,000 soldiers in Vietnam. More explosive tonnage had been dropped on Vietnam than all of WWII. Ho chi Minh Said, “They can kill 10 of us for every one we kill of them and we will still win.”

WAR Is HELL

General William Westmoreland

• In November of 1967 General Westmoreland makes a television Speech: “ I am Absolutely certain that…the enemy… is certainly losing.”

• January 30th 1968 the North Vietnamese launch TET Offensive.

My Lai Massacre • the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children (including babies) and elderly people.

The Road to My Lai

Lt. William Calley

Bob Kerrey• about 13 civilians

were killed in Thanh Phong village on Feb. 25, 1969. a member of his Navy SEAL unit and two Vietnamese women who said they witnessed the raid alleged the soldiers herded the women and children together and massacred them

Johnson’s 1968 Speech• “I have concluded that I

should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year….

• Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

Richard Nixon Becomes 37 President

• Nixon allegedly promises a secret plan to end the war. It has been said there was no secret plan. But a plan of sorts did appear.

• 1. Détente• 2. bomb raids• 3. bomb

Cambodia

Kent State , Ohio 1970

As a result of the announcement of extending bombing raids into Cambodia, students take the campus at Kent state hostage.

Evacuation of Saigon April 30th 1975

The killing fields. Cambodia falls to Pol Pot & the khmer rouge 2 million Cambodians murdered.

POL POT

• Removed from power by the Vietnamese government in 1979.

• Comparison of Vietnam war to American Revolution

• A colony declares independence & takes on a major world empire

• The Colonial power uses both guerrilla warfare and conventional tactics.

• The colonial power has the help of another world power.

• The empire must take control of the whole region whereas the Colonial must only fight until the empire withdraws.

• The empire must take control of the whole region whereas the Colonial must only fight until the empire withdraws.

• The Empire meets with opposition to the war at home.

• The costs of the war bring the empire into a financial crisis. The Colonials also have financial problems.

• As the wars went on, non partisan citizens were forced to choose sides, and usually they determined that the invading empire was the problem.

• Both Cambodia and Laos fell to Communism… which might suggest that the Domino Effect was correct… however Thailand and other neighboring nations did not fall and another cause for the fall of Laos & Cambodia were more likely that the United States brought the war into Laos and Cambodia with the bombing of those nations, and the political operations.

War brings instability