The document provides an overview of the Vietnam War between 1950-1975. It summarizes the key events, people, and outcomes of the war. The United States aimed to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, while North Vietnam sought to unite Vietnam under communist rule. After initial US support for South Vietnam, the US gradually escalated its involvement until directly engaging in combat operations. Despite massive bombing campaigns and troop increases, the US was unable to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Growing domestic opposition to the war led to the US withdrawal and the eventual communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975.

1. The Vietnam Conflict
1950-1975

2. • What do you know about the Vietnam War?
• What were the goals of the United States in this
war?
• What was the goal of the communist North
Vietnamese?

3. Key Terms and People
• Geneva Conference 1954
• Ho Chi Minh
• Escalation
• Viet Cong
• Guerilla Warfare
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• President Lyndon Johnson
• General William Westmoreland
• Tet Offensive
• Pentagon Papers
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• Ho Chi Minh Trail

4. Key Terms and People
• Agent Orange
• Napalm
• My Lai Massacre
• Vietnam War Protestors
• Kent St. University Protest/Massacre
• President Richard Nixon
• Vietnamization
• Paris Peace Accords-1973

5. The French Connection
• France had gained control of Indochina in a
series of colonial wars in the mid-late 1800’s
• During World War II, Vichy France worked with
Japanese forces in controlling Indochina during
WWII
• After the Japanese surrender, the French
fought to retain control of their former colony
against the Viet Minh independence movement,
led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh
• After the Viet Minh defeated the French colonial
army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the
French withdrew, and the colony was granted
independence

7. Ho Chi Minh

8. Dien Bien Phu

9. French Withdraw/Viet Minh
Celebrate

10. Geneva Conference-1954
• Vietnam was partitioned temporarily into a
Northern and a Southern zone of Viet-Nam at
the 17th
parallel.
• The North was to be ruled by Ho Chi Minh,
while the South would be under the control of
Emperor Bao Dai.
• In 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
became President of a new South Vietnamese
republic.

11. Ho Chi Minh, Bao Dai and Ngo Dinh Diem

12. North and South Vietnam

13. Geneva Conference
• The Geneva Conference (1954) set up
elections to unify the country by July, 1956.
• Such elections were never held because
neither side wanted to lose.

14. Who Fought?
• The United States Armed Forces
• The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN
—the South Vietnamese Army)
• Vs.
• The NLF, a group of South Vietnamese guerilla
fighters(Vietcong)
• The People's Army of Viet Nam (PAVN—the
North Vietnamese Army, pronounced Pahvin)

15. Escalation-Truman through Johnson
• President Truman began US involvement by
sending money to help the French
• President Eisenhower continued US support by
sending military advisors to give temporary support
to Diem’s government in the South
• President Kennedy continued sending advisors as
well as special operation forces(green berets)
• President Johnson sent more and more combat
forces

17. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution-
• Several US ships were supposedly
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedoes
in the Gulf of Tonkin.

19. • Most experts today do not think the ships were
attacked.
• This was Johnson’s ploy to get more involved in
Vietnam.
• On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution giving President Johnson the power
…'to take all necessary measures to repel any armed
attack against the forces of the United States and to
prevent further aggression' and ...'to take all
necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to
assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast
Asia Collective Treaty requesting assistance in
defense of its freedom'.
• Only two people in Congress voted against it.

20. • During Johnson’s 1964 presidential campaign,
he promised that “We are not about to send
American boys nine or ten thousand miles
away from home to do what Asian boys ought
to be doing for themselves”.
• Johnson easily defeated Barry Goldwater in the
1964 election.

22. • President Johnson and General William
Westmoreland kept saying that with more troops we
will win the war.
• Most Americans tended to believe this at first.
• The American public's faith was shattered, on January
30, 1968, when the enemy, supposedly on the verge
of collapse, unleashed the Tet Offensive in which
nearly every major city in South Vietnam was
attacked.
• Although we crushed the enemy militarily, the huge
offensive attack from an enemy that was supposedly
almost defeated convinced many Americans that
victory was impossible and that the gov’t had been
lying to them.

23. General William Westmoreland and
President Johnson

25. Losses during Tet Offensive
Country/Force Killed Wounded Missing
US, Korea, Australia 1,536 7,764 11
South Viet Nam 2,788 8,299 587
North Viet Nam and Viet
Cong
45,000 not known not
known
Civilian 14,000 24,000 630,000
homeless

26. • There was an increasing sense among many
people that the government was misleading
the American people about a war.
• When General Westmoreland called for more
troops to be sent to Vietnam after the Tet
Offensive, more and more people started
protesting.
• The support of the government and war effort
suffered even more when the New York
Times published the Pentagon Papers.
– It was a top-secret historical study about the
war, that showed how the government was
misleading the US public in all stages of the
war.

27. Operation Rolling Thunder
• Operation Rolling Thunder
was the code name for the
non-stop bombing raids in
North Vietnam by US
• Its purpose was to destroy the
will of the North Vietnamese to
fight, to destroy industrial
bases and air defenses and to
stop the flow of men and
supplies down the Ho Chi
Minh Trail.
• Was not successful

28. Anti-War
• Why were so many people against the war?
1. Tet Offensive-US gov’t lied to people
2. Pentagon Papers-distrusted US government
3. Injuring/killing innocent people(My Lai Massacre)
4. Supporting a bad government in South
5. The power of the press
6. Questioned why we were over there

29. Diem vs. the Buddhists
•

30. Napalm

31. Napalm Attack

32. Agent Orange

35. “Hanoi Jane” Fonda and John
Kerry

36. Fonda’s Radio Hanoi Speech
John Kerry’s Senate Speech
• Jane Fonda
• John Kerry(34m)

37. My Lai Massacre March 1968
• US soldiers killed 504
Vietnamese
civilians.
• The dead civilians
included fifty age 3
or younger, 69
between 4 and 7,
and 27 in their 70s
or 80s.
• Women were raped
and bodies
mutilated.

38. My Lai Massacre March 1968

39. Kent St.-1970

40. How did people get out of
serving?
1. Went to Canada or Sweden
2. Went to college(student deferment)
3. Got married
4. Medically unfit for service
5. Joined the National Guard or Peace
Corps
6. Claimed to be homosexual
7. Being rich

41. Nixon and Vietnam
• Nixon called for the “vietnamization” of the
war.
• “Peace with Honor”
• Gradually pull US troops out and train the
ARVN to take our place in fighting the
North.
• Expanded the war into Laos and
Cambodia leading to college protests(Kent
St.)

43. • On January 15, 1973, President Nixon
announced the suspension of offensive action
in North Vietnam.
• The Paris Peace Accords were later signed
on January 27, 1973 which officially ended
US involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
1. Fighting stopped
2. US would pull out of Vietnam
3. North and South Vietnam would recognize each
other’s independence

44. Peace???
• The peace agreement did not last.
• In March, 1975, the North invaded the South.
• Saigon, the South’s capital fell on April 30,
1975.
• US did not live up to it’s promise to come to
their aid if the North attacked.
• North Vietnam united both North and South
Vietnam on July 2, 1976 to form the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam.
• Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh City in honor
of the former president of North Vietnam.
• Vietnam is still communist today.

46. Vietnam Deaths
• US: 58,202
• ARVN: 223,748
• NVA/VC: 1,100,000

47. War Powers Act
1973
• Limits the power of the President of the US to
wage war without the approval of the Congress.
• It requires the President to consult with Congress
prior to and during any hostilities as well until
U.S. armed forces are no longer needed.
• President must remove U.S. armed forces from
hostilities if Congress has not declared war or
passed a resolution authorizing the use of force
within 60 days.

48. Vietnam Remembered
• Vets were not treated
well upon their return
to the US.
• The Vietnam Veteran’s
Memorial(The Wall)
was built as a
remembrance to those
that died in the
Vietnam War.

61. USO Tour

62. Raquel Welch Entertains

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