Do Now:

I. Southeast Asia after WWIIAfter WWII, an area known as Indochina was controlled

by the French.Most people in this area wanted their independence,

and launched a guerrilla war for independence against the French.

Guerrilla warfare uses the followingSmall groups of fighters rather than a large armyEmphasis on mobility and use of surpriseAmbushes and raids rather than outright attacks

Soviet Union

India

China Japan

North Korea

South Korea

Indochina(between India

and China)

Pacific Ocean

IndianOcean

II. VietnamOne country that gained independence using

guerrilla warfare was Vietnam.Like Korea, it was divided between a communist

north and a capitalist south.In 1956, the south, with backing from the U.S.

and France, refused to hold unification elections.

Two years later (1958), Communist led guerrillas called the Vietcong, led by Ho Chi Minh, invaded the south and the Vietnam war began.

Soviet Union

India

China Japan

North Korea

South Korea

Vietnam

III. U.S. Involvement in VietnamIn 1964, the United States claimed North Vietnam had

fired on an American destroyer, in an event called the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

In response, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson and later President Nixon permission to escalate the conflict without declaring war.

For most of the war, the U.S. found it was not prepared to fight a guerrilla war.

After eight years, 58,000 dead Americans and approximately 2 million dead Vietnamese, America withdrew from Vietnam in 1975.

The country then became united and communist.

Assignment 3: Why the U.S. “lost” Vietnam

The United States entered the Vietnam war to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. American leaders feared that Communist forces would gain control of Vietnam. After that, the fear was that nation after nation might fall to Communism. This belief was called domino theory, and the fear of U.S. leaders can be summed up by the cartoon below:

Vietnam had been split in half in 1954, after fighting a war to gain independence from France. When French forces withdrew, Vietnamese Communists gained control of North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese Communists. South Vietnam had a non-Communist government. This government was weak. But the United States supported it in order to keep the Communists from taking control of all of Vietnam. Ultimately, the U.S. had to withdraw from Vietnam and the country was united into a single communist country. Reasons why the U.S. "lost" are complex, but Vietnam was a major embarrassment for the United States in the Cold War.

 Directions: In a minute, you are going to be divided into groups for a stations activity. You are going to be completing a graphic organizer outlining four reasons why the United States "lost" in Vietnam. Each circle around the central idea "Reasons why the U.S. 'lost' in Vietnam," should have the main idea of your reading in it. Then, branching out from it should be three supporting details. An example is below: