Post on 26-Apr-2018
Warm Up
① Complete the Vietnam War DBQ assignment
② You may work with the people around you
③ Complete documents 1-4 before beginning today’s notes
Causes Of The Vietnam War I. The Cold War: the battle between
capitalism and communism
II. Containment/Domino Theory: the USA wanted to stop the spread of communism in Asia
III. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions: the U.S. government believed that N. Vietnam attacked American ships
IV. LBJ was given the power to take the USA to war and so he did
Fighting In Vietnam I. The goal of U.S. military was
to defeat the Vietcong & support capitalism
II. The Problem: A. The Vietcong lived like civilians
in Vietnamese in cities B. The enemy was not clear and
U.S. soldiers mentally struggled
C. The Vietcong used guerilla warfare to counter U.S. military superiority
D. Jungles made fighting difficult
American Victories in Vietnam I. The air force bombed
Vietcong supply lines (Ho Chi Minh Trail) to force an enemy surrender
II. The military used napalm to destroy villages & pesticides (Agent Orange) to destroy crops
III. Soldiers were sent on search & destroy missions into the jungles to find the Vietcong and kill them
Fighting In The Jungle I. The majority of the war in
Vietnam was fought in the jungles
A. Ambush: hiding & attacking B. Guerilla tactics C. No battle lines à enemy was
everywhere D. Booby-traps, mines, tunnels
II. The North Vietnamese used psychological warfare to demoralize their enemies
The Tet Offensive I. In 1968, the Vietcong launched the
Tet Offensive against U.S. forces in Vietnam
A. North Vietnamese forces launched a large scale attack on major South Vietnamese cities and U.S. military bases
II. The Tet Offensive was the turning point in the Vietnam War
A. The attack went against U.S. media reports that the U.S. was winning
B. American attitude toward the war changed and the anti-war movement grew in the USA
C. Americans grew unhappy with the war and anti-war protests became popular
The War in America I. The Vietnam War had a major impact on
American society
II. The increased need for soldier led the USA to begin using the Selective Service
A. Men between 18-26 were eligible for the draft B. Men could be exempt from the draft if they
were in college or had bad health
III. Americans grew unhappy that Vietnam was becoming a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight
IV. Anti-Vietnam protests grew more and
more popular as Americans watched a losing fight on TV
Anti-War Movement I. As the death toll grew and more
American soldiers left for Vietnam, LBJ was hit with large scale anti-war protests
II. Anti-Vietnam protests, speeches and rallies became popular throughout the nation
III. Protests largely began on college campuses but spread to include all Americans
IV. The majority of Americans believed we had no reason to be in Vietnam
Campus Protests & Shootings I. The escalation of the war in 1968 led to
campus protests across America II. At Kent State Univ. in Ohio, four
peacefully protesting students were killed by National Guard soldiers
III. Students protested the killing of
civilians, the reason for war & the draft, A. The major concern was the large
numbers of high-school dropouts and minorities being drafted
Nixon Elected President in 1968
I. By 1968 the U.S.A. was strongly divided over the war in Vietnam
A. Hawks = strongly supported war B. Doves = strongly supported peace
II. The stress of the war led LBJ not to run for President in 1968
III. Richard Nixon won the election of 1968 promising to end the riots and protests in the USA along with the Vietnam War
Nixon Wanted “Peace With Honor”
Vietnamization I. In 1969 the US began pulling
American troops out of Vietnam
II. Nixon developed a plan called Vietnamization:
A. This strategy replaced American troops with South Vietnamese soldiers
III. Nixon then secretly tried to win the war and ordered troops to Cambodia & Laos
IV. When Americans found out about Nixon’s attacks it set off the largest protest in U.S. history
Paris Peace Accords 1973
I. On January 27, 1973 a cease-fire was finally signed by the USA, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam
II. The three parts: A. Cease-fire in-place and troop withdrawal B. All parties committed to no further acts of force on
ground, in the air, and on the sea C. North and South Vietnam to begin peaceful
negotiations on establishing normal relations and reunification.
American Withdrawal From Vietnam
I. In March 1973, the last U.S. forces left Vietnam
II. In 1975 the North Vietnam violated the cease fire and invaded South Vietnam
III. Vietnam was then unified under a single communist government
IV. Communist forces captured the presidential palace in
Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City) ending the Vietnam War
TheImpactoftheVietnamWar
I. TheconflictinVietnamwasthelongest&divisivewarinU.S.history
II. Ofthe3.3millionU.S.soldiers
whoserved:A. 58,000werekilledB. 303,000werewoundedC. 15%werediagnosedwithpost-
traumaMcstressdisorderaNerthewar
D. ManyvetsfacedhosMlityfromotherU.S.ciMzenswhentheyreturnedhome
TheImpactoftheVietnamWar
I. ThewarchangedAmericaathomeA. PeoplebegantolostfaithinthegovernmentB. Americaspent176BilliononthewarC. The26thAmendmentloweredthevoMngageto
18yearsoldD. Vietnamsoldiersreturnedhomeandsuffered
fromPTSDi. SuicideandviolencewerecommonamongstVietnam
vetsE. TheWarPowersAct1973limitedthe
president’sabilitytotaketheUSAtowar
II. ThewarchangedAmericanforeignpolicyA. USAendedthecontainmentpolicy(failure)