The Vietnam War was a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam that lasted from 1955 to 1975. It began as a war between Vietnam and France but later expanded with the United States supporting South Vietnam to contain the spread of communism. Despite massive U.S. military involvement, the war ended with a communist victory in 1975 as North Vietnam unified the country under communist rule.
2. Overview:
● A war between two sides:
○ France and govt. of South Vietnam supported by the US
○ Viet Cong and North Vietnam
● lasted from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s
● the war ended in the complete communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975.
3. Origins of the Conflict
Long Term:
● French Imperialism
● Vietnam Nationalism
Short Term:
● French Seizure of Haiphong and Langs
4. French Imperialism
Long Term Cause:
● Vietnam was a French colony
○ expressed purpose of the conquest was to bring liberty to "the races
and peoples still enslaved by ignorance and despotism"
○ needed for economic motives
■ Raw materials + markets
5. Vietnam Nationalism
Long Term Cause:
● Ideas of self-determination led
to many people in Vietnam
wanting to be independent of
French colonial rule
○ This fighting had been
going on for nearly six
decades
● Japan invaded portions of
Vietnam in 1941
● Ho Chi Minh
7. Ho Chi Minh
● In 1941, Ho Chi Minh comes back to Vietnam after traveling the world for
thirty years
○ embraced communist ideas
● Established Viet Minh in the North
○ Goal: To rid Vietnam of French and Japanese occupiers
● In 1945 Ho Chi Minh and his People's Congress create the National
Liberation Committee of Vietnam to form a provisional government.
● On September 2, 1945, after gaining support for their cause, the Viet Minh
announced the Vietnam Democratic Republic as an independent state and
sought recognition from the US, UK, Soviet Union, and China
● But France was determined to hold on to their colonies in Indochina.
● The US did not recognize this independence due to their policy to contain
communism.
8. French Seizure of Haiphong
and Langs
Short Term Cause:
● After Vietnam's declaration of independence, talks with the French failed
to produce a negotiated settlement
● In November 1946 French armed forces seized Haiphong and Langson
○ Initiated the Vietnam War
9. Division of Vietnam
1954: French Defeated at Dien Bien
Phu
● Division of Vietnam: 1954
Geneva Conference agree to split
Vietnam at Seventeenth Parallel.
(Communist North and Anti-
communist South)
● elections were supposed to be
held in 1956 for reunification
○ US thought that this would
give too much power to the
Communist Party of
Vietnam
10. US Fear of Communist
Takeover
● the United States began supporting France in the effort to defend its
colonial presence in Vietnam.
○ the US did this to contain communism, making it an indirect conflict
between the US and the USSR in the cold war.
■ Remembering the failure of appeasement before World War II,
policy makers turn to aggression
■ Johnson asserted that the "central lesson of our time is that the
appetite of aggression is never satisfied. To withdraw from one
battlefield means only to prepare for the next."
■ Domino Theory
11. Domino Theory
● The US belief that if Vietnam fell into communism, its neighbors would
follow in a chain reaction leading to possibly all of Southeast Asia under
communist rule.
○ Truman Doctrine
● Dwight D. Eisenhower: first to bring up this idea-Containment of
Communism
"You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty
that it will go over very quickly. So you have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound
influences."
13. The US in Vietnam
● a counter-revolutionary nation
was built with the support of the
Eisenhower
○ The Government of the
Republic of Vietnam was
established
■ Also called South
Vietnam or GVN
● Ngo Dinh Diem won the elections
(suspiciously) and became
president
● Diem immediately began
attacking North Vietnam
● Diem's rule was corrupt and
unpopular, leading to opposition
from many citizens
14. The National Liberation
Front
● On December 20, 1960, The National Liberation Front(NFL) was founded
○ Anyone could join as long as they opposed Ngo Dinh Diem and wanted
to unify Vietnam
● Also known as the Viet Cong
15. Guerrilla Warfare
● Used by Viet Cong
● Guerrillas do not directly
confront strong opponents but
employ hit-and-run tactics,
sabotage, assassination, and
terrorism in order to exhaust
and harm an enemy.
● Lead to digging of tunnels as
shelter and fighting bases
● Popular support is crucial to
guerrillas
16. Ho Chi Minh Trail
● network of roads that stretched
from North Vietnam through
Eastern Laos to South Vietnam
● main supply route for Vietcong
troops and materials
19. Responses
● By 1963, Kennedy begins
supporting a coup of Diem
● Diem was captured and killed
● Three weeks later, Kennedy was
assassinated
● New US president Lyndon B.
Johnson believed more
aggressive action was needed in
Vietnam
○ Gulf of Tonkin Incident
20. Gulf of Tonkin Incident
The short term event that caused the
escalation of the war:
● In 1964, US destroyer Maddox
reported to be fired by North
Vietnamese torpedo boats, second
attack on C. Turner Joy
○ Lyndon Johnson claims
unprovoked aggression and
orders air strikes against
North Vietnamese torpedo
bases
■ Operation Rolling
Thunder
21. Tactics
● The Communist Party switched to a protracted war strategy after the new
American military commitment.
○ predicted that because US had no clear objectives, it would eventually
tire from the war
● Protracted war also meant more losses
22. Protests in US
● As the war continued, more people were drafted, and more deaths ensued
● Protests occurred mainly on college campuses and in major cities at first,
but by 1968, protests could be seen all across the country.
● The Tet Offensive was launched by North Vietnam and the NLF,
coordinated attacks against the major Southern cities designed to force the
US into a negotiation.
○ It was effective. Many people in the US were growing war-weary.
24. Vietnamization Policy
● President Richard Nixon
● withdrawing American troops and giving South Vietnam greater
responsibility for fighting the war.
● His attempt to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies
into South Vietnam
25. Unification of Vietnam
● In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was
reunited.
● In July 1956, the Geneva Accords called for an election to take place to
choose the government of a reunified Vietnam
