1. The Vietnam War (1957-1975)

2. Participants  Us  United States  South Vietnam  RVN = Republic of Vietnam  Thailand  Australia  New Zealand  South Korea  Philippines

3. Participants  Them  North Vietnam  NLF  National Liberation Front  South Vietnamese opposition movement with guerrilla military  AKA Viet Cong  USSR

4. Participants  UK and Canada refused to participate  Laos and Cambodia officially neutral  Ho Chi Minh Trail  Network of roads built from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to provide supplies for Viet Cong and NVA  US could not block because of neutrality status

5. Terminology  “Charlie”  Viet Cong  Vietnam Cong San  Vietnamese Communist  “Victor Charlie”  Military phonetics  A = alpha  B = bravo  C = charlie  DMZ-Demilitarized Zone  Separated North and South Vietnam  an officially recognized area from which all soldiers, weapons, and military installations have been removed after an agreement to stop fighting

6. Terminology  Domino Theory  If South Vietnam fell, other nations would follow  Fear that caused support for the war  Conscription- Mandatory military service  The Draft- (1969 to 1972) thousands of American soldiers were selected through a lottery.  Citizens were expected to go fight in the Vietnam War.

7. Location  Ground war fought in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos  Bombing campaign in North Vietnam

8. Why did it start?  North Vietnam was communist and very agriculturally successful  US afraid communism would spread, that South Vietnam would give in to pressure from North Vietnam  Fighting through Vietnam would allow US and Russia to battle without the threat of nuclear weapons (or direct conflict)

9. US Involvement  Escalation (gradual process)  Involvement began with Eisenhower, through Kennedy’s administration, and increased dramatically with Johnson’s administration  Involvement sustained, then decreased through Nixon’s administration  No formal declaration of war

10. Lyndon B. Johnson  Expanded and transformed US involvement  Sent “military advisers” to Vietnam, not troops  Because of his handling of the war and the public’s response, he did not seek a second term in 1968

11. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution  August 7, 1964  Gave Johnson support to escalate US involvement in Vietnam “as the President shall determine”  Johnson justified sending troops because he said situation was the same as in Berlin, Korea, Lebanon, and Cuba (very threatening); this was not true

12. The First Troops  March 8, 1965  3500 Marines became the first American combat troops to land in South Vietnam  Added to 25,000 “military advisers” already in place  By the end of July, Johnson announced an increase in the number of troops (from 75,000 to 125,000)  August 18, 1965: Operation Starlite  First major American ground battle  End of 1965: 184,000 troops in Vietnam  August 1966: 429,000 troops in Vietnam

13. Tet Offensive  Misleading the public  Johnson, Gen. William Westmoreland (US Army Chief of Staff) told American public we were winning, that the enemy was on the verge of collapse  January 30, 1968  Named after the most important Vietnamese holiday  North Vietnam had declared a ceasefire for the holiday  A series of major attacks by communist forces in the Vietnam War.  Nearly every major city in South Vietnam was attacked  1100 US dead  Turning point in the war

14. Tet Offensive  American people began to believe they were being misled  Westmoreland replaced  Had evaluated missions based on body count  General Creighton Abrams  More open with the public  Tactics more successful in Veitnam  Too late to sway public opinion

15. The Draft  Deferment  College (had to attend to age 26 to avoid draft)  Marriage  Medical exemptions  Peace Corps  Draft deemed unfair because often poor, those without connections were drafted  To make the draft more random, draft lottery was imposed in 1970; birthdays chosen randomly (if born on that day, you were drafted)  Draft dodgers  Canada and Sweden

16. Richard Nixon  Elected 1968  Began process of slow disengagement  Wanted to build up South Vietnamese army to fight the war on their own  Vietnamization  Nixon Doctrine  Fewer troop deaths, more bombs dropped than during Johnson’s administration

17. The end of the war  January 15, 1973: Nixon announced suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam  January 27, 1973: Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict  Returning soldiers not treated as heroes

18. Aftermath  War Powers Resolution  1973: curtailed President’s ability to commit troops to action without first obtaining congressional approval  1975: North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and quickly consolidated the country under its control  July 2, 1976: Socialist Republic of Vietnam created  Vietnam is still communist today

19. Aftermath continued  Death toll  Vietnamese  2 million civilians  1.1 million fighters  Americans  58,226 killed or missing in action  153,303 wounded  Vietnam is still recovering  One of the poorest countries in the world