Vietnam War-Powerpoint 2

RULE

Diem

• Diem was viewed by many normal Vietnamese as part of the best who had helped the French rule Vietnam.

Summer of 1955

• Diem launched the “Denounce the Communists” campaign.

• Diem instituted a policy of the death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956.

1956

Insurgency in the

South

Sino-Soviet

• The Sino-Soviet split led to a decrease in the influence of the PRC, which had insisted in 1954 that the Viet Minh accept a division of the country.

1957

• Violence steadily increased after four hundred government officials were assassinated.

January 1959

• The North’s Central Committee issued a secret decision authorizing an “armed struggle”.

– This authorized the southern communists to begin large-scale operations the South Vietnamese military.

December 12th, 1960

• Hanoi authorized the creation of the National Liberation Front as a common front controlled by the communist party in the South.

1961-1963

During John F. Kennedy’s

administration

1960

• When John F. Kennedy won the 1960 United States presidential election, one major subject Kennedy raised was whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the U.S.

June 1961

• In June 1961, John F. Kennedy resentfully disagreed with Soviet Nikita Khrushchev when they met in Vienna over key United States-Soviet issues. The Legacy of the Korean War created the idea of a limited war.

• Guerrilla tactics employed by special forces such as the Green Berets would be effective in a “brush fire” war in Vietnam.

1961

• The United States had 50,000 troops based in Korea.

• Kennedy faced a three-part crisis:– Failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion.– The Construction of the Berlin Wall.– A negotiated settlement between the pro-

Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement.

May 1961

• Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Saigon and willingly declared Diem the “Winston Churchill of Asia.”

ARVN

• Army of the Republic of Vietnam– Corruption, bad leadership, and political

promotions all played a part in emasculating the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

• Hanoi’s support for the NLF played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis.

April 1962

• In April 1962, John Kenneth Balbraith warned Kennedy of the “danger we shall replace the French as a majestic force in the area and bleed as the French did.”

1963

• In 1963 there were more than 16,000 American military recruits in South Vietnam.

July 23rd, 1962

• Fourteen nations, including the Peoples Republic of China, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam and the U.S., all signed a treaty promising the detachment of Laos.

Military

Coup

The Summer of 1963

• By the summer of 1963, the GVN (South Vietnam) was on the verge of political collapse.

• Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, had raided the Buddhist pagodas of South Vietnam.– The Buddhist claimed that they had harbored

the communists that were creating the political insercurity.

• The result of all this created huge protests in Saigon the led Buddhist monks to self-immolation.

– In September, the Buddhist protest had created such a disruption in the south that the Kennedy administration supported a coup.

• In 1963, a few of Diem’s own generals in the ARVN approached the American Embassy in Saigon with plans to overthrow Diem.

November 2nd, 1963

• With Washington’s implicit approval, Diem and his brother were captured and killed.

– 3 weeks later, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

• The continuing political problems in Saigon persuaded Lyndon Baines Johnson (the new president) that more aggressive action was needed.