1800s – france controlled french indochina (laos, cambodia, vietnam)

VIETNAM AND AMERICAN SOCIETY

FRANCE OWNED VIETNAM AS A COLONIAL POWER

1800s – France controlled French Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)

HO CHI MINH

1945 – Ho Chi Minh wanted Vietnam to become independent.

Ho Chi Minh was Communist.

1954 – Battle of Dien Bien Phu – French were defeated and pushed out of Vietnam

At the Geneva Conference – Vietnam was divided into two nations.

Divided at the 17th parallel

North Vietnam –Communist – Ho Chi Minh

South Vietnam –Republic (backed by the US)Ngo Dinh Diem

US INVOLVEMENT

1955-1975 – the US was involved to protect South Vietnam from Communism!

Eisenhower sent 675 U.S. Advisors to assist the South Vietnamese

Kennedy sent 16,000 U.S. Advisors to assist theSouth Vietnamese

Ngo Dinh DiemThe United States supportedDiem.

• He imprisoned people• He moved peasants to hamlets• He persecuted Buddhists Diem was Catholic

The U.S. realized he wasn’t a greatleader to support…

Click on the picture of Buddhist Thich Quang Duc burned to death in protest of Diem in June1963

In November, 1963, Diem was overthrownAnd assassinated.

Robert McNamara

Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson

Came up with “Flexible Response” idea to military Crises

JOHNSON’S WAR

When JFK was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson became President.

He “inherited” the Vietnam issue.

Eventually, Johnson sends combat troops to Vietnam.

Viet Cong – Communist Guerillas in South Vietnam

Viet Cong posed a problem for South Korea.

Johnson and McNamara

GULF OF TONKIN ATTACK

August 1964 – North

Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin

Click on Johnson’sPhoto for a short videoAbout the Gulf of Tonkin

GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

August 7, 1964 Congress passed this to allow Johnson

to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

It allowed Johnson to do what he wanted in Vietnam…..

It “covered everything”!

GRADUAL ESCALATION OF WAR IN VIETNAM

Ho Chi Minh Trail – supply line for North Vietnam that ran through Laos and Cambodia

February 1945 – U.S. began bombing North Vietnam

BUILD-UP OF TROOPS IN VIETNAM

1965- 25,000 – 184,000

1966 – 385,000 1967 – 485,000 1968 – 536,000

TET OFFENSIVE JANUARY 30, 1968

Vietnamese New Year

North Vietnamese and Viet Cong take part in a major offensive in South Vietnam

The U.S. Embassy was attacked in Saigon

LBJ popularity plunged!

Click on map for a Tet Offensive Water Cronkite Video

Eddie Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo taken on the streets of Saigon during the Tet Offensive sent shock waves through America

BRUTALITY OF WAR

Guerilla warfare Swamps, jungles Men carried 60

pound packs through rice paddies, etc.

Men had to deal with leeches, jungle rot (feet), fever

Underground tunnels, land mines, grenades

EFFECTS ON CIVILIANS

Saturation bombing – dropped 1000s of tons of explosives…

Agent Orange – herbicide dropped on dense jungle landscapes

Killed leaves and undergrowth and exposed Viet Cong hiding places

Killed crops, but caused severe health problems for humans and livestock

Click on the aerial photo for Agent Orange video

NAPALM

Jellylike substance dropped from planes as firebombs

Stuck to bodies and seared off flesh

MY LAI MASSACRE

Click on picture below for video. Investigative reporting lead to the truth about this massacre.

March 1968 Reports that My Lai village

in South Vietnam was harboring 250 Viet Cong

Instead, women, children, and old men

US army under Lt. Calley “cleared out the village”

175-400 dead Lt. Calley got life in prison

with hard labor Nixon eventually reduced it

to 20 years (only served 3)

STUDENT PROTEST

Pentagon Papers – study of US involvement in Vietnam by New York Times (June 1971)

Baby boomers graduating high school College enrolled had grown Generation gap from young to old

New Left – wanted radical change

STUDENT PROTEST CONT…

University of California Berkeley – most radical campus

Teach In Movement – University of Michigan March 1965 Students protesting

the war 50-60 professors did

small night sessions that focused on the issues of the Vietnam War

STUDENT PROTEST CONTINUED…

18-26 yrs old – draft

1965 – LBJ doubled the draft

Deferment if in college 1966 – if grades

dropped, could be drafted

1967 – resistance movement geared up

100,000 men – crossed border to Canada

COUNTER CULTURE

Rejected most of the conventional social customs

HIPPIES Rejection of traditional

relationships Psychedelic drugs,

marijuana Soldiers had access to

drugs in Asian and brought them home

Burned their draft cards!Click on picture to left for video

MUSICIANS OF THE 1960S

Folk and rock musicBeatles, Janis Joplin,

Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Creedance Clearwater Revival

A lot of music from the period became anti-war

Click on the picture to the right for a song.

WOODSTOCK AUGUST, 1969

Three day peace and music festival in Bethel, New York

Click Jimito hear hisNationalAnthem

Click below to see interview with Jimi.

LBJ

Division in the Democratic Party March 1968 – LBJ told America he

would not run again for President. Click picture for his speech to the

nation.

1968 ELECTION

Democrats Robert F. Kennedy

(assassinated) Eugene McCarthy Hubert Humphrey *

Republican Richard Nixon *

winner

Click on RFK for video

VIETNAMIZATION

The idea of removing American forces and replacing with S. Vietnamese soldiers

1968 – 1972 – 536,000 to 24,000 troops

However, Nixon resumed bombing raids

April, 1970 – we secretly bombed Cambodia to clear out Communist hide-outs

OUTRAGED AMERICANS!

KENT STATE (OHIO) 1970

Students reacted to the Cambodia bombing in protest

They burned the ROTC building on campus

The Ohio National Guard was called in The NG opened fire on students and

killed 4.

CONTINUED BOMBING

March 1972 – Bombing of Hanoi, North Vietnam

PEACE AGREEMENT IN PARIS 1973

1. withdraw troops in 60 days 2. all POWS to be released 3. End activities in Laos and Cambodia 4. divided at the 17th parallel

APRIL 29, 1975

North attacked South Vietnam U.S. personnel were evacuated from

Saigon Airlift evacuation at the US Embassy of

1,000 Americans and 6,000 S. Vietnamese Click picture to watch

A quick video about The evacuation.

LONGEST AND LEAST SUCCESSFUL US WAR

58,000 dead 300,000 wounded $150 billion More bombs were used than in WW2 Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam became

Communist

LEGACY

Cambodia – Khmer Rouge Killed 1.5 million Cambodians Many fled to the US

LEGACY

No welcome home for our soldiers Many Vietnam Veterans changed from

their uniforms before getting off the plane.

Many Vets had tomatoes thrown at them by protestors

Vietnam Veterans Memorial was completed in 1982

We began trading with Vietnam in 1994 We restored diplomatic relations with

Vietnam in 1995.

NIXON LEGACY

He focused on the “silent majority” majority of Americans (hard working people – non-hippies)

Détente – easing of relations with the Communist nations of China and USSR.