Transcript 33.1 background to conflict

33.1 Background to
Conflict
Vietnam
Vietnam is the easternmost country in Southeast Asia. The country is mostly hills
and dense forests. It borders Laos, Cambodia, and China.
In the 1400s the Chinese tired
to reassert the power over
Vietnam but Vietnamese
military leader Le Loi used
guerrilla warfare to defeat
the Chinese.
Loi’s rebels worked as
peasants during the day and
took up arms to attack the
Chinese by night.
1428 the rebels drove the Chinese out of the country and won independence for
Vietnam.
French colonization
Vietnam once again lost
independence during a surge of
European imperialism in the mid
1800s. The invaders this time
were the French.
In 1883 the French gained complete control of the country and the combined
Vietnam with Laos and Cambodia to form French Indochina.
Like with the Chinese the French
had taking control of the land but
not in control of the people’s
hearts.
Ho Chi Minh was the country’s best
known nationalist.
A Nationalist is a person or
group who works to advance the
independence and interests of a
cultural group in a particular location
He lived in the China and the Soviet
Union while working for Vietnamese
independence.
Because of his time spent in these
countries he became committed to
the ideals of communism.
In the 1940s during World War II the Japanese occupied Indochina. This was
Ho’s chance.
France and Vietnam go to war
Ho retuned to Vietnam in early 1941. He organized a resistance movement
called League for Independence of Vietnam or Vietminh.
After the Japanese surrendered
to allied forces in August of
1945, Vietnam declared its
independence.
Ho spoke at the celebration for independence; he echoed the language of the
U.S. Declaration of Independence in his speech.
In 1946 Vietnam and France were once again interlocked in battle
Ho pleaded for assistance from
the U.S. but President Truman
ignored Ho and instead
backed the French .
Truman saw France as a
powerful ally to stop the spread
of communism. Truman was
unwilling to back Ho’s
Communist connections.
By the late 1940s communism
was spreading through out
Asia: China, North Korea, and
Indonesia.
President Eisenhower warned
that if Vietnam fell to
communism the rest of
Southeast Asia would soon
follow.
This theory became known as the Domino Theory.
By 1954 the United States was
paying for much of the cost of the
French war effort.
But the French suffered loss after
loss.
Money and military equipment were
of limited use against the Vietminh
guerrilla tactics.
The Vietminh would strike with out
warning and then disappear back
into the jungle
The French tried to lure the
Vietminh into a conventional battle
at Dien Bien Phu.
The plan backfired; 13,000 French
troops were outnumbered by 50,000
Vietminh troops.
French commanders told their troops to hold out; “The Americans will not let
use down; the free world will not let us down.”
Eisenhower was willing to send
money but was reluctant to
become directly involved in
another Asian war so soon after
the Korean War.
The French were defeated on May 7, 1954.
The Geneva Conference
1) What was the Geneva Conference
2) Who was involved
3) What did the U.S. and China want
4) What was the outcome
1) International conference to settle Indochina conflict and map out
Indochina’s future
2) Cambodia, Great Britain, Laos, China, Soviet Union, United States
3) U.S. Did not want to see Vietnam handed over completely to the
communist
China Limit U.S. influence and also wanted to prevent a strong unified
Vietnam
4) a) Cease-fire
b) Divide Vietnam at 17th parallel
c) Vietminh forces in the north and France regained control of south
d) General elections set to unify country
e) U.S. refused to support agreement
Ngo Dinh Diem
The U.S. hoped that South Vietnam
would remain non-communist; their
hopes rested on a former French
government official Ngo Dinh
Diem.
Diem was strongly anticommunist, He spent in the United States were he
attracted powerful backers.
Diem became president of South
Vietnam in 1955.
This election was rigged.
For example in Saigon Diem
received 605,000 from just 450,000
registered voters.
General elections to unify the country were suppose to take place in 1956, but Diem
knew he could not win a nation wide election against Ho Chi Minh, so when the time
came for a country wide election Diem refused to call an election in the south.
Diem was unpopular from the start due in large part to his religious background.
By the late 1950s armed
revolution had started in the
south. Much of the resistance
was from Vietminh who had
stayed in the south.
They formed the National
Liberation Front or NLF.
The NLF’s main goal was to overthrow Diem’s government. This rebel force was
called the Vietcong.
U.S. involvement
President Kennedy agreed fully
with the Eisenhower's domino
theory.
He also wanted to improve the
U.S. image after the Bay of Pigs
and the building of the image of
the U.S.
In December of 1960 there were
900 U.S. military advisors training
ARVN.
With in two years Kennedy had
increased the number of U.S.
military advisors to over 16,000.
U.S. military deaths went from 14 in 1961 to nearly 500 in 1963.
Diem’s overthrow
South Vietnam’s Buddhist
started to openly oppose
Diem’s rule.
Diem waged a brutal campaign
to control the Buddhist.
In responses several Buddhist set themselves on fire.
U.S. ambassador Lodge meet with Diem. Diem refused to discuss any
topics that President Kennedy had raised.
U.S. leaders began to
encourage a group of South
Vietnamese army officers
plotting Diem’s overthrow.
In November of 1963 Diem
was murdered.
Diem’s death did not ease growing concerns about the communist
expansion in Vietnam.