Transcript 22.1-22.2-Vietnam Warx

Vietnam War:
The early years
21.1-21.2
French Rule in Vietnam
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From the late 1800’s
until WWII
Took much of the land
from the peasants
The Vietnamese staged
several revolts and
strikes during the
1930’s
Indochinese
Communist Party
Ho Chi Minh
The French had
condemned him to
death for his
rebellious activity ,
he fled Vietnam
 Vietminh
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 Group
sought
Vietnam’s
independence from
foreign rule
France Battles the Vietminh
Ho Chi Minh vowed to fight from the
North to liberate the South from French
control
 The United States paid for much of
France’s war
 During WWII:
 United States had forged an alliance with
Ho Chi Minh
 Supplying him with aid to resist the
Japanese
 The U.S. now saw their one time ally (Ho
Chi Minh) as a Communist aggressor
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The Vietminh drive out the French
Domino Theory
 Likened the countries on
the brink of communism to
a row of dominoes
 May of 1954
 The Vietminh overran the
French outpost at Dien
Bien Phu
 The Geneva Accords
temporarily divided Vietnam
along the 17th parallel
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Diem Cancels Elections
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South Vietnam’s president Ngo Dinh Diem, a
strong anti-communist, refused to take part
in the countrywide election of 1956
Corrupt Government
Restricting Buddhist practices
Communist opposition group in the South
known as the Vietcong had begun attacks on
Diem government
Ho Chi Minh began supplying arms to the
Vietcong via a network of paths along the
border of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (Ho
Chi Minh Trail)
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Kennedy and Vietnam
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Increased financial aid to
Diem’s teetering regime and
sent thousands of military
advisers to help train South
Vietnamese troops
Diem administration initiated
the strategic hamlet program
which meant moving all
villagers to protected areas
Diem also intensified his attack
on Buddhism
Kennedy and Vietnam
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To protest, several Buddhist
monks and nuns publically
burned themselves to death
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November 1, 1963, a U.S.
supported military coup
topped Diem’s regime
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Against Kennedy’s wishes,
Diem was executed
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution
August 2, 1964
 North Vietnamese patrol
boat fired a torpedo at an
American destroyer, the
U.S.S. Maddox
 The alleged attack on the
U.S. ships prompted
Johnson to launch bombing
strikes on the North
Vietnam
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The Tonkin Gulf resolution
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August 7, congress adopted the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
 Not
a declaration of war
 Granted Johnson broad military
powers in Vietnam
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February 1965
 Operation
Rolling Thunder
 The first sustained bombing of
North Vietnam
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By June more than 50,000 U.S.
soldiers were battling the Vietcong
Strong support for containment
 Secretary
of Defense,
Robert McNamara
 Secretary
of State Dean
Rusk
 President
Johnson began
dispatching tens of
thousands of U.S. soldiers
to fight in Vietnam
Strong support for containment
 The
American commander
in South Vietnam,
General William
Westmoreland continued
to request more troops
 By 1967 the numbers of
U.S. troops in Vietnam
had climbed to about
500,000
A war in the Jungle
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The Vietcong lacked the high-powered
weaponry of the American Forces
Used hit-and-run and ambush tactics as
well as a keen knowledge of the jungle
terrain
The enemy laced the terrain with
countless booby traps and land mines
A network of elaborate tunnels that
allowed the Vietcong to launch surprise
attacks then disappear quickly
War of Attrition
Westmoreland’s strategy for
defeating the Vietcong was to
destroy their morale through
a war of attrition or gradual
wearing down of the enemy
 Continuous harassment
 The Vietcong had no
intention of quitting their
fight
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Battle for “Hearts and Minds”
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Keep the Vietcong from winning the
support of South Vietnam’s rural
population
Some of the tactics Americans used to
battle the Vietcong also harmed the rural
population
U.S. planes dropped napalm, a gasoline
based bomb that set fire to the jungle
Sprayed Agent Orange a leaf killing toxic
chemical that devastated the landscape
Search and destroy missions
The early war at home
 In
August of 1967 Johnson
asked for a tax increased
to help fund the war and
to keep inflation in check
 Receiving
a $6 billion
reduction in funding for
the Great Society programs
Living Room War
 Footage
of combat
appeared nightly on
the news in millions
of homes
 Repeated television
images of Americans
in body bags
 A credibility gap