Vietnam War
Pre-Vietnam War
The French took control of Vietnam in the late 19th century. In 1945, the Indochinese Communist party declared that
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was independent of France, which resulted in war. The French & the
Vietnamese fought in the First Indochina War until 1954, when the French retreated.
Causes of Vietnam War
Once the Vietnamese defeated the French, an international peace conference was held in Geneva. It was decided
that Vietnam would be divided at the 17 N latitude (17th parallel). Ho Chi Minh- North of this line, Ho Chi Minh & his Communist forces would run the
government. North Vietnam’s capitol was Hanoi. President Ngo Dinh Diem- In the south, the non-Communist government of
President Ngo Dinh Diem was in control. South Vietnam’s capital was in Saigon.
DMZ- The two countries were separated by a DMZ similar to that of Korea.
Communist North Vietnam was supported by both the USSR and China. The United
States and its allies supported South Vietnam. The Vietnam war was primarily a civil
war involving the North Vietnamese Communists and the South Vietnamese Viet
Cong fighting against others in the south. The Viet Cong were communists seeking
reunification of the country under Communist rule. The US viewed the conflict as
another example of Communist aggression.
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Just as in the Korean War, the domino theory played a part in the Vietnam War. US President Dwight Eisenhower
believed that if Vietnam fell to Communism, then other nations in the
region would too. Therefore President Eisenhower felt the US
presence in Vietnam was needed in order to prevent the Communists
from overtaking all of Vietnam. The Viet Cong, Communist guerillas
based in South Vietnam, gained more and more strength as Diem
ruled as a dictator. Guerillas used hit-and-run tactics when fighting
rather than traditional fighting methods. Since the Communists
continued to gain strength throughout all of Vietnam, the US decided to
increase its presence.
U.S. Involvement- The war escalated with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, when it was said that the N. Vietnamese attacked US
navy ships. As a result of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, President Lyndon Johnson received support from the US
congress to increase US involvement in the war. In 1965, US combat troops were sent to Vietnam
Effective Strategies of the Vietnamese- Long before the US involvement increased in Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops started using
the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This was a system of paths through the jungles and mountains that
connected N. Vietnam to S. Vietnam via Laos & Cambodia. During the 1960s, the paths &
traffic on the trail increased. It was a very effective part of the Vietnam war. The communists
launched the Tet Offensive in 1968. It did not succeed in gaining the main cities of S. Vietnam
as it was intended to o, but it did succeed in reducing the American public's support of the
war.
Results of the War- The Vietnam War showed the world that even
the US, with the most advanced army and the
best equipment, could be defeated by a
lesser power. The Viet Cong’s guerilla tactics
worked, and the more the US bombed the
Vietnamese countryside, the more the local
people sided with the Viet Cong. The Vietnam War involved armed conflicts in Vietnam’s neighboring
countries of Cambodia & Laos, too. The US bombed both of these countries to try to destroy the Viet Cong’s hiding
places, as well as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Vietnam War resulted in over 58,000 US deaths and about 2 million
Vietnamese deaths. This was the first time in American history that the
public was so clearly against war. This was the first
time in American history that the public was so clearly
against war. The Vietnam War was unpopular in the
US because of the large number of US casualties and
the draft of males into the armed forces. The dissent
ultimately caused President Johnson to withdraw
from the 1968 presidential election. The war ended in 1975, when the South Vietnamese
surrendered before the capture of Saigon, by the
North Vietnamese army. In 1976, N. Vietnam united
both North and South Vietnam to form the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi
Minh City in honor of the former president of N.
Vietnam. Hanoi became the country’s capital Vietnam
remains a Communist country to this day.