Transcript The Conflicts of Indochina 1954-1979

The Conflicts of Indochina
(Vietnam) 1954-1979
Presentation created by Robert Martinez
Primary Content Source: A Short History of the World
Images as cited.
en.wikipedia.org
French Indochina
comprised the
countries of
Cambodia, Laos,
and Vietnam,
which were
united under
French colonial
rule in 1893.
en.wikipedia.org
The territory was occupied by
Japan from 1939 to 1945.
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Following Japan’s
defeat in World War
II, the Viet Minh, a
Vietnamese
nationalistcommunist group led
by Ho Chi Minh,
occupied northern
Vietnam.
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The Viet Minh founded the independent
Democratic of Vietnam (DRV), with its capital at
Hanoi. France, determined to regain control of
the territory, reoccupied the south. The First
Indochina War, between France and the DRV,
broke out in 1946.
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During the first 3 years of the war, the
better-armed French forces made little
progress against the guerilla tactics of
the Viet Minh.
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To gain the support
of the local
population, the
French established
an independent
Vietnamese
government in the
south under former
president Bao Dai,
in 1949.
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The U.S. government, determined to halt
the spread of communism in Asia,
supported the French, while the new
Communist government in China
supported the Viet Minh.
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In 1954, the Viet Minh captured a French
military base at Dien Bien Phu. The French,
tiring of the campaign, agreed to withdraw
from Vietnam. At a peace conference in
Geneva, it was agreed that the country would
be reunified following elections in 1956.
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However, the new leader in South Vietnam, Ngo
Dinh Diem, refused to hold elections because,
he claimed, a free vote was impossible in the
communist North. The U.S. supported Diem’s
position, preferring an independent noncommunist South Vietnam to the most likely
alternative: reunification under Communist
rule.
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Diem’s government, based in Saigon, lacked
popular support, and was opposed by many,
especially in the countryside, who saw it as a
puppet of the U.S. An organized rural
opposition emerged, called the Viet Cong,
support by the DRV.
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Open warfare between the Viet Cong and the
South Vietnamese (ARVN) broke out in 1959.
The U.S. government offered military advisers
and financial support to sustain the Diem
regime, but it grew increasingly vulnerable,
especially after Diem himself was assassinated
in a military coup in 1963.
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In 1964, the U.S. government under
President Lyndon Johnson used an
attack on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin
as an excuse to become directly involved
in the conflict.
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U.S. planes began bombing North
Vietnam and in 1965, the first American
combat troops were deployed to attack
Viet Cong forces in the South.
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The DRV and Viet Cong avoided major
battles where superior American
firepower could be decisive, opting
instead for guerilla tactics, including
ambushes and bomb attacks.
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Prolonged and intensive U.S. aerial
bombing failed to demoralize the North,
and despite suffering high casualty rates,
the DRV and Viet Cong always managed
to replace their losses.
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As the war dragged on with no sign of
victory, it began to attract strong
opposition from many in the U.S.,
especially college students.
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In early 1968, on the day before the
Vietnamese celebration of Tet, the DRV
and Viet Cong launched a major
offensive, attacking military bases and
the major cities in the South.
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The invaders were
driven back, but
the Johnson
administration,
stunned by the
offensive, did
agree to begin
peace
negotiations.
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The talks, in Paris, came to nothing. In
1969, faced with growing domestic
opposition to the war, the new president,
Richard Nixon, ordered a gradual troop
withdrawal.
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Nixon also escalated the conflict,
however, when he ordered, in 1970, an
invasion of Cambodia, which was
providing military supplies to North
Vietnam.
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Anti-war protests intensified as news emerged
in 1971 of a massacre of innocent Vietnamese
by a U.S. army unit at My Lai, and the American
use of the highly toxic defoliant, Agent Orange,
against the jungle bases of the Viet Cong.
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North Vietnam launched another
offensive in 1972, again successfully
countered. Exhausted, both sides agreed
to further talks, leading to a ceasefire in
1973 and U.S. agreement to withdraw its
forces.
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After U.S. troops had gone, the conflict
resumed, with the North now at a decided
advantage. The war ended in April 1975
when North Vietnamese forces captured
Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
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In 1976, Vietnam was reunited as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war
had left much of South Vietnam in ruins.
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The new government imprisoned
thousands of South Vietnamese, and
private businesses were forced to close,
precipitating an exodus of around a
million Vietnamese between 1975 and the
early 1990s.
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In 1975, a Cambodian communist
organization, the Khmer Rouge, under
their leader Pol Pot, seized power and
renamed the country Democratic
Kampuchea.
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The Khmer
Rouge had a
vision of
Cambodia as a
peasant-run
agrarian state.
They marched all
city dwellers into
the countryside
and forced them
to take up farm
labor.
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Intellectuals, merchants, bureaucrats,
clergy and any ethnic Chinese or
Vietnamese were slaughtered en masse.
Millions more were forcibly relocated,
deprived of food and tortured.
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During the four years
that the Khmer Rouge
were in power, some
1.7 millions were killed,
which was more than a
fifth of the population.
The regime was
overthrown by
Vietnamese forces
during an invasion in
1979.
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