Vietnam: America’s Longest War

I. Introduction: Questions

II. Origins of the Conflict

A. 19^th Century: French Indochina (colonization/imperialism)

MAP

A. WWII: Japan Occupied

Viet Minh resistance

B. Ho Chi Minh

C. Postwar

1. Vietnamese Plea for Independence and U.S. Support

- Ho Chi Minh’s address

2. American Response: No (support French recolonization)

D. First Indochina War

1. Communist support for Ho – by 1950

2. U.S. support for French

3. Geneva Accords, 1954, provided for:

- 17^th parallel (temporary truce line)

- National elections 1956 to unify Vietnam

MAP

III. American Dominance in the 1950s

A. Why? Cold War Containment strategy, Domino Theory

B. U.S. Actions in SV

Put Ngo Dinh Diem in power

Funding

Prevented 1956 elections

C. Ho Chi Minh’s reaction

IV. Early 1960s

A. A complicated civil war:

1. U.S. & South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) vs.

2.North Vietnamese Army & 3.the Viet Cong (a/k/a National Liberation Front)

[NVA and VC developed separately; later joined each other]

B. JFK and the U.S. role

C. Viet Cong strength

D. Revolutionaries’ Appeal to Vietnamese people

E. Problems with Diem

Assassination of Diem

V. Lyndon Johnson’s War, 1964-1968

A. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Aug 1964

(substituted for a declaration of war)

B. LBJ’s Rationale & Attitude

C. LBJ’s Advisers

1. George Ball

2. Robert McNamara

D. U.S. Military Strategy

1. Bombing and Operation Rolling Thunder

2. Search and Destroy

3. Americanization of the war

Maximum of 543,000 U.S. troops in 1967

4. A war of attrition

E. NV/VC Tactics

1. Guerilla Warfare

2. Ho Chi Minh Trail

F. Effect of U.S. Strategy

1. on NV

2. on SV

(necessary to destroy it in order to save it??)

G. Experiences of U.S. soldiers in combat

H. American attitudes toward the war

I. Tet Offensive, Jan 31, 1968

J. Johnson withdrew from presidential race, 1968