The Vietnam War: 1954-1975

The War Unfolds

VIETNAM - Beginnings• The United States entered the Vietnam War to defeat Communist forces threatening South Vietnam.

• “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 will go over very quickly.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1954)

What events led to the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam?

• End of World War II - Japanese occupation of Vietnam ended

• French Indochina - A French colony that France tried to regain control of after WWII

• Nationalist uprising against the French in the North (led by Nationalist Communists under Ho Chi Minh and General Giap)

• French defeated at Dien Bien Phu - 1954

What events led to the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam?

• Geneva Accords 1954 - divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel

• North led by Ho Chi Minh

• South led by anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem

• Elections set for 1956 refused by South Vietnam - feared Communist unfairness and victory

The Vietnam War, 1954–1975

Although neighboring Laos and Cambodia were officially neutral, both aided the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong by providing access to bases and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a vital supply route from North to South

What events led to the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam?• By 1960, President Eisenhower had pledged American support to Diem in the South

• US had 675 military ‘advisors’ there

• US presence justified by the “domino theory” - if one country falls to communism, the rest will eventually fall too.

What were the Vietnam policies of President Kennedy and Robert

McNamara?• JFK - determined to stop spread of communism

• McNamara (Sec. of Defense) developed ‘flexible response’

• Continued support of the South Vietnamese struggle against the North

The United States continued to support the unpopular South Vietnamese government under

Diem.

• South Vietnamese leader Diem - very unpopular, dictatorial– Led to protests in the

South by Buddhists• Strategic hamlets -

relocated Vietnamese farmers

• National Liberation Front formed in 1960 - a.k.a Viet Cong (VC) = guerillas in the South - supported by North Vietnamese Army (NVA) supplies

Events in November 1963 dramatically

changed United States ambitions in Vietnam.

• Diem assassinated Nov. 1, 1963 in a military coup

• JFK assassinated Nov. 22, 1963

• Lyndon B. Johnson (VP) became president

• LBJ continued Vietnam policies of JFK

How did President Lyndon Johnson change the course

of the Vietnam War?

• Johnson feared Vietnam going Communist

• August 5, 1964: Tonkin Gulf Incident

• Congress passed Tonkin Gulf Resolution - Gave LBJ broad executive powers to wage war