1. The Vietnam War
Chapter 16.1

2. Lecture Focus Question
#1: What were the causes and effects of America’s growing involvement in Vietnam?

3. Background Ho Chi Minh: pro-communism
Dien Bien Phu: battle during which the Vietnamese kick out the French

4. Now What? Geneva Accords 1954 North Leader: Ho Chi Minh Communist
Capital: Hanoi

5. Now What?
South
Leader: Ngo Dinh Diem
Pro-American
Capital: Saigon

6. Communist Advances
Viet Cong (VC): communist guerrilla fighters in the south
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: gave president (LBJ) authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam
Domino Theory: if one Asian country fell to communism all of them would fall

7. New Breed of Enemy
Formal North Vietnam army (NVA) + new type of enemy → guerrilla fighter
Viet Cong (VC): “Charlie” (farmer by day, guerrilla fighter by night)
Land mines
Booby traps
Snipers
VC tunnel system
Tropical diseases
Jungle landscape

9. U.S. Air War
Saturation bombing: dropping of bombs on a concentrated area
Destroyed roads and heavy bridges
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Agent Orange: herbicide used to kill dense jungle landscape
Napalm: jellylike substance that burned uncontrollably

11. Turning Point
Tet Offensive: major offensive launched by North Vietnamese on Tet holiday
U.S. caught off guard
U.S. thought it was about to win war!
Psychological victory for North Vietnam
“The guerilla wins if he does not lose, the conventional army loses if it does not win.” Mao Zedong

12. Turning Point TV brought brutality of the war home
Young men resisted the draft
Fled to Canada
Burned draft cards in protest

13. Mai Lai Massacre Reports that 250 VC were hiding in village of Mai Lai
U.S. soldiers sent to clear them out
Found women, children, and elderly people, but no VC
U.S. soldiers brutally killed 400 villagers

14. Nixon and Kent State 1968: Nixon elected Extended war into Cambodia
Vietnam War was primary focus of protest movements in 60s
National Guard and Kent State incident

15. Healing 1973: U.S. troops begin pulling out
1975: S. Vietnam falls to communism
1979: Vietnam Memorial built and began the healing process

16. Lecture Focus Question
#1: What were the causes and effects of America’s growing involvement in Vietnam?