Chapter 30

Vietnam

The French and Vietnam French rule (1800s - 1940)

1.Indo-China

- plantation system

- Ho Chi Minh

Japanese Rule (WWII)

1. Vietminh

- independent Vietnam

The French and Vietnam

French Vietminh War

1. 1946 French Attack

2. U.S. enters (1950)

- Help French

- Domino Theory

3. Dien Bien Phu

- May 1954

The Geneva Accords May- July 1954

1. U.S. / Soviets/ GB/ France/ China/ Laos/ Cambodia/ Vietnamese

2. 17th Parallel

The United States and Vietnam Country Wide Election (1956)

1. Ho Chi Minh (North)

- Hero in North

- redistribution program

- abusive

2. Ngo Dinh Diem (South)

- Anti-Communist

- Refuses to take part

- U.S. backed

- Anti-Communist South

Resistance in South Vietcong

1. National Liberation Front (NLF)

- Communist group in the south

- Assassinate government officials

Ho Chi Minh Trail

1. North supply line

Kennedy and Vietnam U.S. Military Aid

- 16,000 Advisors/ Troops (1963)

- Diem’s Unpopularity

a. Movement of peasants

b. Attacks against Buddhism

- Protests

- Horrified Middle America

-U.S. Supported Military Coup

a. November 1, 1963

b. Diem Assassinated

(Kennedy not happy)

Johnson and Vietnam If I…let the Communists take over South Vietnam… then my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would find it impossible to accomplish anything… anywhere on the entire globe”

Gulf of Tonkin August 2nd 1964

-Gulf of Tonkin

a. U.S.S. Maddox

b. retaliation

August 7th 1964

-Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

a. almost full power of war

The Escalation The Popular War

February 1965 -Operation Rolling Thunder

June 1965 - 50,000 U.S. troops

December 1965 -180,000 U.S. troops

July 1967

- 500,000 U.S. troops

A War in the Jungle

The War of Attrition

Westmorland’s Strategy

-wear down the enemy

Ho Chi Minh’s philosophy

“ You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill

of yours, but even at that odds I win

you lose”

Hearts and Minds

NAPALM ATTACKS

Hearts and Minds

SEARCH AND DESTROY

Hearts and Minds

AGENT ORANGE

The Tet Offensive January 31, 1968

- Vietnamese New Year (more than that)

- Major Cities (Saigon)

1. What Americans saw

- American Victory ???

Middle America Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, and subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khe sahn could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.

- Walter Cronkite

Protests to the War 1965

- Very Few

1967

- Major liberal groups/ colleges

1968

- Middle America

1972

- Kent State

The Election of 1968

Richard Nixon (Republican) 43%

Hubert Humphry (Democrat) 42%

George Wallace (American Independence) 13%

Nixon and Vietmanization

Withdrawing Troops

- Giving the war to the Vietnamese

- Leave with dignity

1975

- Last U.S. troops leave

1. North sweeps through South

Vietnam Movies• Apocalypse Now• Air America• Born on the 4th of July• Casualties of War• Coming Home• Deer Hunter• First Blood• Flight of the Intruder• Forrest Gump• Full Metal Jacket• Good Morning

Vietnam

• Hamburger Hill• Missing in Action• Missing in Action 2-The

Beginning• Operation Dumbo Drop• Platoon• Rescue Dawn• Uncommon Valor• We Were Soldiers• X-Men Origins:

Wolverine