Essential Question: - What Were The Causes & Consequences of America's Involvement in The Vietnam War?
Essential Question: - What Were The Causes & Consequences of America's Involvement in The Vietnam War?
Essential Question: - What Were The Causes & Consequences of America's Involvement in The Vietnam War?
■ Warm-Up Question:
–?
The Vietnam War
■ During the Cold War, the U.S. was
committed to containing communism
– The U.S. was effective in limiting
communist influence in Europe
– But, the spread of communism in
Asia led the U.S. to become
involved in a civil war in Vietnam
– Involvement in Vietnam from 1950
to 1973 proved to be America’s
longest & most controversial war
America’s Commitment to Vietnam
Since 1887, France
controlled the colony
of Vietnam in SE Asia
By 1945, Communist
leader Ho Chi Minh led
a war of independence
for Vietnam
Truman & Eisenhower
feared the spread of
communism in Asia
(“domino theory”)
& sent aid to France
America’s Commitment to Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh gained
control of communist
North Vietnam
Vietnam won
independence in 1954
but was divided along
the 17th parallel
In South Vietnam, a
group of communists
called the Vietcong
were formed to oppose
Diem & unify Vietnam
America’s Commitment to Vietnam
In 1963, Buddhist
South Vietnamese
monk Quang Duc “Strongly in our mind
President Diem
immolated himself toled a is what happened in
corrupt government,
protest Diem’s regime China at the end of
offered little assistance World War II, where
to the poor, & China was lost. We
In 1963 President
oppressed Buddhists don’t want that.”
Kennedy recognized —JFK
Presidents
After JFK’s
Diem’s Eisenhower
death in
assassination
&that
1963, Diem
Kennedy
the had lost
supported
responsibility
led to chaos in
control
Diem
for of
VietnamVietnam
despite
South Vietnam his
fell to&
gave
growingapproval
Lyndon for the
unpopularity
Johnson
assassination of Diem
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964
In 1964,
a North Vietnamese
gunboat attacked the
USS Maddox in the
Gulf of Tonkin
Congress responded
with the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution which gave
Lyndon Johnson broad
powers to “defend
Vietnam at any cost”
The Escalation of the Vietnam War
In an effort to
contain the spread
of communism into
South Vietnam,
LBJ began sending
U.S. troops in 1965
By 1968, over 500,000
In “Operation Rolling
U.S. soldiers were
U.S.
Thunder,” the U.S. Troops
fighting in Vietnam
in Vietnam
military began bombing
North Vietnam
Fighting the War in Vietnam
■ The goal of U.S. military was to
defeat the Vietcong & support
democracy in South Vietnam:
–But, the Vietcong lived among the
civilians in Vietnamese in cities
& villages (who is the enemy?)
–The Vietcong used guerilla tactics
to combat U.S. military superiority
–Jungles made fighting difficult
The U.S. military used a variety of
tactics to fight the war in Vietnam
The air force bombed
villages & supply lines
(Ho Chi Minh Trail)
The U.S. military used a variety of
tactics to fight the war in Vietnam
Students
protested the
killing of civilians
& the draft,
especially the
large numbers of
African Americans,
Hispanics, & high-
school dropouts
Richard Nixon & the Election of 1968