1. Harold Winkler Middle School
The Cold War – Part III
Mr. Wells
Harold Winkler Middle School

2. Vietnam Formerly French Indochina Occupied by Japan during WWII
After WWII: Ho Chi Minh declares independence for Vietnam (Communist)
U.S. aids France (Containment) but also “Domino Theory”… belief that if one country falls to Communism, others will fall

3. Vietnam French lost Indochina War at Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Vietnam divided at the 17th parallel
North – Communist (Ho Chi Minh)
South - Nationalist (Ngo Dinh Diem)
U.S. aids South but Diem corrupt (much like Chiang Kai-shek (China)
1960 – JFK sends military “advisors” to train S. Vietnam army
Many S. Vietnamese protested Diem’s government and sided with the North (known as Vietcong)

4. Early Protest of Diem’s Government Self-Emolation by a Buddhist Monk

5. Vietnam Kennedy assassinated in 1963… Lyndon B. Johnson takes over
Johnson escalates the war (Gulf of Tonkin Incident)
By 1968, U.S. troops over 500,000
U.S. uses napalm &
agent orange in
fighting enemy
Operation Rolling
Thunder – taking out
supply line (Ho Chi
Minh Trail) from N.V.

6. A Napalm Attack

7. Operation Rolling Thunder

8. Vietnam 1968: Americans come home in body bags
War becomes very unpopular with Americans
Slogan… “Hey, Hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
Men avoided draft… sought medical exemptions, went to college
My Lai Massacre 1968
Anti-War Demonstrations

10. End of Vietnam War 1968 – Richard Nixon elected president
Vietnamization: gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in Vietnam
By 1973, a ceasefire was signed
1975: N. Vietnam overruns S. Vietnam
58,000 U.S. killed… 2,583 POWs/MIA unaccounted for
Total Cost - $150 Billion!

11. U.S. Evacuates Embassy in Saigon 1975
Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City!

12. And in the End…
If we have to fight, we will fight. You will kill ten of our men and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who tires of it.

13. Cold War in the 1970s
U.S. foreign policy: détente – negotiating with Communists
SALT I Treaty with the Soviets limits ICBM’s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
President Nixon visits China & Soviet Union to ease tensions

14. Cold War in the 1970s
1975: President Ford continues negotiations with China & Soviet Union
Helsinki Accords (Finland) – Cooperation between Western & Eastern Europe
Panmunjon (DMZ – N/S Korea) – North Korea attacks and kills 2 U.S. Officers
President Fords sends in B-52 bombers… North Korea backs down

15. Cold War in the 1970s
1979: Soviets invaded Afghanistan… their Vietnam! (They didn’t win!)
As a result of invasion, President Jimmy Carter refuses to sign SALT II Treaty
1980: U.S. boycotts Olympic Games held in Moscow
U.S. secretly arms Afghan rebels to fight Soviets (Osama Bin Laden!)

16. Cold War in the 1980s
President Ronald Reagan rejected the idea of containment and détente
He wanted to destroy Communism!
U.S. greatly increased military spending and nuclear weapons
Reagan wanted to created SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)… a space based defense system that would shoot down missiles  Didn’t Work!

17. Video: End of the Cold War

18. The End of the Cold War 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev leads Soviet Union
USSR going bankrupt trying to keep up with U.S. in arms race
Gorbachev initiates drastic reforms such as:
“Glastnost” or Openness… allowing the Soviet people to criticize the government and
Perestroika… restructuring the Soviet Politburo (government), holding free elections in satellite nations and withdrawing from Afghanistan

19. The End of the Cold War Nov. 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Many Eastern Bloc countries declare independence from USSR
1991: Gorbachev forced to resign
Boris Yeltsin, new leader of the Soviet Union, announces the end of the Cold War!

20. Communist China 1989: Chinese students call for democracy
Hold demonstrations at Tiananmen Square
Hundreds killed when tanks were sent in and open fired
President George H.W. Bush announces an arms embargo on China