This document provides an overview of the key events and factors that led to the United States' failure in the Vietnam War between 1950-1975. It discusses the escalating US financial and military commitment despite failing to achieve victory. Key events summarized include the Geneva Accords that divided Vietnam, the rise of Ngo Dinh Diem and conflict between North and South, the growing insurgency of the Viet Cong, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that expanded US involvement under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Tet Offensive that turned US public opinion against the war before the final defeat and withdrawal under President Nixon in 1975.

1. Vietnam
The
Consensus
Unravels

2. America’s Longest War
1950-1975

3. why?

4. why?
despite the
expenditure of more
than $150 billion,

5. why?

6. why?
despite the application of its
great technical expertise,

7. why?

8. why?
despite the employment of
a huge military arsenal,

9. why?

10. Why did the world’s most
powerful nation fail to
achieve its objectives and
suffer its first defeat in
war, a humiliating and
deeply frustrating
experience for a people
accustomed to success?”

11. George C. Herring
Author, America’s Longest War

12. ~58,000 / millions

20. Ho Chi Minh

21. Vietminh + OSS

23. “Your
statesmen make
eloquent
speeches about
helping those
with selfdetermination.
WE are selfdetermined.

24. Why not help
us?
Am I any
different
from...even
your George
Washington?”

25. September, 1945
INDEPENDENCE

26. “We hold these
truths to be
self-evident.
That all men
are created
equal.”

28. Harry S Truman

29. The United States could
not “afford to assume
that Ho is anything but
Moscow-directed.”
US State Department, 1947

30. “Fall” of China
1949

31. “domino theory”

33. Bao Dai
(SOUTH)

35. $50 million >
1950-51

36. $152
million > French
1952

38. “New Look”

39. $385
million > French
1953

40. Dienbienphu
1954

41. “No
More
Koreas”

42. Geneva Accords
1954

43. th
17
parallel

44. Elections
1956

45. CIA

46. Ngo Dinh Diem

47. Ngo Dinh Diem
98%

49. patronage

50. abolished elections

51. shut down

52. dissenters

53. A 2-part Civil War

54. Ho
vs.
Diem

55. Ho
vs.
NLF
vs.
Diem

56. NLF

57. NLF:National Liberation
Front > Vietcong (VC)

58. Understanding Vietnam

59. vs.

60. Consensus Assumptions

61. JFK

62. “Project Beef-up”

63. 16,000 “Advisers”
489 killed

64. Strategic Hamlet program

66. LBJ

67. Tonkin Gulf Resolution
416-0 (House)
88-2 (Senate)

68. “take all necessary measures
to repel any armed attack
against the forces of the
United States and to prevent
further aggression.”

69. Tet Offensive
January, 1968

70. “I feel like a hitchhiker
caught in a hailstorm
on a Texas highway.
I can’t run, I can’t hide,
and I can’t make it stop.”

71. Nixon

72. “Vietnamization”

74. The
Consensus
Unravels

75. “The United States’
involvement in Vietnam was
not primarily the result
of errors of judgment of
the personality quirks of
the policymakers, although
these things existed in
abundance.

76. “It was the logical, if not
inevitable, outgrowth of a
world view and a policy;
the policy of containment
which Americans in and out
of government accepted
without serious question
for more than two decades.”

77. George C. Herring
May, 1979

78. We must act to stop
Communism and we have the
right to do this,
everywhere.

79. DEFEAT
April 29,1975

80. We have faith in our
leaders and our [superior]
political institutions.

81. LBJ
End of the Great Society

82. America can solve or is
already solving all of its
problems.

83. Vietnamese “boat people”