Transcript Vietnam War

Vietnam War
By: Stephen Korolyk
Introduction
• All parts of the Vietnam War
•
Background
•
about the war
•
how it ended
Different names
• Vietnam war
• Second Indochina War
• Vietnam conflict
About the war
• It occurred at Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
• November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975
• It followed the first Indochina war
• Fought between
- North Vietnam and Allies ( Communist)
- South Vietnam and Allies ( Democracy)
US enters the war
• Military advisors arrived in 1950
• Involvement rose in 1960
• Army tripled in 1961 and again in 1962
Background of war until 1949
• Treaty of Hue in 1884 had France rule
Vietnam until after WWII
• Japan took them under the rule of Bao Dai
• During WWII they became allies of the
Axis powers
• This stayed like this until the French
booted the Germans out of France.
• Vietnam didn’t trust the French any more
• Japan then took them and they became
the Empire of Vietnam.
• After WWII the UN, US, the SU agreed
that Vietnam belonged to France
• France didn’t have the soldiers, ammo, or
weapons to immediately retake it
• Britain then gave France the ammo they
needed.
• They also gave supplies to surrounding
Japanese aid.
• They helped France retake Vietnam.
• Ho Chi attempted to negotiate with the
French.
• French landed in Hanoi by March 1946.
• This started the First Indochina War
• Japan was loosing until Communists
China largely won the Chinese Civil war.
• They helped provide supplies for Vietnam.
Exit of the French
• Communist nations were lead by the
People’s Republic of China (PRC)
• Their advisors began to help Viet Minh
• They transformed them from a guerrilla
force into a regular army
• September 1950- US created a Military Assistance
and Advisory group (MAAG)
• Used to help the French with:
- aid
- advice on strategy
- train Vietnamese soldiers
• The French’s involvement with the war ended after
the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
• France was defeated
• On May 7th 1954 France surrendered
• Independence was granted to:
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Vietnam
Insurgency in the South
• Hanoi lead communist in South Vietnam to begin
a low level insurgency
• 400 government officials were assassinated in
1957
• 20% of Vietnam’s village chiefs had been
assassinated by insurgents in 1958
During JFK in office 1961-1963
• JFK had a three part crisis:
- failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion
- construction of the Berlin Wall
- settlement of the government of Laos and the Pathet
Lao communist movement
• On July 23 1962 14 nations:
- Peoples Republic of China
- South Vietnam
- Soviet Union
- North Vietnam
- United States
•
signed an agreement promising the neutrality of Laos
Coup and assassination
• November 2 1963, Diem was overthrown and executed
along with his brother
• Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased the
support for the guerrillas
• One government fell and another quickly succeeded
Lyndon B. Johnson expands the war
• Johnson reversed Kennedy’s policy and
withdrew 1,000 troops
• August 2nd, 1964 USS Maddox fired upon and
damaged many torpedo boats
• Another attack two days later on:
- USS Turner Joy
- USS Maddox
• Vietnam army was aprox. 5,000 soldiers
• Vietnam army grew:
- 1959- 100,000 soldiers
- 1961 to 1964- 850,000 to 1 million soldiers
• US troops deployed to Vietnam grew from 2,000
soldiers in 1961 to 16,500 soldiers in 1964
• March 2nd 1965
• operations:
- Flaming Dart
- Rolling Thunder
- Arc Light
• Operation Rolling Thunder
- Covered the North with millions of missiles rockets and
bombs
- Between March 1965 to November 1968
• Operation Commando Hunt
- targeted the NLF and the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA)
- objective: forcing North Vietnam’s support with the NLF
- operation failed
Escalation and ground war
• March 8th, 1965 3,500 US marines were sent to
Vietnam
• This is the beginning of the American ground war
• Increased to 200,000 in December
• Communist made a hit-and-run guerrilla tactics
• In Binh Gia they defeated a strong ARVN force in
conventional warfare
• Communist won another Battle of the Battle of Dong
Xoai
United State’s Plan
• They had a three point plan:
- Commitment of US to halt the losing
trend by the end of 1965
- the forces seize the guerilla forces this
will end when the enemy was warn down and
driven back.
- if phase two is not complete in 12 to 18
months they will need the final destruction of
enemy forces
Tet Offensive
• This is when over 100 cities were attacked with
assaults on General Westmoreland’s
headquarters and the US Embassy, Saigon
• It was the American turning point in Vietnam
• May 10th, 1968 America and the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam began peace talks
• Johnson stopped bombing Vietnam
• Hubert Humphrey (Dem.) vs. Richard Nixon (Rep.)
Vietnamization
• Richard Nixon becomes President.
• Nixon Doctrine- build up the ARVN so they could
protect South Vietnam
• Also known as Vietnamization
• Oct. 10th, 1969 Nixon ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s
loaded with nuclear weapons and attach the boarder
to show the Soviet Union that he will do anything to
end the war.
Operation Menu: the secret bombing of
Cambodia and Laos
• Prince Norodom Sihanouk proclaimed
Cambodia neutral since 1955
• His policy changed in 1969 when Vietnamese
communists were no longer welcome
• 1971, Pentagon papers were leaked into the
New York Times
• Supreme court said it was legal
• 1971 Australia and New Zealand withdrew
their troops
• Peace protests spread out across the US
1972 election
• 1972 election
- Nixon vs. McGovern
VS
Paris Peace Accords
• They were signed on January 27, 1973
• Ended all U.S involvement in the Vietnam
War
Opposing to the Vietnam War:
1962-1975
• It started to unite groups:
- U.S
- anti-communism
- imperialism
- colonialism
• Opposition turned into street riots in effort to turn
U.S political opinion
Exit of the Americans: 1973-1975
• U.S dramatically retreated their support for
South Vietnam during the final years of
Vietnamization
• The North was planning to attack the
south during the 1975- 1976 dry season
• The north started to retake land from the south
• President Theiew announced that the Paris
Peace treaty was no longer in effect
• Gerald Ford took over as U.S president on
August 9th 1974 after Nixon’s Watergate
scandal
Campaign 275
• On March 10th 1975, General Dung launched
Campaign 275
• this limited offensive into Central Highlands
• Target: Ban Me Thuot in Daklak Provinence
• March 22nd VPA opened the siege of Hue
• People flooded the airports and docks to
escape
• March 31st Hue fell
Final North Vietnamese offensive
• North with half of Vietnam, decided to
head for Saigon
• Ho Chi Minh campaigned for the fall of
Saigon by May 1st
• The ARVN tried to make a last stand before they
reached Saigon
• They defended for two weeks
• On April 21st they surrendered
• President Thieu resigned the same day declaring that
the U.S betrayed South Vietnam
• April 27th 100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers encircled
Saigon
Fall of Saigon
• Martial Law: American helicopters began
evacuating people in Saigon
• Operation Frequent Wind: evacuation of Saigon
-largest helicopter evacuation in history
• President Gerald Ford gave a televised speech
declaring the end of the Vietnam War
• Countries involved in the war:
- People’s Republic of China
- South Korea
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Philippines
- Thailand
- Soviet Union
- North Korea
- Canada and the ICC
- Republic of China (Taiwan)
- United States
- North and South Vietnam
Aftermath
• Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell
to the Communist party of Kampuchea on
Apria 17th 1975
• Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea
and became the Cambodian-Vietnam War
• China invaded Vietnam in 1979 in a boarder
war
• Known as the Third Indochina War 1978-1979
• Path Lao overthrew the royalist government of
Laos in December 1975
Effect on the United States
• Between 1965 and 1975 the United States spent
$111 billion on the war
• 3 million soldiers entered the war:
- 58,193 soldiers were killed
- 150,000 were wounded
- 21,000 were permanently wounded
• Many fled to Canada to avoid Vietnam draft
Chemical defoliation
• Rainbow Herbicides:
- Agent Pink
- Agent Green
- Agent Purple
- Agent Blue
- Agent White
• Mostly used Agent Orange
Agent Orange
• Made of Dixon
• Over 20 million US gallons were sprayed
over Southeast Asia
• Caused birth defects
Casualties
• Vietnamese government in its military forces
suffered 1.1 million and 600,000 wounded
• Civilian deaths from Operation Rolling Thunder
ranged from 52,000 to 182,000
• U.S military has estimated between 200,000 and
250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the
war
The
End