Transcript The Vietnam War

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Vietnam Balance Sheet
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· Between 1961 and 1973 over 58,000 Americans died in the
Vietnam War.
· During the same time
period, over 1,500,000
Vietnamese died as well.
Vietnam War Memorial,
Washington, D.C.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Vietnam War
1945-1975
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Origins of the War
The United States became involved in Vietnam
for several reasons.
•
The United States
wanted France as an
ally in the Cold War.
•
The United States also
wanted to support any
government that was
fighting communism.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
French colonial governments
had ruled most of Indochina
since the 1800s.
The French exploited
Indochina’s wealth by owning
plantations, claiming mineral
rights, and imposing high taxes.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Communist North Vietnam
Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh worked
to free Vietnam from
colonial rule.
Unable to get support
from western nations,
he embraced communism
and received support
from Soviet communists.
Do we favor Vietnamese independence?
NO!
We send $2.6 billion to aid the French
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In 1954, President Eisenhower introduced the
domino theory, which said that if Vietnam became
communist, its closest neighbors would follow.
If communism spread
throughout the region,
Eisenhower feared, it could
threaten Japan, the
Philippines, and Australia.
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Reasons for U.S. Involvement
Seen as a “battle” in the Cold War
CONTAINMENT: stop the spread of Communism
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Despite U.S. financial support, the French were
defeated by Vietminh forces at Dien Bien Phu.
The Vietminh hammered at
French forces and laid siege to
the base for 55 days.
After suffering more than
15,000 casualties, the French
surrendered on May 7, 1954.
In the peace accord that followed, Cambodia, Laos,
and Vietnam gained independence from France.
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Vietnam was divided into
two countries.
Ho Chi Minh’s communist
government ruled North Vietnam.
An anticommunist government,
supported by the United States,
ruled South Vietnam.
WHO?
Ho Chi Minh: North Vietnam
leader/ communist
Ngo Dinh Diem: South Vietnam
leader/ backed by U.S.
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South Vietnam’s president, Ngo Dinh
Diem, was not a popular leader.
• Corrupt
• Banned Buddhist religion
• Protests ensued
• A group of rebel guerilla fighters
formed the National Liberation Front
(NLF) to oppose the Diem government
and unite Vietnam under communist
rule.
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Kennedy and Vietnam
In 1961, President Kennedy sent Special Forces
(Green Berets) to help fight the Vietcong, the
guerilla fighters of the National Liberation
Front.
The Diem government remained
unpopular, however, and the
Kennedy administration worked
behind the scenes. CIA led an
assassination that killed Diem.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
In 1964, President Johnson faced his first crisis
in Vietnam.
The US Govt. claimed:
North Vietnam
attacked an
American
destroyer in
the Gulf of
Tonkin.
Johnson
ordered an
airstrike
against North
Vietnam.
He then asked
Congress to
authorize the
use of force to
defend U.S.
troops.
In response, Congress passed the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Johnson’s Blank Check
The Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution
gave Johnson
tremendous war
powers.
•
It allowed him to
commit U.S. troops
to South Vietnam.
500,00 in 1967
•
It enabled him to fight
a war against North
Vietnam without
asking Congress for a
declaration of war.
Nixon Administration
1969-1974
• “Honorable” end to the
war
• Vietnamization
• Secretly bombing
Cambodia
– Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Peace negotiations
(Henry Kissinger)
– U.S. troops withdrawn in
1973
– South Vietnam “fell” 1975
• Nixon Doctrine
• War Powers Act of 1973
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· By 1968,
over half a
million
Americans
were
fighting in
the
Vietnam
War.
· As the fighting escalated, the U.S. relied on the draft for
raising troops.
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This Pulitzer Prize winning photograph is of Kim Phuc Phan Thi,
(center) running down a road after a napalm bomb was dropped on
her village by a plane of the Vietnam Air Force.
The village was suspected by US Army forces of being a Viet Cong
stronghold. Kim Phuc survived by tearing off her burning clothes.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Phuc sustained third-degree burns to half her body and
was not expected to live. After surviving a 14-month
hospital stay and 17 operations, Phuc eventually
recovered.
"Napalm is the most terrible pain you can
imagine," said Kim Phuc. “Water boils at
100 degrees Celsius. Napalm generates
temperatures of 800 to 1,200 degrees
Celsius.“
The Uncertain Enemy
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· Jungle warfare was
difficult, and it was hard to
locate the enemy.
· In addition, it was very
difficult to identify which
South Vietnamese were our
allies and which were
supporting the Vietcong.
Ex Vietcong showing secret
tunnels, November 7, 2004
Agent Orange
was the nickname
given to a
herbicide and
defoliant used by
the U.S. military
in its Herbicidal
Warfare program
during the
Vietnam War.
Cropdusting in
Vietnam during
Operation Ranch
Hand lasted from
1962 to 1971.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
A guerrilla in the Mekong Delta paddles through a
mangrove forest defoliated by Agent Orange (1970).
Effects of Agent Orange
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Images taken from Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Vietnam by
Philip Jones Griffiths
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· Many South
Vietnamese distrusted Diem and joined the
Vietcong, a communist guerilla group supported by North
Vietnam.
An
execution
of a
Vietcong
prisoner
Feb. 1,
1968
The Tet Offensive:
A Turning Point
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· In January of 1968, the
Vietcong launched
surprise attacks on cities
throughout South Vietnam.
· The American embassy
was attacked as well in the
South Vietnamese capital
of Saigon.
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· The attacks
were known as the Tet Offensive because they
occurred during Tet, the Vietnamese News Year’s holiday.
· The Tet Offensive proved to the world that no part of South
Vietnam was safe, even with the presence of half a million
American troops.
Walter Cronkite
Protests at Home
· Thousands of Americans protested against the war, especially
on college campuses.
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Anti-Vietnam
War protests,
Ohio State
University
Peace Without Victory
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· In January 1973, the U.S.
reached a cease-fire agreement
with North Vietnam and brought
their troops home.
· However, the U.S. continued to
send billions of dollars in support
of the South Vietnamese.
8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· In April TEKS
of 1975,
the communists captured the South
Vietnamese capital of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City,
and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag.
Leaving Saigon
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Civil War
in
Cambodia
· The U.S. and
South Vietnamese
began to secretly
bomb communist
bases in
Cambodia used
by the North
Vietnamese.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
· Cambodia
soon fought a civil war, which was won by the
communist Khmer Rouge in 1975, whereupon they changed
the name of the country to Kampuchea.
· The Khmer
Rouge were
brutal leaders,
killing
approximately
two million
people in just
a few short
years.
Cambodia: Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979 (2:55)
Reaction at Home
Early Response
• Americans
supported efforts in
Vietnam.
• It was the right
thing to do.
• Patriotic!
Feelings about the War
• Hawks: fully support
the war
• Doves: those who
oppose the war
– Some oppose all war
– Others felt that war is
an acceptable tool but
that we had done all
that we could in
Vietnam.
• More and more doves
over time.
Change in Support
• Media coverage of the war
– Tet Offensive (January, 1968)
– My Lai Massacre (March, 1968)
– Bombing of Cambodia (May,
1970)
– Pentagon Papers (1971)
• The Draft
–
–
–
–
Deferments
Exemptions
Conscientious objectors
Who actually fought?
• Demand the vote (26th
amendment)
University Protest
• University of California
at Berkeley
– Free Speech Movement
– Mario Savio
• University of Michigan
– Students for a
Democratic Society
– Tom Hayden
• Kent State Massacre
– Response to bombing
of Cambodia
– 4 Killed, 9 Injured
Consequences of the War
• 58,000 Americans died
• 300,000 Americans
wounded
• $150 billion spent
• Ecological damage
– Napalm, Agent Orange
• Psychological damage
– Post-traumatic Stress
Disorder
– Drugs, alcohol,
unemployment
• Level of trust in U.S.
government?