The Vietnam War

Vietnam

Vietnam

• 1880’s-1940: French Indochina

• 1940-1945: Japanese control

• 1945-1954: French control– War for independence

• 1954: French driven out

French-Vietnamese War, 1945-1954• Vietnamese rebels led by

Ho Chi Minh– Vietnam’s national hero– Communist leanings

• US supported France– 90% of cost– Truman & Eisenhower

would not send troops

• France leaves in 1954– Who will govern?

Geneva Conference, 1954• Vietnam to be divided at 17th parallel

– Ho Chi Minh to govern in North– US supported government in South

• Unifying elections promised for 1956• US does not let elections happen

– Knows that Ho will win

• Communist rebels (Vietcong) in South fight to unify the country– With eventual North Vietnamese assistance

North & South Vietnam

• 70% of population• Mostly rural• Poorer• Traditionally Vietnamese• Mostly Buddhist• Ho Chi Minh is

unquestioned leader

• 30% of population• Poor, but less poor• More French influence• Led by Ngo Dinh Diem

– French educated Catholic

• Much of South Vietnam supports Ho Chi Minh– Vietcong forms

• South Vietnamese who fight for the North

North South

Kennedy & Vietnam

• By 1962, the CIA helps attack North Vietnamese ports– North Vietnam is

Communist

• Kennedy sends 16,000 “military advisors”

South Vietnam

• Diem attacks South Vietnamese opponents– Especially Buddhist

temples

• Loses all popularity

• Assassinated in 1963 – Kennedy approved of

the overthrow– Kennedy assassinated

two months later

The Gulf of Tonkin, 1964• The story:

– American ship the USS Maddox was on routine maneuvers in international waters, when it was fired upon without reason by North Vietnam

• The result:– Gulf of Tonkin Resolution– Congress lets Pres. Johnson

send unlimited troops

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

• American ship the USS Maddox was on routine maneuvers in international waters, when it was fired upon without reason by North Vietnam

• The Reality:– The Maddox was a spy ship– The Maddox gathered info for illegal US attacks– The incident happened in North Vietnamese waters– It is very possible that NO SHOTS WERE FIRED!!

• Was the whole thing a set up?!

US Strategy in Vietnam

• Help destroy Vietcong (Communists in South)– Bombing North Vietnam after 1965

• Massive fire power, like in WW II– “bomb them back to the Stone Age”

– US uses double explosive power than in all of WW II

• US completely destroyed most of Vietnam– Napalm, which killed all plants

• But North Vietnam & Vietcong would not surrender– Unlike Germany, no factories to destroy

– Hatred of US inspired them to fight on

US Troops in Vietnam

• Eisenhower sent in a few “advisors” in 50’s• Kennedy sent 16,000 “advisors”• 200,000 by 1965• 400,000 by 1966• 540,000 by 1968

North Vietnam’s Resistance

Underground tunnels withFactories, hospitals, etc.

The effect of US napalm attacks

Why Were US Goals in Vietnam?

• From a State Department memo in 1965:– 70%--to avoid a humiliating defeat– 20%--to keep Vietnam out of Chinese hands– 10%--to permit the people of South Vietnam to

enjoy a better, freer way of life

Anti Vietnam War Movement

• Begins to grow in 1965– After hundreds of thousands of US troops are in

Vietnam• And tens of thousands return in coffins

• Massive by 1968– 250,000 at Washington anti-war rally in

October, 1969