THE VIETNAM WAR… in short…
Dates: ______
The Vietnam War is one of “firsts”...
- the war was the first to come into people’s homes everyday on television
- it was the first war the United States ever lost
...and “lasts”.
- it was the last open war of Containment policy ______
1)Background:
a.How is France related to Vietnam?
______
b.How did Vietnam end up being split into two?
______
c.Why did the US get involved?
______
d.Whowere the Vietcong?
______
2)the Gulf of Tonkin:
e.What was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution?
______
f.Why was it necessary (what had happened in the Gulf of Tonkin)?
______
3)The Tet offensive:
g.What was the Tet offensive? Can it be considered as a real success?
______
4)End of War and its Aftermath:
h.Why was support for the war declining?
i.What is the aftermath of the Vietnam war?
Describe those 3 pictures:
October 22nd 1965PhanThi Kim Phucby AP photographer Nick Ut June 8, 1972.May 22, 1970
THE VIETNAM WAR… in short…
Dates: 1955- 1975a.k.a the second war of Indocina
The Vietnam War is one of “firsts”...
- the war was the first to come into people’s homes everyday on television
- it was the first war the United States ever lost
...and “lasts”.
- it was the last open war of Containment policy (=l’endiguement ) Truman doctrine = policy to prevent the spread of communism abroad.
Concrètement cette politique repose sur une offre d'assistance militaire et financière de la part des États-Unis envers les pays décidés à s'opposer aux pressions communistes. Dans l'immédiat d'après-guerre, elle concernait des pays comme la Grèce, alors en guerre civile, la Turquie soumise à d'intenses pressions de Moscou concernant les Dardanelles, ou encore l'Iran, en pleine crise irano-soviétique.
5)Background:
- How is France related to Vietnam?
began after World War II ended and lasted until the French defeat in 1954. After a long campaign of resistance Viet Minhforces seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire) had claimed a victory after Japanese and Vichy French forces surrendered in the North at the end of World War II. During World War II, the South was temporarily occupied by British forces, who restored French colonial control. In the United Nations and alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States, the French demanded return of their former Indochina colony prior to agreeing to participate in the NATO alliance opposing Soviet expansion beyond the Warsaw Pact countries in the Cold War. The communist/nationalist Viet Minh, whom the Allies had supported during the war, continued fighting the French with support from China and the Soviet Union, ultimately driving the NATO-backed French out of Indochina.
b. How did Vietnam end up being split into two?
Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel, and under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians were to be given the opportunity to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day period. Elections throughout the country were to be held in 1956 to establish a unified government
Communist regime in the north under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Many
South: the self-proclaimed president, Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic of Vietnam.
- Why did the US get involved?
Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong, tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country aided by China and Russia.Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States grew more and more wary of the progress of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong. Communism had become the evil menacein the United States and with expansion of Soviet rule into Eastern Europe, Korea and Cuba, the Americans were bent on stopping communism from spreading Who were the Vietcong?
- Who were the Vietcong?
Vietcong = political organization and army It had both guerrilla and regular army units, North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front in 1960 to foment insurgency in South Vietnam.
6)the Gulf of Tonkin:
- What was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution?
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. The joint resolutionto promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asi passed on August 7, with only two Senators (Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening) dissenting, and became the subject of great political controversy in the course of the undeclared war that followed.
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution stated thatCongress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repeal any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression
f.Why was it necessary (what had happened in the Gulf of Tonkin)?
As a result, President Johnson, and later President Nixon, relied on the resolution as the legal basis for their military policies in Vietnam. As public resistance to the war heightened, the resolution was repealed by Congress in January 1971.
7)The Tet offensive:
e)What was the Tet offensive? Can it be considered as a real success?
On January 21, 1968, an intense barrage of artillery hit the US Marine base at KheSanh in northwest South Vietnam. This presaged a siege and battle that would last for seventy-seven days and would see 6,000 Marines hold off 20,000 North Vietnamese.
Tet Offensive proved to be a military victory for the US and ARVN (,Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (aka the South Vietnamese Army). it was a political and media disaster. Public support began to erode as Americans started to question the handling of the conflict.
8)End of War and its Aftermath:
f)Why was support for the war declining?
antiwar movement in the US was pleased with Nixon’s efforts at détente with communist nations, it was inflamed in 1969, when news broke about a massacre of 347 South Vietnamese civilians by US soldiers at My LaiTension grew further when, following a change in stance by Cambodia, the US began bombing North Vietnamese bases over the border. T
g)What is the aftermath of the Vietnam war?
Nixon Doctrine / Vietnamization
n 15 January 1973, Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" were signed on 27 January 1973, officially ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A cease-fire was declared across North and South Vietnam. U.S. prisoners of warwerereleased.
Describe those 3 pictures:
October 22nd 1965PhanThi Kim Phucby AP photographer Nick Ut June 8, 1972.May 22, 1970
is a Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The iconic photo taken in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick Ut shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese attackKimPhuc and her family were residents of the village of Trang Bang, South Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang,
American actress, singer and Broadway star. and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music.. She was also the mother of actor Larry Hagman