Vietnam Livengoood Humanities

Geography China in the North India not-too-far West Impact: both Buddhism and Confucius flourish. ◦Buddhism: popular in 10 th, 11 th. ◦Confucius: from 12 th, still very strong now.

A natural map of Vietnam

Geography A very long coast, so commercial interactions with Westerners started very early. Impact: western missionaries came to Vietnam to propagate Catholic, Protestant, Muslim… ◦Current Vietnamese alphabet was invented by missionaries to teach the Bible.

Geography North: ◦Delta of the Red River: small and having regular floods almost every year. ◦Hilly regions, surrounded by mountains. Impact: ◦Hard to make a living, need a lot of past experiences. ◦Hard to interact with outsiders: keep going with traditions.

Geography Hilly in the South, Coast and plateau in the Central, (Mekong) Delta in the South Impact: diversity in geography results in diversity in religions, traditions, ethnics…

One of the First Images for America from Vietnam

Vietnam War This would be the last major containment confrontation France has control of Vietnam for a long time Oil, Rubber, Rice and Tin. Ho Chi Minh starts an independent movement

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnam War By 1950 the French could not stop Minh United States gives France $20 million $2.6 Billion over 4 years Minh still moves on the French 1954 there is a conference in Geneva Vietnam would be split on 17 th parallel line

Vietnam War The south was democratic and the north was communist Eisenhower was in office at this time and he imposes the “Domino Theory” If one country falls they all will

Vietnam War Minh was recruiting South Vietnamese to fight for the North These people were called the Vietminh or Vietcong They were being supplied by the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Vietnam War The US put their support behind Ngo Dinh Diem as the Democratic leader He ran a Monarchy, that used money to build military By 1963 the military of South Vietnam assassinate Diem and take control The United States back this move 3 weeks later Kennedy is assassinated

Vietnam War Lyndon Johnson takes over for Kennedy Johnson wanted Congress support Gulf of Tonkin resolution Six months later an airbase is attacked by the North (8 Americans die) ‏

Vietnam War Johnson orders “Operation Rolling Thunder” We are fully involved in Vietnam now By 1967 we have 500,000 troops in Vietnam

Vietnam War January 30 th 1968 is turning point in the war TET offensive, New Years for the Vietnamese 84,000 North Vietnamese soldiers into South Vietnam Take over the American Embassy in Saigon

Vietnam War Johnson decides not to run for a 2 nd term because of Vietnam Richard Nixon promised to end the war. He did start to pull troops out, but increased the air war Nixon also wanted Vietnamization to take place Train South Vietnam soldiers

Vietnam War Fighting went on until 1975 The last American soldier left Vietnam April 30 th Saigon fell and the south surrendered to the north The United States failed to contain communism

Fall of Saigon

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