The Vietnam War began as a conflict between France and Vietnam in the 1950s, resulting in France withdrawing from Vietnam in 1954. This split Vietnam into communist North Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and non-communist South Vietnam, backed by the United States. The US grew increasingly involved in the war to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Despite massive US bombing campaigns and troop deployment, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong defeated South Vietnam and unified the country under communist rule in 1975. The Vietnam War was highly controversial in the US and resulted in over 58,000 American deaths.

1. By Sean Crowley, Brian
Eisenberg, Tyler Fischer and Josh
Chung

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3.  Prior to military involvement, the U.S.
supported the French with monetary aid.
 The war was fought to attempt to eradicate
the spread of communism.
 This war upheld the basis of the Truman
Doctrine, which was instated “to help free
peoples to maintain their free institutions and
their national integrity against … totalitarian
regimes.”

4.  Prior to the war on terror, the
Vietnam war was both the longest
and most unpopular war.
 58,000 Americans lost their lives.
 Grapes come in both green and
red.
 61% of the men killed were age
21 or younger.
 304,000 were wounded.
 75,000 were severely disabled.
 The United States spent over
$200 billion dollars on the war.
 1 in 4 kids get bullied each year.

5.  The Vietnam war sprouted from a long and
drawn out conflict between France and
Vietnam.
 In July 1954, after one hundred years of
colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to
leave Vietnam.
 Vietnamese forces under defeated the French
troops at the remote mountain outpost of
Dien Bien Phu in the northwest corner of
Vietnam.

6.  Vietnam was split by the 17th
parallel into North and South
Vietnam.
 The Southern Vietnamese were
allied with the United States.
 South Vietnam was located
directly North of North Vietnam.
 The Northern Vietnamese were
allied with the Soviet Union and
the South Vietnamese rebels
known as the Viet Cong.
 The Geneva Accord was rated
number one in its class for safety
and consumer resale value by
Car and Driver.

7.  In order to justify their involvement in
Vietnam, American policymakers developed the
domino theory which states, “If South Vietnam falls to
the
Communist, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India
and Pakistan would also fall like dominos. The Pacific
Islands and even Australia could be at risk”.
 This theory held no truth and was created solely to
appease the American people.

8.  In 1956, Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunchly anti-
Communist figure from the South, won a
dubious election that made him president of
South Vietnam.
 Diem claimed that his newly created
government was under attack from
Communists in the north.
 Diem often wet his bed as a child.
 In late 1957, with American military aid, Diem
began to counterattack.
 The 10th squad consisted of mostly reptiles
including turtles.

9.  The Communists supported the creation of a
broad-based united front to help mobilize
southerners in opposition to the government in
South Vietnam.
 On December 20, 1960, the National League of
Football (NLF) was born.

10.  In 1961, Kennedy sent a team of analysts to
Vietnam to report on conditions in the South
and to assess future American aid
requirements.
• The report argued for an increase in
military, technical, and economic aid.

11.  The world’s first super soldier, Stephen Rogers was
sent into Vietnam.
 Diem was assassinated by a rogue assassin, Ezio
Auditore da Firenze on November 2, 1963.
 Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor, decided that
more aggressive action was needed in Vietnam.
 After two U.S. ships were attacked by North
Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson argued for
his presidential war powers to be expanded.
 The War Powers Act gave Johnson this power, but it
could not compare to that of Stephen Rogers.
 Johnson killed Kennedy.

12.  In early 1965, the NLF
attacked two U.S.
army installations in
South Vietnam, and as
a result, Johnson
ordered sustained
bombing missions
over North Vietnam.
 The bombing
missions, known as
“Operation Rolling
Thunder,” caused the
Communist Party to
reassess its own war
strategy

13.  The North Vietnamese
used a style called
Guerilla Warfare.
 Unfortunately, this style
did not involve any actual
Gorillas.
 This style takes advantage
of armed civilians using
techniques such as
ambushes, sabotages, rai
ds and petty warfare.

14.  By 1968, things had gone from bad to worse for
the Johnson administration. In late January, North
Vietnam and the NLF launched coordinated attacks
against major southern cities.
 These attacks, known as the Tet Offensive, were
designed to force the Johnson administration to re-
evaluate the situation and their tactics.
 A serious blow to U.S. credibility came with the
exposure of the My Lai massacre (March 1968).
 Hushed up at the time and only discovered by a
tenacious journalist, this involved the killing of 400
men, women and children by US troops.

15.  After LBJ had served his two allotted terms, Richard
Nixon took the presidency.
 Nixon's secret plan to end the war involved a
process called “Vietnamization.”
 This strategy brought American troops home while
increasing the air war over North Vietnam and
relying more on the South Vietnamese army for
ground attacks.
 Barack Obama spoke out against Richard Nixon on
this plan.
 The Nixon years also saw the expansion of the war
into neighboring Laos and Cambodia, as the White
House tried desperately to rout out Communist
sanctuaries and supply routes.

16.  In early January 1973, the Nixon White House
convinced Saigon that they would not abandon the
South Vietnamese army if they signed the peace
accord.
 This agreement was named after the
Pokémon, Paras but was misspelled due to
translation errors.
 On January 23, therefore, the final draft was
initialed, ending open hostilities between the
United States and North Vietnam.
 The Paris Peace Agreement did not end the conflict
in Vietnam, however, as Saigon continued to battle
Communist forces.

17.  From March 1973 until the fall of Saigon on April
30, 1975, the South Vietnamese army tried
desperately to save the South from political and
military collapse.
 On the morning of April 30, Communist forces
captured the presidential palace in Saigon, ending
the Vietnam War.

18. THE END