War Expands in Vietnam

Direct Military Involvement Begins South Vietnam couldn’t fight the communists by themselves Ngo Diem Dinh was assassinated By 1964, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army had taken over most of South Vietnam Johnson wanted to help South Vietnam passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, this allowed him to use military force in Vietnam. In March 1965, Johnson began the bombing of Vietnam and started sending in troops Johnson had a policy of “escalation” which increased from 75,000 troops in the middle of 1965 to 536,000 by the end of 1968.

A Different Kind of War The General Public thought the war would be easy because of the U.S. superior resources. But soldiers had many disadvantages such as: They were scared of drawing China into the war Most soldiers were inexperienced The Vietnamese operated without a frontline, it is known as guerilla warfare, due to the surroundings they had a much better chance at winning. To help beat the Viet Cong, they sprayed Agent Orange and used Napalm to destroy hideouts and jungles, but this killed innocent people. The General Public thought the war would be easy because of the U.S. superior resources. But soldiers had many disadvantages such as: They were scared of drawing China into the war Most soldiers were inexperienced The Vietnamese operated without a frontline, it is known as guerilla warfare, due to the surroundings they had a much better chance at winning. To help beat the Viet Cong, they sprayed Agent Orange and used Napalm to destroy hideouts and jungles, but this killed innocent people.

Tet: A Turning Point By the end of 1967 the war was in a stalemate, but U.S. officials declared the war to be over soon. On January 30, and 31 the vietnamese launched the tet offensive a surprise attack on U.S bases and cities in Southern Vietnam Although it was technically a defeat because they gained no cities, and lost 45,000 soldiers the U.S. public saw the truth of the war. The public saw that there was a “credibility gap” between what officials were saying and the truth. Everyone realized that the U.S was hurting innocent people by bombing them alot, and this caused people to protest the war.

Tactics Comparison The Viet Cong used Guerilla Warfare and dressed as normal people and surprised the troops. The U.S. used large scale bombing to destroy cities and hurt innocent lives in the process. They used traditional methods of fighting and could not win against the Viet Cong.

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