Vietnam..
after WWII it was split into two.. north and south ..north communist.. south supported by the united states
major players- north vietnam, Vietcong, Ho Chi Minh, South Vietnam, United States..
Ho Chi Minh- goes to the paris peace conference and tries to get france to give them their independece because it was french controlled.. of course didnt happen.. then goes to soviet union and is educated on communism.. he then goes to china and helps with the communism take over.. he allied himself to help fight off the japanese and the french.. after WWII he assumes that independence would be given to them.. 1950 US first starts getting involved by giving money to french.. stop communism from spreading
Escalation- we increased our involvement..
eisenhower sent military advisors to help fight off the communists.. first time we sent people over..
JFK- send special forces over and more military advisors- Green Barets.. escalation is pretty small so far..
1964- major changing point.. incident in a body of water by vietnam.. a US ship is attacked supposibly and congress gave presidnet johnston to begin war in vietnam..
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.. start sending combat troops.. 64-68 sent more and more combat troops.. johnston kept saying the war was almost won..
1968- all things started changing..
the TET offensive- offensive by our enemy- lunar new year that they celebrate- every major city in south and attack- they launched this.. - this is what we wanted our enemy to do... we demolished them in the battle. everyone was confused on how we won because they kept saying we almost won but didnt make sense...
My Lai Massacre- caused americans to be negative towards the war.. US soldiers killed 504 vietnamese civilians.. the women were raped and bodies mutilated.. attacked kids.. we killed innocent people.. it was difficult to tell who was viatcong and who was our friend.. (led to killing villagers).. people would see this as bad but the soliders were trying to protect themselves....... see lots of war protests especially with young people... "draft dodgers"- fled to canada or sweden... went to college, got married, medically unfit for service, joined the national guard or peace corps, claimed to be homosexual (which ended their carreers.. and stuff), being rich so they wouldn't have to join the war.. Kent St. Massacre in 1970 people protesting..
students were killed in this protest.. 4 students were killed..
deescalation:
1969- Nixon becomes president- calls for end to war.. 70-72 nixon bombs laos and Cambodia- destroy Ho Chi Minh Trail.. life blood of our eneimies in the south.. how the nroth got goods to the vietcong in the south (communist).. bomb the supply line we will win it.. war becomes extremely un popular.. it doesn't work- it's a jungle path.. they can go around it and make a new trail..
"Vietnamization" - lets pull out and let the south vietamanize fight it..
1973- US pulls out of Vietnam- "peace with honor" - still didn't lose the war.. we were out that we would help south vietnam if they needed it...
1974- north inavdes the south..
1975- all of vietnam becomes communist.. (still communist today!).. we didn't stop the spread of communim after we left.. vietnam=negative.. vietnam war veterans came back and were enemies..
War On Terror- War in Afghanistan/ War in Iraq..
9-11 war on terror..
al-queda and bin laden group attacked twin towers and the pentagon.. find out al-queda was stationed in afghanistan.. led to war in afghanistan.. recently bin laden killed by navy seals
war in iraq- just started pulling out last august..:)
went there because we thought that bin laden was making nuclear weapons.. un popular cuz we didnt find anything.. sadan husain put to death- went through trial and hung.. got a democratic government in power.. obama pulled out all combat troops...
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