30.1 Moving Toward Conflict

Holland US History II, MATES 2026

Ho Chi Minh

• created Indochinese Communist party working in exile

• returned home 1941 to fight the Japanese

• created Vietminh

Vietminh

organization whose goal was to win Vietnam’s independence

domino theory

surrounding nations fall to communism if nearby nations fall

Dien Bien Phu

• French outpost in NW Vietnam

• French forces surrender in May of 1954

Geneva Accords

• temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel

• election to unify the country called for in 1956

Ngo Dinh Diem

• South Vietnam’s nationalist president refused to take part in elections

  • (Ho Chi Minh’s popularity was too strong → highly possible loss)

• U.S. promised military aid + training to him in return for a stable govt.

• offered little land redistribution to peasants + restricted Buddhist practices (Catholic)

• corrupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind

Vietcong (1957)

• Southern Vietnamese Communist group

• opposed the Diem govt.

• later called the National Liberation Front (NLF)

Ho Chi Minh Trail (1959)

network of paths used to transport supplies to the Vietcong from the North

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• adopted by Congress in 1964

• gave the president (LBJ) broad powers to wage war in Vietnam

Operation Rolling Thunder

1st sustained bombing of North Vietnam