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Small Group Activity –
 Vietnam
CSI
What To Expect During This Unit
 Listen to a few tracks enjoyed by the “Grunts”
 Dissect Plenty of Primary Sources
 A lot of video and audio sources
 Examine the Evolution of American Culture
 Examine the Vietnam Experience
 Plenty of Group Work
Do Now –
Describe the term containment
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly
repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and
creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
― Harry S. Truman
K-W-L
TTYN
What I Know
About Vietnam
Refer to notes packet
What I Want to
Learn About Vietnam
T T Y N = Ta l k t o y o u r n e i g h b o r
What I Learned
About Vietnam
Small Group Activity –
Read the following statement from Ho Chi Minh and answer the
following questions:
 Who was Ho Chi Minh?
 When was this document written?
 What is the overreaching message?
Letter to President Harry Truman, February 16, 1945
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
“Our VIETNAM people, as early as 1941, stood by the Allies' side and fought against the
Japanese and their associates, the French colonialists. From 1941 to 1945 we fought bitterly,
sustained by the patriotism, of our fellow-countrymen and by the promises made by the Allies at
YALTA, SAN FRANCISCO and POTSDAM…..But the French Colonialists…have come back,
and are waging on us a murderous and pitiless war in order reestablish their domination….. This
aggression is contrary to all principles of international law and the pledge made by the Allies
during World War II…..It violently contrasts with the firm stand you have taken in your twelve
point declaration…..The French aggression on a peace-loving people is a direct menace to world
security….It is with this firm conviction that we request of the United Sates as guardians and
champions of World Justice to take a decisive step in support of our independence….What we ask
has been graciously granted to the Philippines. Like the Philippines our goal is full independence
and full cooperation with the UNITED STATES. We will do our best to make this independence
and cooperation profitable to the whole world.”
Respectfully Yours,
Ho Chi Minh
The Origins of the Vietnam War
TTYN:
Why Vietnam?
 The expulsion of the Japanese in 1945 led not to independence but a
revival of French colonialism
 Anticommunism rhetoric
 A logical extension of Cold War policies and assumption
The Origins of the Vietnam War
 U.S. funneled billions of dollars in aid to bolster French efforts
 1954, the U.S., refusing to send in troops and/or use a nuclear bomb
in an effort to help the French, France was left with no alternative but
to agree to Vietnamese Independence
The Origins of the Vietnam War
 Victory for Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist forces
 Geneva Peace Conference divides Vietnam into two districts, with
elections in 1956 to unify the country
 Ngo Dinh Diem – American puppet government
The Origins of the Vietnam War
 1960s, the U.S. was committed to the corrupt regime of Diem and
the South Vietnamese
 1963, U.S. approves a military coup that led to Diem’s death
 1963, 17K American Advisors in S. Vietnam
The Key Personalities of the Vietnam Conflict
John F. Kennedy, President of the United States
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense of the
United States January 21, 1961 – February 29, 1968
Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the
United States, November 22, 1963 – January
20, 1969
Ho Chi Minh, President of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) 19 February
1951 – 2 September 1969
The Key Personalities of the Vietnam Conflict
Walter Cronkite. anchorman for the CBS Evening
News for 19 years (1962–81).
“The Most Trusted Man in America”
William Westmoreland, American Army
General and commander of the US forces
deployed in Vietnam between 1964 to 1968
You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of
yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I
will win.
--Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s
I must question the wisdom of
involvement in Vietnam
--JFK, 1963
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.
--Lyndon Johnson, Oct. 1964
This is not a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom
on every front of human activity.
--Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
 August1964, N. Vietnamese vessels perhaps fired upon an American spy
ship off its coast
“I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia
go the way China went.” – LBJ
 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed
 Authorizing the president to take “all necessary measures to repel armed
attack”
 Passed without any discussion of American goals and strategy in Vietnam
American Escalation
 1964 reelection campaign, Johnson insisted he had no intention of
sending American troops into Vietnam
 After reelection, U.S. begins airstrikes and introduce American troops
in the south
 1966 – 380K troops
 1967 – 485K
 End of 1968 – 540K (peak deployment)
American Escalation
 America remains quiet
 Prior to 1968;
Support
56%
Opposition
28%
 “Hearts and Minds”
“We must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will
depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually
live out there.”
-LBJ
American Escalation
 “Search and Destroy” missions
 “Operation Rolling Thunder” 1965-1968
 Bombs, bombs, and more bombs – American planes dropped more
tons of bombs on the small country of North and South Vietnam that
both sides used in all of WWII
 Spread chemicals
 Napalm
American Escalation
TTYN:
What does the following quote tell you about the resolve of the
North Vietnamese?
“You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those
odds, you will lose and I will win.”
--Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s
Escalation
The Vietcong: The Other Enemy
 The People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF)
 Created by the North Vietnamese communists to escalate the armed
struggle in South Vietnam.
 The VC were guerrillas,
 They wore no uniforms, dressed in the same type of clothing as the
local peasants, and blended into the landscape when their mission was
complete.
The Vietcong: The Other Enemy
 The Viet Cong were supported and trained by the government of
communist North Vietnam.
 The Viet Cong tried to create a popular uprising in South Vietnam
during the Vietnam War with their 1968 Tet Offensive, but were able to
seize control of just a few small districts in the Mekong Delta region
Refer to notes packet
K-W-L
TTYN
What I Know
About Vietnam
What I Want to
Learn About Vietnam
What I Have Learned
So Far About Vietnam
The Tet Offensive
 Refer to your notes packet
The Tet Offensive
 Refer to your notes packet
The Tet Offensive – Turning Point??
Summarizing the Tet
 This military action was a major turning point in the way many
Americans perceived the war.
 On the morning of January 30, 1968, Communist forces in North
Vietnam and Vietcong squads in the South took advantage of a truce
during Tet (the Vietnamese new year holiday) to launch a massive
offensive.
The Tet Offensive – Turning Point??
Summarizing the Tet
 Major cities and provinces were captured, and heavy fighting ensued.
 Although turned back by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in a matter of
days, the Communists nonetheless claimed a major political and
psychological victory.
 U.S. observers were stunned by the size and coordination of the
Communist forces.
 Declared over April 1, 1968
The Tet Offensive – Turning Point??
 Public opinion after
the Tet Offensive
Support
41%
Opposition
42%
TTYN: Why did public support for Vietnam shift so dramatically?
Photo Journalism
Eddie Adams's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo taken on the streets of Saigon during the Tet
Offensive sent shock waves through America
Photo Journalism
Photo Journalism
1972 file photo, 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, runs down Route 1 near Trang Bang,
Vietnam after an aerial napalm attack.
Photo Journalism
TTYN –
How did the images below cause a seismic shift in the way
Americans interpreted the war?
Cronkite Reports on Vietnam
 Refer to your notes packet
The Mai Lai Massacre
 On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie
Company entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai
 “This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and
you've got it," said their superior officers.
The Mai Lai Massacre
 As the "search and destroy" mission unfolded, it soon degenerated
into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including
women, children, and the elderly.
 Men were ordered to enter the village firing, though there had been
no report of opposing fire.
The Mai Lai Massacre
 According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old
men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the
back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed.
 According to reports, a group of the villagers were ordered into a
ditch and were mowed down in a fury of machine gun fire.
McNamara Reflection
 Refer to your notes packet
The Counter Culture
 The Antiwar Movement
 Casualties mount
 Americans bombs rain down on Vietnam
 Images and stories hit the front pages and the front porches
 SNCC and SDS tip the scales (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
and Students for a Democratic Society)
 MLK condemns the war and the Johnson Administration
 By 1967, men were burning their draft cards or fleeing to Canada
The Counter Culture
 Refer to your notes packet
1967, Antiwar demonstrator outside the Pentagon
The Counter Culture
 October of 1967, 100K protestors assemble at Lincoln Memorial
 By the late 1960s, millions of young people openly rejected the values and
behaviors of their elders
 For the first time in American history, flamboyant rejection of respectable
norms in clothing, language, sexual behavior, and drug use became the basis
for a mass movement
 Rallying cry was “Liberation”
The Counter Culture
What they were after
 Emphasized the ideal of community
 Independence from authority
 The Free individual
 1967, The Summer of Love
 “Give peace a chance”
The Weather Underground: The Weatherman
 Splinter group of SNCC
“ When you feel you have right on your side, you can do some
pretty horrific things.” - Brian Flanagan, former Weatherman
 the Weathermen were widely criticized for their use of violence as a
means of social and political change.
 Many accused the group of terrorism, while others accused it of
giving all activists, both militant and more mainstream, a bad name.
The Weatherman
 Refer to your notes packet
The Weatherman
 The Weatherman believed that violent action was a necessary evil in a time
of crisis, a last-ditch effort to grab the country’s attention.
 The Results - a widespread revolt against the status quo: against
previously upheld structures of racism, sexism and classism, against
the violence of the Vietnam War and America’s interventions abroad.
Kent State
 The Vietnam war heightened awareness and protest, which spread to
college campuses
 In May 1970, Kent State students protesting the bombing of
Cambodia by United States military forces
Kent State
 Clashed with Ohio National Guardsmen on the Kent State
University campus.
 Guardsmen shot and killed four students on May 4
 The Kent State Shootings became the focal point of a nation deeply
divided by the Vietnam War.
Kent State
 Refer to your notes packet
Kent State
T T Y N : You Predict. What effect, if any, do you believe that the
Kent St. shooting would have on America?
 The shootings helped convince Americans that the anti-war protestors
were not just hippies, drug addicts, or promoters of free
 Rather than causing a decline in protests, the Kent State Shootings
actually escalated protests.
 Many colleges and universities across the United States cancelled classes
and actually closed their doors for the remainder of the academic year in fear
of violent protests erupting on their campuses.
Woodstock
 500,000 people from all over the U.S. traveled to Woodstock
 Woodstock signaled the merger and ambivalence of the
counterculture and protest.
 The festival was billed as "three days of peace and love," in contrast
to the war and hatred in Vietnam.
Woodstock
 Refer to your notes packet
Problem -- Spread of Communism: The Vietnam War
Small Group Activity
Solution
Result
Refer to notes packet
K-W-L
TTYN
What I Know
About Vietnam
What I Want to
Learn About Vietnam
What I Have Learned
About Vietnam
In this April 29, 1975 file photo, U.S. Navy personnel aboard the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter
into the sea off the coast of Vietnam in order to make room for more evacuation flights from
Saigon.
Evacuation of Americans during Operation Frequent Wind, 29th April 1975.
Assessment
The Truman Doctrine, 1947
TTYN: Describe the basic tenants of the
Truman Doctrine?
 With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S.
Truman established that the United States would
provide political, military and economic assistance
to all democratic nations under threat from
external or internal authoritarian forces. The
Truman Doctrine effectively reoriented U.S.
foreign policy, away from its usual stance of
withdrawal from regional conflicts not directly
involving the United States, to one of possible
intervention in far away conflicts.
Diên Biên Phú
Diên Biên Phú
Diên Biên Phú
Overview
The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 signalled the end of
French influence and Colonialism in Indochina.
The battle fought around Dien Bien Phu was the last major campaign
by a European state in the region
Dien Bien Phu was a town in northwest Vietnam with an isolated air
base built and used by the Japanese in World War Two.
Located near the Vietnam/Laos border.
Diên Biên Phú
Overview
 Although the French inflicted heavy casualties on the Vietminh, Dien
Bien Phu was a tactical and operational failure for the French.
French losses totaled 7,184 casualties, included 1,142 dead and 1,606
missing.
Vietminh suffered 7,900 dead and over 15,000 wounded.
Diên Biên Phú
Overview
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) had mobilized over
33,000 workers to support the contingent at Dien Bien Phu, which
allowed it to sustain the 50,000-man siege for the five-month
operation.
It was a tactical and operational success for the Vietminh; they had
achieved their decisive victory over the French.
Diên Biên Phú
Overview
 The Vietnamese strategic goal of using the victory to obtain
concessions at the Geneva negotiations failed.
The Vietnamese were forced to accept a temporary partition of
their country with elections to be held two years later. However, the
south government headed by Ngo Dinh Diem and backed by the US
established a separate government and ignored the call for elections
in 1956.
Partition of Vietnam
CASE
FILE
Vietnam Conflict
Harry S Truman
established that the
United States would
provide political,
military and economic
assistance to all
democratic nations
under threat from
external or internal
authoritarian forces.
CLASSIFIED
Detective Log
Who authored
the document?
When was What type of
Who was the
Who was the aggressor in
the document document?
audience for the
the incident according to
authored?
document? Why was
the document?
it created?
Document 1
Document 2
See Handout
Document 1
Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy on Indochina before the
Senate
Washington, D.C., April 6, 1954
Document 2
Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy before The Executives' Club
Chicago, Illinois, May 28, 1954
Document 3
Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at the Conference on
Vietnam Luncheon in the Hotel Willard
Washington, D.C., June 1, 1956
Document 4
ANTI-REDS ACTIVE IN NORTH VIETNAM
New York Times; Oct. 16, 1961
Document 5
Reds in Vietnam Kill U.S. Aide in Ambush
New York Times; Nov. 6, 1960
Document 6
OFFICIER TELLS OF "ROUTINE' IN GULF OF TONKIN
Chicago Tribune; Oct 5, 1964
Document 7
New Hurdle in Vietnam
New York Times; Aug. 12, 1964
Document 8
Patrols in Gulf of Tonkin Began as Watch on Reds
Los Angeles Times; Sept. 27, 1964
Document 9
President Johnson's Message to Congress August 5, 1964
Document 10
Joint Resolution of Congress H.J. RES 1145 August 7, 1964
Questions to Consider
 What questions did you ask while evaluating these sources?
 On what points do the accounts agree?
 On what points do the accounts differ?
 Which of these sources aligns most closely with what you already knew about
the Vietnam Conflict? How so?
 Which of these sources is most reliable in determining what actually
happened the led to the start of the Vietnam Conflict? Why do you think so?
 Describe the difficulties in developing an accurate account of historical
events like the start of the Vietnam Conflict?
 If you were asked to write your own historical account of the events that
occurred during the years the followed the battle of Dien Bien Phu, how would
you go about doing so?
Cracking the Case
Based on your analysis of the documents and citing evidence
to support your answer, please write a one-page summary,
which answers the following questions: how did the basic
tenants of the Truman Doctrine and the events that followed
following the battle of Dien Bien Phu interconnect and would
ultimately lead to the Vietnam Conflict? Was Unites States
involvement justified? What are the similarities between the
Korean War and the start of the Vietnam Conflict?
Cracking the Case
Based on your analysis of the documents and citing evidence to
support your answer, please write a one-page to two-page summary,
which answers the following questions: what were some of the key
events that led to the start of United States involvement in Vietnam,
how did President Johnson justify American involvement in
Vietnam, and finally, including your prior knowledge and additional
resources, how did the theory of containment and the Truman
Doctrine underscore United States involvement in South Asia.
To the Teacher:
Be sure to download my Vietnam Conflict Detective Log
And
Causes of the Vietnam Conflict Primary Source Packet