Transcript 1965 Vietnam War

Vietnam War
Considered a police action and not a war,
there is no actual starting point of
Vietnam like in most wars, it basically
went from 1950 to 1975.
•In 1950 Harry
Truman sent over
soldiers to help the
French, who had
control of Indochina
(Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam). North
Vietnam took
French Indochina.
1952 Election
vs.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
Adlai Stevenson
Democrat
• Truman decides not to rerun for President and Stevenson was
his replacement. The republican nomination was, war hero,
Dwight Eisenhower. He won in a landslide. Eisenhower
finished the Korean Conflict and was in on the beginning of the
Vietnam Conflict.
1960 Election
vs.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Democrat
Richard Millhouse Nixon
Republican
• Kennedy won a very close election. Nixon said he would
never run again (Farve) but did and won in 1969.
• In 1954 the Vietminh, AKA
Viet Cong, AKA VC, AKA
Victor Charlie (communist
led) defeated the French and
North and South Vietnam
were created (The US
disapproved).
• In 1961 John F. Kennedy
secretly sent over 400
special operation soldiers to
teach the South Vietnam to
fight against the North
Vietminh.
Assassinations
• The US had placed
Ngo Dinh Diem as
leader of S. Vietnam,
because of his abuse
and cruelty he was
assassinated
• 3 Weeks later JFK was
assassinated
1964 Election
VS.
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Democrat
Barry Goldwater (AuH20)
Republican
Johnson rode on the coattails of JFK’s popularity. The election
was the fifth largest margin of victory in presidential history due in
part that many felt that Goldwater was going to declare war on
North Vietnam. Johnson won and we still had war??
Tonkin Resolution
• In 1964 after Kennedy’s assassination
Lyndon B. Johnson secured from
Congress a functional not actual
declaration of war, (police action) called
the Tonkin Resolution.
• In 1965 3,500 marines and bombing on
the 17th parallel was sustained on North
Vietnamese targets.
The multiple starting dates for the war complicate efforts to describe
the causes of U.S. entry. The United States became involved in the
war for a number of reasons, and these evolved and shifted over
time.
1. Primarily, every American president regarded the enemy in
Vietnam--the Vietminh; its 1960s successor, the National Liberation
Front (NLF); and the government of North Vietnam, led by *Ho Chi
Minh--as agents of global communism. U.S. policymakers, and most
Americans, regarded communism as the antithesis of all they held
dear.
2. Communists scorned democracy, violated human rights, pursued
military aggression, and created closed state economies that barely
traded with capitalist countries. Americans compared communism to
a contagious disease. If it took hold in one nation, U.S. policymakers
expected contiguous nations to fall to communism, too, as if nations
were dominoes lined up on end (domino effect).
3. In 1949, when the Communist Party came to power in China,
Washington feared that Vietnam would become the next Asian
domino. That was one reason for Truman's 1950 decision to give aid
to the French who were fighting the Vietminh.
Viet Cong (VC)
National Liberation Front (NLF)
Code Name: Victor Charlie
• The political organization and army of South
Vietnamese communists who fought against the
United States in the Vietnam Action.
• Many South Vietnamese were Communist
despite South Vietnam being Democratic. They
were recruited to fight for the Vietminh.
Ho Chi Minh Trail
• The Ho Chi Minh trail
was a system trails
that ran from the North
Vietnam to the South
Vietnam through the
neighboring countries
of Laos and
Cambodia.
Ho Chi Minh
• Started Communist
freedom from Japan
and France as early
as WW 2
• In the battle of
Dienbienphu, the
Vietminh defeated
France under his
leadership
Ngo Dinh Diem
• After the Geneva
Convention the US put it’s
faith in Ngo Dinh Diem to
lead South Vietnam.
• Diem was a Catholic and
gave jobs in Catholic favor.
• Buddhist monks protested
and Diem responded with
force.
• He destroyed 2,000
Buddhist temples and killed
dozens of Buddhists.
Buddhist execution
Diem Protest
Attrition
Instruments of the Vietnam War
Agent
Orange
Napalm
Guerilla
Warfare
Tunnels
Tunnels Cont.
Protest at
Home
1968 LBJ Pulls Out
• Nixon goes back in to Cambodia
• Finally get out in 1972, last soldiers in 1975
Henry Kissinger
Richard Nixon
wins
1968
election
Nixon’s
National
Security
Advisor
Key Dates
•
•
•
•
1954 North Vietnam conquers South Vietnam
1961 Kennedy sends over US troops to train (secret)
1964 Kennedy assasinated
1965 Johnson signs Tonkin Resolutions
– Sends over troops for police action