Vietnam Background
 Ho Chi Minh
 Viet Minh
 Domino Theory
 Geneva Accords
 Ngo Dinh Diem
 Viet Cong
 Ho Chi Minh Trail
 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
In the beginning….
 French missionaries went to Indochina in 19th
cen.
 Vietnamese persecuted those French
Catholics

French sent in troops and eventually took over
the country
“Uncle Ho”
 1924 - Ho Chi Minh led
a movement to oust the
French


Helped to create the
Indochinese
Communist Party
Worked for a free and
independent Vietnam
WWII
 1940 French troops left to defend the
homeland
 Japanese took over Vietnam
 Ho helped to fight Japanese
 1945- Free and independent Vietnam



But…French wanted the country back
F. took control of the South
Ho took control of the north
First Vietnam War
 War between French and Communist

Commies were led by Ho
 US sided w/ France


Truman sent $15 million in aid to France
By 1954, $1billion had gone to help France in
Vietnam
 Ike continued Truman’s policy
Domino Theory
 Why support this war?
 Domino theory
 Ike said that the
countries of SE Asia
were like dominos;
If one fell to
communism, they all
would.
 French were forced to
surrender at Dien Bien
Phu
Geneva Accords
 Viet Minh & South Vietnam anticommunist
nationals
 Vietnam was temporarily divided at the 17th
parallel
 Elections were to be held
Demilitarized Zone
(1954)
Saigon
Elections
 Diem felt that Ho would
win the election
because of his
immense popularity and
cancelled the elections
 US supported Diem
despite his corrupt gov’t

Restricted religion to
only Catholicism
 Buddhists were
persecuted
More Fighting
 1957- Former Viet Minh living in South began
to attack Diem’s gov’t
 Diem gave this group a nickname

Viet Cong = “Commie”
 Ho supported VC by Ho Chi Minh trail

Supplies sent along the border of Laos and
Cambodia-around the DMZ
US gets involved
 Ike showed some
support for Diem
 Sent in military advisors
to help the South
Vietnamese Army fight
the VC and the NVA
 JFK showed some
support for Diem

1963-16,000 military
advisors to S. Vietnam
 Diem became more
corrupt & cruel
More US
 Diem instituted the Strategic Hamlet program

Corralled people into controlled villages


Controlled by Diem
Idea was to deprive VC of support

Actually increased support
 VC were fighting using guerilla warfare tactics

Men and women fought
Diem is out
 US decided that Diem had to go
 Nov. 1, 1963 US led ousting of Diem

Diem was assassinated
 Death of Diem made the country even more
unstable
 Kennedy was prepared to withdraw troops


Deteriorated into a Civil War
JFK died and Lyndon B. Johnson took over
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
 USS Maddox fired upon by N.V. patrol boat



Gulf of Tonkin Incident Aug. 2, 1964
Torpedo missed
Maddox returned fire
 Two days later Maddox reported being fired
upon

No one saw any gunfire
Gulf of Tonkin cont.
 Johnson asked Congress for
$$ and support to retaliate
 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
 Gave LBJ power to “take all
necessary measures to repel
any armed attack against the
forces of the U.S. and to
prevent further aggression”
 Passed Aug. 7, 1964
Vietnam War
 LBJ forgot to tell the people
or Congress that the US had
been conducting raids on
North Vietnam
 Feb. 1965 “Operation Rolling
Thunder”
 Bombing mission of N.
Vietnam
 Troops began showing
up in Vietnam in March
 By June, 50,000 troops in
South Vietnam fighting
the VC