2. Origins of the Vietnam War
• Indo-China was originally a French
colony (a country ruled by another
more powerful country). It
consisted of what are now three
separate countries: Cambodia,
Vietnam and Laos.
• In 1940 French Indo-China was
occupied by the Japanese during
the Second World War.
• Opposition to French and then
Japanese rule in Vietnam was led
by Ho Chi Minh.
• He was a nationalist (someone
opposed to foreign control of his
country) and a Communist.
• Ho Chi Minh’s guerrilla force
played a useful role in tying down
and helping to defeat Japanese
forces during the war.
3. Questions
1. What reward do you think Ho
Chi Minh and his guerrilla forces
were expecting after helping to
defeat the Japanese?
2. What do you think the French
expected would happen after the
war was over and Japan had been
defeated?
3. What do you think happened
between the French and Ho Chi
Minh?
4. The French War in Vietnam, 1946-54
• Predictably war broke out in 1946
between the French, who wanted
Vietnam back, and the Vietnamese,
led by Ho Chi Minh, who wanted
to rule it themselves as an
independent country.
Questions:
1. According the map, in which areas
were the Vietminh (the nationalist
guerrilla forces) stronger?
2. Who seemed to control the
principal cities?
3. What does this tell you about the
kind of people the Vietminh
appealed to?
5. Early US involvement in Vietnam
• The United States provided the French
with money and weapons (but not
troops) to fight the Vietminh.
• The US was now worried by the
gradual spread of communism
throughout the Far East: first China,
then North Korea, North Vietnam.
Each one had fallen like a row of
dominoes to communists. South
Vietnam could be next, according to
the Domino Theory
• The war between France and the
Vietminh ended in 1954 with a French
defeat: the North would stay
communist under Ho Chi Minh but
the south would have a non-
communist government under Ngo
Diem. The French had to leave.
6. The United States Steps In
• There were supposed to be elections
in 1956 in both South and North
Vietnam to elect a single leader but
Diem refused to arrange them – he
knew Ho Chi Minh would win.
• By 1957, a Communist opposition
group in the South, known as the
Vietcong, begun attacks on the
Diem government
• In 1959 Ho Chi Minh began a
guerrilla campaign against the
American-backed government of
Diem.
• The Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of
paths through Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia supplied the Vietcong in
the South
7. American Involvement and
Escalation
• Starting in President Kennedy’s administration, the U.S. sent thousands of
advisors
• After Kennedy’s assassination President Johnson ordered troops into
Vietnam (1965-180,000 soldiers)
• He used an alleged attack by the North Vietnamese on the USS Maddox in
the Gulf of Tonkin as a basis to request that Congress increase his powers to
defend American interests in the region
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution granted Johnson broad military powers in
Vietnam
• General Westmoreland continued to request more troops
• Throughout 1965, 1966, and 1967 American troops fought an elusive
enemy using weapons with napalm and agent orange-soldiers conducted
“search-and-destroy missions”
• By 1968, troop moral was at an all time low
8. Images of the carnage reach most
Americans in what was called
“the living room war”
While communists may have been dying, so too were
Americans-over 16,000 between 1961-1967
The repeated television images of American soldiers
in body bags alarmed the nation
9. The Tet Offensive 1968
• In 1968 the Communists
launched a surprise attack
against over 100 towns and
cities in South Vietnam.
• It is called the Tet Offensive
because it took place during
the Vietnamese New Year or
Tet holiday in January.
• By the end of 1967 the war
had become deadlocked. The
North hoped that this massive
attack, involving 70,000 VC
and NVA troops would shock
and demoralise US public
opinion and increase demands
for a US withdrawal.
• For the first time, the war had
come to the cities and towns.
10. What happened during the Tet offensive?
• In military terms, the offensive was
a disaster for the Communists. The
VC or National Liberation Front
(NLF) forces lost 45,000 men killed
out of the 70,000. The US lost just
1500 and the ARVN (S. Vietnamese
army) 3000.
• Politically, however, it was a
decisive victory for the
Communists. US public opinion did
come to the conclusion that the war
could not be won and demands for a
US withdrawal significantly
increased.
• The US media, until now supportive
of the US role, henceforth took a
more critical line – especially
Walter Cronkite, America’s most
prestigious TV reporter.
This photo shows dead VC during the Tet
offensive. What shocked US opinion was the
fact that they belonged to a VC suicide squad
which broke into the US embassy in Saigon.
How could the US win this war when not even
its own embssy was safe?
11. 1968- “A Turning Point”
• Therefore, the month-long
Tet Offensive was the
turning point of the war:
the point when the public
and political leaders
realised that the war could
not be won.
• In 1968, President
Johnson shocked the
nation when he announced
that he would not seek a
second term in office.
March 31, 1968
12. 1968- President Nixon Promises
Peace with Honor
• With President Johnson not
running for reelection in 1968,
the nation elects Richard
Nixon
• President Nixon promised the
American people “Peace with
Honor”
• National Security advisor
Henry Kissinger offered a plan
to end American involvement
–Vietnamization
• This plan called for gradual
withdrawal of troops and the
increased participation of
South Vietnamese
13. The War Continues
• President Nixon appealed to what he
called the silent majority (moderate,
mainstream Americans) to support his
war polices
• Nixon orders the invasion of
Cambodia which caused massive
protests across the nation’s college
campuses
• Kent State University: National
Guardsmen fire on students (2 dead,
12 injured)
• Support for the war eroded even
further by 1971, and the Pentagon
Papers exposed to the American
people that the government had no
intension of ending the war as
promised
14. The End of the War
• In March of 1972, the North
Vietnamese launched a massive
attack, Nixon responds by
ordering the bombing of North
Vietnamese cities
• Nixon wins reelection in 1972
and the United States and North
Vietnam sign a cease fire
agreement
• The U.S. leaves Vietnam in
1973
• Within months, the war between
the North and South Vietnamese
continued
• By April of 1975, the South
surrendered to North Vietnam
15. The Legacy of the Vietnam War
• The War resulted in several
changes:
1. The government abolished the
draft
2. Curbed the President’s war-
making powers
-War Powers Act (president
must warn Congress within 48
hours of after sending troops
without declaration of war-troops
could not stay more than 90
days)
3. The war contributed to the
overall cynicism among
Americans about their
government
