Transcript Vietnam - cloudfront.net

Vietnam
Vietnam Shares a Border
with China
• China is on the North side of Vietnam.
• Today Vietnam honors the Trung
Sisters who led an army on elephants
to defeat the Chinese army and drive
them out of Vietnam in 43 BC.
Vietnam and W W II
• During W W II Japan invaded China, the
Philippines and Vietnam in an effort to
enlarge their empire.
• The USA sent Ho Chi Minh, the President
of Vietnam, lots of help.
• The OSS (Office of Strategic Serviceslater named the CIA) parachuted men,
supplies and equipment to help Vietnam.
The USA worked WITH Vietnam to fight
Japan.
Ho Chi Minh
USA sees Vietnam as Enemy
• The ongoing Cold War between USA and the
Soviet Union made Vietnam an enemy when
they turned to the Soviets for help.
• WWII armistice split Vietnam in half.
• The USA controlled south Vietnam and China
controlled north Vietnam. The Chinese
treated the North Vietnamese very badly. In
1946 China left Vietnam and the USA gave
Vietnam back to the French who had been
controlling Indochina for the last 100 years.
The end of French control came at
Diem Bien Phu in 1954.
Dien Bien Phu
• This was a major victory for Ho Chi Minh and the Viet
Minh. Dien Bien Phu was a wide valley surrounded
by hills made of dense jungle. The only way in or
out was a road that was guarded by the French
military.
• Ho Chi Minh told his troops to dismantle all their
tanks, trucks and big weapons and carry them over
the hills in pieces in the pitch dark of night and to
silently reassemble everything.
• When the French woke the next morning they were
surrounded by the Minh army and its weaponry. The
French surrendered.
After Dien Bien Phu
• Ho Chi Minh took control of North Vietnam
• President Diem was propped up as being
in control of South Vietnam.
• The CIA sold heroin in Asia to buy off
Diem’s political competition.
• Diem was as bad as the French because he
treated the South Vietnamese people very
cruelly. He refused to hold elections and
committed human rights abuses.
The Domino Theory
• The USA feared that the majority of
Vietnamese would vote for Ho Chi Minh.
• Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist and a
pragmatist..
• Fear in the USA said that if Vietnam fell to Ho
Chi Minh all other Asian countries would
become communist and it would spread to
Hawaii and then mainland USA.
• U.S. believed would be better to fight
communism in Asia than at home in the USA.
Diem’s Abuses
• Diem was anti French and anti communist but
he “…acy and nepotism." represented narrow
and extremist nationalism coupled with autocr
• Autocracy is when one person has
uncontrolled power and nepotism is when one
favors ones relatives for promotion.
• military to attack religious groups including
Buddhism and arrested anyone suspected of
being communist tortured & killed each
• 52,000 Vietnamese moved to North Vietnam.
Diem was Catholic
• Diem celebrated the arrival of his
brother who was a priest
• Denied Buddhists right to celebrate
their annual remembrance of Buddha.
• 10,000 people started a hunger strike
in Saigon and Diem agitators
destroyed or burned down Buddhist
pagodas and temples.
• troops fired on the peaceful
demonstrators and 9 monks were
killed. Diem blamed the killing on
communists.
Buddhist Monk Protests
• Superior Thick Quant Duc,." Then he calmly sat down in
a main street of Saigon, poured gasoline on himself and
burned himself to death. It was June 2, 1963.
• The self-immolation caused enormous reaction within
and outside South Vietnam.
• Other Buddhist monks followed Thich Quang Duc's
example. Within a brief period, 6 more burned
themselves to death as a protest. Finally a Buddhist
Nun committed self- immolation and set herself on fire.
Diem’s wife joked about the Buddhist Barbeque’s.
Buddhist Nun On Fire
• The monks and nun who set themselves
on fire were striving to bring attention to
the atrocities that Diem was instigating.
Diem has a change of Heart
• He makes a call to Ho Chi Minh to set
up plans for a full country election.
• That night Diem and his brother are
found dead in the trunk of his car.
• Diem was murdered one week before
President Kennedy was assassinated in
Texas. Type Diem’s name into Google
and you will get 20 Kennedy selections.
Vietnam Protestors At Home
• In addition to Rev Dr. Martin Luther
King’s protest at Riverside Church,
there were protests at US colleges too.
• Kent State University conducted a
peaceful protest that turned violent.
The army fired on the peaceful crowd
killing at least 4 students and injuring
others.
1964 – The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• The USA was at war with Vietnam for 12 years
without legally declaring war.
• LBJ escalated military presence and started
bombing Hanoi because two USA vessels
reported being fired upon in the Gulf of Tonkin
in North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh insisted he did
not fire on the USA.
• It was probably the CIA who fired on their own
ships to start trouble. No major damage
occurred to either ship in the so called
Tonkin Incident.
TONKIN GULF
Hanoi Hilton
• American pilots who were shot down during the bombing
of Hanoi were kept in the Hanoi Hilton which was a
prisoner of war camp. Prisoners were kept isolated
• . They all prayed for their captors and the treatment of all
of them improved as did the food.
The Viet Cong
• The Viet Cong were the undercover Viet
Minh who were in South Vietnam
subverting USA operations.
• Vietnamese who were accused of being
Viet Cong were usually killed
Napalm
• The USA began using violent chemicals to defoliate
the jungle. Innocent people were severely burned by
Napalm.
• Napalm was a mixture of petrol and a chemical
thickener which produces a tough sticky gel that
attaches itself to the skin. The pain caused by the
burning is so traumatic that it often causes death.
The My Lai Massacre
• Sergeant Calley ordered the massacre of all the
people in My Lai because he suspected
cooperation with the Viet Cong.
• Babies, women and old people were massacred.
The Tet Offensive - 1968
High holiday Tet offensive was countrywide in scope and
well coordinated, with more than 80,000 Vietcong troops
striking more than 100 towns and cities, including 36 of 44
provincial capitals, 72 of 245 district towns, and the
national capital.
• The initial Vietcong attacks stunned NATO forces and took
them by surprise.
• offensive was a military disaster for Vietcong forces, it had a
profound effect on the American administration and shocked
the American public, that the communists were, due to previous
defeats, incapable of launching such a massive effort.
• US military chased the Viet Cong into Cambodia and
bombed the capital city Phnom Penh.
• 1970 – the Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol
Pot, Pol Pot
• Sep 3rd – 1969 Ho Chi Minh dies.
HOME FRONT- PENTAGON PAPERS 7,000 PAGE
DOCUMENT WRITTEN BY DEFENSE SECRETARY R.
MCNAMARA 67-68 – REVEALED US NEVER HAD
PLAN TO END WAR AS LONG AS NV CONTINUED
ITS ATTACK ON SV
LEGACEY OF THE VIETNAM WAR
VEITNAMIZATION @ 1969 DURING Nixon’s Presidency
Gradual withdrawal of US troops by 1972 there were less than 25,000 troops
remained in Vietnam = “peace with honor” = covertly (secretly) ordered bombings
in Laos& Cambodia
• DECEMBER 31,1970 CONGRESS REPEALED THE TONKING GULF
RESOLUTION
•WAR POWERS ACT = MUST INFORM CONGRESS WITHIN 48 HRS OF
SENDING FORCES INTO HOSTILE AREAS W/O DECLARATION OF WAR
TROOPS ONLY CAN REMAIN FOR 90 DAYS UNLESS CONGRESS APPROVES
PRESIDENTS ACTIONS OR CONGRESS DECLARES WAR.
The Boat People
• Refugees who feared communism and
mixed American and Vietnamese
children fled Vietnam in all types of
boats.
• Some sank, some were taken by pirates
and some made it to safety.
1990
• Before the fall of the Soviet Union Vietnam
introduced a program called Doi Moi. It means
renewal and "renovation“. It is the name given to the
economic reforms initiated by in Vietnam.
• TOURISM, MANUFACTURING OF CLOTHING.
• The free market is alive and doing well in Hanoi.
• Vietnam is the size of California with the temperature
a bit warmer than Hawaii and tigers and snakes and
elephants.