VIETNAM WAR1955-1975

#30 http://www.military.com/video/off-duty/movies/classic-forrest-gump-in-vietnam-war/1069387728001

PRESIDENTS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

Dwight D. Eisenhower. John F. Kennedy. Lyndon B. Johnson. Richard Nixon. Gerald. R Ford

PRE-VIETNAM WAR•The French took control of Vietnam in the late 19th century.

•In 1945, the Indochinese Communist party declared that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was independent of France, which resulted in war.

•The French & the Vietnamese fought in the First Indochina War until 1954, when the French retreated.

CAUSES OF THE VIETNAM WAR

oOnce the Vietnamese defeated the French, an international peace conference was held in Geneva.

oIt was decided that Vietnam would be divided at the 17 N latitude (17th parallel) because of political differences.oCommunists & non-Communists would fight for control of the country

HO CHI MINH•North of this line, Ho Chi Minh & his Communist forces (Viet Minh) would run the government.

oNorth Vietnam’s capital was Hanoi

PRESIDENT NGODINH DIEM

•In the south, the non-Communist government of President Ngo DinhDiem was in control.

•South Vietnam’s capital was in Saigon.

Diem is supported by the USA & is

anti-Communist, but also pretty

corrupt, persecutes Buddhist (his

own people)

CREATION OF THE VIET CONG

•Because Diem was so unlikable, a lot of South Vietnamese people were against his rule & formed the Viet Cong. (these were South Vietnamese guerrilla war fighters, fighting for Ho Chi Minh, but they lived in the South & could blend in)

•He was assassinated in 1963

NGUYEN (WIN) VAN THIEU

•Elected president of South Vietnam after the assassination of Diem

•Rules until Saigon (the capital of South Vietnam) is about to be captured by the North

•He flees to the US to avoid capture•Flees with 15 million worth of gold & 15 TONS of luggage

•Settles in Massachusetts, lives the rest of his life there

DMZ- DEMILITARIZED ZONE

• The two countries were separated by a DMZ, similar to that of Korea

• Communist North Vietnam was supported by both the USSR and China.

• The United States and its allies supported South Vietnam.

•The Vietnam war was primarily a civil war involving the North Vietnamese Communists and the South Vietnamese Viet Cong fighting against a Democratic South Vietnam.

•Just as in the Korean War, the domino theory played a part in the Vietnam War.

•US Presidents believed that if Vietnam fell to Communism, then other nations in the region would too

GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENTS •The US supported South Vietnam in the war effort to contain Communism; the US had ships off the coast of Vietnam

•1964- US Maddox claims that it was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats & fire is exchanged.

•This angered Congress & the American people

•Gave LBJ the opportunity to go to war in Vietnam officially

https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history

EFFECTIVE VIETNAMESE STRATEGIES

•Long before the US involvement increased in Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops started using the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

•This was a system of trails through the jungles and mountains that connected N. Vietnam to S. Vietnam via Laos & Cambodia

•Used to transport soldiers, supplies, arms, etc.

GUERRILLA WARFARE •The Viet Cong, Communist fighters based in South Vietnam, gained more and more strength as Diem ruled as a dictator.

•Guerrilla soldiers used hit-and-run tactics when fighting rather than traditional fighting methods. (they also knew the lay of the land much better than the Americans)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6xiFDAIwy8

TET OFFENSIVE •By this point the American people believe that the US has almost won this war…until the Tet offensive

•The Viet Cong orchestrate the Tet Offensive

•A massive coordinated attack throughout all of South Vietnam- it wasn’t completely successful in capturing the major cities of South Vietnam BUT it was successful in losing the support of the American people

•After the Tet offensive, President Richard Nixon would begin to withdraw US troops from Vietnam

•This policy of turning over control of the war to S. Vietnam while the US troops withdrew was called Vietnamization.

•The last US troops in Vietnam left in 1973, after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords

ANTI-WAR PUBLIC

•This was the first time in American history that the public was so clearly against war. The Vietnam War was unpopular in the US because of the large number of US casualties and the draft of males into the armed forces.

RESULTS OF THE WAR

•It showed the world that even the US could be defeated by a lesser power •Viet Cong & North Vietnam’s guerilla tactics worked

•Major civilian casualties: because the US couldn’t find the Viet Cong’s hiding places, they bombed anywhere & everywhere in hopes of it being Viet Cong. Many times it wasn’t

END OF THE WAR •The war ended in 1975, when the South Vietnamese surrendered before the capture of Saigon (its capital) , by the North Vietnamese army.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1975-cbs-news-footage-shows-the-dramatic-evacuation-of-saigon/

COMMUNIST VIETNAM

•In 1976, N. Vietnam united both North and South Vietnam to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the former president of N. Vietnam. Hanoi became the country’s capital

•Vietnam remains a united Communist country to this day

VIETNAM & THE USA https://www.youtube.com/w

atch?v=pRm7Wfzy-dY

WHY DID THE WAR START?

http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-summary-infographic/vietnam-war-summary-2/

•Was the theory domino theory correct in South East Asia?