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The Vietnam War
Vietnam
Vietnam
• 1880’s-1940: French Indochina
• 1940-1945: Japanese control
• 1945-1954: French control– War for independence
• 1954: French driven out
French-Vietnamese War, 1945-1954• Vietnamese rebels led by
Ho Chi Minh– Vietnam’s national hero– Communist leanings
• US supported France– 90% of cost– Truman & Eisenhower
would not send troops
• France leaves in 1954– Who will govern?
Geneva Conference, 1954• Vietnam to be divided at 17th parallel
– Ho Chi Minh to govern in North– US supported government in South
• Unifying elections promised for 1956• US does not let elections happen
– Knows that Ho will win
• Communist rebels (Vietcong) in South fight to unify the country– With eventual North Vietnamese assistance
North & South Vietnam
• 70% of population• Mostly rural• Poorer• Traditionally Vietnamese• Mostly Buddhist• Ho Chi Minh is
unquestioned leader
• 30% of population• Poor, but less poor• More French influence• Led by Ngo Dinh Diem
– French educated Catholic
• Much of South Vietnam supports Ho Chi Minh– Vietcong forms
• South Vietnamese who fight for the North
North South
Kennedy & Vietnam
• By 1962, the CIA helps attack North Vietnamese ports– North Vietnam is
Communist
• Kennedy sends 16,000 “military advisors”
South Vietnam
• Diem attacks South Vietnamese opponents– Especially Buddhist
temples
• Loses all popularity
• Assassinated in 1963 – Kennedy approved of
the overthrow– Kennedy assassinated
two months later
The Gulf of Tonkin, 1964• The story:
– American ship the USS Maddox was on routine maneuvers in international waters, when it was fired upon without reason by North Vietnam
• The result:– Gulf of Tonkin Resolution– Congress lets Pres. Johnson
send unlimited troops
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• American ship the USS Maddox was on routine maneuvers in international waters, when it was fired upon without reason by North Vietnam
• The Reality:– The Maddox was a spy ship– The Maddox gathered info for illegal US attacks– The incident happened in North Vietnamese waters– It is very possible that NO SHOTS WERE FIRED!!
• Was the whole thing a set up?!
US Strategy in Vietnam
• Help destroy Vietcong (Communists in South)– Bombing North Vietnam after 1965
• Massive fire power, like in WW II– “bomb them back to the Stone Age”
– US uses double explosive power than in all of WW II
• US completely destroyed most of Vietnam– Napalm, which killed all plants
• But North Vietnam & Vietcong would not surrender– Unlike Germany, no factories to destroy
– Hatred of US inspired them to fight on
US Troops in Vietnam
• Eisenhower sent in a few “advisors” in 50’s• Kennedy sent 16,000 “advisors”• 200,000 by 1965• 400,000 by 1966• 540,000 by 1968
North Vietnam’s Resistance
Underground tunnels withFactories, hospitals, etc.
The effect of US napalm attacks
Why Were US Goals in Vietnam?
• From a State Department memo in 1965:– 70%--to avoid a humiliating defeat– 20%--to keep Vietnam out of Chinese hands– 10%--to permit the people of South Vietnam to
enjoy a better, freer way of life
Anti Vietnam War Movement
• Begins to grow in 1965– After hundreds of thousands of US troops are in
Vietnam• And tens of thousands return in coffins
• Massive by 1968– 250,000 at Washington anti-war rally in
October, 1969
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