1800s – france controlled french indochina (laos, cambodia, vietnam)
TRANSCRIPT
VIETNAM AND AMERICAN SOCIETY
FRANCE OWNED VIETNAM AS A COLONIAL POWER
1800s – France controlled French Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)
HO CHI MINH
1945 – Ho Chi Minh wanted Vietnam to become independent.
Ho Chi Minh was Communist.
1954 – Battle of Dien Bien Phu – French were defeated and pushed out of Vietnam
At the Geneva Conference – Vietnam was divided into two nations.
Divided at the 17th parallel
North Vietnam –Communist – Ho Chi Minh
South Vietnam –Republic (backed by the US)Ngo Dinh Diem
US INVOLVEMENT
1955-1975 – the US was involved to protect South Vietnam from Communism!
Eisenhower sent 675 U.S. Advisors to assist the South Vietnamese
Kennedy sent 16,000 U.S. Advisors to assist theSouth Vietnamese
Ngo Dinh DiemThe United States supportedDiem.
• He imprisoned people• He moved peasants to hamlets• He persecuted Buddhists Diem was Catholic
The U.S. realized he wasn’t a greatleader to support…
Click on the picture of Buddhist Thich Quang Duc burned to death in protest of Diem in June1963
In November, 1963, Diem was overthrownAnd assassinated.
Robert McNamara
Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson
Came up with “Flexible Response” idea to military Crises
JOHNSON’S WAR
When JFK was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson became President.
He “inherited” the Vietnam issue.
Eventually, Johnson sends combat troops to Vietnam.
Viet Cong – Communist Guerillas in South Vietnam
Viet Cong posed a problem for South Korea.
Johnson and McNamara
GULF OF TONKIN ATTACK
August 1964 – North
Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin
Click on Johnson’sPhoto for a short videoAbout the Gulf of Tonkin
GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION
August 7, 1964 Congress passed this to allow Johnson
to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”
It allowed Johnson to do what he wanted in Vietnam…..
It “covered everything”!
GRADUAL ESCALATION OF WAR IN VIETNAM
Ho Chi Minh Trail – supply line for North Vietnam that ran through Laos and Cambodia
February 1945 – U.S. began bombing North Vietnam
BUILD-UP OF TROOPS IN VIETNAM
1965- 25,000 – 184,000
1966 – 385,000 1967 – 485,000 1968 – 536,000
TET OFFENSIVE JANUARY 30, 1968
Vietnamese New Year
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong take part in a major offensive in South Vietnam
The U.S. Embassy was attacked in Saigon
LBJ popularity plunged!
Click on map for a Tet Offensive Water Cronkite Video
Eddie Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo taken on the streets of Saigon during the Tet Offensive sent shock waves through America
BRUTALITY OF WAR
Guerilla warfare Swamps, jungles Men carried 60
pound packs through rice paddies, etc.
Men had to deal with leeches, jungle rot (feet), fever
Underground tunnels, land mines, grenades
EFFECTS ON CIVILIANS
Saturation bombing – dropped 1000s of tons of explosives…
Agent Orange – herbicide dropped on dense jungle landscapes
Killed leaves and undergrowth and exposed Viet Cong hiding places
Killed crops, but caused severe health problems for humans and livestock
Click on the aerial photo for Agent Orange video
NAPALM
Jellylike substance dropped from planes as firebombs
Stuck to bodies and seared off flesh
MY LAI MASSACRE
Click on picture below for video. Investigative reporting lead to the truth about this massacre.
March 1968 Reports that My Lai village
in South Vietnam was harboring 250 Viet Cong
Instead, women, children, and old men
US army under Lt. Calley “cleared out the village”
175-400 dead Lt. Calley got life in prison
with hard labor Nixon eventually reduced it
to 20 years (only served 3)
STUDENT PROTEST
Pentagon Papers – study of US involvement in Vietnam by New York Times (June 1971)
Baby boomers graduating high school College enrolled had grown Generation gap from young to old
New Left – wanted radical change
STUDENT PROTEST CONT…
University of California Berkeley – most radical campus
Teach In Movement – University of Michigan March 1965 Students protesting
the war 50-60 professors did
small night sessions that focused on the issues of the Vietnam War
STUDENT PROTEST CONTINUED…
18-26 yrs old – draft
1965 – LBJ doubled the draft
Deferment if in college 1966 – if grades
dropped, could be drafted
1967 – resistance movement geared up
100,000 men – crossed border to Canada
COUNTER CULTURE
Rejected most of the conventional social customs
HIPPIES Rejection of traditional
relationships Psychedelic drugs,
marijuana Soldiers had access to
drugs in Asian and brought them home
Burned their draft cards!Click on picture to left for video
MUSICIANS OF THE 1960S
Folk and rock musicBeatles, Janis Joplin,
Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Creedance Clearwater Revival
A lot of music from the period became anti-war
Click on the picture to the right for a song.
WOODSTOCK AUGUST, 1969
Three day peace and music festival in Bethel, New York
Click Jimito hear hisNationalAnthem
Click below to see interview with Jimi.
LBJ
Division in the Democratic Party March 1968 – LBJ told America he
would not run again for President. Click picture for his speech to the
nation.
1968 ELECTION
Democrats Robert F. Kennedy
(assassinated) Eugene McCarthy Hubert Humphrey *
Republican Richard Nixon *
winner
Click on RFK for video
VIETNAMIZATION
The idea of removing American forces and replacing with S. Vietnamese soldiers
1968 – 1972 – 536,000 to 24,000 troops
However, Nixon resumed bombing raids
April, 1970 – we secretly bombed Cambodia to clear out Communist hide-outs
OUTRAGED AMERICANS!
KENT STATE (OHIO) 1970
Students reacted to the Cambodia bombing in protest
They burned the ROTC building on campus
The Ohio National Guard was called in The NG opened fire on students and
killed 4.
CONTINUED BOMBING
March 1972 – Bombing of Hanoi, North Vietnam
PEACE AGREEMENT IN PARIS 1973
1. withdraw troops in 60 days 2. all POWS to be released 3. End activities in Laos and Cambodia 4. divided at the 17th parallel
APRIL 29, 1975
North attacked South Vietnam U.S. personnel were evacuated from
Saigon Airlift evacuation at the US Embassy of
1,000 Americans and 6,000 S. Vietnamese Click picture to watch
A quick video about The evacuation.
LONGEST AND LEAST SUCCESSFUL US WAR
58,000 dead 300,000 wounded $150 billion More bombs were used than in WW2 Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam became
Communist
LEGACY
Cambodia – Khmer Rouge Killed 1.5 million Cambodians Many fled to the US
LEGACY
No welcome home for our soldiers Many Vietnam Veterans changed from
their uniforms before getting off the plane.
Many Vets had tomatoes thrown at them by protestors
Vietnam Veterans Memorial was completed in 1982
We began trading with Vietnam in 1994 We restored diplomatic relations with
Vietnam in 1995.
NIXON LEGACY
He focused on the “silent majority” majority of Americans (hard working people – non-hippies)
Détente – easing of relations with the Communist nations of China and USSR.