with citizens. Before the first day of 2000 he resigned and turned the presidency to Vladimir Putin.
5. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Korean Conflict. The Korean conflict was the US involvement in 1950 in Korea. The country of Korea was split at the 38th parallel into North and South Korea. North Korea was trying to unite the country under communism and the South wanted the country to be united under Democracy.
The United States helped South Korea out. At first the North Koreans had taken almost the whole country. When we came along we helped take nearly the whole country. Then it became a back and forth war with nearly side really truly besting the other.
We could have really invaded the North, but we didn’t because to the North was China which was communist and we did not want China and the rest of the Soviet Union involved in the conflict because it could have led to an all out war with the Soviet union.
At the end of the war, the country was ironically still divided at the 38th parallel. The Country is still North and South Korea and they have agreed to a ceasefire but tensions are always high. They fight every once in a while. The US still occupies the area to help keep relations.
6. Students will understand the causes, effects and major events of the Vietnam Conflict. The Vietnam conflict was very similar to the Korean conflict. The North wanted to be communist and the South wanted to be under Democracy. We went to go help the South.
We helped the south by fighting the Vietcong from the north. Geneva Conference: Vietnam was partitioned temporarily into a Northern and Southern zone at the 17th parallel. The North was ruled by Ho Chi Minh while the South was under the Emperor Bao Dai. Dinh Diem was a French educated Catholic who discriminated against Bhudists. He was also an elected leader and became hated by just about everyone.
The Geneva Conference of 1954 was set up elections to Unify the country. On December 11, 1961, The United States sent 900 military advisors to give support to the troops. At the time, this rebellion was mostly inspired by the North. The definition of an "enemy" would prove to be fateful for US soldiers ordered to make life and death choices on ground.
The United States and the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam fought as allies. And the Vietcong was to the north. US Involvement increased every year. It started with advisors and worked its way up to commando troops. President Lyndon Johnson was a big critic of the US involvement of the war. He ultimately said however, that if we did not go over there, we would be unable to stop communism from spreading and taking not only Vietnam, but more and more countries.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was when congress gave the president permission to fight overseas without declaring it official war. After about 100 days they declared war. The Vietnam War was very unpopular, but it did not reach its peak of unpopularity until 1968. Johnson and General Williams kept telling people that we were winning the war and that we just need more and more troops. The Tet Offensive was a major offensive by the Viet Cong against every city in the country of Vietnam. This was exactly what we wanted them to do. It turned out to be one of the biggest victories for the US. We demolished them militarily.
The newspapers however saw this as a great opportunity to rally against the war and criticize it. They reasoned that if we had nearly won, the Vietcong would not have launched a major offensive. From that point on, the war became very, very unpopular. People felt that the government was lying to the common people. Support suffered. We were never given the go ahead to invade North Vietnam because there was China to the North who would fight us as well. It was a limited war in which there was never quite a definitive way to get the north to surrender.
The Napalm attacks were devastating weapons that swayed public opinion. There were also photographs by journalists of atrocities of South Vietnamese military, government, and police. People did many things to get out of fighting the war. They would leave the country, go to college, they got married, got deemed medically unfit for service, they joined the National Guard or Peace Corps, claimed to be homosexual, the list goes on. Nixon promised to end the war which he called Vietnimization which means that the war is for Vietnam and not for us to worry about. After we pulled out, South Vietnam fell to communism in about a year. They are still one of the five communist countries left in the world.
7. Students will understand the causes and effects of the Persian Gulf Wars as well as the War on Terror. Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War which developed into operation Desert Storm was a war should never have happened in the first place. Dictator Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded and annexed the country of Kuwait. He did this under the claims that Kuwait had over produced oil in a time when oil prices were low. He claimed that Kuwait lost Iraq over 14 billion a year. He also claimed that Kuwait was illegally pumped oil from Iraq’s oil fields in Rumailia.
Thirty two nations, including the United States, joined together and told Saddam that if he did not withdraw and initiate a ceasefire by a certain date, the UN would have no choice but to attack. Saddam flatly refused to cooperate. US troops were positioned in Saudi Arabia to protect the oil fields there. Saddam fired missiles into Israel and Saudi Arabia in the hope of spreading the war and breaking up the movement against him. On January 18, 1991, operation Desert Storm came into affect.
The Iraqi’s set fire to the oil fields in Kuwait and the US moved in. The US surrounded Kuwait and liberated it within days, but the damage had been done. Although Kuwait had been liberated, it had suffered major infrastructural damage at the hands of the Iraqis. The then George H. W. Bush continued to press the Iraqi’s until they had no choice but to admit to a ceasefire. Saddam was not removed from power however and he went on to fight the revolts of the Shiites and Kurds which, if successful, could break up Iraq.
There was an assassination attempt on Bush and Saddam remained a thorn in the UN coalition’s side. Iraq agreed to inspections of the country by the UN to search for nuclear and other weapons caches that the Iraqis could not be left to have. Even though the Iraqis agreed, they did everything that they could to prevent the inspections. The UN sent in missile strikes and continued to embargo trade with Iraq. The first Persian Gulf War was nothing but a nuisance to democracy and peaceful intentions for countries.
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