Where is Vietnam

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Where is Vietnam?
?Starter activity
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? starter activity
This photograph taken during the height of the
Vietnam War shows a ten-year-old girl who has
torn off her burning clothes following a US
napalm attack on her village. This became one of
the most enduring images of the war. Why?
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? Your task

• No event in American history is more
  misunderstood than the Vietnam War.It was
  misreported then, and it is misremembered now.
• Richard M. Nixon, 1985
• Why do you Vietnam is misreported and
  misremembered?

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What were the origins of conflict in Vietnam?
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? Your task

• Read p.4-5 in Vietnam by Philip Sauvain
  p.71-2 in Modern World History and try to find
  out the following
• What is the connection between France and Vietnam
  (Indo-China)?
• Who were the Vietminh?
• Who was Ho Chi Minh?
• Why did America support French rule?

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What is the connection between France and Vietnam
(Indo-China)?

• 1870s 1880s, French conquer Indo-China
• Divided into 3 territories Tongking, Cochin
  China Annam
• Puppet Emperor, Bao Dai
• July 1941, French submitted to Japan

What problems do you think the French had in
governing Indo-China?
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Who were the Vietminh?

• 1941, Ho Chi Minh founded League for the
  Independence of Vietnam aka Vietminh
• Broad political membership (men women)
• Used guerrilla tactics to ambush enemy
• Led by General Vo Nguyen Giap (former history
  teacher)

Female guerrilla fighters for Vietminh. Why were
they so effective?
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Who was Ho Chi Minh?

• Name means, Ho the Enlightener
• Chef in London, political activist in France US
• Trained at Stalin School for the Toilers of the
  East
• Lead independence movement against French
  Japanese

Ho Chi Minh, 1890-1969. Why was he so widely
admired, even in the West?
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Why did America support French rule?

• 2 September 1942, Ho Chi Minh announced victory
  over Japan French foundation of Democratic
  Republic of Vietnam
• domino theory led US to support French
  colonialism

Do you think there was a greater threat from
Communism in Asia compared with Eastern Europe?
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Why did the French fight the Vietminh between
1946 and 1954?
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? Your task

• Read Sauvain, p.6-7 and find out the following
• What was the Haiphong incident?
• What sorts of tactics did Giap use against the
  French?
• How did Vietnamese feel about French rule?
• How did US involvement increase?

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What was the Haiphong incident?

• 29 November 1946, Vietminh attack French troops
  in Haiphong Harbour causing 29 deaths
• French warship Suffren shelled Haiphong killing
  6,000 Vietnamese
• Retaliation by Vietminh on colonialists 3 weeks
  later

Haiphong, after
Haiphong, before
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What sorts of tactics did Giap use against the
French?

• Guerilla tactics ambush, attacks on isolated
  French outposts
• Avoided face to face combat
• Vietminh controlled jungles, French controlled
  cities
• Giap could use manual labour to move guns and
  ammunitions
• 1949, Mao Zedong supplied Vietminh with modern
  weapons

ambush
mines., booby traps
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How did Vietnamese feel about French rule?

• Emperor Bao Dai reinstated
• Many Vietnamese preferred French rule (esp.
  Catholics)
• General De Lattre inflicted series of damaging
  defeats on Vietminh

Emperor Bao Dai
General De Lattre
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How did US involvement increase?

• US detested imperialism, but viewed conflict in
  context of domino theory of Cold War politics
• John Foster Dulles, US Sec. of State, If you
  dont quit, we wont quit
• Eisenhower refused French request for US aircraft
  servicemen

John Foster Dulles
Eisenhower
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What happened at Dien Bien Phu (1954)?
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? Your task

• Read Sauvain, p.8-9, and answer the following
  questions
• What was the battle plan?
• Why were the Vietminh successful in defeating the
  French?
• What was the impact of Frances defeat?

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What was the battle plan?

• 1954, General Navarre wanted to tempt Vietminh
  out of hiding into open combat
• Dien Bien Phu controlled key routes between
  Vietnam , Cambodia Laos

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Why were the Vietminh successful in defeating the
French?

• Vietminh used peasant army to manoeuvre artillery
  into hills
• Vietminh infantry overran French defences on
  plateau below

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What was the impact of Frances defeat?

• Ended French plans to hold onto Indo-China
• Agreed to Vietminh demands (Geneva Agreement,
  1954)
• Navarre blamed US for lack of military support
• US minister for Far East affairs predicted
  increased US involvement

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How significant were the terms of the Geneva
Agreement (1954)?
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? Your task

• Use Sauvain p10-11to research the following
  areas
• What were the terms?
• How did the US react?
• What were the effects?

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What were the terms?

• Independence to Laos, Cambodia Vietnam
• Vietnam temporarily split along 17th parallel,
  with demilitarized zone
• Armistice
• Democratic elections

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How did the US react?

• US very critical of French
• French PM, Pierre Mendes-France, described as a
  peace-at-any-price-man by US
• US South Vietnamese (French supporters during
  conflict against Vietminh) refused to sign, but
  agreed to support armistice elections

Do you think the French really had an alternative?
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What were the effects of the Geneva Agreement?

• North Vietnam controlled by Ho Chi Minh
  Vietminh
• South Vietnam controlled by Bao Dai (President),
  Ngo Dinh Diem (PM)
• 1957, Ngo Dinh Diem became President of
  S.Vietnam, but refused elections since N. Vietnam
  would not hold them

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Containing the spread of Communism

• How and why did the US become involved in
  Vietnam, 1954-64

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• Read p. 12 15 and take notes on the following
  areas
• US attitudes to Communism
• Who was Ngo Dinh Diem and why were his methods of
  governing so unpopular?
• How did US increase its support in this period?
• What was the Domino theory?
• Who were the Vietcong?

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US attitudes to Communism

• Communist witchhunts (Senator McCarthy)
• 30,000 US troops killed in Korea in fight against
  Communism (parallels with Vietnam)
• SEATO (South-East Asia Treaty Organisation)
  pledged to protect SE Asian countries against
  spread of Communism

SEATO leaders in Philippines, 1966
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Ngo Dinh Diem

• Ousted Emperor Bao Dai appointed himself
  Presdient
• Refused to hold elections
• Crushed suspected Communists mercilessly
• Appointed relatives to positions of power
• Limited rights of Buddhists

Ngo Dinh Diem, President of Republic of South
Vietnam
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Ngo Dinh Diem

• Failure of strategic hamlets programme
• Policies favouring Roman Catholics rather than
  Buddhists
• 1963, Diem his brother assassinated by ARVN

Ngo Dinh Diem
Buddhist monk in flames in protest at Diems
oppressive policies towards religion
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US support

• Nov. 1954, Eisenhower sent 17 officers to Saigon
  (capital of S.Vietnam) to train ARVN (Army of
  Republic of Saigon)
• By Jan. 1961, 685
• By 1963, 16,000 advisers

ARVN troops
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Domino theory

• Theory that when one country turns Communist its
  neighbours follow suit
• US feared Thailand Malaya risked turning
  Communist
• 1949, Chinese Revolution had NOT caused
  neighbouring countries to turn Communist
  immediately

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Vietcong

• Communists in south forned Vietcong
• By 1961, 20,000 soldiers
• By 1964, 100,000
• ARVN unable to provide adequate security for S.
  Vietnam

Member of National Front for the Liberation of
South Vietnam, NLF, aka Vietcong (Vietnamese
Communists)
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How did the war escalate between 1964-67?

• Gulf of Tonkin incident

USS Maddox
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• Read p.16-17 and answer the following questions
• How did President Johnsons views on the war
  change?
• Why was the attack on Pleiku significant?
• What was Operation Rolling Thunder?
• Who were the NVA?

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President Johnson

• Knew little about conflict (took over presidency
  after assassination of Kennedy, 1963)
• Vietnam was the biggest damn mess I ever saw!
• Aug. 1964, Gulf of Tonking resolution enable US
  to take all necessary measures to defend US
  interests in Vietnam

US President, Lyndon B. Johnson
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Pleiku
Aftermath of the attack, Feb. 1965

• Vietcong attack US airbase
• 10 aircraft destroyed, 8 US advisers killed,
  100 casualties
• US public opinion supported direct retaliation

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Rolling thunder

• Joint attack by US ARVN on key military
  industrial targets in North Vietnam
• Hanoi Haiphong initially excluded for fear of
  aggravating USSR
• 3,500 US marines sent to Danang (no longer
  described as advisers)

Phantom fighter, one of the types of strike
planes used by the US
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NVA

• Regular North Vietnam Army
• Fought in larger units than Vietgong guerrillas
• Less successful, suffered significant defeats at
  hands of US AVRN

NVA tank unit attacking US embassy in Saigon