Monday- Went over the 80's
Tuesday- 'Nam Notes
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
The Vietnam Conflict 1950-1975
Goal: Stop communism (domino affect)
The French Connection
- France had control of Indochina until the Japanese took it over
- After the war was over, we believed Ho Chi Minh would give freedom to his people
- Vietnamese defeated French
- Short period of time, Nam was given independence
Geneva Conference 1954
- Vietnam was partitioned temporarily into a Northern and a southern zone of Vietnam at the 17th parallel
- The North was ruled by Ho Chi Minh
- The South ruled by Diem
- Conference set up to unify the country by July 1956
Who fought?
- US Armed Force
- Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) (the SouthVietnamese army)
- The NLF, a group of South Vietnamese guerilla fighters (Vietcong)
- People's Army of Viet Nam (PAVN- the North Vietnamese Army, pronounced Pahvin)
What we need to know about Nam for Semester Test:
Nam
- Beginnings
- Gulfof Tonkin
- Gulf of Tonkin-Body of water
- Several US ships were supposedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin
- August of 1964
- Congress gave Johnson the power to wage war
- Only two people in Congress voted against it
- Escalation
- Under escalation, US involvement increased over a period of years. Started with the deployment of non combat military advisors to the South Vietnamese Army
- Then started using special forces (Green Berets) for commando style operations
- Started sending regular combat troops but only for defensive purposes ONLY
- Use of regular troops for combat
- Once US troops were in active combat, escalation shifted to the adding of more US troops
- Tet Offensive
- Johnson and General William
- Westmoreland (major General in war) kept saying that with more troops we will win the war
- Most Americans believed at first
- 1968, a massive offensive was put on by North Vietnamese on the South
- Planned for months, stockpiling in cities
- Tet holiday was celebrated in Nam
- US crushed them in Tet offensive
- People started protesting
- Increased belief that government was misleading American people about a war
- Pentagon Papers- Under Nixon-
- Someone leaked to New York Times information on the Vietnam war-saying that they weren't telling the full story
Operation Rolling Thunder
- Was the code name for the nonstop bombing raids in North Nam conducted by the US armed forces
- Its purpose was to destroy the will of North Namese to fight, to destroy industrial bases and air defensives
- Anti-war
- Vietnamization De-escalation
- Nixon called for the "Vietnamization" of the war
- "Peace with Honor"
- Gradually pull US troops out and train the ARVN to take our place in fighting the north
- Expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia leading to college protests (Kent St)
- Paris Peace Accords
- The End
Kennedy and Nam
- Kennedy strongly believed in NOT fighting in Nam
- We were supporting Diem for he was the only anti-communist
My Lai Massacre 1968
- US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese civilians
- Women were raped and bodies mutilated
Getting out of serving
- Went to Canada or Sweden
- Went to college
- Got married
- Medically unfit for service
- Joined National Guard or Peace Corps
- Claimed to be homosexual
- Being rich
- On Jan 15, 1973, Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in NVietnam
Peace ??
- Peace agreement didn't last
- March 1975 the North invaded the South
- South was not strong enough and fell quickly
- Saigon, the South's capital fell on April 30, 1975
- US did not live up to it's promise to come to their aid if the North attacked
- NVietnam united both N and SVietnam on July 2, 1976 to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the former president of North Bietnam
- Vietnam is still communist today
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