1. Ms. West - Holly Springs High School
War: Vietnam and Korea
Ms. West - Holly Springs High School

2. Do Now Turn in your RLAH: Cold War and RLAH: Fidel Castro assignments.
Please staple these together and turn in at the front of the room.
Purple Sheet: Silently complete #1-9

3. Korean War
§After Japan’s surrender in World War II, the Allies had gained control of the Korean Peninsula.
§The Soviet Union and the United States agreed to temporarily divide the country in half – the Soviet’s established a Communist government in North Korea and the United States supported a non-Communist regime in the South.

4. Korean War
§In June 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea with the goal of uniting the country under a Communist government.
§The United States feared that a failure to defend South Korea might lead to other attempts at Communist expansion.
§The United States asked the United Nations to approve the use of force to stop the invasion and helped to form a military force from 17 nations to stop the invasion – most of the soldiers were American.

5. Korean War
§The North Koreans nearly conquered the South within a matter of months, but UN forces led by MacArthur invaded behind enemy lines at Inchon and were able to push the North Koreans out of South Korea.
§The North Koreans were aided by the Communist Chinese government and were able to push the UN forces back.

6. End of the Korean War
The Korean war ended in a stalemate in 1953 when both sides agreed to boundaries at the 38th parallel, the approximate location of where the boundaries were before the war.
North Korea remained a Communist state, and South Korea was an ally of the West.

7. Crossing the 38th Parallel - Korean War
Work with the person sitting next to you.
Notify me if you don’t have the partner.
You will read the documents and complete the chart on whether or not the 38th Parallel should have been crossed.

8. Vietnam War
At the end of WWII, France sought to reestablish its colonial control over Southeast Asia, but in Vietnam
Communist rebels called the Vietminh fought back forcing the French to give up control of Vietnam.
The leader of the Vietminh was Ho Chi Minh, a communist, who received assistance from the Soviet Union and communist China.
Ho Chi Minh’s goal was independence, not the spread of communism.
Vietnam was temporarily divided into Northern Vietnam, controlled by the Communists, and South Vietnam.

9. Vietnam War
The American government was worried about the spread of communism in Vietnam and supported the anti-Communist government in the South.
U.S. President Eisenhower warned that if Vietnam fell to communism other Asian countries would quickly follow, this became known as Domino Theory.

10. Vietnam War
The United States sent military aid in order to prevent South Vietnam from being taken over by the North.
Northern rebels formed a group called the Vietcong that shared the common goal of overthrowing the government in South Vietnam and reuniting Vietnam.

11. Vietnam
As the Vietcong influence spread the United States increased its aid to South Vietnam.
President Johnson informed congress that US Navy Ships had been the victims of an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese gunboats.
U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that gave Johnson the power to expand U.S. involvement without a formal declaration of war.
The American troop presence grew quickly.

12. Vietnam War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jET2qR8Y-Ng
(Start at 8 min. 21 seconds)

13. Vietnam
The Vietcong led an offensive against the U.S. on the Vietnamese New Year called Tet, therefore becoming known as the Tet Offensive.
American leaders had claimed that a victory was close, but the Tet Offensive showed that this was not the case. The Vietcong were being fed supplies and troops along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

14. Vietnam
The United States reached a peace agreement with North Vietnam in 1973 and withdrew its military support.
Vietnam was officially reunited in 1976, but the country did subscribe to communism.

15. Attempts at Arms Reduction
§In 1968, newly elected President Nixon sought détente, or reduced tension between the Superpowers.
§This effort resulted in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or SALT I that limited the number of nuclear weapons held by each power and prevented the development of weapons designed to shoot down nuclear missiles.
§The SALT II agreement resulted in increased arms control.
§In the 1980s the United States, under Ronald Reagan, entered talks with the Soviet Union that called for both a reduction in nuclear weapons and the elimination of certain types of missiles.

16. Eastern Europe and Soviet Union
Following Joseph Stalin’s death the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev loosened some of Stalin’s economic and political restrictions, however, they continued to limit the individual freedoms of Soviet citizens.
The changes led to the hope that the Soviet’s may loosen their control over the Eastern Bloc, however, Soviet leaders made it clear that would not happen.
The Soviet troops put down revolts in East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

17. Eastern Europe and Soviet Union
The Soviet economy had begun to falter by the 1960s, but by the 1980s the economy was in crisis. Government planners set production goals without consulting the wants and needs of the market.
To help the Soviet economy Mikhail Gorbachev, the new Soviet Leader in the 1980s, proposed two ideas:
Glasnost that would willingly and openly discuss the Soviet Union’s problems
Perestroika which would restructure and reform the Soviet economic and political system.
Under these two plans Gorbachev reduced the central planning of the Soviet economy and began to introduce free-market ideas.

18. Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union could no longer afford to uphold the Communist governments of Eastern Europe and began to pull Soviet troops out of the Eastern Bloc.
The cities of Eastern Europe did not wait for reform and in revolutions spread across the region as citizens overthrew their Communist governments.

19. Eastern Europe and Soviet Union
When Hungary opened its border with Austria in August 1989, East Germans traveled to Hungary by the thousands to cross the open border into Western Europe.
In an attempt to stop the flow of citizens out of Eastern Berlin, the East German government tore down the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
Less than a year later East Germany and West Germany were Reunited.
Reagan Speech: Tear Down that Wall

20. The Soviet Union Collapses
§The fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of Soviet-backed regimes in Eastern Europe showed the dramatic crumbling of Soviet power.
§Other smaller nations in the Eastern Bloc also began announcing their desire for independence.
§The Soviet Union blamed Gorbachev’s reforms and sought to preserve their power through a coup d'état to replace him with another leader, but the effort failed.
§Even though the coup failed Gorbachev’s power was gone and nation after nation in the Eastern Bloc began announcing independence.
§By the end of 1991 the Soviet government had ceased to function.