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Chapter 30
The Vietnam Era
“The United States became
involved in Vietnam
because it believed that if
all of Vietnam fell under a
Communist government,
communism would spread
throughout Southeast Asia
and beyond. The Vietnam
War was the longest war in
the nation’s history.”
-TAJ
Section 1
Increased spending on
nuclear arms.
Kennedy’s
Foreign
Policy
Tried to convince Nikita
Krushchev, the Soviet leader, to
agree to ban nuclear testing.
Tried to improve the U.S. ability to respond to
threats overseas. Communist groups tried to take
control of various national governments- with aid
from the Soviet Union.
Used guerilla
warfare- fighting
by small groupsusing sudden
ambushes
Kennedy introduced flexible
response- special units trained
to fight guerilla wars, such as
the Green Berets
Kennedy decided to send aid to
poverty stricken countries such
as ones in Latin America, Asia
and Africa, to lessen the appeal
of Communism.
March 1, 1961, created the
Peace Corps, by signing an
executive Order.
Volunteers to the Peace Corps served as
teachers, health workers, advisers in farming,
industry and government.
Fidel Castro has seized power in Cuba.
Castro formed an alliance with the Soviet
Union.
Late in Eisenhower’s presidency, the CIA
had devised a plan to overthrow Castro.
Kennedy allowed the plan to go forward (even though he
had doubts.)
Only 90 miles south of
Florida
Bay of Pigs Invasion – 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban
exiles landed at southern Cuba- many mistakesKennedy refused to send in American air support.
Cuban forces crushed the invasion and captured
survivors.
Cuba “sight of first foreign crisis Kennedy had to face.”
Consequences of the Failure of the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1) Kennedy never fully trusted military
and intelligence advice again.
2) Other nations in Latin America lost
trust in Kennedy.
3) Soviet leader, Khrushchev believed Kennedy
was a weak leader that could be bullied.
Germany
Berlin was still in Soviet-controlled East Germany.
June 1961, Khrushchev told Kennedy that the West move out of Berlin by the
end of the year. Kennedy refused and sent more troops to protect the city.
A large number of East Germans fled to the West.
August 13, the German government (backed by the Soviets) closed the
border and built a wall of concrete blocks and barbed wire. Guards
were posted along the wall to stop East Germans from fleeing west.
“. . .The Berlin Wall
came to symbolize
Communist
repression.”
-TAJ
Cuban Missile Crisis
The most dangerous Cold War
dispute between Americans and
Soviets (1962)
An American spy plane discovered that
Soviets were building launching sites for
nuclear missiles that could easily reach the
U.S.
Kennedy ordered the navy to blockade (or close off) Cuba
until the Soviets removed the missiles.
“It shall be the policy of this nation to
regard any nuclear missile launched from
Cuba against any nation in the Western
Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union
on the United States.”
-President Kennedy
If the Soviet Union attacked another country with nuclear missiles, the
U.S. would launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.
Two days following Kennedy’s
announcement, some Soviet ships
nearing the blockade turned back.
Some Soviet ships still headed
toward Cuba. Construction on
the missile bases continued.
The president’s advisers
worked on a plan.
After 5 days, the Soviet ships turned back from the blockade and Soviet leaders
withdrew missiles from Cuba.
Coming so close to a nuclear war,
the Superpowers worked to
establish a better relationship.
Kennedy and Khrushchev created a direct
telephone link called hot line between
Washington, D.C. and Moscow.
They signed a treaty that banned nuclear tests above
ground and underwater.
Rivalry in Space
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out,, of
landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to
the earth.”
-J.F.K.
Space Race began with the successful launch of the Soviet
satellite Sputnik, in 1957. Cosmonaut, Uri Gagarin, became
the 1st person to orbit the earth.
Alan Shepard, Jr. became the first American to make a
spaceflight.
John Glenn was the 1st American to orbit the earth (1962).
July 20, 1969- Triumph for Apollo Project- Spacecraft, Eagle,
landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong took the first human
step on the moon.
“That’s one small step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind.”
Section 2
War in
Vietnam
Early 1960s- U.S. became
involved in a fight against
communism in Southeast Asia.
Origins of the Vietnam War can be traced
back to WWII.
Japanese forces captured French colony
of Indochina in SE Asia. Communist
leader Ho Chi Minh led the Vietnamese
forces to fight against Japanese.
When Japan surrendered, Ho Chi
Minh declared Vietnam’s
independence. The French didn’t
want to give up their empire. Ho
Chi Minh defeated the French in a
bloody war at Dien Bien Phu.
Meanwhile (during the
same year- 1954) . . .
Diplomats from the U.S., France, Great Britain, the Soviet
Union, China, and Vietnam met at Geneva, Switzerland to
work out a peace agreement: the Geneva Accords.
Vietnam would be temporarily
divided- Ho Chi Minh’s Communist
nationalists would control the north.
Capital - Hanoi
Non-Communist forces –
supported by the U.S.
would control the South.
Capital- Saigon
Vietnam would be united in 1956- after national elections.
Note: Neither the United States nor south Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords,
but was not against it. An American representative warned that the U.S. would
step in if Communist North Vietnam showed aggression against South Vietnam.
1955- Ngo Dinh Diem
(French-educated
Vietnamese leader) gained
control of South Vietnam.
Diem refused to hold
elections.
Angered many Vietnamese.
Communist
supporters of Ho
Chi Minh stayed in
the South after
Vietnam was
divided.
Diem launched a
campaign to
destroy communist
power.
Communists organized themselves as NLF- National Liberation Front –
Vietcong.
1959- Vietcong (ordered by Ho Chi Minh) began a war against the Diem regime.
United States replaced the
Growing The
French as the dominant foreign
American power in the South in 1955.
Role
We believed in the domio theoryif one country falls to communism
other countries will follow.
Eisenhower--To help the country out,
the U.S. sent billions of dollars and
soldiers.
JFK-sent in special troops-Green
Berets– to train and advise South
Veitnamese troops.
Ngo Diem did not use the aid correctly
and lost support from his country.
His governemtn took rights away from
the Buddhists and they responded with
protest.
On November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese army officers
stages a coup—overthrew the government– and assassinated
Diem.
The question of what to do in Vietnam fell on the
shoulders of President Lyndon Johnson
The
Conflict
Deepens
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is
sent to Vietnam on a fact-finding mission.
Eisenhower said,
“ I don’t think it is
worth fighting
for…
WE NEED MORE
TROOPS!!!!
Opportunity came in August 1964,
when North Vietnamese patrol
boats allegedly attacked American
destoers in the Gulf of Tonkin
Congress quickly gave
permission
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave Johnson
authority to use American forces in Vietnam.
In 1965 Johnson began to escalate-gradually increase U.S. involvemnt in Vietnam
The United States
unleased zn
intense bombing
campaign called
Operation Rolling
Thunder
Some of the planes
attacked the Ho Chi Minh
Trail-- a network of roads,
paths, and bridges used to
bring equipment to the
South.
Based on the map, which army used the Ho Chi Minh
Trail?
a.Cambodian
c.South Vietnamese
b.North Vietnamese
d.United States
For the Next three years, the
number of American troops in
Vietnam increased sharply
Troops in the
War
In which of the following periods were the
most United States troops stationed in
Vietnam?
a.1965–1967
c.1967-1969
b.1966–1967
d.1970–1973
Americans found fighting a ground war in
Vietnam difficult.
Problems with
Agent Orange:
Dense jungles—used napalm and
Caused serious
agent orange (pesticide)
health problems
Fighting the
War
Muddy trails
Swampy Rice paddies
“When we marched into the rice
paddies on that damp March
afternoon, we carried, along with our
packs and rifles, the implicit
convictions that the Vietcong could be
quickly beaten. We kept the packs
and rifles; the convictions, we lost.”
–Philip Caputo, marine lieutenant
Guerilla Warfare
Americans were having trouble telling friends from enemies.
We began to conduct search- and –destroy missions
Fristration
Grows
The constant flow of troops, equipment,
and morale of the North Vietnamese did
not cease.
The search-and-destroy missions killed
thousands of North Vietnamese and
Vietcong troops—but the troops always
seemed to be replaced.
“The Americans thought that the more bombs
they dropped, the quicker we would fall to our
knees and surrender. But the bombs
heightened, rather than dampened, our spirit.”
Officlas in the White House thought the war
counld be won. Robert McNamara said the
United States had failed. Pople in the
America were either for the war or against
the war.
Section 3
The
Vietnam
Years at
Home
Section 4
Nixon and
Vietnam