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France controlled
“Indochina”
– 1800-WWII
Plantation colony
– Rice, rubber
Peasant unrest, uprisings
French crush
– Free speech, jail

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Founded 1930
Ho Chi Minh
Ran away from
Vietnam to USSR and
China
– French want dead
Returns 1941
Form Vietminh
– Pro-Independence

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Japanese control Vietnam

Forced to leave in 1945
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Minh declares independence in Hanoi
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French send troops in 1946, take control of southern half--war
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Truman sends $15 mill. In 1950 for French effort
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1950-1954-$2.6 billion

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Eisenhower continues support of French
Domino Theory
May ’54 Dien Bien
Phu
– Vietnimh beat French
France surrenders, begins to pull out
May-July ’54-Peace treaty in Geneva
Geneva Accords
– Divide according to
17 th parallel
– 1956 election to unify country

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Minh brutal, but gives peasants land.
National hero for beating Japanese and
French
U.S. supplies military and economic aid to
S. Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem opposes elections
1956

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Eisenhower promises aid to Diem if reforms gov’t
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S. Vietnamese corruption, anti-Buddhist
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1957- opposition group, Viet-cong forms
– Assassinates thousands of Vietnamese officials
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National Liberation Front
– Support of Ho Chi Minh
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U.S. “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem”


Sends military advisors to train S.
Vietnamese troops
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1963- 16,000 American soldiers in
Vietnam

Diem starts moving peasants for their protection, more upsets

Attacks on Buddhism

Buddhist Protest

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Nov 1, 1963
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Coup on Diem
– Executed

Leads to instability in gov’t

North Vietnamese push harder for
Communist unification

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Kennedy planning on withdrawing?
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Johnson afraid of looking “soft on communism”

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Aug 2, 1964
North Vietnamese fired on USS Maddox
Aug 4, N. Vietnamese fire two torpedoes
Johnson orders
Bombing raids and asks Congress for help
Aug 7, Tonkin Gulf
Resolution
– Military powers to
Johnson

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Maddox was a spy boat

The two torpedoes never happened

Maddox fired on Vietnamese

Johnson had Tonkin resolution prepared for months

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By end 1965- 180,000
U.S. troops in
Vietnam
General
Westmoreland
Little confidence in S.
Vietnamese Army
1967- 500,000 U.S. troops