1. Chapter 19 Section 1 Part 1

2. Colonization of Vietnam From the late 1800s, France ruled Vietnam, calling the land, French Indochina.

3. Ho Chi Minh By the early 1900s, several political parties wanted independence from France. One of the leaders of the movement was Ho Chi Minh. In 1941, after Japan had taken control of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh organized a group called the Vietminh to try to get rid of the Japanese.

4. How we got involved When Japan was defeated in 1945, it gave up control of Vietnam. France asked the United States to regain control of Vietnam. The United States did not want Vietnam to be communist, so President Truman began sending aid to French forces in Vietnam.

5. Ike Supporting Vietnam President Eisenhower continued to support the French because he believed in the domino theory, which said that if Vietnam fell to communism, other Southeast Asian nations would also.

6. Vietminh The Vietminh used guerrillas, or irregular troops who look like civilians and are difficult to fight. They were essentially farmers by day, soldiers by night.

7. Dien Bien Phu In 1954, the Vietminh defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu. The French knew they could not continue to have Vietnam (French Indochina) as a colony and they left.

8. Geneva Accords Negotiations to end the conflict between the French and the Vietminh took place in Geneva, Switzerland. Among the conditions of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was divided into North Vietnam (controlled by the communist and Ho Chi Minh) and South Vietnam (pro-western democratic country). If this sounds familiar, this is what happened in Korea after World War II.