VIETNAM

• Was it a war or a conflict?

• Occurred from 1964 through 1975

• 58,000 American lives lost

• 2,583 soldiers were missing in action at war’s end

• 554 of them have been found

WEB SITES FOR MAPS OF VIETNAM

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_

collection/middle_east_and_asia/Vietnam

http://www.mapsadopt.org/Vietnam/index.htm

http://maptown.com/vietnammaps.html

HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM

Vietnamese call the Vietnam War the

American War For more than 1,000 years, Vietnam was

occupied by China

For a century after that, Vietnam was a

French colony

HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR

Communists victorious over the French at Dien Bien Phu

U.S. troops supported the anti-Communist

government in Siagon North Vietnam carried its flag to the south The Vietnam War is as far removed from

us today as WW II was from the Vietnam War 25 years have passed since the fall of Siagon

PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON

• Vietnam War created national mood of hostility toward government and business

• Moral shame

• Exposure of government lies and atrocities

• Nixon’s secret bombings of Cambodia (totality of these bombings not discovered until much later)

• On top of this came “Watergate”

"A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits." -Richard Nixon

•http://www.unitedstates-on-line.com/Nixon37.html

• http://www.interlink-cafe.com/uspresidents/37th.htm

• http://www.stanford.edu/~andygray/nixon/

• http://www.unitedstates-on-line.com/Nixon37.html

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/rn37.html

WATERGATE Presidential Campaign of 1972 5 Burgulars carrying wiretapping and photo

equipment, were caught breaking into the

Democratic National Committee (Watergate

apartment complex of Washington, D.C.) One of the 5 worked for the Nixon campaign Another of the 5 had an address book with the name

of Howard E. Hunt whose residence was

listed as the White House

WATERGATE CONTINUED

Hunt had worked for the CIA for many yrs. ID’s of the burglars were unknown at exact

time of arrest Information was out to the public before

anyone could stop it CAN WE COMPARE THIS IN ANY WAY

TO THE CLINTION/LEWENSKI AFFAIR, OR IRAN/CONTRA?

GRAND JURY INVESTIGATES WATERGATE

• One year after the break-in a Grand Jury investigated the Watergate incident

• Fearing prosecution, officials of the Nixon Administration began to talk:– Judicial Proceedings

– Senate investigating committee

– The press

• Nixon’s highest aids, and finally Nixon himself were all implicated

FACTS THAT CAME OUT OF TESTIMONIES

• Secret fund controlled by Nixon’s Attorney General

to be used against the Democratic Party (forgery etc)

• Gulf Oil Corporation and other huge American corporations made illegal contributions in the millions to the Nixon Campaign

• After the burglars were caught, Nixon secretly promised to pardon them

• Secret White House tapes existed of all conversations in the White House

A SWIFT BUT SUDDEN FALL

• Nov 1972 Nixon and Agnew won 60 % popular vote• Jan 1973 67 % of Americans thought Nixon was

involved in the Watergate break-in or that he lied to cover-up

• Fall 1973 8 different resolutions were introduced in the House for the Impeachment of President Nixon

• By 1974, a Bill of Impeachment was presented• Nixon’s advisors told him the bill would pass and

advised him to resign

UPON TAKING THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITEDSTATES SAID: “OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER”

• http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/ford/

WHAT KIND OF SHAPE DID NIXON LEAVE ‘NAM IN?

• Pretty good (aside from the Cambodia bombings)

• When negotiated peace was unattainable Nixon single-handly tried to get the U.S. out of Vietnam

• At the end of Nixon’s 1st term, casualties dropped from 1, 200 a month to 30 a month

• American troops were reduced from 550,000 to 30,000

FORD AND KISSINGER

• April, 1975 were trying to come up with options:– Speed up withdraw of Americans– Stretch it out to allow the maximum number of

Vietnamese to escape– Give up on aid to Vietnam, stab them in the back– Maintain aid

• April 29, 1975 Kissenger briefs Ford of the crises in Siagon (already 4/30/75 in Saigon)

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/vietnam/epilogue.htm

THE FALL OF SIAGON

• One pilot, Marine Lt. Darrell Browning, did not expect to fly that day (5/30/75)

• His CH-46 helicopter was too small to make the 90-minute round-trip flight to Siagon

• At 4:00 pm he learned he would be flying afterall

• Ordered to head for the besieged capital and join the rescue mission

THE FALL OF SIAGON

Doing what he was trained to do, but fearful of mid-air collision

1,000 people on roof of U.S. Embassy, when browning landed

He was worried he would not have enough fuel to get back

Capacity of the helicopter was 24, Browning carried 36 passengers

THE FALL OF SIAGON By midnight Browning had made 5 trips He was exhausted, but wanted to go more Pilots were ordered to stop A helicopter had flown into the sea, the commander worried the pilots

were reaching their breaking points 11 Marines (rear guard were left behind) 7:50 that morning a U.S. helicopter saved

them Browning et. Al. Awarded Distinguished Flying

Crosses