Modern World HistoryAssign. #4-3

Ch. 17, Section 3Korean War and Vietnam War

Korea at end of WWII (#1)• At the end of World

War II the Allies divided Korea at the 38th Parallel

• The Soviet Union controlled the northern part and set up a communist govt.

• The US controlled the southern part and set up a democratic govt.

Korean War Begins

• In June 1950 Soviet-backed North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea

• US President Truman asked and received support from UN

• The USSR was absent because boycotting Security Council until seat given to Communist China

Why was the US compelled to fight in the Korean War?

• After China fell to communism the US feared the rest of Asia may fall to communism (“domino theory”)

• Containment policy dictated that we stop the spread of communism anywhere

• US allied with democratic South Korea

• At the start of the war the North Koreans pushed the South Koreans back to the SE corner of the peninsula (#2)

• Even with US-led UN forces there the war seemed like it could be lost

Tide Turns in Korean War (#3)

• General Douglas MacArthur led forces on a landing at the city of Inchon behind enemy lines

• The UN forces then attacked from both sides and routed the North Koreans

• Afterwards UN forces pushed them back to near the Yalu River

China Joins the Fight (#4)

• As UN forces attempted to unify Korea China sent 300,000 soldiers across the border

• In brutal fighting in below freezing weather the UN forces slaughtered Chinese soldiers, but were overwhelmed by their numbers and were forced to retreat

Truman Fires MacArthur• General MacArthur

suggested air strikes on China and the use of atomic bombs

• Truman refused, hoping to avoid WWIII

• MacArthur publicly criticized the President

• Truman fired MacArthur• MacArthur returned

home a war hero

Korean War Ends (#5)

• The war became a stalemate near the original 38th parallel

• Republican candidate for president, Dwight Eisenhower, promised to end the war if elected

• When Eisenhower won, he negotiated a cease fire to end the war in 1953

Korea Since the 1950s (#5)

• The border between North and South Korea is the most heavily defended border in the world (called the DMZ – de-militarized zone)

• thousands of US soldiers have been stationed there for 60 years

• South Korea remains democratic and North Korea remains communist

North Korea Threat Today

• North Korea has built tunnels to allow for another invasion

• North Korea is building a nuclear weapon program

• Dictator Kim Jong Il passed away in 2011 and turned over power to his son Kim Jong Un

Vietnam After World War II- For centuries the Vietnamese

were dominated by China- French Indochina – colony of

France since late 1800s that included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (#6)

- Vietnamese fought French rule, under the leadership of the Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh

- during World War II Japan took over Vietnam

- Ho Chi Minh formed the Viet Minh to fight the Japanese and received aid from the United States for doing so

- after the Japanese surrendered to end WWII, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent, France returned to regain their old colony

- both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower gave France aid to fight the communist Viet Minh

Ho Chi Minh

Truman & Eisenhower Aid the French

- while France was fighting in Vietnam the U.S. was following its containment plan in Western Europe against the Soviet Union in the Cold War

- when China became communist in 1949 U.S. leaders feared the spread of communism in Asia

- domino theory – U.S. theory that if one nation fell to communism, that other neighboring nations would become communist, too

Chairman Mao Zedong, Communist Leader of China

Sec. of State John Foster Dulles and President Dwight Eisenhower

discuss strategy in Vietnam

French Defeated in Vietnam (#6)• Viet Minh had fewer weapons and supplies but used hit-

and-run guerilla tactics to weaken French• France was defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and peace

talks in Geneva, Switzerland began

French surrender to Vietnamese forces at Dien Bien Phu

French get re-supplied by air while surrounded at Dien Bien Phu

Geneva Accords Divide Vietnam (#7)- Geneva Accords – agreement that

was to temporarily split Vietnam between north and south, with elections to unify the nation to be held in 1956

- North Vietnam became communist under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh

- South Vietnam became anti-communist under Ngo Dinh Diem (supported by the U.S.)

- Diem’s govt. in South Vietnam wasn’t democratic, but was corrupt, oppressive, and unpopular

- Thousands of political opponents were imprisoned and tortured

- elections to unify Vietnam never held as the popular Ho Chi Minh would have won and turned Vietnam communist

President Eisenhower and South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem

Diem’s Government in South Vietnam

The Viet Cong Oppose Diem

- National Liberation Front is formed by the North Vietnamese to oppose Diem and recruit fighters against his govt.

- Viet Cong – nickname for South Vietnamese communists who opposed Diem and were aided North Vietnam

- Viet Cong fought to overthrow Diem’s govt. and reunite the nation all of Vietnam under communist rule

American Involvement (#8)

• Diem ordered troops to open fire on Buddhist protesters against his government

• Buddhist monk sets himself on fire in protest against South Vietnam’s govt.

• Faced with the possibility of a communist victory, the U.S. escalated its involvement – to follow its policy of

containing communism• Pres. Eisenhower helped

Diem’s government in South Vietnam by sending aid, weapons, and military advisors

• Kennedy sent more advisors and special forces (who did take part in combat missions)

The Diem Government Falls- U.S. aid increased in South Vietnam,

but U.S. upset that Diem wouldn’t make political, economic, and military reforms

- with U.S. support, a military coup overthrew Diem, and against Kennedy’s wishes killed Diem

- shortly after, Kennedy himself was assassinated and the problem of Vietnam fell to the new U.S. President, Lyndon Johnson

V.P. Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as President

aboard Air Force One inthe presence of JFK’s wife,

Jacqueline Kennedy

Johnson Sends Ground Troops• Assassination of Pres. Diem brought

chaos to S. Vietnam• N. Vietnam kept aiding the Viet Cong

rebels in the south where they controlled much of the countryside

• to try to win, Pres. Johnson increased U.S. efforts in Vietnam

• Johnson wanted to bomb N. Vietnam to get Ho Chi Minh to negotiate an end to the war but he needed Congress’s approval

• U.S. destroyer Maddox, patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin, reported being shot at by North Vietnamese

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – gave Pres. Johnson power to use military force in Vietnam

• Johnson began bombing N. Vietnam and sent the 1st U.S. combat troops to S. Vietnam in early 1965

• Escalation – policy of increasing military involvement in Vietnam (over 500,000 U.S. soldiers there by 1968)

• William Westmoreland – commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam (left with LBJ)

President Johnson announcing that U.S. troops are heading to Vietnam

- Ho Chi Minh Trail – supply line that started in North Vietnam and went through neighbor nations Laos and Cambodia used to supply the Viet Cong

- After attacks on U.S. soldiers the Vietcong or North Vietnamese army would sometimes slip back into these nations for safety from counter-attack

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Search and Destroy Missions• search and destroy

missions – U.S. tactic to search for Viet Cong and then burn villages that were thought to be sheltering them

• tactics failed as VC would return after missions and the Vietnamese people turned even more against the S. Vietnamese govt.

U.S. soldiers search for Viet Cong on search and destroy missions

U.S. soldiers land at a LZ (landing zone) and head off on missions

Stripping the Jungle• U.S. relied on chemicals to

reveal and destroy Viet Cong hideouts in the jungle

• napalm – jellied gasoline dropped by U.S. planes that burn violently

• Agent Orange – chemical sprayed by planes to kill jungle plants

• these chemicals worked but they hurt Vietnamese villagers which made them support the U.S. even less

Napalm

Agent Orange

A Frustrating War• Most thought the powerful U.S.

would win a quickly, but it fought a limited war to keep China out

• 2 million U.S. soldiers served in the Vietnam War

• U.S. forces inexperienced as average age of soldiers there was 19 and served only one year tours of duty

• as Viet Cong mixed in with the general population the enemy was hard to find, and there was no frontline like in WWII

• The Viet Cong hid in underground tunnels and filled the jungles with land mines and booby traps

• guerrilla warfare – a fighting tactic where small bands of fighters use surprise attacks on a stronger enemy (used by Viet Cong) (#9)

• the hot climate and jungle plants and insects made it hard on the U.S. soldiers (#9)

• the Viet Cong took heavy losses but didn’t give up against the invading U.S.

The Surprise Tet Offensive• by 1967 neither side was

near victory• Tet Offensive – a surprise

attack in January of 1968 on U.S. bases and over 100 S. Vietnamese cities by Viet Cong starting on the Vietnamese New Year’s Day (Tet)

• Viet Cong smuggled weapons into the cities and couldn’t be spotted amongst all the refugees and visitors heading into the cities

• during the VC attacks they killed enemy soldiers as well as govt. leaders, teachers, doctors and priests

• the offensive was a military defeat for the VC as all the cities were taken back from them and they lost far more lives in the battles

• Americans didn’t see it as a victory, and many thought we could not win the war, except for too high of a price

U.S. soldiers (left) and South Vietnamese soldiers (right) defend the capitol, Saigon

• many Americans began to question whether we should fight a war in which to defend its people we were destroying its cities and countryside

• Nation became divided between hawks (those who supported the war) and doves (those opposed to the war)

• Credibility gap – gap between what the govt. told people about the war (that we were winning), and what they believed about the war from watching on TV (that we were losing)

Hawks

Doves

Beginning of the End of the War• the Tet Offensive was the

turning point in the war as Pres. Johnson refused General Westmoreland’s request for more soldiers (end of escalation)

• Johnson announced in March of 1968 that he would stop bombing N. Vietnam, that he would seek an end to the war, and that he would not run for re-election as President

A frustrated President Lyndon Johnson contemplates what to do about the Vietnam War

U.S. Morale Sinks• U.S. soldiers in Vietnam fought

hard but lost faith that the U.S. could win

• South Vietnamese govt. didn’t have the support of the people and its army often refused to fight (#9)

• My Lai Incident – the massacre of a few hundred Vietnamese citizens (mostly women, children, and old men) by U.S. soldiers in March 1968

• It’s seen as an example of the breakdown of morale and discipline in our armed forces

Victims of My Lai massacre

S. Vietnamese officer kills V.C.

Nixon’s Vietnam Strategy (#10)• Vietnamization –

Nixon’s strategy in 1969 calling for gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and turning the fighting over to the South Vietnamese

• Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia to stop N. Vietnam from moving troops and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail there

President Nixon explains to the nation why we need to expand the war into Cambodia

Withdrawal from Vietnam• promising peace was at hand

right before the election, Nixon won re-election in 1972 in a landslide

• U.S. and S. Vietnam signed a peace agreement with N. Vietnam and the Viet Cong that ended the war in January, 1973

• civil war between Vietcong and South Vietnam’s govt. continued shortly after US troops left (#11)

• in 1975 N. Vietnam invaded and conquered S. Vietnam unifying the nation under communism (#11)

U.S. National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger (right) shaking hands with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho in Paris after their agreement on the cease-fire terms of the Vietnam War, 1973.

Legacy of the Vietnam War

• the war destroyed Vietnam’s landscape and economy, and over 1.2 million Vietnamese fighters died (2 mil. civilians)

• after Vietnam was reunited under communism many Vietnamese from the south fled to the U.S.

• 58,000 U.S. soldiers died; over 300,000 were wounded

• returning soldiers often suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which had symptoms like recurring nightmares, depression, fatigue, and flashbacks

Most soldiers who returned from the war were not welcomed home like soldiers from previous wars, and many took part in antiwar protests

Communists in Cambodia (#12)• Khmer Rouge – Communist

rebels who in 1975 set up a brutal government in Cambodia under the leadership of Pol Pot

• This government killed 2 million citizens (1/4 of nation’s population)

• Vietnam invaded in 1978 and set up a less repressive government, though fighting continued until 1989

• A democratic government was finally set up in 1993 with the help of U.N. peacekeepers

Vietnam Since 1975 (#13)

• North Vietnamese took tight control of the south

• Set up “re-education camps” to train them in communist thought

• Nationalized (put under government control) all industries

• 1.5 million South Vietnamese fled their country (200,000 “boat people” died at sea, 70,000 settled in the U.S. and Canada)

• Vietnam is still communist today, but it welcomes foreign investment and trades on the global market

• U.S. normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995