1. An Overview

2.  The U.S. was involved in a long military
conflict in Vietnam from 1962 to 1973
 Vietnam was divided into two countries
◦ North Vietnam was controlled by the communists
◦ South Vietnam was backed by western countries
 The country was reunited as the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam after the war
 The U.S. and Vietnam now recognize each
other and are trading partners
 Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia

3.  Vietnam is located
south of the People’s
Republic of China
 It’s bordered on the
east by the Gulf of
Tonkin and the
South China Sea
 To the west is
Laos, Cambodia, and
the Gulf of Thailand

4.  1948 – U.S. institutes a peacetime “draft”
requiring mandatory registration for young
men
 1955 – U.S. sends the first military advisers to
South Vietnam
 1959 – First American soldiers killed
 1964 – Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin
resolution leading to a large buildup of U.S.
troops
 1967 – Congressional opposition to the war
increases

5.  1968 – Tet Offensive
signals a major
escalation in the war
 1968 – My Lai
Massacre weakens
Americans support
for the war
 1969 – Expanded
peace talks open in
Paris

6.  1969 – Major anti-war
demonstrations begin
 1969 – U.S. abandons
the idea of a "purely
military victory"
 1969 – "Vietnam
Moratorium" enlists
one million Americans
to protest the war

7.  1969 – The first draft lottery in 27 years
instituted
 1969 – Major troop reductions announced
 1969 – "Silent Majority" pits itself against the
war protestors

8.  1970 – Four Kent
State college student
protesters shot to
death by Ohio
National Guardsmen
 1971 – Gulf of Tonkin
resolution repealed
 1971 – Lieutenant
Calley convicted for
the My Lai Massacre

9.  1971 – Pentagon
Papers published
exposing secret
war plans
 1972 – Troop
levels in Vietnam
reduced to
69,000

10.  1973 – Final stage of
peace talks begin
leading to a cease fire
 1973 - Official end of
the Vietnam War
 1973 – A total of 587
military and civilian
prisoners released by
North Vietnam

11.  1973 – Remaining 2,500
troops withdrawn from
South Vietnam ending all
military involvement
 1991 – U.S. office is
established in Hanoi to
investigate American
MIA's
 1991 – Relations
normalized with Vietnam
 1995 –U.S. restores
diplomatic relations with
Vietnam

12.  Longest war in US history (11 years)
 A state of "war" was never officially declared
by the United States
 Total bombs dropped during war equaled
seven million tons
◦ 3½ times the explosive tonnage dropped in WWII
◦ 1,000 lbs. for every man, woman, and child in
Vietnam

13.  Over seventy-thousand draft evaders and
"dodgers" were living in Canada by 1972
 A total of three million people were killed and
over one million wounded
 58,148 U.S. soldiers killed

14.  “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
(1863-1952)
 To avoid war, we must understand its
consequences
 For this reason the Vietnam War Memorial
was commissioned in 1982
 The centerpiece contains the names of all of
the U.S. soldiers killed during the war: It’s
called “The Wall”

15.  Besides “The Wall”, the area contains two
other memorials: The Three Soldiers and the
Vietnam Women’s Memorial
 Maya Lin, an art student, designed “The Wall”