Transcript The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War
Background of the War
French colony
Ho Chi Minh leads
resistance against
France
Vietminh
Geneva Conference
– North Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh (Comm)
– South Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem (US)
U.S. “advisors”
Kennedy’s Vietnam Policy
1963 (JFK) – 16,000
military advisers;
Green Berets
Diem’s government
– Authoritarian
– Buddhist monks – selfimmolation
Kennedy allows for
Diem to be
overthrown
– Diem assassinated
Johnson’s War
The Vietcong (VC;
Charlie)
– Communist guerillas in
South Vietnam
Intensifying the War
– U.S. ships attacked in
Gulf of Tonkin
– Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution – 1964
– Gave authority to send
troops; 1965 Marines
land in DaNang
– Ho Chi Minh Trail
– Pleiku – Am. killed;
increases US
involvement
The Tet Offensive 1968
The Brutality of War
Brutal battlefield
conditions – guerilla war,
traps, pits
Effects on Civilians
– B-52 Bombers –
saturation bombing
– Agent Orange
– Napalm 5,000
degrees
The My Lai Massacre –
1968
Lt. William Calley –
convicted of war crimes
Conviction reduced to
20; serves 3
Scapegoat to some
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Nurses’ Memorial
Items left at the
Vietnam Wall
(now found in
the Smithsonian
Museum of
American
History)
Kent State 1970