The Vietnam War

Who occupied Vietnam?

  1. Pre WWII - French Occupation

  2. WWI Japanese Invasion

  3. Post-WWII - French attempt to regain control

    1. Supporting - US Aid
    2. Protesting - Ho Chi Minh supported by USSR and China

  4. 1954- French Defeat @ Dien Bien Phu

  5. Geneva Convention

    1. France gives up Indochina

      1. Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

    2. Vietnam split “temporarily” at the 17th Parallel

South Vietnam = Capitalist, Catholic, and autocratic Ngo Dinh Diem

  1. Unpopular

    1. Buddhist Monks
    2. Refused Elections
    3. Insurgent Vietcong in the South takes power in the countryside
    4. Diem assassinated in US-backed coup

North Vietnam = Communist, Ho Chi Minh, and dictatorship

US Position

  1. Eisenhower

    1. Domino Theory
    2. $1 Billion in aid
    3. SEATO (South East Alliance Treaty Organization)

  2. Kennedy

    1. Diem Coup

    2. Increased advisors

      1. Trained army
      2. 16K support (non-combat troops)
      3. Guarded weapons facilities

    3. Johnson

      1. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 provides justification for the escalation

        1. The US got “shot at” and the military shot “back” at the Vietnamese

      2. “Blank Check” to use all necessary measures to protect US interests in Vietnam

      3. Operation Rolling Thunder

      4. TROOPS

        1. 1965 - 184K
        2. 1967 - 485K
        3. 1969 -540K

      5. January 1968

        1. Tet Offensive: Military victory, political defeat

    4. Nixon

      1. “Peace with honor”

      2. Vietnamizaiton

      3. My Lai Massacre revealed

      4. Inconsistencies?

        1. The bombing of North Vietnam
        2. Cambodian invasion and bombing (War Crime)

      5. Role of detente - political pressure