3. Considered a police action and not a war, there is no actual starting point of Vietnam like in most wars, it basically went from 1950 to 1975.

4. In 1950 Harry Truman sent over soldiers to help the French, who had control of Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam). North Vietnam took French Indochina.

5. vs. 1952 Election Adlai Stevenson Dwight D. Eisenhower Democrat
Republican
Truman decides not to rerun for President and Stevenson was his replacement. The republican nomination was, war hero, Dwight Eisenhower. He won in a landslide. Eisenhower finished the Korean Conflict and was in on the beginning of the Vietnam Conflict.

6. vs. 1960 Election John Fitzgerald Kennedy Richard Millhouse Nixon
Democrat
Richard Millhouse Nixon
Republican
Kennedy won a very close election. Nixon said he would never run again (Farve) but did and won in 1969.

7. In 1954 the Vietminh, AKA Viet Cong, AKA VC, AKA Victor Charlie (communist led) defeated the French and North and South Vietnam were created (The US disapproved).
In 1961 John F. Kennedy secretly sent over 400 special operation soldiers to teach the South Vietnam to fight against the North Vietminh.

8. Assassinations
The US had placed Ngo Dinh Diem as leader of S. Vietnam, because of his abuse and cruelty he was assassinated
3 Weeks later JFK was assassinated

9. 1964 Election
VS.
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Democrat
Barry Goldwater (AuH20)
Republican
Johnson rode on the coattails of JFK’s popularity. The election was the fifth largest margin of victory in presidential history due in part that many felt that Goldwater was going to declare war on North Vietnam. Johnson won and we still had war??

10. Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Resolutions is a result of the Tonkin incident in which the Vietcong attacked the USS Maddox during patrol. The Maddox was damaged with no US casualties, while the Vietcong had 4 deaths and 3 damages torpedo boats
In 1964 after Kennedy’s assassination Lyndon B. Johnson secured from Congress a functional; not actual declaration of war, (police action) called the Tonkin Resolution.
In ,500 marines and bombing on the 17th parallel was sustained on North Vietnamese targets.

11. Why Vietnam: 3 Main Reasons
The multiple starting dates for the war complicate efforts to describe the causes of U.S. entry. The United States became involved in the war for a number of reasons, and these evolved and shifted over time.

12. Vietminh (NLF) VC
#1 - Primarily, every American president regarded the enemy in Vietnam--the Vietminh; its 1960s successor, the National Liberation Front (NLF); and the government of North Vietnam, led by *Ho Chi Minh--as agents of global communism. U.S. policymakers, and most Americans, regarded communism as the antithesis of all they held dear.

13. French Aid
#2 - In 1949, when the Communist Party came to power in China, Washington feared that Vietnam would become the next Asian domino. That was one reason for Truman's 1950 decision to give aid to the French who were fighting the Vietminh.

14. Containment Towards Domino Theory
#3 - Communists scorned democracy, violated human rights, pursued military aggression, and created closed state economies that barely traded with capitalist countries. Americans compared communism to a contagious disease. If it took hold in one nation, U.S. policymakers expected contiguous nations to fall to communism, as if nations were dominoes lined up on end (domino effect).

15. Viet Cong (VC) National Liberation Front (NLF) Code Name: Victor Charlie
The political organization and army of South Vietnamese communists who fought against the United States in the Vietnam Action.
Many South Vietnamese were Communist despite South Vietnam being Democratic. They were recruited to fight for the Vietminh.

16. Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Ho Chi Minh trail was a system trails that ran from the North Vietnam to the South Vietnam through the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia.

17. Ho Chi Minh
Started Communist freedom from Japan and France as early as WW 2
In the battle of Dienbienphu, the Vietminh defeated France under his leadership.

18. Ngo Dinh Diem
After the Geneva Convention the US put it’s faith in Ngo Dinh Diem to lead South Vietnam.
Diem was a Catholic and gave jobs in Catholic favor.
Buddhist monks protested and Diem responded with force.
He destroyed 2,000 Buddhist temples and killed dozens of Buddhists.

19. Buddhist execution

20. Diem Protest

21. Instruments of the Vietnam War
Attrition
Instruments of the Vietnam War
Agent Orange
Napalm

22. Attrition War
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materials.
The war will usually be won by the side with greater such resources. Not in this case.

23. Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/jelling agent generally mixed with petroleum or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device (flame thrower or bombs). Plain and simple napalm is airplane fuel mixed with a thick sticky soap.

24. Agent Orange is the code name for one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange is a wicked form of 24D or Round-Up used to kill the jungle forestation in Vietnam. The stuff was named after the orange 55 gallon drum the herbicide was shipped in and the color of the liquid itself. Later it was discovered that side-effects of Agent Orange caused cancer and other cell development deformations and birth defects.
Agent Orange

25. Guerilla Warfare
Tunnels

26. Guerilla Warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians (or "irregulars") use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and less-mobile traditional army, or strike a vulnerable target, and withdraw almost immediately. For the VC the tunnels were the key to Guerilla warfare.

27. Tunnels Cont.

28. Protest at Home

29. 1968 LBJ Pulls Out wins 1968 election
Nixon goes back in to Cambodia
Finally get out in 1972, last soldiers in 1975
Henry Kissinger
Richard Nixon
wins 1968 election
Nixon’s National Security Advisor

30. POW - MIA
Several secret mission were sent to recover soldiers who were missing as Prisoners of War after the Vietnam War. Beginning of Delta Force.
We also found out that many soldiers, due to the serious mental effects of the war did not want to come back home.

31. Key Dates 1954 North Vietnam conquers South Vietnam
1961 Kennedy sends over US troops to train (secret)
1963 Kennedy assasinated
1965 Johnson signs Tonkin Resolutions
Sends over troops for police action