The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War

• By Michael Baldwin David Key

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Terms

• Ho Chi Minh 1930 help to create the
  indo-Chinese communist party helped form
  Vietminh
• Vietminh an organization whose goal was to win
  Vietnam independence from foreign rule
• Domino theory once a communist country is
  formed others will follow like dominos
• Vietcong in 1957 they began attacks on Diem
  government and killed thousands of South
  Vietnamese government officials

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Terms (continued)

• Dien Bien Phu This is where the French
  surrendered in May, 1954
• Geneva Accords Temporarily divided Vietnam
  along the 17th parallel
• Ngo Dinh Diem South Vietnams president who was
  a strong anti-communist
• Ho Chi Minh Trail A trail used to send arms to
  the Vietcong from Ho Chi Minh

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Terms (continued)

• Tonkin Gulf Resolution Johnson used this to
  take all necessary measures to repel any attack
  against the forces of the United States and to
  prevent further aggression.
• Army of the Republic of Vietnam- South Vietnamese
  Army.

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Terms (continued)

• Napalm- gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the
  jungle.
• Agent Orange- a leaf-killing toxic chemical.
• Search and Destroy missions- uprooting civilians
  with suspected ties to the Vietcong.

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William Westmoreland

• A West point Graduate who had served in World War
  II and in Korea was the American commander in
  South Vietnam

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Ho Chi Minh One of the most important Communist
figures of the 20th century, Ho Chi Minh led the
Vietnamese struggle for independence from France
during the First Indochina War (1946-1954). In
1954 Vietnam was temporarily divided into North
and South Vietnam, with Ho as the leader of North
Vietnam.
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Map of Vietnam
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Background

• Vietnam is divided by the 17th parallel creating
  North Vietnam and South Vietnam
• Ho Chi Minh had control of North Vietnam
• Emperor Bao Dai was head of South Vietnam
• Elections were to take place in 1956 in both
  North and South Vietnam and be controlled by an
  International Control Commission.

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Background (continued)

• The International Control Commission was made up
  of representatives from Canada, Poland and India
• The United States however refused to sign the
  accords, because it did not want the possibility
  of communist control over Vietnam
• Then the U.S. government established the
  Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

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Background (continued)

• The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was an
  alliance that extended protection to South
  Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in case of Communist
  subversion
• In 1955 the United States picked Ngo Dinh Diem to
  replace Bao Dai as head of anti-communist South
  Vietnam

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Events of the War

• In January 1964 President Johnson approved
  top-secret, covert acts against North Vietnamese
  territory
• On August 2nd, 1964 North Vietnamese gunboats
  fired on the destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of
  Tonkin
• After this incident Johnson began bombing North
  Vietnam

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Events of the War

• North Vietnam began to dispatch well-trained
  units of its Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) into
  the South
• The U.S. then bombed Hanio when Soviet premier
  Aleksey Kosygin was visiting, thus pushing the
  USSR closer to North Vietnam

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Events of the War

• By March 1965 there were 80,000 U.S. troops in
  Vietnam
• By 1969 there were 543,000. That year, U.S.
  president Richard M. Nixon began to withdraw
  troops

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Events of the War

• U.S. Marines March to Retake Hue
• Communist forces seized Hue in 1968 when they
  attacked almost all the major cities of South
  Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. United States
  and South Vietnamese troops recaptured Hue less
  than a month later. This resulted in great losses
  for the North Vietnamese and the NFL, but it
  caused growing opposition to the war in the
  United States.

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Protests in North Vietnam

• Buddhist Protest A Vietnamese Buddhist monk
  burned himself to death in an act of protest
  against the Diem government in June 1963.
  Constituting a majority of the countrys
  population, Buddhists in Vietnam accused the Diem
  government of religious discrimination.

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Protests in South Vietnam

• Antiwar Protest in Saigon War protesters
  gathered in Saigon to express dissatisfaction
  with the way the Diem government was handling
  South Vietnams internal political dissension.
  Many protesters were arrested by the government,
  which charged that the groups had been
  infiltrated by politically hostile persons,
  including Communists

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Protest in America

• Vietnam War Protests
• A peace demonstrator protesting United States
  involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975) taunts
  military police during a confrontation in front
  of the Pentagon. Demonstrations against the war
  took place in major cities and on many college
  campuses across the United States during the late
  1960s and early 1970s.

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Bombing Raids in North Vietnam

• In 1965 the United States sent troops to Vietnam
  to support the South Vietnamese government during
  the Vietnam War (1959-1975). From 1965 until the
  end of 1972, American B-52s flew regular bombing
  raids over North Vietnam. The United States had
  begun bombing Laos as early as 1964, targeting
  areas used by North Vietnamese). B-52s were also
  used a lot from 1969 until 1973 to bomb Cambodia,
  in an attempt to destroy the headquarters of the
  North Vietnamese and the NLF.

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Bombings

• Express Newspapers/Archive Photos
• U.S. Bombing of Cambodia
• From 1969 to 1973, during the Vietnam War, the
  United States bombed Cambodia in order to destroy
  Vietnamese Communist strongholds there. In this
  picture, U.S. soldiers survey the Cambodian town
  of Snuol after it has been almost completely
  flattened by U.S. bombers.

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Guerilla Warfare

• Troops hid themselves in the bushes and fired at
  enemies
• The enemy couldnt locate where the bullets were
  coming from
• This type of Warfare was responsible for large
  numbers of deaths

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Vietnams terrain was often treacherous,
containing thick jungles and rivers these U.S.
soldiers encountered in 1966.
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U.S. Weaponry

• The Bell UH-1 helicopter, popularly known as the
  "Huey," was the workhorse aircraft for the US
  forces in Vietnam. Well adapted for jungle
  warfare, the Huey could fly at low altitudes and
  speeds, land in small clearings, maneuver to
  dodge enemy fire, and carry an array of powerful
  armaments.

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U.S. Weaponry

• While US air power dominated the skies of South
  Vietnam, bombing runs into North Vietnam, Laos,
  and Cambodia often proved deadly. To suppress
  enemy anti-aircraft fire and counter harassment
  by lethal MiG attack fighters, the US relied
  heavily on the F-4 Phantom

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U.S. Weaponry

• Light enough to be carried on patrol and deadly
  in a firefight, the M60 general purpose machine
  gun proved its mettle in countless combat
  situations. The M60 fired up to 550 high-velocity
  bullets from a gas-powered belt fed system at a
  range of over 1,900 yards.

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North Vietnam Army and Viet Cong

• Although most of their weapons, uniforms, and
  equipment were provided by the Soviet Union and
  the People's Republic of China, the North
  Vietnamese also carried arms captured from the
  French and even the Japanese in the earlier
  Indochinese wars. NVA troops more often used
  standard-issue gear their Viet Cong counterparts
  dressed as the peasants in whose villages they
  sought harbor, and frequently employed improvised
  weapons

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North Vietnam Weaponry

• Both the Chinese and the Russians provided
  variations on the SK-47 rifle in quantity to
  Communist forces. Known as a "peasant rifle," the
  AK-47 was simple in its design, reliable, and
  accurate. It fired a 7.62 mm bullet either
  automatically or semi-automatically from a 30-
  round clip at a rate of up to about 600 rounds
  per minute, and performed with accuracy at up to
  435 yards

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North Vietnam Weaponry

• The Soviet MiG-21 served as the primary
  high-altitude fighter in the North Vietnamese
  arsenal. Capable of speeds of more than twice the
  speed of sound and armed with a 30mm cannon and
  air-to-air missiles, the MiG-21 disrupted
  American bombing raids, shooting down bombers and
  engaging in furious and often victorious
  dogfights with American fighter planes

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Kent State

• Kent State Shooting Aftermath
• Opposition to the United States involvement in
  Vietnam led to several domestic confrontations
  between antiwar demonstrators and government
  troops. National Guard troops stunned the nation
  when they shot into a crowd of protesters during
  a 1970 demonstration at Ohios Kent State
  University, killing four students and wounding
  nine.

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Veterans

• Memories of Vietnam
• A veteran of the Vietnam War (1959-1975) mourns
  the death of friends killed in the war during a
  visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
  Washington, D.C.

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U.S. Casualties In Vietnam
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Bibliography

• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/wea
  pons.html
• "Vietnam War," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia
  2000. 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation
• John Simkin, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/vietin
  tro.htm

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Bibliography

• Vietnam War." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2003. 
  Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.10
  Dec,2003  77300
• http//www.cia.gov/csi/books/vietnam/

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The End