Warm Up

①  Complete the Vietnam War DBQ assignment

②  You may work with the people around you

③  Complete documents 1-4 before beginning today’s notes

Causes Of The Vietnam War I.  The Cold War: the battle between

capitalism and communism

II.  Containment/Domino Theory: the USA wanted to stop the spread of communism in Asia

III.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions: the U.S. government believed that N. Vietnam attacked American ships

IV.  LBJ was given the power to take the USA to war and so he did

Fighting In Vietnam I.  The goal of U.S. military was

to defeat the Vietcong & support capitalism

II.  The Problem: A.  The Vietcong lived like civilians

in Vietnamese in cities B.  The enemy was not clear and

U.S. soldiers mentally struggled

C.  The Vietcong used guerilla warfare to counter U.S. military superiority

D.  Jungles made fighting difficult

American Victories in Vietnam I.  The air force bombed

Vietcong supply lines (Ho Chi Minh Trail) to force an enemy surrender

II.  The military used napalm to destroy villages & pesticides (Agent Orange) to destroy crops

III.  Soldiers were sent on search & destroy missions into the jungles to find the Vietcong and kill them

Fighting In The Jungle I.  The majority of the war in

Vietnam was fought in the jungles

A.  Ambush: hiding & attacking B.  Guerilla tactics C.  No battle lines à enemy was

everywhere D.  Booby-traps, mines, tunnels

II.  The North Vietnamese used psychological warfare to demoralize their enemies

The Tet Offensive I.  In 1968, the Vietcong launched the

Tet Offensive against U.S. forces in Vietnam

A.  North Vietnamese forces launched a large scale attack on major South Vietnamese cities and U.S. military bases

II.  The Tet Offensive was the turning point in the Vietnam War

A.  The attack went against U.S. media reports that the U.S. was winning

B.  American attitude toward the war changed and the anti-war movement grew in the USA

C.  Americans grew unhappy with the war and anti-war protests became popular

The War in America I.  The Vietnam War had a major impact on

American society

II.  The increased need for soldier led the USA to begin using the Selective Service

A.  Men between 18-26 were eligible for the draft B.  Men could be exempt from the draft if they

were in college or had bad health

III.  Americans grew unhappy that Vietnam was becoming a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight

IV.  Anti-Vietnam protests grew more and

more popular as Americans watched a losing fight on TV

Anti-War Movement I.  As the death toll grew and more

American soldiers left for Vietnam, LBJ was hit with large scale anti-war protests

II.  Anti-Vietnam protests, speeches and rallies became popular throughout the nation

III.  Protests largely began on college campuses but spread to include all Americans

IV.  The majority of Americans believed we had no reason to be in Vietnam

Campus Protests & Shootings I.  The escalation of the war in 1968 led to

campus protests across America II.  At Kent State Univ. in Ohio, four

peacefully protesting students were killed by National Guard soldiers

III.  Students protested the killing of

civilians, the reason for war & the draft, A.  The major concern was the large

numbers of high-school dropouts and minorities being drafted

Nixon Elected President in 1968

I.  By 1968 the U.S.A. was strongly divided over the war in Vietnam

A.  Hawks = strongly supported war B.  Doves = strongly supported peace

II.  The stress of the war led LBJ not to run for President in 1968

III.  Richard Nixon won the election of 1968 promising to end the riots and protests in the USA along with the Vietnam War

Nixon Wanted “Peace With Honor”

Vietnamization I.  In 1969 the US began pulling

American troops out of Vietnam

II.  Nixon developed a plan called Vietnamization:

A.  This strategy replaced American troops with South Vietnamese soldiers

III.  Nixon then secretly tried to win the war and ordered troops to Cambodia & Laos

IV.  When Americans found out about Nixon’s attacks it set off the largest protest in U.S. history

Paris Peace Accords 1973

I.  On January 27, 1973 a cease-fire was finally signed by the USA, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam

II.  The three parts: A.  Cease-fire in-place and troop withdrawal B.  All parties committed to no further acts of force on

ground, in the air, and on the sea C.  North and South Vietnam to begin peaceful

negotiations on establishing normal relations and reunification.

American Withdrawal From Vietnam

I.  In March 1973, the last U.S. forces left Vietnam

II.  In 1975 the North Vietnam violated the cease fire and invaded South Vietnam

III.  Vietnam was then unified under a single communist government

IV.  Communist forces captured the presidential palace in

Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City) ending the Vietnam War

TheImpactoftheVietnamWar

I.  TheconflictinVietnamwasthelongest&divisivewarinU.S.history

II.  Ofthe3.3millionU.S.soldiers

whoserved:A.  58,000werekilledB.  303,000werewoundedC.  15%werediagnosedwithpost-

traumaMcstressdisorderaNerthewar

D.  ManyvetsfacedhosMlityfromotherU.S.ciMzenswhentheyreturnedhome

TheImpactoftheVietnamWar

I.  ThewarchangedAmericaathomeA.  PeoplebegantolostfaithinthegovernmentB.  Americaspent176BilliononthewarC.  The26thAmendmentloweredthevoMngageto

18yearsoldD.  Vietnamsoldiersreturnedhomeandsuffered

fromPTSDi.  SuicideandviolencewerecommonamongstVietnam

vetsE.  TheWarPowersAct1973limitedthe

president’sabilitytotaketheUSAtowar

II.  ThewarchangedAmericanforeignpolicyA.  USAendedthecontainmentpolicy(failure)