The Vietnam War

Nov 1, 1955

Thru

Apr 30, 1975

The Vietnam War

Vocabulary and Key Terms

• Ho Chi Minh
• The Domino Theory
• Southeast Asia
• Indochina
• The Geneva Accords
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Escalate
• The Vietcong

Vietnam: Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Southeast Asia

The Origins of the

Vietnam War

• During WWII Japanese forces captured Vietnam from the French.

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• Communist Vietnamese forces led by Ho Chi Minh fought against the Japanese.

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• When Japan surrendered, Ho Chi Minh declared an independent Vietnam

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• The French though, were unwilling to concede the loss of their Vietnamese colony.

The Geneva Accords

• In 1954, after a long war, Ho Chi Minh and his forces defeated the French at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.

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• An international peace conference in Geneva, Switzerland led to the signing of the Geneva Accords ending the Indochina War.

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• Vietnam was to be temporarily divided between a communist north and a democratic south.

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• The U.S. backed the South VIetnamese government.

The Geneva Accords

U.S. Involvement

• In 1955, the South VIetnamese government, under Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold elections to unify the country breaking the accords.�
• The U.S. backed Diem, in order to prevent the spread of communism.�
• A guerrilla war began with The National Liberation Front, backed by the North, attacking in South VIetnam.�
• These guerrilla fighters became known as the Vietcong.

The Domino Theory

A Growing American Role in Vietnam

• By 1955, the U.S. had replaced the French as the dominant foreign power in South VIetnam.�
• Eisenhower came to believe in the Domino Theory.�
• The theory stated that if one of the countries of Southeast Asia fell to communism, the rest would fall like dominoes to communism too.

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• To prevent the spread of communism the U.S. sent billions of dollars and dispatched military advisors to aid the South Vietnamese.

America in the 20th Century:

Vietnam

1hour:10min

The First Indochina War

8:45

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

American Enters the Vietnam War

• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, gave Johnson the authority to use American forces in VIetnam.�
• Congress though did not vote on an official declaration of war.�
• In 1965, Johnson began to escalate, gradually increase, the US. involvement in VIetnam.�
• During the next three years the numbers of U.S. troops increased from 180,000 soldiers in 1965, to 400,000 soldiers by the end of 1966, to more than 500,000 soldiers by the end of 1967.

Debate in the White House

• Officials in the Johnson administration saw the mounting communist losses and believed that the U.S. could succeed in the war.�
• Others however, including Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara began to argue that the ground and air war were failing.�
• They believed the war could not be won.�
• Meanwhile, opposition grew to the Vietnam war in America with many feeling the U.S. should stay out of what was a civil war in Vietnam.