Vietnam Warch25

Vietnam

Rule of ‘Nam 1800’2 WWII France

WWII Japan

WWII 1954 France

Ho Chi Minh Communist Revolutionary

Fought to free Vietnam before WWII against France

Fought Japanese in WWII

Wanted to make Vietnam an Independent Communist country

Guerilla Warfare North Vietnamese & Vietcong used against

France and later US

Vietnam was largely jungle territory

War fighters used traps, the terrain, & blended in to the civilian population Made it difficult to know who you were fighting

against

French Fall 1954 French pulled out of Vietnam

Vietnam was temporarily split in half at the 17th parallel

North was Communist, South was Anti-Communist

US stepped in and backed the South

Vietnam War was fought to stop the spread of Communism

Escalation In the early 1960’s the US was sending thousands of

“military advisors” to aid the South Vietnamese

US backed South

JFK was killed in 1963, leaving LBJ to deal with ‘Nam

In 1964 Vietnamese torpedoed US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin (those US ships were aiding the South’s military

actions)

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave LBJ war powers

LBJ expanded US in Vietnam with Operation Rolling Thunder (hence the movie called “Tropic Thunder”)

US fought limited war stop spread of Communism

Had to identify enemy before they could fight Guerilla Warfare

Vietcong & North Vietnamese

fought on their own soil Had more to fight for

US casualties grew from 65 68

and peaked in 1968

War

War War peaked in 1968 with the Tet Offensive

Tet Offensive: Vietcong attacked basically every US base in Vietnam, US was driven back, recovered weeks later and drove out Vietcong

After Tet US found that Vietcong had executed thousands of civilians

North Vietnamese were noted for having terrorized and slaughtered their own people in the North

Tet Offensive

Draft US implemented a draft during ‘Nam

Later into the war the draft became a Lottery Lottery is when people were given a number

and had to go fight when their number was called

Many people fled to Canada to avoid going to war, or just refused to serve and went to jail

Others were not passed medically, but most went

Draft caused a lot of uproar in society

Protest Vietnam war took place during the 60’s & 70’s

which was a time of great cultural unrest Hippie movement, Women’s liberation, Civil Rights

movement– everybody had a “cause”

Vietnam was also the first “televised war” –for the first time people actually saw the atrocities of war

1963- Buddhist monk set himself on fire to protest S. Vietnam Government

1967-young men burned Draft Cards

1970- Kent State Massacre

Tons of smaller protests

Kent State

Burning Monk

Draft Cards

Nixon & ‘Nam Nixon was elected in 1968 after LBJ

Promised to end the Vietnam War

Re-elected in 1972

Ended war in 1973

Resigned after Watergate in 1974

End of the War December 1972 US bombed North Vietnam

for 12 days straight

Only pause in bombing was Christmas became known as the “Christmas Bombing”

January 1973 (1 month later) Agreement was signed to end the war

1975 North invaded South South fell under Communist rule

POW/MIA Many troops either went missing or were

taken prisoner

Captured POW’s often lived through terrible treatment

After war the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built Long wall of names

POW/MIA http://vnafmamn.com/

vietnam_POWstory.html