Hist Final

Front 1

Containment Policy

Back 1

American leaders thought of Vietnam as an Asian Berlin, a place to draw the line against communism and to implement the containment doctrine.

Front 2

FRENCH IN VIETNAM French Indochina

Back 2

1. Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) colonized in 1880s.

2. Vietnamese resisted French colonial regime as much as possible

3. Vietnamese tradition of historical resistance to invaders: China.

Front 3

Ho Chi Minh: 4 things

Back 3

1. Leader of Vietnamese Communist Party

2. Major leader of Vietnamese resistance to the Japanese

3. Vietminh declared independence from France in 1945.

4. Ho quoted from U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Front 4

General Vo Nguyen Giap

Back 4

1. He is credited with leading the victory against both the French and the United States.

2. NY Times

Front 5

Vietminh war against the French

Back 5

U.S. had a choice:

a) Support Ho Chi Minh's bid for independence

b) Support French return to Indochina

Result: We supported the French return.

Context for such a decision: containment of communismWe paid 80% of the costs of French war against Vietminh

Front 6

Dienbienphu (May 1954)

Back 6

French fall to Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu

(History.com This Day in History | 5/7/1954)

French withdrawal from Indochina

Front 7

Geneva peace conference (July 1954)

Back 7

-Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel.

-Ho's forces gained control of North Vietnam.

-Election to unify the country was scheduled for 1956.

-America, figuring Ho Chi Minh would win, did not permit the election.

U.S. replaced France in Vietnam

Front 8

AMERICA IN VIETNAM

Back 8

Many different wars depending on branch of service and location within South Vietnam

Vietnam tour of duty: 12 months for Army

Could be stationed in a U.S. unit or on an advisory team

Front 9

AMERICA IN VIETNAM MORALE

Back 9

Morale Problems: largely due to the draft

1. Fragging: US soldiers sometimes used a fragmentation grenade to kill an unpopular officer.

2. Drug use

3. Post–traumatic stress. Other wars: shell shock, battle fatigue.

Front 10

Tet offensive (January 1968)

Back 10

-Tet is the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday

-This event was really important in retrospectEnemy coordinated attacks all over South Vietnam

U.S. was victorious militarily

-In U.S., public relations fallout was bad

Americans became convinced that war was not winnable.

Front 11

Divisions at Home in U.S.

Back 11

a. Pro-war—by hard hats; silent majority

b. Anti-war protests:

Counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War

Used teach–ins, antiwar marches, and demonstrations.

Some burned draft cards

Others fled the draft by moving to Canada.

"Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"

Front 12

Kent State

Back 12

U.S. raid into Cambodia (1970) triggered campus protests at Kent State and Jackson State.

Kent State University: 4 students killed; National Guard unit fired into a crowd of student protesters.

Front 13

America In Vietnam

Back 13

Ground combat took place within South Vietnam

U.S. never invaded North Vietnam

U.S. pursued an air war against North Vietnam

Enemy side: North Vietnam and those living in South Vietnam (called Viet Cong) who will fight against the United States

Our side: The United States and those South Vietnamese friendly to U.S.

Front 14

Our man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem

Back 14

Our initial handpicked leader in South VietnamNo real alternative leader in South Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh in the North

U.S. backed Ngo Dinh Diem

He consolidated power over internal rivals.

Diem was a Catholic (in a mostly Buddhist country).

Bachelor (role of his family, especially brother and his sister-in-law)

Diem's oppressive policies and persecution of Buddhists made him unpopular

CIA backed an overthrow of Diem (who was murdered)

Front 15

Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem

Back 15

JFK himself was assassinated three weeks later.

Front 16

Kennedy's escalation of the U.S. war effort.

Back 16

North Vietnam and Viet Cong increased attempts to win in SouthSouth Vietnam was on the verge of losing

JFK had sent 16,000 American advisors.Big historical question: what would Kennedy have done had he lived?

After Diem, revolving-door governments in South Vietnam

LBJ: I don't want to hear any more about this coup st

Questions for historians: Why did we let Diem be overthrown?

Was there any better alternative?

Was the country itself able to operate as a country?

Could and would the South Vietnamese leaders actually lead their own people?

At what point could the U.S. have gotten out of Vietnam?

Front 17

President Lyndon Johnson and the Americanization of the War

Back 17

The war became a competition with his desire for his Great Society. But the war soon overshadowed everything else that was occurring in the US.

Front 18

Tonkin Gulf Incident (August 1964)

Back 18

Response to North Vietnamese attack on American destroyer.

U.S. not entirely clean in this incident. Tonkin Gulf Congressional Resolution

Gave LBJ authority to use unlimited military force in North Vietnam.

Johnson interpreted it as equivalent to a declaration of war.

Front 19

George Ball's dissent against continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam

Back 19

He wanted us to bail out of Vietnam early on; in retrospect, he was probably right.

Front 20

Operation Rolling Thunder:

Back 20

U.S. air campaign over North Vietnam

More U.S. bombs on Vietnam than U.S. dropped in all of WWII

North Vietnamese did not give up.

Hid in shelters; rebuilt roads and bridges

Their perseverance frustrated and awed American decision makers.

U.S. prisoners of war: John McCain among them

Front 21

Escalation:

Back 21

U.S. began to commit regular combat units to Vietnam

Johnson's decision for major of U.S.

increase Maximum level of 536,000 in 1968.

We told the South Vietnamese: watch how well we could complete the job.

They watched.

We did not complete the job.

Front 22

Attrition strategy

Back 22

American aim was to kill more enemy than could be sent from the North.

Search and destroy tactics

Body count: the indication of success.

If it's dead and Vietnamese, it's VC

Attrition did not succeed

Front 23

Sanctuary

Back 23

Sanctuary: Enemy could use Laos and Cambodia as a sanctuaryHard to defeat an enemy that has this kind of advantage.Compare to Taliban using Pakistan as a sanctuary.

Front 24

Richard Nixon: Vietnamization of the war

Back 24

His anti-Communist credentials
As a Republican, he had not “lost” China

He began the withdrawal of U.S. troops

South Vietnamese should carry the load.

Similar to our attempts both in Iraq and Afghanistan: "if they stand up, we will stand down"

Front 25

Legacy of the Vietnam war

Back 25

58,000 U.S. dead

Financial cost to U.S.: $200 billion.

America's most unpopular war.

Involvement of six U.S. presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford.