THE VIETNAM CONFLICT

1965-1973

Background History

• Always a colony– Chinese, 900 years!

• Many ethnic Chinese in Vietnam

– French, 1800s• Plantation owners• French culture

– Japanese, 1940s• Raw materials• Ho Chi Minh, resistance

– French, 1945-1954• Vietminh Conflict

– Dien Bien Phu, 1954

American Involvement in Vietnam, 1954-1973

• Geneva Convention, 1954– Major players…who’s missing?– Cold War conflict

• Free elections, 1957?– President Diem– Too many Viet Cong

• Military “advisors”– Simply train ARVN

• Regular troops, 1965– USS Maddox Incident, 1964– Tonkin Gulf Resolution, 1964

The Major Players

• US and ARVN versus NVA and Viet Cong– Russia and China involved

TET Offensive, January 1968Turning point of the Conflict

• Major NVA Offensive– General Westmoreland

• American Forces

– Khe Sahn, Marine Field Base• Another Dien Bien Phu?

– Battle of Hue, 1968• Full Metal Jacket

– American Embassy in Saigon, 1968• Viet Cong “Sappers”• Walter Cronkite, anchorman

Vietnamization and “Peace with Honor”, 1970s

• Election of 1968– Humphrey v. Nixon– “Law and Order”

• Gradual withdrawal of troops– Leave equipment behind– American build up in Cambodia

• “Killing Fields”

• Treaty of Paris, 1973– Saigon becomes Ho Chi Minh City by 1975

Impact at Home

• Class Conflict– Poorest drafted first

• Draft Laws– 1967 and 1968– Campus protests

• Democratic National Convention, 1968– Police and demonstrator violence

• Kent State University, 1970– Escalation by Nixon of war into Cambodia