Chapter 19Section 1

Part 1

Colonization of Vietnam

• From the late 1800s, France ruled Vietnam, calling the land, French Indochina.

Ho Chi Minh

• By the early 1900s, several political parties wanted independence from France.

• One of the leaders of the movement was Ho Chi Minh.

• In 1941, after Japan had taken control of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh organized a group called the Vietminh to try to get rid of the Japanese.

How we got involved

• When Japan was defeated in 1945, it gave up control of Vietnam.

• France asked the United States to regain control of Vietnam.

• The United States did not want Vietnam to be communist, so President Truman began sending aid to French forces in Vietnam.

Ike Supporting Vietnam

• President Eisenhower continued to support the French because he believed in the domino theory, which said that if Vietnam fell to communism, other Southeast Asian nations would also.

Vietminh

• The Vietminh used guerrillas, or irregular troops who look like civilians and are difficult to fight.

• They were essentially farmers by day, soldiers by night.

Dien Bien Phu

• In 1954, the Vietminh defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu.

• The French knew they could not continue to have Vietnam (French Indochina) as a colony and they left.

Geneva Accords • Negotiations to end the conflict

between the French and the Vietminh took place in Geneva, Switzerland.

• Among the conditions of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was divided into North Vietnam (controlled by the communist and Ho Chi Minh) and South Vietnam (pro-western democratic country).

• If this sounds familiar, this is what happened in Korea after World War II.