Transcript A Time of Upheaval

By early 1900 Nationalism was a big idea in
Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh
•
– Petitioned for Vietnam to become independent
in 1919 but the peace committee said NO
– Traveled to the Soviet Union where he enjoyed
Communism
• He returned home and established the
Indochinese Communist Party and overthrew the
French government
– 1941 He returned to Vietnam but the Japanese
had control of it
– Organized a group called the Vietminh and this
group kicked out Japan

America Aids the French
› When Japan surrendered to the Allies Ho Chi
Minh declared Vietnam independent (yeah
right like the world is going to let Vietnam be
independent)
› France wants their colonial empire back and
they drive the Vietminh forces away
› France appears to be getting involved in a
war that they may loose
 So who do they call for help?????

America to the rescue!!!!
› France’s plea is awkward for us
› We don’t like colonization but we don’t like
Communism
› We picked the lesser of the two evils
 Eisenhower picked to stop communism
because if Vietnam fell to communism the rest
of Southeast Asia would fall
•
Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
– Guerrillas – soldiers who blend in with civilians
and then fight the soldiers
– French commander ordered his men to
occupy a small mountain town to cut off
supplies to the Vietminh
– His plan backfired – the Vietminh surrounded
the town and bombarded it making the
French surrender
– France agrees to leave Vietnam

Geneva Accords
› Divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel
› Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh controlled the
North
› Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the South and was
fiercely anti communism
Ho Chi Minh began an armed struggle to
reunify the nation
 Vietcong – South Vietnamese
Communists

› Liked to use terror – killing government
officials

Kennedy Takes Over
› Continued supporting South Vietnam
› Diem fortified villages using strategic hamlets
 Villages that are protected by machine guns,
bunkers, trenches, and barbed wire
 Vietnamese officials would move villagers to
these areas
•
The Overthrow of Diem
– Diem discriminated against Buddhism
– He banned traditional religious flags on
Buddha’s birthday
– Protesters took to the streets – a Buddhist
Monk poured gasoline on himself and set fire
– Vietnamese Generals plotted to overthrow
Diem
• Was executed
– Three weeks after Diem’s death Kennedy
was assassinated
•
Johnson and Vietnam
– The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• President Johnson announced that North
Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two
American Destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin
• Two days later the same thing happened
• Johnson asked Congress for the authority to
defend American forces in Southeast Asia –
Congress said no
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
– Take all necessary measures to repel any armed
attack against the forces of the US and to prevent
further aggression

The United States Sends in Troops
› Vietcong began to attack bases where
Americans were
› Most of Johnson’s advisors believed we had
a duty to stop communism
By the end of 1965 more than 180,000
troops were in Vietnam
 By 1966 that number doubled
 Vietcong used ambushes, booby traps,
and guerrilla tactics
 “It’s a war where nothing is ever quite
certain and nowhere is ever quite safe


Search and Destroy
› Americans dropped
napalm bombs
 Jellied gasoline bomb
that exploded on
contact
› Agent Orange
 Chemical used to strip
the trees of leaves
and shrubs

The Ho Chi Minh Trail
› Trail through
Cambodia and Laos
that allowed North
Vietnam to send arms
and supplies to the
Vietcong
› Soviet Union and
China also supplied
arms to North
Vietnam
› Americans were
forced to fight a war
of attrition