1. Aim: Who won the Vietnam Conflict?

4. Timeline of Events 1858-1944: Vietnam is a French colony
: Vietnam becomes part of the Japanese empire
: First Indochine War: The Vietnamese fight a war of independence against the French. They win.
1954: The Geneva Accords: Vietnam is divided on the 17th parallel.
1960: Communist North Vietnam invades the South to unify the country into a Communist nation

6. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

7. The U.S.S. Maddox

8. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964
…Resolved by the Senate and the House of representatives of the Untied States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.

9. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
gave President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of military force in Southeast Asia.
Johnson was able to escalate the American commitment to 500,000 troops in Vietnam without permission from Congress

10. The end of the war
1969: Nixon announces the “Vietnamization” of the war-shifting the responsibility of defeating the Communists to the South Vietnamese
1973: The last American troops leave Vietnam
1975: Vietnam is united as a Communist nation. Cambodia and Laos also fall.

11. The Fall of Saigon

12. The War Powers Act, 1973
SEC.5(b) Within sixty calendar days after a report is submitted, the President shall terminate any use of the United States armed Forces, unless Congress
(1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by such law such sixty day period, or
(3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States

13. The War Powers Act (1973)
the President can send troops into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if America is already under attack
the President must notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to military action
forbids troops from remaining for more than 60 days without a declaration of war.