standard u.s. vietnam
TRANSCRIPT
History of Imperialism
• China (independence in 1000 C.E.)
• French in the 1600s
• Creation of Indochina
• Japan 1940-45
• China and England 1945
• French Part Deux! (1946-1954)
Fork in the Road
• Ho Chi Minh declared independence in 1945
• US DOS was divided
• France asks for and gets the return of its colonies
• Viet Minh defeat in the French in 1954: Battle of Dienbienphu
• What if?
And the U.S. picks...Ngo Dinh Diem!
• Catholic
• Friend of the French
• Torturer
• Corrupt
• Boycotts Elections 1956
Fear of Communism
• Truman Doctrine (1945-53): containment
• Eisenhower (1953-1961): domino theory
• 1960 U.S. Presidential Elections
JFK: A New Path?
• his appearance was symbolic
• view towards Diem
• boots on the ground (increase to 16,000 “advisors”)
• Diem and the power of the press
• McNamara’s (DoD) belief about the future of Vietnam
Change of Plans
• Fall Assassinations
• JFK’s plans for next term?
Kennedy Quotes About Vietnam
• “But I can’t do it until 1965--after I’m reelected...or there would be a wild conservative outcry against [my reelection]”
• “If I tried to pull out completely now from Vietnam, we would have another Joe McCarthy red scare on our hands...”
• “We don’t have a prayer of staying in Vietnam. Those people hate us.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson
• relationship with JFK
• LBJ maintains the status quo--the U.S. had “to win [the] contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy.”
• Gulf of Tonkin resolution (July 1964)
• Election in 1964
Escalation Part II
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• “search and destroy” raids
• implementation of the draft (1965)
• Operation Phoenix (1967)
54,791 sorties in 1965 (Frankum 34)
Ronald B. Frankum Jr. Like Rolling Thunder. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, INC., 2005.