Today we talked about forum post and finished our notes on Vietnam.
Geneva Conference
- Set up to unify the country by July, 1956
- Such elections were never held because neither side wanted to lose
- Split into North and South
US being involved
- Money and supplies to France
- Military advisers
- Sent special forces (Green Berets) for commando-style operations
- Sent combat troops for defensive purposes to protect South Vietnman
- Sent combat troops for offensive troops
- More troops
US and South Vietnam vs. North Vietnam/Vietcong
Golf of Tonkin
- Several US ships were supposedly attacked by the North Vietnamese torpedos in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- We don't know if this really happened or if Johnson made this happened to make the US support going to war.
Tet Offensive
- Lunar new year festival which is the most important holiday in South Vietnam
- Although we crushed the enemy military, the surprising huge offensive attack from an enemy that was supposedly almost defeated convinced many Americans that victory was impossible
- North Vietnam launched a huge offensive
- This set off the war
Pentagon papers
- New York Times published these
- Papers that showed that the government was lying to us about how the war was going
Why was it hard?
- It was hard to define the enemey
- We were never given power to invade North Vietnman
- We bombed them but we couldn't invade
Un-popular
- Tet offensive
- Pentagon Papers
- Injuring/killing innocent people
- Supporting a bad government in the South
- The power of the press
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