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American involvement in Vietnam.
“Was it worth the cost?”
The Folly of the French
• French colonialism.• Dien Bien Phu.
Fortified French garrison taken by the Vietminh. French surrender.
• Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel.
• Containment????
Ho Chi Minh
• “he who enlightens.”• Nationalist or
communist leader of Vietnam.
• Modeled the North Vietnamese Constitution after the Dec. of Indp. and US Constitution.
Ngo Dinh Diem
• President of South Vietnam from 1955-1963.
• Corrupt.
• Became an embarrassment to the US.
• Overthrown in a coup in 1963 and assassinated.
Escalation of the war.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution - 8/64
• Destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy are attacked by NV patrol boats.
• Johnson obtains a “blank check” from Congress allowing attacks on NV without a declaration of war.
“Rolling Thunder”
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning…..”
Air Assault
Airborne
USS Pueblo
Would the US attack North Korea?
• US intelligence gathering ship.
• International waters.• US involvement in
Vietnam.• Released after 11
months of torture.
1968 The Tet Offensive
Impact of the Tet Offensive
• Tactical US victory.• “Light at the end of the
tunnel.” General Westmoreland
• Protests.• Americans lose faith in
the war and in Johnson. 68 election.
• My Lai
“We had to destroy the village to save it.”
Shifting the Burden
Vietnamization: Training and letting the South Vietnamese (ARVN) army fight the war. By 1972, over 500,000 troops were withdrawn.
Cambodian & Laoatian problem:
• 1970. NVA sanctuaries. Nixon orders US troops and planes to attack.
• Strong protest reaction across the country.
American protest movement
The Protest Movement
• Mixture of peace and violence.
• Kent State. May 4th, 1970.
• http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/intro.htm
The end of a long struggle
1973 Paris Peace Agreement.
• Wityhrawal of US troops.
• Reunification by peaceful means.
• Status quo of territory.
Communist victories come to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos by 1975
The Year: 1968.
• 1968 Tet Offensive.
• 1968 Request for 206,000 more troops.
• 1968 Robert Kennedy enters the presidential race.
• 1968 Johnson announces halt of bombing over North Vietnam and also announces his intention not to run for another term.
68 continues
• 1968 Martin Luther King assassinated, April 4.
• 1968 FBI launches a campaign (Code named COINTELPRO) to counter the growing antiwar movement.
• 1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated.
• 1968 Demonstrations at Democratic convention in Chicago.
68 continues
• 1968 Johnson stops all bombing of North Vietnam.
• 1968 Richard Nixon narrowly defeats Hubert Humphrey in the presidential election.