CHAPTER 22VIETNAM

MR. ALLEN

Roots of the Vietnam War

Vietnam: French Rule

• France controlled Vietnam before WWII– Japanese occupation during the war

• France fought to get Vietnam back

• America supports French control

Ho Chi Minh

• Leader of Vietnamese Communist Party– Led from exile in China since 1920’s

• Snuck back into Vietnam during WWII– Declared independence in 1945

• Creates Vietminh: Freedom fighters

Ho Chi Minh

France fights in Indochina (1945-1954)• Tries to keep their colony

– U.S. sends money

• Ho Chi Minh flees and fights from the North

• U.S. Afraid of Domino Theory – If one country falls, all others around will fall

• French defeated at Dien Bien Phu (5/54)

Vietnam Split in two• North controlled by communists

• South run by Ngo Dinh Diem

• Vietcong fights in the South– Communists supported by Ho Chi Minh– Assassinated thousands of gov’t leaders

• Kennedy sends 16,000 Americans to Nam– 1961

Eisenhower and Diem

Diem is unpopular

• South Vietnamese hate him

• He attacks Buddhism

• No land reform

• Corrupt

• U.S. supprts coup, Diem assassinated– Nov 1, 1963

Section 22.2U.S. Involvement and Escalation

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• Aug 1964: NVA boat fires on USS Maddox– Not hit

• Maddox reports more gunfire– Later said they saw nothing

• LBJ orders bombing strikes on N. Vietnam

• Asks Congress for military authority

Robert McNamara: Sec of Defense

Dean Rusk: Sec of State

US Escalation

• 1965: 180,000 US soldiers in Vietnam

• Gen. Westmoreland calls for more troops– Says ARVN can’t fight very well

• 500,000 troops by 1967

Jungle Fighting

• Hit and run guerilla warfare

• Hiding in cities, spies everywhere

• Tunnels throughout the country

• Booby traps all over the jungle

American tactics

• Use of napalm to firebomb the jungles

• Agent Orange: Leaf killing toxin– Cancer-causing agent

• Search and destroy missions– Destroy villages with suspected NVA spies

War becomes unpopular

• Protest movements sprout up

• College youth and left-leaning Americans

• Protests became resistance

THINK/PAIR/SHARE

• Who should be exempt form the draft?

• Should people who believe the war is wrong be forced to fight?

LBJ doesn’t run in ‘68

• He is unpopular, war is unpopular

• Robert Kennedy runs for president– Going to win Democratic nomination– Assassinated in Los Angeles

• Nixon defeats VP Humphrey

“Peace with honor”

• Slow pull out of Vietnam– 1968: 500,000 troops– 1972: 25,000 troops

• USA pulls out of the war, 1973

• South falls to the communists, 1975