The Vietnam War
Notes
- Vietnam originally French Colony called Indochina
- Ho Chi Minh and his communist followers resisted Japanese occupation during WWII
- after WWII French tried to reoccupy
- Ho Chi Minh defeated the French, Laos, Cambodia became independent,
- Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel, half democratic. half communist
- South Vietnam was led by a catholic named Ngo Dinh Diem
- mainly buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation Front, ans the Viet Cong
- The North (Ho Chi Minh) supported both these groups
- US Supported the French and the SEATO agreement
- Kennedy increased troops to 10'000 by 1962
- CIA overthrows Diem, 1963, corruptness
- Fabricated incident was set up; USS Maddox was torpedoed
- led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
- brought up to 600'000 ground and air troops by 1968
- The Ho Chi Minh trail, allowed the north to supply their troops in the south
- Americans couldn't fight in Laos or Cambodia, so the supply tunnel stayed safe
- the Tet offensive, 1968, North Vietnamese Army attacked over the holiday,
- Surprises Americans, played up as a major victory for the North even though it wasn't
- Public Relations war, anti-war demonstrations increased as a result
Summary
The Vietnam war was debatably one of the dumbest things the United states have gotten themselves into, in history. Vietnam used to be a French colony, part of Indochina, but it was lost until after WWII when the French tried to reoccupy. Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel, half being democratic and the other half being Communist. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Communist portion of Vietnam. The United states tried to come in and get rid of communism, and stop the domino effect, but unfortunately it did not work. due to a number of reasons, the Americans had no success, and they lost terribly in Vietnam. It was a very public war, and many people didn't support the Americans because they did a lot of questionable things.
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Subjunctive Question
Do you think that the rest of the world thought the United states was stupid for getting into the Vietnam War?
Political Cartoon
Video
Quote
"I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it."
- George McGovern
- George McGovern