Vietnam War

Road to Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh VC

North

Vietnamese

Soldier

Soviet Supplied Weapons

Booby

Traps

Protests

I. Why did Kennedy support the war?

1. Reassert American military might.

2. N. Vietnamcommunist aggressor and Soviet pawn.

3. Believed in “limited brushfire wars”.

4. Special Forces

5. Before they developed into nuclear war.

II. Escalation of U.S. Involvment

1. 1941-Allies sign the Atlantic Charter:1. U.S. rejects colonialism

2. 1945—Vietnam declares independence1. Ending100 years of occupation.

3. 1949—China becomes Communist

Escalation (cont’d)

4. 1950—U.S.“Pacific Rim” from Communism5. 1954—France loses its empire in S.E. Asia6. Dien Bien Phu7. 1954 Geneva Conference8. Make Laos and Cambodia ind. countries.9. TEMPORARILY divide Vietnam at the 17th

parallel.10. N. and S. Vietnamfree elections in 1956 to

reunited the country under a single government.

Escalation (cont’d)

7. 1956—U.S. prevents free elections in Vietnam.

1. U.S. fears Ho Chi Minh and the communists would be voted into power.

8. Domino Theory8. 1960—780 military advisors are in S.

Vietnam. 9. 1963—JFK @17,000 “advisors” in

support of Ngo Dinh Diem.

Escalation (cont’d)

9. 1963—LBJ continues JFK’s support of S. Vietnam

10.1964—Gulf of Tonkin Resolution1. Gave LBJ power to “prevent further

agression.”2. Use of more troops3. Did not need Congressional approval

11.1965—LBJ begins aerial bombardment & direct involvement of U.S. ground troops.

12. March 31 1965, the first US combat troops arrived in Vietnam.

13. 180,000 troops by years end

III. TET

1. 1968—Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)

1. 39 U.S. bases; S. Vietnam.

2. Demonstrated the NVA was:1. Better equipped

2. Better trained

3. More determined to win the war

3. War not almost over.

TET (cont’d)

2. Psychological victory for NVA

3. Beginning of the end for U.S.

4. LBJ lost half his support; did not run again in ’68

IV. Counterculture & Anti-War Movements

1. Break away from conformity

2. Long hair; clothing parents didn’t like

3. 1962Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

4. 1964Free Speech Movement1. Protest University policies

2. Lectured on social issues from civil rights to Vietnam

Counterculture (cont’d)

5. 1969-Woodstock

6. Hendrix, Joplin

Dylan

7. “Flower Children”

8. Protest Vietnam1. “Make love not war”

Counterculture(cont’d)

9. Sexual Revolution

10.Casual Sex, multiple partners!!

11.1966—National Organization for Women (NOW); Betty Friedan

12.1972: Equal Rights Amendment1. No discrimination based on sex.

2. Fails many times…even today.

V. Nixon & the End of the Vietnam War

1. 1969: Nixon Pres.

2. 1st issueVietnam

3. How to have “honorable peace”?

4. Vietnamization: Turn war over to S. Vietnam

5. 1969500,000

6. 1972under 30,000

Nixon Years (cont’d)

7.1970 Ho Chi Minh Trail Bombing

in Cambodia8. 1969 Kent State ↓

Nixon Years (cont’d)

9. My Lai Massacre

10.“Baby

Killers”

Nixon Years (cont’d)

11.1971: Pentagon Papers; leaked by Daniel Ellsberg to NY Times

1. Congress lied during LBJ

2. War to avoid embarrassment

3. Truth of Gulf of Tonkin

12.Nixonget out ASAP

13.Peace talks begin…but breakdown

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/B-52c.jpg

Nixon Years (cont’d)

14.“Christmas Bombings”

15.March 29, 1973: last US troops leave Vietnam

Nixon Years (cont’d)

16. March 29, 1973 Nixon Resigns

17. April 1975 Saigon falls

to Communists ↓

VI. Costs

1. 58,000 US KIA

2. 2,600 MIA

3. 300,000 WIA

4. @2 million+ Vietnamese KIA

5. $176 billion6. U.S. couldn’t defend freedom around the world.

7. American $ and technology could not do everything

8. U.S. will be haunted until 1991 Gulf War

Costs (cont’d

9. War Powers Act1. Limit pres. power to wage war w/out

Congressional ok