1. What specific disagreement took a full year to rectify before peace negotiations actually began to end the Vietnam War? a The city in which the negotiations would be held b The governments which would be allowed to attend the negotiations c The shape of the negotiating table d The actual border between North and South Vietnam

2. EQ: When should the US have ended its involvement in Vietnam?

3. Geneva Conference 1954 Vietnam “temporarily” split at 17th parallel
Communist north
Ho Chi Minh
“Democratic” south
Ngo Dinh Diem (Catholic)

4. 1963 overthrown with U.S. support
Diem became unpopular
1963 overthrown with U.S. support

5. Aug. 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Attack on USS Maddox
Congress gave Pres. power “to take all necessary measures…to prevent further aggression”
(No declaration of war)

6. Ho Chi Minh Trail used to supply Vietcong
North Vietnamese Army (NVA) + National Liberation Front (Vietcong) VS. Army of Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) + U.S. forces (MACV)
Ho Chi Minh Trail used to supply Vietcong

7. 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder
Response to Vietcong attack on US base at Pleiku
Bombing campaign on North Vietnam
March 1965 – Nov 1968

8. 1965 LBJ sent ground forces
"I’m not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went.”
Gen. William Westmoreland

9. Experience of soldiers
Guerilla warfare by Vietcong
Difficulty identifying enemy
Search-and-destroy missions

10. 1968 Tet Offensive Surprise NVA offensive U.S. counterattack
100+ towns
U.S. counterattack
= Military victory
BUT considered defeat by Am. public

11. “Living room war”

12. Picture taken by Eddie Adams
Picture taken by Eddie Adams. It shows the South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong officer with a single shot to the head.
Photographs do not tell the whole truth, however. The prisoner had just killed at least eight people, which is what led Gen Loan to carry out the execution.
The image was to change the public perception of the war and haunted Gen Loan until his death.

13. Napalm attacks

14. My Lai Massacre 1968
507 unarmed villagers killed

17. Hawks vs. doves Why would “hawks” support the war?
Why would “doves” oppose it?

18. Protest at home
“Hey, hey, LBJ. How many kids have you killed today?”

19. Protest groups Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
1962 Port Huron Statement
Radical Weathermen split
Vietnam Veterans Against the War

21. Kent State May 4, 1970 National Guardsmen open fired on protestors
4 killed

22. 1968 election LBJ chose not to run Dem. Hubert Humphrey
credibility gap
Dem. Hubert Humphrey
Am. Indep. George Wallace
Rep. Nixon won
“Peace with honor”

23. How to end the war? Nixon’s Silent Majority Speech – Nov. 1969
“We have adopted a plan…for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable…It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace – not just in Vietnam but in the Pacific and in the world.”
John Kerry’s testimony to Senate – July 1971
READ!

24. Nixon ends U.S. involvement in war
Vietnamization
Continues “secret war”
Bombings of Cambodia and Laos
1972 “Christmas Bombings”
Jan. 27, 1973 Paris Peace Accords
Cease-fire, US troop withdrawal, did NOT end war
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho

25. 1975 North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam
Fall of Saigon
April 30, 1975 US abandons embassy

26. Aftermath – Vietnam
United under communist govt

27. Impact on Vietnamese people
2 mil. + civilian deaths
Effects of Agent Orange (dioxin)

28. Aftermath – U.S. Poor treatment of veterans
26th amendment – vote at 18 (1971)
Distrust of govt
Pentagon Papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg (1971)
1973 War Powers Act

29. EQ: When should the US have ended its involvement in Vietnam?