Title: The War
1The War in Vietnam
2Where is Vietnam?
- Southeast Asia
- South of China on the South China Sea
- Formerly known as Indochina
3Who Were the Main Players in the Vietnam War?
4Ho Chi Minh
- BORN Nguyen Sinh Cung
- AKA Uncle Ho
- Ho Chi Minh He Who Enlightens
- 1945 He created the Provisional Government
- National Liberation Committee of Vietnam or
Vietminh - http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYhyfUmCDyG8
5Bao Dai
- Vietnams last emperor r.1932-1954
- Briefly joined Ho Chi Minh
- Exiled to Hong Kong and France - 1949 54
- Returned to Vietnam and was ousted by Ngo Dinh
Diem in a rigged election
6Ngo Dinh Diem
- Led South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963
- Autocratic Rule
- Responsible for the Imprisonment and Execution of
hundreds of Buddhists
7Duong Van Minh
- Big Minh
- Led S. Vietnam for 2 months after leading a coup
in which Diem was murdered - Overthrown by Nguyen Khanh who held the
position until 1965 when exiled to France
8Nguyen Van Thieu
- 1967 elected president of South Vietnam
- Held position until 1975 fall of Saigon
- Emigrated to England
9Dwight D. Eisenhower
- President 1953 61
- Sent military aid to the French in Vietnam
- Refused to commit troops
10John F. Kennedy
- President 1960 63 when he was assassinated
- Tripled aid to South Vietnam
- Increased number of US Military Advisors in South
Vietnam
11Robert McNamara
- John F. Kennedys Secretary of Defense
- Supported increased US involvement in Vietnam
under Kennedy and Johnson - I think the human race needs to think about
killing. How much evil must we do in order to do
good?
12Lyndon B. Johnson
- President 1963 1968
- Despite his campaign promises to not get further
involved in Vietnam he steadily increased US
Involvement
13General William Westmoreland
- General in charge of US military operation in
Vietnam 1964-1968 - Continually reported positive assessments of the
war until the Tet Offensive - Tet Offensive 1968 Communist forces attacked
cities and towns throughout S. Vietnam - Became Armys Chief of Staff
14Richard M. Nixon
- Vietnamization of the war
- Expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia
- Last troops were withdrawn during his 2nd term
15Henry Kissinger
- Advocated bombing Cambodia
- Helped develop Nixons Vietnamization policy
removal of US troops to be replaced with S.
Vietnamese Troops - Paris Peace Accords - Negotiated
16Gerald Ford
- Oversaw final withdrawal of US Troops from
Vietnam - Evacuation of 1,000s of Vietnamese Citizens
17CAUSES AND EVENTS LEADING TO WAR IN VIETNAM
18FRANCE 1885 - 1954
- French Indochina until 1954
- 1945 Ho Chi Minh established the Provisional
Government The Viet Minh - 1946 France recognized Vietnam as a free
state within in the French Union - 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu Viet Minh defeat
France
19DIEN BIEN PHU - 1954
20FRENCH PARATROOPERS DROPPING INTO DIEN BIEN PHU
- 1954
21EISENHOWER
- Domino Theory response to the defeat of
France
You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock
over the first one, and what will happen to the
last one is the certainty that it will go over
quickly.
22EISENHOWER'S POLICIES
1. Support Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam against
Viet Cong (National Liberation Front S.
Vietnamese that supported Ho Chi Minh)
23EISENHOWER'S POLICIES
- 2. MASSIVE RETALIATION
- Eisenhowers Nuclear Policy
- AIM DETERENCE
- Strike back with more force than you were hit
with - Led to escalation of Nuclear Proliferation, and
MAD
24EISENHOWER'S POLICIES
- 3. NATION BUILDING
- US would support and help Diem establish a
politically stable and viable government
25KENNEDY
- How and why did Kennedy continue Eisenhowers
policies? - Bay of Pigs failed attempt to overthrow Castro
Kennedys leadership is questioned
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27(No Transcript)
28Fidel Castro at Bay of Pigs
29KENNEDY
- 2. FLEXIBLE RESPONSE
- Kennedys Nuclear Policy replacing Massive
Retaliation - Robert MacNamara
- Goal develop options other than nuclear
- Reliance on conventional weapons and smaller
nuclear bombs - Target enemy military first
30KENNEDY
- 3. Sponsored a Military Coup of Diem October
1963 - November 1963 Diem Assassinated
- WHY??
- Diem was a liability as President of South
Vietnam he couldnt unify the people - He was a Catholic in a country that was 95
Buddhist - He was resistant to US troop deployments
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32Johnson
- Responsible to escalating US involvement in
Vietnam into a full scale war!
33Johnson
- 1. 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident
- US Destroyers were in Gulf of Tonkin supporting
S. Vietnamese attacks on island bases - North Vietnamese attacked USS Maddox
- Reports of 2nd attack prompted Johnson to bring
resolution to Congress Attack never happened!!!
34USS Maddox
35Johnson
- 2. 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution
- Authorized retaliatory bombings against North
Vietnam
36Johnson
- Operation Rolling Thunder
- (The Air War)
- US sent in troops to protect the airfields that
it was using in South Vietnam - 1965 1st Marines landed in Da Nang 40,000
Marines - Followed by weekly deployments
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38Johnson
- SEARCH AND DESTROY (US GROUND STRATEGY)
- 1. Relied on air mobility use of the UH1 Huey
Helicopters - Medical evacuation
- Troop insertion
- Gunship missions
39Johnson
SEARCH AND DESTROY (US GROUND STRATEGY) 2. No
Clear Enemy Lines
40Johnson
- SEARCH AND DESTROY (US GROUND STRATEGY)
- 3. Success was measured by body count
- Daily news would report body counts like they
were box scores
41Johnson
- SEARCH AND DESTROY (US GROUND STRATEGY)
- Problems w/ relying on Body Counts
- Communists didnt measure success by counts
they werent deterred by the tremendous losses - Counts were routinely inflated so it would appear
that we were winning
42Johnson
- THE WISE MEN-a group of the nations most
prestigious leaders - November 12, 1967 -Johnson called a meeting of
The Wise Men - Asked for optimistic reports of war in order to
unite the public behind it - November 17, 1967 Johnson reported We are
inflicting greater losses than were taking. We
are making progress - November 21, 1967 Westmoreland reported
Victory is absolutely certain
43Johnson
- TET OFFENSIVE January 1968
- TET Nguyen Dan Vietnams lunar new year
festival - N. Vietnamese surprised US by attacking Nearly
every city in South Vietnam - Johnsons and Westmorelands words of assurance
were wrong Americans were convinced that
victory was impossible - Westmoreland was replaced
- Media eliminated the body counts
44TET OFFENSIVE
45TET OFFENSIVE
46Paris Peace Talks - 1968
- Johnson announced an end to all air, naval and
artillery bombardment of North Vietnam effective
November 1, 1968 - Peace talks broke down
- November 3, 1969 Nixon asked the nation to
support him in the War effort
47Nixon
- Vietnamization handing the war over to the
non-communist S. Vietnamese
48Nixon
- 2. Peace with Honor
- Reduction of US forces
- Increased bombing, and expanded the ground and
air war into Laos and Cambodia
49Nixon
- 3. More American Soldiers died and more bombs
were dropped, under the Nixon Presidency than
under Johnsons - 4. Foreign Policy to achieve a breakthrough
in relationships with USSR and China - Resulted in reduction of USSR and Chinese aid to
North Vietnam
50Nixon
My Lai Massacre
- 1968 Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader, lead a
massacre of several hundred Vietnamese civilians
including women, babies, and the elderly - 2 American Soldiers in a helicopter spotted the
carnage and stopped any further killings - Calley was given a life sentence, and a
court-martial in 1970 - He was later pardoned by President Nixon
51Nixon
Paris Peace Accords
- January 15, 1973 Nixon announced the suspension
of offensive actions in North Vietnam - A unilateral withdrawal of US troops began
- January 27, 1973 Paris Peace Accords were
signed Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize
52Vietnam after US
- 1975 North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam,
taking Saigon on April 30, 1975 - North and South were fully united on July 2, 1976
Socialist Republic of Vietnam - Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City
53Vietnam after US
- Human Rights Violations under the new Communist
Government - tiger cages small prison cells used to
torture political prisoners - Firing squads
- Concentration and re-education camps
- Boat People
- Refugees hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
fled by boat - The majority came to the United States
54US under Ford in 1975 evacuated Vietnam Refugees
55The "Other War"
- LBJ fought 2 wars, Vietnam and the War on Poverty
- 1964 Protests began small isolated incidents
on college campuses - 1968 Full scale protests
- Majority of Americans did not support protestors
- Protests kept war in the limelight made people
question the war
56The "Other War"
- What sparks the protest movement?
- Media reports i.e. Walter Cronkite after TET
announced it didnt look like we were winning - Unfair draft
- minorities were overrepresented in combat roles
- senators sons were safe in college
- Working class Americans did the fighting
57The "Other War"
- May 4, 1970 Kent State University
- US Troops shot and killed 4 students
58April 1971 500,000 people marched on Washington
in protest of the Vietnam War
59CHEMICAL WARFARE
- NAPALM
- Produced by Dow Chemical Co.
- 1st used in WWII against the Japanese it was
improved for use in the Vietnam War Napalm B - bathtub chemistry gasoline, benzene and
polystyrene
60CHEMICAL WARFARE
- NAPALM
- Liquid Fire jellied gasoline clung to human
skin on contact melted off flesh - Eyelids so burned they could not be shut
- Fleshed looked like swollen, raw meat.
61CHEMICAL WARFARE
- NAPALM
- January 1967 article released presenting color
photos of mutilated Vietnamese Children - Sparked demonstrations against Dow even after it
stopped production in 1969
62Agent Orange
- Also produced by Dow Chemical
- Used between 1961 and 1971 19 million gallons
of the herbicide and defoliant were sprayed on
Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand - One of the rainbow herbicides there was Agents
Pink, Purple, Blue and Green as well, but Orange
proved to be the most effective - Goal To destroy cover and to deny food to enemy
63Agent Orange
- Contains harmful dioxins which can cause
- Cancer
- Birth defects
- Chloracne acne like eruptions of blackheads,
cysts and pustules - 1984 Dow Chemical was ordered to pay 180
million in compensation to US Veterans
64Effects of Agent Orange
65The Escalation of the War
9,087,000 Military Personnel Served in the war
66Casualty Totals
67What are the lingering effects?
- Americans have lost trust in the Government
- Backlash taken out on the veterans
- PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Trouble sleeping
- Nervous ticks
- Startle response
- Inability to maintain close personal
relationships - Drug and alcohol abuse
68What are the lingering effects?
- 20 Years after War Clinton opened trade and
diplomatic relations with Vietnam - The Gulf War fought with Vietnam in mind