Transcript Vietnam - Weebly

Vietnam
“Events leading up to War”
Taking Place during the Cold War.
• Part of a bigger struggle between
Capitalism and Communism.
• Capitalism: U.S., Private Ownership,
Make your own wealth, about individual
• Communism: Everyone equal condition,
no private ownership.
• Why would American’s be afraid of the
spread of Communism?
Domino Theory
• If Vietnam fell to
communist, countries
around it might
become vulnerable.
• Support through
fear?
Does American foreign policy today still
operate on the concept of the domino
theory?
1. Departure of the French
• Former French Colony
– Vietnam becomes a French colony in 19th century.
• Vietnam Nationalist
– Led by Ho Chi Minh
• French want U.S. help
– Can’t survive economically without it.
– Pay for 80% of French effort.
• 1953 French Trapped
– U.S. pulls out
2. Partition of Vietnam
• North and south split at
17th parallel by Geneva
Conference.
• Communist North
– Ho Chi Minh
• Pro Western South
– Ngo Dinh Diem
3. The Puppet Government
• Diem comes to power because of
support from American Gov’t.
• CIA helps to ward off religious sects
and mafia organizations.
• U.S. supported Diems refusal to permit
free elections in 1956.
American Propaganda
4. NLF and Buddhist Crisis
• National Liberation Front: (Vietcong)
– Moscow helps Minh
– Committed to overthrowing the Diem “Puppet
Regime”
– Killing as many 4,000 public officials a year.
• Buddhist Crisis
– Images of Monks burning looked bad
– Forces Kennedy to pull support for Diem
Makes U.S. look bad
5. Assassination of Kennedy and Diem
• 1963 Diem:
– Leaves 3 year void of
unstable government.
• Few weeks later JFK
– Handing over substantial
American commitment to
LBJ.
Moments Before
Lyndon Johnson
Faced with a
tough decision:
Pull out now?
or
Full scale
forces?
Iraq/ Afghanistan =
Vietnam???
• How is this similar to Iraq/Afghanistan
wars?
• What questions has Obama been faced
with?
• What are some of the problems in
Afghanistan?
• What are some differences between
Afghanistan and Vietnam?