French Indochina War

• After WWII France attempts to reestablish it's rule in Vietnam

• U.S. provides France with

• Strengthen massive economic assistance and military support beginning in 1950ies with France

• Fight the spread of communism

French Rule in Vietnam

• From the late 1800s until WWII France ruled most of Indochina

• The French built plantations for their own profit

• Growing unrest amongst the Vietnamese peasants

• French rulers tried to restrict freedom speech and assembly by jailing dissenters

Ho Chi Minh

• Many Vietnamese revolutionaries fled to China in the 1930s

• Ho Chi Minh organized the revolutionaries to create the Indochinese Communist Party

• 1940: Japan takes control of Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh forms the Vietminh

• Goal: Win independence from foreign rule

• August 1945: Vietminh forces Japan out. Independence Won!

France Battles The Vietminh

• By the end of 1945 France takes control of Southern Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh vows to liberate the South

• 1950: President Truman sends $15 million in economic aid to France

• 1950-54: U.S. sends nearly $1 billion

The Domino Theory

• President Eisenhower continued to send aid

• Domino Theory: Countries on the brink of communism are lined up like dominos waiting to fall one after the other

• May of 1954: France forced to surrender in Vietnam - U.S. aid does not prevail

Geneva Accords• Geneva Accords: A peace

agreement held in Geneva Switzerland

• Divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel

• Ho Chi Minh and the communists control North Vietnam from Hanoi, the Capitol

• Anticommunist nationalists control South Vietnam from the Capitol city of Saigon

The U.S. Steps In• South Vietnam President

Ngo Dinh Diem refused to take part in elections

• Feared Ho Chi Minh's popularity

• Eisenhower sends military training in return for a stable government

• President Diem unable to rally support and becomes corrupt

Vietcong and Ho Chi Minh Trail

• Vietcong: A communist group in the South

• Attacked the Diem government and assassinated thousands of officials

• Ho Chi Minh supported the Vietcong

• Used a network of paths called the Ho Chi Minh Trail to supply the Vietcong with arms

Kennedy and Vietnam

• Kennedy did not want to look soft on Communism

• Increased financial aid to South Vietnam

• Sent thousands of military advisers

• Diem became more corrupt and unpopular especially with the Buddhist population

• 1963: U.S. supports a military coup to assassinate Diem

Johnson Escalates the Conflict

• After Diems death the South becomes even more unstable

• Johnson does not want to lose South Vietnam to communism without a fight

• Fear of being thought of as an appeaser

• Leads to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution....