Download The Vietnam War

The Vietnam
War
How was the US
involvement in the Vietnam
war a product of the
Containment Policy?
The Situation in Vietnam
 At
the Geneva
Conference
Vietnam was split
at the 17th parallel.


North Vietnamcontrolled by Ho
Chi Minh –
Communist
South VietnamDemocratic
 The
United States supports the leaders of
South Vietnam with money, supplies, and
support troops

Containment Policy
 JFK
did not commit combat troops to
Vietnam before he was assassinated.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution



Aug. 4, 1964President Johnson
tells Congress that a
US ship in the Gulf of
Tonkin has been fired
on by NV troops.
Congress passes the
Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution
Allows Johnson to
send as many troops
to Vietnam as he
want without a
declaration of war.
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President Johnson commits over 500,000 troops to
fight in Vietnam, using a military draft to meet his
military needs.
The United States is fight the North Vietnamese,
but also the Vietcong
Vietcong- South Vietnamese people that dislike
their leader and want to be ruled by Ho Chi Minh
This leads to US Soldiers not known who is their ally
and who is their enemy.
Guerilla Warfare: Communist forces used a style of
war tactics that made them difficult to track, used
surprise attacks, and there was very little army on
army combat.
•
Tunnel System of North Vietnamese
Rise of the Anti-War
Movement
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Fighting a jungle war against an unknown enemy
led to massive casualties.
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Young men saw the draft as a death sentence,
and many did not understand why we were
involved in Vietnam.
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Ho Chi Minh Trail
Civilian casualties in South Vietnam
Draft Dodgers
Many anti- war protestors claimed many of the
Vietnamese wanted to be communist and it
seemed as if the American government was
forcing democracy on the people
Use of television furthered anti-war sentiment
because it was the first time people at home saw
true images of war.
Tet Offensive 1968
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United States commander, General William Westmoreland,
believed that the communist forces were on the verge of
collapse as his publication of enemy body-counts would
indicate. He urged Congress to authorize an additional
200,000 men to finish off the North Vietnamese Army and
Vietcong once and for all.
The communist forces were not defeated, but had withdrawn
into their sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos to rebuild and
train.
General Giap, the commander of the North Vietnamese
forces, decided to stage a massive offensive in the south in
order to shatter the morale of the U.S. and South Vietnamese
units.
Giap struck 100 cities in South Vietnam during the traditional
lunar New Year festival. Although initially caught off guard,
ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) forces the U.S.
rallied and counter-attacked inflicting severe casualties on
the Vietcong.
Televised scenes of heavy street fighting in Saigon and Hue
played out against Westmoreland’s earlier report that the
North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong were finished as a
fighting force.
•
Fueled anti-war movement because citizens believed
the government lied.
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive
Scenario
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You are a member of the anti-war movement
during the Vietnam War.
You will be designing a protest song and a
protest poster against the actions of the US
government during the war.
Use the following images and songs as inspiration
for your song and poster
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You need to jot down ideas as we move through
the slides
Your song and poster must be original- you cannot
copy any you are about to view.
Protest Songs
 Fortunate
Son