Unit 11-5
The Vietnam War Part I
No Homework
I.
Background to the Vietnam War: the Struggle over
Indochina
A. Indochina was a French colony in the 19th century; it was
then seized by Japan in 1940.
1. Communist Ho Chi Minh led a nationalist resistance
movement.
2. After the war, he declared Vietnam to be independent.
3. France refused to accept the new nation, leading to
armed conflict for nine years.
B. In 1954, France surrendered.
1. In the Geneva Accords, Laos
and Cambodia became
independent.
2. Vietnam was divided
between Communist North
Vietnam and South Vietnam
under the Vietnamese
Emperor.
3. Elections and reunification
were supposed to occur in
1956.
II. The Vietnam War: Early American Involvement
A. In the South, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
deposed the Emperor.
1. Diem refused to hold elections in 1956, and
established an oppressive regime in the South.
2. South Vietnamese Communists formed a
revolutionary army, the Vietcong, and began
guerrilla warfare.
The chief of police in South Vietnam’s
capital, Saigon, executes a young
Vietcong for participating in guerrilla
warfare.
B. The U.S. supported South Vietnam for a number of
reasons.
1. Fear of the “domino theory” (containment)
2. Obligations to SEATO – Asian equivalent of NATO
3. Believed Vietnam would benefit from democracy
4. Believed we could win the war easily.
C. American involvement
began when President
Kennedy sent military
advisers to Diem.
D. When both leaders were
assassinated in 1963,
President Johnson
escalated involvement.
E. He sent the first troops
to Vietnam in 1965 after
the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution.
1. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution
a. August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox was fired on
by a North Vietnamese torpedo boat.
b. August 4, 1964, the USS Maddox falsely claimed
it was under attack again.
i. The Maddox had been attempting to conduct
intelligence
c. US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara,
testified before Congress that both attacks
occurred
d. August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Resolution
giving the President authority to deploy troops
without a declaration of war.
e. Johnson used his new power to launch
“Operation Rolling Thunder,” – sustained
bombing of N. Vietnam.
f. By June of 1965 more than 50,000 US soldiers
were fighting in Vietnam