Vietnam War and the 1960s
• French Indochina was made up of
– Vietnam
– Cambodia
– Laos
Ruled by France from the late 1800s until WWII
Controlled by Japan during WWII
• Ho Chi Minh
– Communist leader who tried to unite the
Vietnamese peasants
– Formed the Viet Minh to free Vietnam from
foreign rule
– Fought against Japan during WWII with the
assistance of the USA
– Fought against France and the USA after WWII
• The Geneva Accords, after WWII, divided
Vietnam into a communist North and a free
South
• This was to be a temporary division, until
elections in 1956
• Ho Chi Minh led the North.
• Ngo Dinh Diem led the South.
• Ho Chi Minh was very popular and Diem was
afraid Ho would win
• Diem refused to hold elections
• This was supported by President Eisenhower
– Remember containment?
• This increased military involvement was called
brinkmanship
• The fight against communism continued
around the world
• In Cuba
– The Bay of Pigs
– Cuban Missile Crisis
• In Germany
– Berlin Airlift
– The Berlin Wall
– “Ich ben ein Berliner.”
• Eisenhower sent in “advisors” to assist the
South
• Kennedy increased the numbers of these
advisors to 16,000 men
• On November 1, 1963 Diem was overthrown
and assassinated
• Three weeks later, Kennedy was also
assassinated
• The North sent small bands of fighters into
South Vietnam
• They were called Viet Cong
• They fought using guerilla warfare
– They mixed with the general population and could
not be readily identified
– When the Viet Cong attacked, they disappeared
into the countryside
• There was no front like there was in WWII
• When the Viet Cong escaped across the
border into Laos and Cambodia on the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, US troops did not follow.
• The US fought this limited war because they
were afraid of bringing in
the Chinese.
• President Johnson escalated the war,
increasing the number of troops to 538,000.
• Techniques that were used included the
massive bombing of the North
– Tonkin Gulf Resolution
– Defoliate the jungle with a chemical called Agent
Orange
– Use napalm to burn off the jungle
• A turning point of the war was the Tet
Offensive, carried out by the North
Vietnamese
• Infiltrated southern cities
• Came during the Vietnamese New Year
celebration – January 30 and 31
• Surprise attack on over 100 cities and towns
• They went after and killed not only the
military but also teachers , doctors and priests
•
•
•
•
•
Militarily was a failure for the North
45,000 North Vietnamese were killed
No cities captured
BUT
Following this statement by a US major, “ It
became necessary to destroy the town in
order to save it”, many Americans began to
believe the war was senseless.
• The average age of most soldiers was 19.
• If they were drafted, as most were, they were
expected to serve one year.
• This meant most were very inexperienced.
• Young men could avoid the draft if they were
enrolled in college
• This was viewed as a civil rights issue as this
meant that the majority of soldiers were poor
and were often minorities, as they were the
ones who could not afford college.
• The country was deeply divided into hawks
(those who supported the war) and doves
(those who opposed the war)
• Protests began spreading across the US
• 50,000 people staged a protest in front of the
Pentagon in 1967
• A demonstration at Kent State University in
Ohio in 1970 became a symbol of the anguish
over the war: National Guardsmen fired on
demonstrators, killing four students
• President Nixon was elected in 1968 on a
promise to end the war “with honor”
• Nixon increased bombing into Cambodia
• On January 27, 1973 the US and South
Vietnam agreed to a ceasefire.
• On March 29, 1973 the last American troops
left South Vietnam
• The United States continued to send money
but no troops. The war for the Vietnamese
continued until 1975 when the North
Vietnamese captured Saigon, which was
renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
• Many Vietnamese fled to the United States
following the war. Estimates are that
approximately 1.2 million Vietnamese now
live here.
• President Nixon became increasingly paranoid
and had to resign after having burglars break
into Democratic Party headquarters in the
Watergate hotel.
• Vice-President Agnew also resigned due to tax
fraud
• On August 9, 1974 Gerald Ford
became President.
• There were some far reaching effects of the
war, including lowering the voting age to 18.
• The War Powers Act limits the amount of time
troops can be sent into action without
permission of Congress
• Americans came away with
a distrust of government