Sem test- 8th hour on monday Vietnam conflict 1950-75
prior to this, Vietnam was part of French Indochina
goals of the US in this war- stop spread of communism, containment,
goals of the North Vietnamese/Vietcong-unite their country under communism
France controlled Vietnam for a long time, then in WW2 Japan took it over.
France took Vietnam over again, but Vietnam fought back and a war broke out
France lost to the Vietnamese
Ho Chi Minh- communist leader of North Vietnam; was trained in the USSR to start communist revolutions
Geneva Conference- UN decided that Vietnam was going to be split at the 17th parallel
North-communist
south-anti-communist
Dinh Diem leader of the South
thought democracy was weak; French educated and Catholic.
he discriminated against Buddhists, which made up 99% of Vietnamese
Conference setup elections to unify the country, but that didn't happen because both sides were worried about an election
Vietcong-short for Viet communist
enemies in the South that fought with guerrilla tactics
first war that the press was on the front line
Escalation-Truman through Johnson
President Truman began US involvement by sending money to help the French
Eisenhower sent more money and sent militairy adviser
JFK added operation forces, green berets
Johnson started sending troops
Diem v Buddhists-
Diem was a brutal dictator
a monk set himself on fire in protest of the US forces
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution- several US ships were supposedly attacked by Vietnamese troops
basic declared war, but it technically didn't
Johnson said during the 1964 election that he didn't want to go to war
right after he won he went to war
General William Westmoreland kept saying they needed more troops to win
Tet Offensive
major offensive assault in every major city in Southern Vietnam by the Vietcong
started on a Vietnamese holiday
this is where the war turned negative
Minh's strategy was to make the US tire of war and stop fighting
it was a crushing victory for the US, but people started turning negative anyway
US strategy was to bomb them into submission
pentagon papers-top secret papers that made people realize that th gov't had been lieing
injuring/killing innocent people
My Lai Massacre
US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese civilians
dead civilians included many young and old people
supporting a bad gov't in the South
the power of the press
Kent St.
protestors at the college started a building on fire, the national guard was called in
hundreds of college students surrounded them and one of the guard members opened fire and killed 4
how did people get out of serving in Vietnam
fled the country
went to college
got married
medically unfit for service
joined the national guard or peace corps
claimed to be homosexual
being rich
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