THE VIETNAM CONFLICT

Background History Always a colony –Chinese, 900 years! Many ethnic Chinese in Vietnam –French, 1800s Plantation owners French culture –Japanese, 1940s Raw materials Ho Chi Minh, resistance –French, Vietminh Conflict –Dien Bien Phu, 1954

American Involvement in Vietnam, Geneva Convention, 1954 –Major players…who’s missing? –Cold War conflict Free elections, 1957? –President Diem –Too many Viet Cong Military “advisors” –Simply train ARVN Regular troops, 1965 –USS Maddox Incident, 1964 –Tonkin Gulf Resolution, 1964

The Major Players US and ARVN versus NVA and Viet Cong –Russia and China involved

TET Offensive, January 1968 Turning point of the Conflict Major NVA Offensive –General Westmoreland American Forces –Khe Sahn, Marine Field Base Another Dien Bien Phu? –Battle of Hue, 1968 Full Metal Jacket –American Embassy in Saigon, 1968 Viet Cong “Sappers” Walter Cronkite, anchorman

Vietnamization and “Peace with Honor”, 1970s Election of 1968 –Humphrey v. Nixon –“Law and Order” Gradual withdrawal of troops –Leave equipment behind –American build up in Cambodia “Killing Fields” Treaty of Paris, 1973 –Saigon becomes Ho Chi Minh City by 1975

Impact at Home Class Conflict –Poorest drafted first Draft Laws –1967 and 1968 –Campus protests Democratic National Convention, 1968 –Police and demonstrator violence Kent State University, 1970 –Escalation by Nixon of war into Cambodia