1. U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
Unit 7: South and East Asia

2. Why was the U.S. involved in the Vietnam War?
Essential Question

3. Matching Activity Cold War Containment Communism
A system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state
A state of conflict between nations that did not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily by economic and political actions
Trying to stop the spread of communism
Matching Activity

4. Vietnam was also caught in the same western worry about the Domino Theory and the spread of communism.
SG: At the end of World War II, the leader of the nationalist movement in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh.
SG: Ho Chi Minh was communist and was a threat to the United States interests.
Ho Chi Minh gains power in Vietnam (5 minutes)

5. SG: Ho Chi Minh’s Vietminh League’s goal was independence from Vietnam.

6. SG: In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, France was the European power (colonial ruler) over Vietnam.
In 1954, when the French decided to give up the fight, the United States stepped in.
SG: Decisions were made at an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1954 that the country would be temporarily divided until elections could be held to decide on a government.

7. SG: The southern part of Vietnam was temporarily taken over by the U.S.
The Vietnam War affected domestic U.S. politics by dividing the country politically and it led to numerous civilian protests against the war.
Video: US Public Opinion of War Shifts (4 minutes)

8. SG: The Vietnam War was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries.

9. The United States worried that they would choose Ho Chi Minh and the communists, so the elections were never held and the country remained divided until 1975.
Many years and billions of dollars were spent by the United States, and thousands of lives were lost fighting in Vietnam to prevent that country from becoming communist.
In the end, the country did reunite after the United States ended the war. The People’s Republic of Vietnam was declared a communist country.

12. SG: The U. S. finally left Vietnam in 1975 because it became clear that the Vietnamese wanted to control their own country without foreign advisors or military.

13. For Those That Never Came Back!
The Ghosts of Vietnam (6 minutes)
For Those That Never Came Back!

14. Write a Haiku Poem (Summarize the lesson)
Tell me what you know about the Vietnam War by composing a Haiku Poem.
Haiku poems are written using the format
Example:
(The Korean War)
The Korean War
North & South Korea Fight
Splitting the Control
Write a Haiku Poem (Summarize the lesson)