Operation Rolling Thunder
Ngo Dinh Diem
Cambodia
Laos
Gulf of Tonkin
Kent State
WORD BANK
Geneva Agreement
Tet Offensive
New Left
Vietnamization
Agent Orange
Communist
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Democratic National Convention
Viet Cong
Ho Chi Minh
Domino
Saigon
The United States & Vietnam
French Colonial Vietnam
-French exploited labor & resources
-Vietnam occupied by Japan in WWII.
-_______________________ created an
independence organization called the
Viet Mihn
-After WWII, France tried to re-take
Vietnam as a colony
-________________________________:
1954 agreement that temporarily split
Vietnam into 2 countries
Vietnam After French Rule
-Ho Chi Minh set up a
_________________________________
government in North Vietnam
-South Vietnam, little change, most
people still poor & powerless
-Communist guerilla groups called the
_________________________________
emerges in South Vietnam
Increased U.S. Involvement
-U.S. sends military advisors to help
South Vietnam
-Soviet Union sends weapons & supplies
to North Vietnam
-__________________________Theory:
said if Vietnam fell, then all of Southeast
Asia would fall to communism
-U.S. supported the gov. of dictator
________________________________
-undemocratic, used torture &
brutal police repression to rule
-refuse to hold elections
-assassinated by own military
President Johnson’s War
-U.S. patrol boats fired on off the North
Vietnamese coast in the ______________
_________________________________
-Congress passes the ________________
_________________________________
authorizing Johnson to escalate the war
-Johnson (LBJ) launches massive
bombing campaign of North called
_________________________________
-General Westmoreland orders
Americans on search & destroy missions
-Viet Cong guerillas blended in well w/
civilians & hid in jungle
-U.S. chemical called _______________
___________________ to kill vegetation
-Used napalm (jellied gasoline)… brutal
-American combat troops sent
Year
Troops
1965
184,000
1966
385,000
1967
485,000
1968
543,000
-concern in Pentagon that this strategy
was ineffective
The Tet Offensive
-___________________________: 1968,
Viet Cong launches major offensive,
shows U.S. is not in control, not going to
win the war quickly
The Anti-War Movement
-1968, LBJ announced he would not run
for re-election
-hawk: supporter of the war
-dove: opponent of the war
-The ______________________: middle
class college students who were inspired by
the civil rights movement
-protestors burned draft cards & flags
-______________________________: site
of major protests in Chicago 1968
Richard Nixon & Vietnamization
-______________________________:
slowly turn fighting of war back over to
South Vietnam…
-Nixon intensified bombings of North &
increased American aid to South
-1970… U.S. expands war into neighboring
_____________________________ &
___________________________…. attacks
Ho Chi Minh Trail (Viet Cong’s supply
route)
Kent State & Jackson State
-Violent protests at ___________________
result in the National Guard firing into
crowds a killing students
Role of the Media
-Vietnam was the nations first televised war
-TV helped create perception that war was
unwinnable
Fall of Saigon
-1973, U.S. signs cease fire w/ North…
South Vietnam continues to fight
-1975, _______________________ (capital
of South) falls, Vietnam is re-unified under a
communist government
Legacy of Vietnam
-shattered myth of invisibility
-few homecoming parades for soldiers