CS

Key People in Vietnam War

Key people:

  • President Eisenhower (beliefs about the war)

Allied with the French and sends them money to fund their fight against Ho Chi Minh, but doesn’t send US troops in because he doesn’t want another Korean War. He justified sending France monetary aid through the Domino Theory. 

  • President Kennedy (beliefs about the war)

Originally supported Diem because he was afraid of looking weak on communism. Supported a military coup against Diem in SV, and Diem was assassinated. This was fueled by Diem’s crackdown on Buddhism and Kennedy seeing the monks burning themselves alive in protest. 

  • President Johnson (beliefs about the war)

He was the main escalator in the war despite running for re-election on an anti-war campaign. Used the US Destroyer Maddox “attack” to get Congress to approve the Tonkin Gulf Resolution so he could increase US involvement in Vietnam. 

  • President Nixon (beliefs about the war)

“Get out of Vietnam with honor”, Vietnamization, Realpolitik & Detente. He wanted to get US troops off the ground and back home while making the South Vietnamese Army continue fighting. 

  • President Nixon (Watergate role)

After the Pentagon Papers were leaked, he hired “plumbers” to undermine Ellisburg and tape everything in the Oval Office to trace leaks. He kept an enemies list and his plumbers turned to political espionage (CREEP). Caught trying to bug a Democratic Party meeting inside the Watergate hotel. 

  • President Ford (Watergate role)

After Nixon appoints Ford in place of his already impeached VP, Nixon resigns and Ford gives Nixon a full presidential pardon. 

  • Vietcong

A group with a more communist approach to resist Diem’s government in South Vietnam, supplied by Minh. 

  • Vietminh

Formed under Ho Chi Minh to free Vietnam from French and Japanese control and institute land reform. 

  • Ho Chi Minh

Leader of Vietminh, eventually Vietcong, and North Vietnam. 

  • President Ngo Dinh Diem

The president of South Vietnam who, with the US, cancelled the Vietnamese elections in 1956 because they believed Minh would win. He was a corrupt leader who persecuted Buddhists and refused to enact land reform. He was assassinated in a coup in 1963 and replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu. 

  • William Westmoreland

The American general who was supposed to help us win in Vietnam, had fought in the Korean war. He kept asking for more American soldiers and came up with Attrition to keep morale up. 

  • Dean Rusk

Secretary of State under LBJ, helped LBJ lie to Congress to get the Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed. 

  • Robert McNamara

Secretary of Defense under LBJ, helped LBJ lie to Congress to get the Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed. 

  • Hubert Humphrey

VP under LBJ, narrowly lost to Nixon in the presidential race in 1968 despite winning the Democratic nomination at the DNC in Chicago. 

  • Robert Kennedy

Was a US Senator and then presidential candidate in 1968, but he was assassinated in California by Sirhan Sirhan. Was originally supportive of US involvement in Vietnam, but eventually spoke against it.

  • Eugene McCarthy

Ran against Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 presidential race. He was moving away from LBJ and was a professor. 

  • Hardhats

Part of the Silent Majority, made up of people working construction and blue-collar jobs, attacked students in PACE Uni and then held a 100,000 people rally on May 20, 1970.