1. 30:1 Moving Toward Conflict

2. French Vietnam
Colony
Rice/rubber plantation
Oppression of Vietnamese

3. Ho Chi Minh Resisted French rule
Founded Indochinese Communist Party 1930
Exiled to USSR/China

4. Vietminh Japanese occupation 1940-1945
Declaring independence
Japanese occupation
Vietminh Goals: win independence
Sept. 2, 1945 (VJ Day) Vietnam declared independence

5. France wants it back! 1950 French Indochina War
Truman foreign policy-containment
US supports France/ally in war on communism

6. Eisenhower’s Domino Theory
Contain communism
Sink or Swim with Ngo Dinh Diem

7. Geneva Accords 1954 Dien Bien Phu falls French Quit May 1954
Vietnam divided 17th parallel
Reunification elections 1956

8. North Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Communist-Hanoi
South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem Nationalist-Saigon

9. Ho Chi Minh v. Ngo Dinh Diem
Oppressive Oppressive Communist corrupt Land reform no land reform National hero Catholic

10. 1957 Vietcong South Vietnam Communist Opposition Group
Vietcong soldier awaits interrogation
South Vietnam Communist Opposition Group
Oppose Ngo Dinh Diem
Guerilla Attacks

11. Ho Chi Minh Trail
Cambodia, Laos
Supply route for Vietcong

12. Ngo Dinh Diem’s Assassination
Land reform
Hamlet program
Buddhist demonstration
November 1, 1963
JFK’s Assassination
Self immolation/Diem’s assassination

13. LBJ and Vietnam
U.S. will not be an appeaser

14. Tonkin Gulf Resolution
August 2, 1964 USS Maddox
August 4, 1964 USS Maddox
LBJ bombs North Vietnam
August 7, 1964-Congress gave LBJ broad military powers in Vietnam

15. Operation Rolling Thunder
Feb First sustained bombing of North Vietnam
June ,000 U.S. troops in SV

16. 30:2 U.S. Involvement and Escalation

17. Johnson commits troops
Campaign platform?
Secretary of State-Dean Rusk
Secretary of Defense-Robert McNamara
Congress/public support

18. General William Westmoreland
American commander
Questions ARNV abilities
,000

19. Vietcong Tactic Jungle Guerilla General population Tunnels
Land mines and booby traps
Tunnel Rats

20. U.S. Strategy: War of Attrition
Break morale
Continuous harassment
Body count
Westies numbers

21. Winning “Hearts and Minds”?
Theory
Napalm
Agent orange
Search and destroy missions

22. Sinking Morale of U.S. troops
Causes: guerrilla warfare, jungle, not winning
Effects: drugs, violence

23. Great Society Suffers Inflation
Reviewing war plans 1968
Inflation
Tax revenue spent on war/not domestic reform

24. “Living Room War” American v. Vietnamese deaths Credibility gap
Civilians lie dead and a South Vietnamese soldier still sits in his jeep after being shot in the head by a team of hit-and-run Vietcong in Vietnamese children are running past and looking at the charred and dismembered bodies
American v. Vietnamese deaths
Credibility gap