Transcript The Vietnam War

1959-1975
THE VIETNAM WAR
DRAW VIETNAM
Label the following:
 North Vietnam (communist)
 Hanoi

South Vietnam (anticommunist)
 Saigon
Laos
 Cambodia

THE SIDES
United States: Supports South Vietnam’s antiCommunist government
VS.
 North Vietnamese communists (Vietminh) and
Vietcong (Southern rebel group)

KNOW THESE TERMS

Ho Chi Minh – Communist leader of North Vietnam

Vietminh – North Vietnamese gov’t & army that opposed
the U.S. in the Vietnam War

(Earlier - fought for independence from France)

Vietcong (aka. Charlie) – South Vietnamese political
organization and army in South Vietnam that fought the U.S.
and South Vietnamese government during the war

ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) – South Vietnamese
Army – US ally
WHY DID THE U.S. GET INVOLVED IN VIETNAM?

To understand this, we have to examine what
happened to Vietnam after WWII
Discuss these review Qs with your table
 1. What other country got involved in Vietnam first?
What happened?
 2. How and why did the U.S. become involved?

What effects did financial support have?
 What happened in 1955?
 What happened in 1963?

US INVOLVEMENT

Respond in your notebooks:

Describe how the US got involved in the
Vietnam War. Use the following terms: WWII,
France, Domino Theory, peace conference,
overthrow
DAY 2—INTRO TO INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM
REVIEWING THE BACKGROUND
France had controlled Vietnam since 1887
 Ho Chi Minh had been fighting for Vietnamese
independence and self-rule
 After WWII, the U.S. gave aid to France to try
and re-colonize this land

 Why?
What was the interest of the US?
REVIEW: QUIZ FOR CANDY!
What happened in 1954 in Geneva? After what
event?
 Who are the Vietminh?
 Who are the Vietcong?
 Who is Ho Chi Min?
 What did President Kennedy authorize in
1963?

Kennedy, LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin
INTO THE VIETNAM WAR
FRENCH BATTLE

The French did very poorly against the
Vietnamese
 100,000

dead, missing or wounded
Dien Bien Phu defeat was the last straw
 This
1954 defeat ensured the
French wanted out
U.S. INTEREST

What is domino theory? How does it help
explain why the U.S. got involved in Vietnam?
GENEVA CONFERENCE

Vietnam temporarily divided at the 17th parallel
 Ho
Chi Minh’s Communist forces controlled the
North
 Ngo Dinh Diem, a dictator, controlled the South
MEANWHILE, IN SOUTH VIETNAM
Ngo Dinh Diem
 A Catholic leader in a
primarily Buddhist country
 When he insisted
Buddhists obey Catholic
religious laws, people
began to protest

PROTESTS OF DIEM

Self-Emolation by a Buddhist monk drew
attention to those who were against this leader
MONKS

Other monks
followed this
example
 Diem
refused to
change
CHANGE IS COMING…

Finally, JFK authorized the
overthrow of Diem
Century clip 31:30-36:00
COVERT WAR

By 1963, Kennedy was fighting what is
technically called a covert war in Vietnam
600,000
500,000
400,000
U.S. Troops
300,000
200,000
100,000
1961 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
0
WAR
U.S. didn’t authorize war until August 7, 1964
 Before that, the U.S. was simply sending
advisors to support South Vietnam

WE WILL DO A PHOTO INVESTIGATION…
Was America really at war in Vietnam before
August 7, 1964?
Note the document and evidence
 You need to read the captions to understand
what you are looking at
 Come to a conclusion

WWKD?
McNamara claimed that if he’d lived, Kennedy
would have pulled troops out of Vietnam
 But…we’ll never know
 In November of 1963, Kennedy was
assassinated

DAY 2
PRESIDENT JOHNSON
Johnson escalates troops to
500,000
 Johnson:
 “The communists want to rule the world, and if
we don’t stand up to them, they will do it. And
we’ll be slaves. Now I’m not one of those folks
seeing Communists under every bed. But I do
know about the principles of power, and when
one side is weak, the other steps in.”

GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT
August of 1964
 Johnson announced
that North
Vietnamese torpedo
boats had attacked
U.S. destroyers in
international waters
 This was the “Gulf of
Tonkin incident”

GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

President asked Congress
for a resolution giving him
authority to “take all
necessary measures to
repel any armed attack”
 Passed
416-0 in House, 88-2
in Senate
 Johnson said privately that
this “covered everything”
BUT…DID THE GULF OF TONKIN ATTACK REALLY
HAPPEN?
DIRECTIONS

Read and record info about the following
documents:
B
D
E

Do not do Doc C or Doc F yet