5-7-13

[3Tina]

Vietnam:

• 1950-1975
• goals:
  • stop communism
• The french Connection:
  • France gained control of Indochina in the mid late 1800s
  • during WW2 France worked with Japanese control Indochine
  • Japanese surrender
  • Korean War just ended
• Ho Chi Minh
  • tried to get independence
  • tried to start a communist revolution
  • enemy in the war
• Geneva Conference-1954
  • set up elections to unify the country by July, 1956
  • neither side wanted to lose so elections never happened
• Vietman was partitioned at the 17th parallel
• North was ruled by Ho Chi Minh
• in 1955, Ngo Diem became president of the South
• Ngo Diem: rich, catholic, hated French, anti communist, against Buddhists
• Who Fought?
  • United States Armed Fources
  • Army of Republic of Viet Nam
  • Vs.
  • Vietcong..NLF South Vietnamese (looked like everyday people)
  • Peoples Army of Viet Nam(PAVN)
• President Truman began US involvement by sending money to help French
• Eisenhower continued money but sent advisers
• Kennedy continued sending money and advisers as well as special operation soldiers
• Johnson sent more and more combat forces
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: several US ships were supposedly attacked
• gave Johnson a reason to get more involved in the War
• Johnson easily defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election
• Johnson made it sound like we were never going to be involved as to Goldwater was talking about how they were going to get involved
• Johnson and General Westmoreland kept saying that we needed more soldiers to win
• most Americans believed it..at first
• Americans public faith was shattered on January 30, 1968 the Tet Offensive was attacked
• Tet Offensive was a festival
• we crushed the enemy military then huge offensive attack from enemy made it almost impossible for Americans
• Americans had an increasing sense that the government was misleading about war
• we were never allowed to invade the North..how do you win without invading?
• Anti-War
  • Why were we against it so much?
    • Tet offensive
    • Pentagon Papers
    • Injuring/killing innocent people
    • supporting bad government in the South
    • power of the press
• Napalm Attacks
• Kent St. in Ohio early 1970s
  • a protest got out of hand
  • people started to open fire
• My Lai Massacre March 1968
  • 504 Vietnamese people were shot killed and raped and brutally killed