• 1500 miles north- south along coastline of Southeast Asia
• Coastal lowlands
• Swampy river deltas
• Plateaus • Mountain
Jungles
• 900 US troops in Vietnam
• 4,000 US troops in Vietnam
• 200,000 US troops in Vietnam
• 543,000 US troops in Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
• Raised under French rule—strong anti-colonialist
• Educated in Paris—well-travelled and cultured
• Impressed by Marxism—trained in Russia as revolutionary
• Vision: A United Vietnam governed by Vietnamese
US Strategies of 1960s• Based on Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution of 1964• US Combat forces to assist
the South in fighting Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
• Bombing of North Vietnam (later of Cambodia)
• Winning hearts and minds of South Vietnamese
US Tactics of ‘60s
• Score-keeping by body count
• Search and destroy missions
• Perimeter defense and fire support bases
• Troop transport by helicopter
Late ’60s-Early 70s Shift
• Expanding weapons of S. Vietnam
• Gradual withdrawal of US troops
• “Strategic Hamlet” program
End Game
• 1973 Armistice signed among US, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, and Viet Cong
• 1974 NVA overwhelmed the South
• 1975 Last Marine airlifted from US embassy in Saigon