1. Panama Canal and Vietnam War

2. The Need for a Panama Canal
After the Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt needed a short cut

3. Speak Softly, But Carry a Big Stick!
Use Naval force to protect American Interest

4. T.R. and the Panama Canal Teddy Roosevelt," I took Panama!”
U.S. makes a deal with Panama to build and control the canal

6. The Canal was Built at a Huge Cost
Challenges: volcanic soil, disease (malaria and yellow fever), dangerous conditions
Over 43, 000 workers employed
5,600 die during construction (accidents + disease)
Cost U.S. about $380 million
U.S. paid Columbia $25 million for lost land

7. Constable of the World

8. Handover of the Canal
In 1977, president Carter signed two treaties, agreeing to return the Canal to Panamanians in 1999

9. Vietnam War
As Cold War intensified, the key to stopping the spread of Communism was Vietnam

France gave up its control in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in what was called French Indochina

10. Containment Policy/Domino Theory
North Vietnam Communist leader Ho Chi Minh led a war of independence to unify the partitioned Vietnam
Eisenhower saw the danger and made his Domino Theory speech in 1954 and laid the foundation for US involvement in Vietnam

11. Tonkin Bay Incident
In 1964, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, where two American destroyers were apparently fired upon by the North Vietnamese, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions and gave president Johnson the power “to defend Vietnam at any cost.”

12. The War Intensified LBJ started sending troops to Vietnam in 1965
By 1968, more than half a million US troops were fighting in Vietnam
After the “Tet Offensive”, a surprise attack by the North Vietnam army in 1968, the US public began to doubt the government and its claim of winning the war

13. My Lai massacre, the use of napalm, public execution of suspects gradually turned the US opinion against the war

14. Nixon won the Whitehouse in 1968 and began his Vietnamization policy
Nixon and his advisor Henry Kissinger wanted to gradually withdraw U.S. troops & replace them with South Vietnamese soldiers
But he instead increased bombing Hanoi and ordered an invasion of Cambodia

15. Protests Continued/ Draft Dodgers /Kent State Massacre

16. The Fall of Saigon
In a series of peace talks, the US finally got out of Vietnam in 1973 after all parties signed a ceasefire
In 1975, North Vietnamese violated the ceasefire, toppled the South Vietnamese government and unified the country