1. The Vietnam War
Chapter 33

2. Vietnam and the French French Colonialism
Roads, railroads, and port facilities
Small farms gone and large plantations installed
Vietnamese were shipped to France during WWI to build trenches
French was the 2nd official language
Schools were closed
80% were illiterate after 100 years of French rule
Censored press, restricted freedom of speech and assembly

3. Revolution Ho Chi Minh organized the Indochina Communist party
Other nationalists joined Ho and formed the Vietminh
After the Japanese were defeated, the Vietminh established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
French forces fought to keep Vietnam a colony of France
Ho asked for support from Truman, he was ignored
Truman believed that communists everywhere were just pawns of Moscow
Ho Chi Minh

4. Vietminh Fight Guerrilla warfare
Bao Dai and the French puppet government
Truman sent Dai 1 Billion in aid
Ike believed in the domino theory
1954 US is paying for 80% of Frances military expenses
French lose Dien Bien Phu
Bao Dai
Domino Theory

5. Geneva Accord Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel
N. Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) – Ho Chi Minh
S. Vietnam (The State of Vietnam) – Bao Dai
900,000 people move south
80,000 people move north

6. 17th Parallel division line
Pink = North Vietnam
Communist
Leader = Ho Chi Minh
Capital = Hanoi
17th Parallel division line
Green = South Vietnam
French controlled
Leader = Bao Dai (puppet)
Capital =Saigon

7. Civil Unrest In S. Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem overthrows Bao Dai’s government
Diem claimed that the Geneva Accords don’t apply
Diem was a Catholic tyrant
Minh was worse
US organizes Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO)
Ngo Dinh Diem

8. More Problems Diem refuses country wide elections
Vietcong fight a guerilla campaign
The leaders were Communist
Ike Sent Diem aid to prevent a Communist takeover
Vietcong were successful at taking over the countryside
Kennedy sends military supplies to Diem and authorizes American pilots to fly combat missions
Diem treated Buddhists poorly
Vietcong influence spreads

9. When South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem refused to talk with the Buddhists, a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in a busy Saigon intersection before a crowd of shocked onlookers.

10. Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Tonkin Gulf Resolution – Gave the President the power to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against armed forces of the US and to prevent further aggression.”
It gave President Johnson a blank check to keep Communism out of S. Vietnam
U.S.S. Maddox

11. Americans Enter the War
S. Vietnam used the Ho Chi Minh Trail to move supplies and troops
Operation Rolling Thunder
1968 – 538,000 American troops were serving in Vietnam
Search and Destroy Missions
Defoliants used in the Jungle
side effects

12. Anti-war Movement “Make love not war” 10,000 move north Doves
US should not be involved in another country’s civil war
$25 Billion a year
Hawks
Fighting the N. Vietnamese was really protecting the US in the long run

13. Tet Offensive Tet Holiday Funerals and fireworks
Large attack against bases and cities
William Westmorland
Tet Offensive was a huge failure for the Vietcong
Johnson’s advisors told him to get out

14. The US Withdraws Nixon wins the election of 1968 Vietnamization
It did not work
US continues to bomb Cambodia and Laos
Students Strike
Kent University
4 dead and 9 wounded
Nixon didn’t understand the kids
Kent State University anti-war protest

15. It Ends The Senate repeals the Tonkin Gulf Resolutions
Troops were withdrawn from Cambodia in 1970
US soldier moral plummet
Drugs, age, training
1972 election, Nixon agrees to pull out troops, but will send aid to S. Vietnam
January 27, 1973 – US troops leave SV

16. It Ends SV still received billions from the US
March 1975, NV takes the capital of Saigon as Americans flee the embassy
Saigon would be renamed Ho Chi Minh City