Module 16 – The Vietnam war

Video – America is drawn into conflict

France Japan France

c. Key terms & people

A. Ho chi minh Born Nguyen Tat Thanh to a poor Vietnamese family Took the name Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens) & served as a cook on a French steamship Vietnamese revolutionary leader & president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1969 Fled to China & the USSR after the French condemned him to death for his rebel activity & pledging his belief in Communism Ho Chi Minh originally asked the U.S. for support in his rebellion against French occupation because he preferred us as an ally over the USSR (we turned him down because of his support for communism) Ho Chi Minh’s goal was to unite all of Vietnam under communist rule He was extremely popular with the Vietnamese peasants & rural farmers in both the north & the south

B. vietminh Formed by Ho Chi Minh in 1941 following a brief occupation of Vietnam by the Japanese After Japan was defeated in WWII, they left Vietnam, only to have the French move back in This organization of Vietnamese Communists & other nationalist groups fought for Vietnamese independence from the French between 1946 & 1954

C. Domino theory President Eisenhower believed that it was important to support our French allies against a communist rebel (Ho Chi Minh) in Vietnam & wanted to contain the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia because if one country fell, it would be like a ‘domino effect’ where neighboring countries would also soon fall

D. Dien bien phu The French could not hold on to Vietnam in the 1950s from Vietnamese rebels led by Ho Chi Minh This was evident in the huge, embarrassing defeat at the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu where the Vietminh overtook this base and forced the French to surrender in May of 1954

E. Geneva accords From May through July 1954, France, Great Britain, the USSR, the U.S., China, Laos, & Cambodia met with the Vietminh & with South Vietnam’s anti- Communist nationalists in Geneva, Switzerland to hammer out a peace agreement Although this ended years of fighting between the French & Vietnamese, it didn’t ease tensions between the Communist (USSR) & Democratic (U.S.) interests in Southeast Asia (Indochina) The U.S. never signed the Geneva Accords

F. Ngo dinh diem South Vietnam’s president & strong anti-communist who was supported by the U.S. Both Diem & Eisenhower knew that if there were elections to unify the country in 1956, Ho Chi Minh would win in a landslide due to his national hero status for fighting off the French & Japanese & breaking up large estates to be redistributed to the poor. Eisenhower supported Diem’s decision to cancel the elections & promised military aid/training to prop up Diem’s gov’t. in the south The only problem was that Diem was a very corrupt president who ruled South Vietnam with an Iron Fist

Video – Burning Monk protesting Diem’s persecution of Buddhism

G. vietcong Diem’s corrupt gov’t. in the South suppressed any opposition & offered little to no land distribution to the peasants in South Vietnam In 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem gov’t. assassinating 1000s of South Vietnamese gov’t. officials Ho Chi Minh supported this group & began supplying arms to the Vietcong using the Ho Chi Minh Trail

A network of paths along the borders of Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia H. Ho chi minh trail A network of paths along the borders of Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia The more that the North supplied the Vietcong in the South using this trail, the more unstable Diem’s gov’t. became, but we decided to ‘sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem’ (horrible motto)

I. Tonkin gulf resolution On Aug. 2nd, 1964, a North Vietnamese patrol boat fired a torpedo at an American destroyer (USS Maddox) patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin off the North Vietnamese coast. The torpedo missed its target, but the Maddox returned fire & inflicted heavy damage on the patrol boat An alleged 2nd incident happened 2 days later (a 2nd torpedo attack) This alleged attack prompted President Johnson to launch bombing strikes in North Vietnam asking Congress for powers to take ‘all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the U.S. & to prevent further aggression’ Congress approved this request, with only 2 senators voting against it, & adopted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on August 7th, 1964 While not a full declaration of war, this resolution granted LBJ broad military powers in Vietnam (some felt it went against the Constitutional Checks & Balances)

d. Study questions

A. WHAT was president eisenhower’s explanation of the domino theory? He was concerned about containing the spread of communism & was fearful that if Vietnam fell under communist control, other Southeast Asian countries would soon follow, just like dominoes toppling over “You have a row of dominoes set up…You knock over the first one, & what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly” – President Eisenhower

b. WHAT were the terms of the 1954 geneva accords? These Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel with the Communists (led by Ho Chi Minh) controlling North Vietnam from their capital in Hanoi; & the anti-communist nationalists controlling South Vietnam from their capital in Saigon b. WHAT was the purpose of the proposed 1956 elections? To unify the country under one government

c. How did the tonkin gulf resolution lead to greater u. s c. How did the tonkin gulf resolution lead to greater u.s. involvement in vietnam? President Johnson used his broad powers from the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to authorize Operation Rolling Thunder in Feb. of 1965 (the 1st sustained bombing of North Vietnam following the Vietcong attack that killed 8 Americans) By June of 1965, more than 50,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam. The war, that officially wasn’t a war, was in full swing (video – Operation Rolling Thunder)