The Vietnam WarChapter 22 - Section 1

Background on Vietnam

1800’s - 1945 = France controlled Indochina

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

Natives in those areas became discontent with French rule

Many Vietnamese revolutionaries fled to communist China

Background on Vietnam

Background on Vietnam

1924 - Vietnamese began to organize under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh

1930 - Minh helped create the Indochinese Communist Party

1940 - Japanese took control of Vietnam

1941 - Ho Chi Minh moved to Vietnam and help create the Vietminh (the organization’s purpose was to free Vietnam from foreign rule)

Ho Chi MinhLater in Life

Background on Vietnam

August 1945 - The end of WWII

The Allied Powers defeated Japan, and they were forced to withdraw from Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh saw this as his chance to seize control of Vietnam and keep all foreign powers out

September 2, 1945 - Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation

Background on Vietnam

Near the end of 1945 - France sent troops back into Vietnam

They gained the southern half of the country back

Minh vowed to fight from the northern half to free the south from French rule

1950 - The United States entered the struggle for Vietnam

Background on Vietnam

1950 - President Truman sent $15 million in aid to France

Over the next 4 years, the US sent $1 billion to aid France in defeating Ho Chi Minh (a man the US sent aid to help resist Japan)

1953 - Eisenhower took office with the goal of supplying more aid to France to ensure victory over the communists in Vietnam

Background on Vietnam

1953 - 1954 = The US has settled for a stalemate in Korea

1954 - Eisenhower gave a speech which explain the “domino theory”

He compared countries on the brink of communism to dominoes ready to fall

Despite all the aid, France could not retake Vietnam

1954 - the Vietminh overran the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu in northwest Vietnam

Geneva Accords

May - July 1954 = The countries of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, Laos, and Cambodia met in Geneva, Switzerland

Tried to establish a peace agreement

The Geneva Accords - temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th Parallel.

North = Communists led by Ho Chi Minh (Hanoi)

South = Nationalists (Saigon)

Diem Cancels Elections

Ho Chi Minh was widely popular in North Vietnam

He broke up large farms and gave land to peasants

Ngo Dinh Diem = South Vietnam’s President

Diem did not favor a nation wide election in 1956 because he feared Ho Chi Minh would win the entire country’s support

The US also felt the communists would win the election

Diem Cancels Elections

The US sent aid and promised military training to Diem if he could provide a stable government in South Vietnam

Diem failed to uphold the promise - he became corrupt

By 1957 - Group opposed to Communism = Vietcong (NLF - National Liberation Front)

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Ho Chi Minh supported the Vietcong

He began supplying arms to the Vietcong

Set of paths known as the Ho Chin Minh Trial

The US did nothing to stop the arms supply or the surprise attacks on the South Vietnam, they let it up to Diem

Kennedy and Vietnam

1961 - Kennedy chose to supply the South Vietnamese and train their troops rather than send Americans to war

By 1963 - 16,000 US military personnel were in Vietnam

Diem took extra measures to prevent attacks by moving all villagers into protected areas

The villagers were angered and resented the move

Johnson and Vietnam

1963 - The US realized Diem had to go for South Vietnam to remain stable

The US backed an overthrow of the Diem regime, but did not support the assassination of Diem

The same year, Kennedy was also assassinated

Johnson became the President and Vietnam became his problem

Johnson and Vietnam

Diem’s death brought more chaos in South Vietnam

Other leaders attempted to take over South Vietnam, but each made the country more unstable

Johnson believed something had to be done to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 - North Vietnamese patrol boat fired on the USS Maddox which was patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin off the North Vietnam coast

The torpedo missed, but the Maddox fired back and damaged the patrol boat

Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer were off the coast of North Vietnam

Bad weather affected visibility, but the crew claimed they heard shots. The US ships fired back, but there was no return fire

Johnson Takes ChargeJohnson asked Congress for the power to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the United States...”

Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave Johnson broad military power in Vietnam

Johnson did not tell Congress or the public the US had been carrying out secret raids against North Vietnam

The Maddox was in the area to collect information for the raids

Johnson prepared the Tonkin Gulf Resolution months before

Johnson Uses Force

Feb. 1965 - Johnson used his new powers to respond to a Vietnam attack which killed 8 Americans

“Operation Rolling Thunder” = First sustained bombing attack of North Vietnam

March 1965 - The US began sending troops to South Vietnam

June 1965 - more than 50,000 US soldiers were battling the Vietcong