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
we killed innocent people, raped women
504 civilians were killed
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, being rich.
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 is 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
winding down
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