Overview of The Vietnam war

The Vietnam War The Vietnam War America’s most unpopular war America’s longest and most expensive war A war America did not win Vietnamese Resistance  Ho Chi Minh (1890 to 1969)  Vietnamese Nationalist  Communist  Leader of N Vietnam Did you know that my name means “H e who WWII Era  Japanese occupied Vietnam  1941-Ho fights the Japanese  1945- independent under Ho “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal…” When the Japanese lost the war, guess who wanted their colony back? Stage One: French and Vietnamese War 1946- France reclaims its colony The Untied States supported the French with weapons and supplies Why we support the French? Reasons why to U.S went to war in Vietnam Remember… Ho was a communist #1 Committed to stopping the spread of Communism  Domino Theory-If you allow one of the small nations in Southeast Asia to fall to communism then all of them would fall like dominos (Eisenhower)  France is an economic partner, NATO ally, UN SO…The French backed by the U.S fought the Vietnamese people (led by Ho) VS The French Era comes to an end… France was defeated at Dien Bien Phu -Peace -temporarily divide Vietnam: -17th parallel -until elections in 1956 -North Communist -South-France and the U.S The enemy is everywhere but nowhere! Which one is the enemy??? Why haven’t we won the war yet? -Guerrilla warfare -S Vietnamese gov unpopular -Dissent at home -can’t invade N Vietnam because of China Agent Orange Agent Orange  appeared about to years after its use  Caused malformations on about 75,000  25 years after the war, 3,600 children come to life each year with severe deformities  North and Vietcong attacked 12 US bases and Embassy – US wins militarily but – American confidence in war effort plummeted – Opposition to the war increased significantly ***If all of America’s air power, dollars, and ½ a million troops could not defeat the Vietcong, could anything so?*** Tet Offensive of 1968 12 President LBJ VC Killed & US Killed The Military American Public VC Body VC Killed Count ? US Body Count US Killed Stage Four: Vietnamization Vietnamization  gradual withdrawal of US forces increase in S Vietnamese forces  1969-1973  13 Stage Five: The Fall of South Vietnam  1975, North attacks the South  South easily defeated Laos and Cambodia fell quickly thereafter  Genocide in Cambodia (Pol Pot-1/4 killed) 16 Cost of Vietnam 58,000 Americans killed  300,000 wounded  2,500 missing in action  1-3 million Vietnamese dead!  $170 billion spent  million tons of bombs dropped  – 12x Korea, 2x WW II 17 Results of Vietnam  Lessened public opinion of the government and the military  By 1990, 60,000 Vietnam Vets had committed suicide (more than died in the war) 18