USII.20

 media type="custom" key="29582677" align="right" =**Explain the causes and consequences of the Vietnam War and summarize the** **diplomatic and military policies of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon**=



[[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43"]]S**ee also World History II.32 and World History II.38 for more resources and materials on the Vietnam War**

 * Topics on the page **
 * Background and Overview **
 * Gulf of Tonkin (1964) **
 * Primary Sources and Teaching Resources **
 * African Americans and the Vietnam War **
 * **// Clay v. United States //**
 * Timeline of Key Events **
 * ====Special Topic Page: **A Vietnam War WikiQuest**====

=//Focus Question: How did the causes and consequences of the Vietnam War relate to the// //diplomatic and military policies of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon?//=

**Background and Overview**
Go here for [|an historical overview of Vietnamese History from Windows on Asia]website from Michigan State University

Click [|here] for an overview look at Vietnam War

See also Overview of French and American Wars in Vietnam from Clemson University


 * Click here for "A Brief History of the Vietnam War" from the PBS series, // Battlefield Vietnam //.
 * Go here for a short video from Kahn Academy

Click here for an interactive timeline on the Vietnam War from the Vietnam War Commemoration

Listen to a critique of a [|Pentagon Vietnam War website by historian Nick Turse] from the radio show On the Media (February 21, 2014).
 * Click here for the [|50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration] from the Department of Defense.

See[| Kill Anything That Moves: The American War in Vietnam], Nick Turse (Metropolitan Books, 2013).



** Gulf of Tonkin (1964) **
For background and teaching resources, see [|The Gulf of Tonkin Incident]from Nova.

The Gulf of Tonkin and Escalation, from Office of the Historian, U.S. State Department

The lesson plan above is an interactive debate on the Vietnam war.

President Johnson's Message to Congress (August 5, 1964) and Joint Resolution of Congress, H.J. RES 1145 (August 7, 1964)


 * Gulf of Tonkin, 1964: Perspectives from the Lyndon Johnson and National Military Command Center Tales includes transcript and audio clips from secret White House tapes made available through the Presidential Recordings Program from the University of Virginia.

The Truth about Tonkin, U.S.Naval Institute


 * ** [|Transcripts + Audio Clips of Presidential conversations between 1940 and 1973]from the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia. Includes Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. **


 * [|The Pentagon Papers] from the National Archives. See also,[| The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers]


 * The Vietnam War: A Story in Photographs from the National Archives provides documentary pictures of virtually every aspect of the war shot by military photographers between 1962 and 1975.


 * Vietnam War Casualities Listed by Home of Record


 * Selected Primary Sources and Maps are available from // Vietnam Online //, an Web-based companion to the PBS television series, // Vietnam: A Television History //

"Peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia," Lyndon Johnson's speech to the nation, March 31, 1968 when he announced his intention to limit the war and to not seek re-election in the 1968 election. Online Exhibits from The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University provides documents and images related to the American experience in Vietnam.

**Teaching Resources**
Click here for online excerpts from Amazon.com from UMASS Amherst Professor Christian Appy's book **//Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides//.**

Click here for the LBJ Library's section on the Vietnam War. Includes photos, speeches, oral history, LBJ diary entries, timelines, and more.

PBS program on American POWs

Click here for the virtual Wall of Faces from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
 * Click here for a lesson plan that requires reading accounts of soldiers and politicians and the Vietnam War
 * Click here for a collection of Vietnam War resources and lesson plans
 * Click here for a lesson plan from the National Archives, utilizing photos from the Vietnam War

Click here for a wikipedia list of songs focusing on the Vietnam War. Click here to read about the top songs of the Vietnam War era.

Many people see similarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Afghanistan. Click here to read an article from CBS on the topic.

This war also had major effects on the views of Vietnamese people by both American soldiers and civilians back home, most of which were very negative.
 * [|This] is a list of racial slurs used by American soldiers to describe the Vietnamese forces, and it is clear that some of these are far from socially acceptable or appropriate.

In addition, many American servicemen overseas fathered children with Vietnamese women.
 * [|This] article talks about the experiences endured by these children, mainly orphans, who suffered scorn and disgust by both the Vietnamese and American populations.

**African Americans and the Vietnam War**
During the Vietnam War, a large amount of African Americans were involved in the conflict. The war has been referred to as a white man's war, but a black man's fight. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967. Click here for PBS' History Detectives on African Americans in the Vietnam War.
 * One reason for this is thought to be the high level of unemployment. During the 1960s, white Americans were unemployed at 3.4%, but African Americans were unemployed at 7.3%. Many African Americans viewed enlisting in the war as a way to support themselves and their families. As a result, African Americans re-enlisted 3 times more often than whites.
 * In addition, while many white men could either buy their deferment or enroll in school to avoid the draft, many African Americans did not have the same chances.
 * In 1966, there was a program called "Project 100,000" which aimed to enlisted underprivileged men with lessened requirements in an attempt to better their employment opportunities. Over 350,000 men enlisted during this program, but 41% of them were African American. Of the 41% of African Americans, 40% were given combat jobs with little room for advancement and with little training. During 1967, about 1/3 of white men were drafted, but 2/3 of African American men were drafted in the same year. The amount of African American men drafted during the war was about 11%.
 * For this information and more, click here or here.

Click here for a lesson plan on African Americans during the Vietnam War

Clay v. United States
[|Clay, aka Ali v. United States](1966-1971) details boxer Muhammad Ali's efforts to resist induction into the U.S. Army, a case that went to the Supreme Court and resulted in Ali being stripped of his heavyweight boxing championship.
 * He had converted to Islam and refused to serve, citing religious beliefs.
 * Convicted of draft evasion, fined $10,000, and had his license to box and his passport revoked.
 * had been barred from boxing during the prime of his career, from age 25 to age 29.
 * He regained the title defeating George Forman in 1974 (see "Tough Suspensions in Sports Don't Always Stick," //The New York Times//, January 12, 2014).
 * Click [|here] to watch a video to see Muhammad Ali's speech about Vietnam War

Click here for the Supreme Court decision in [|Clay v. United States (1971)]

Click here to read a newspaper article from //The Guardian// when Ali refused to go to war

Timeline of Key Events
//Click here for a timeline of events leading up to the US involvement in the Vietnam War//


 * A. WWII to Vietnam: 1941-1975**
 * 1) Most unifying war to the most divisive
 * 2) Greatest triumph to only defeat
 * 3) Global support to global criticism
 * 4) Basic trust in government to wide distrust


 * B. Why was the war fought?**
 * 1) Two reasons
 * 2) Vietnamese victors claim: A war for national liberation; Vietnamese independence from colonial and neo-colonial domination. US was the aggressor-foreign invader
 * 3) U.S. Claim: War to control communist aggression and expansion


 * C. Basic outline**
 * 1) Communist-led revolutionary nationalism vs. US global anti-communist (counter revolution)
 * 2) 1954-1975: US tries and fails to build permanent non-communist South Vietnam
 * 3) US backed government in Saigon never gains popular support and massive US fire power fails to break their opponents will to resist
 * 4) US policy makers viewed communism as GLOBAL THREAT, 1946-1990
 * 5) Controlled, or at least, directed from Moscow
 * 6) Loss anywhere considered blow to the US power and prestige

Click here for the documentary "Hearts and Minds" from 1974
 * D. So, why did the US not achieve its objectives?**
 * 1) The majority of the South Vietnamese did not support the US backed government.
 * Vietnamese communists had a more popular goal: unification, independence, social and economic equality.
 * Majority of Americans eventually decide the war was unwinable, or not worth cost and/pr immoral or unjust.
 * Many Americans began planning protests and demonstrations against the war

Click here for a lesson plan on Vietnam War protests

The man who coined this term was William Westmoreland, the general in charge of US military operations for most of the War. [|This] is an article on the man, including his pre and post Vietnam actions.
 * E. American Military Approach in Vietnam**
 * 1) Strategy: Attrition
 * 2) Grind them down until they lose the ability to fight

During Nixon's presidency, a new strategy was adopted: [|Vietnamization]. [|Here] is an article on Nixon's policy, and how it was implemented as the war came to a close.

>
 * 1) Tactic: Search and destroy
 * 2) Measurement of success: Body count
 * 3) U.S military policy backfires
 * 4) This approach produced enormous civilian casualties, this leading many Vietnamese people to support the Communists

Short summary of the Tet Offensive by the NY Times The Tet Offensive from the US Navy's Perspective CBS News footage of Tet Offensive

[|Here] is an article that discusses the Tet Offensive, and how demoralizing it was to the American forces.

My Lai Massacre & Ensuing Courts Martial

Click here for an overview of American politics during the Vietnam War Click here for a webquest for the Vietnam War

>> Click here for a lesson plan on the war from the Vietnam perspective based on Ho Chi Minh's speeches
 * 1) Long History of Vietnamese resistance to foreign rule
 * 2) Chinese rule: 111BCE-938 CE
 * 3) Mongol and Chinese attacks and periodic control until 1428
 * 4) French Rule: 1883-1954
 * 5) Japanese Rule: 1940-1945
 * 6) French Reconquest: 1946-1954
 * 7) American war: 1954-1975
 * F. Ho Chi Minh, 1890-1969 [[image:Biography icon for wiki.png width="51" height="55" link="@http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm"]]**
 * 1) Former Viet Minh in 1941 to build movement of national liberation
 * 2) "Viet Minh" is short of League of Vietnamese Independence
 * 3) US allied with Ho Chi Minh during WWII
 * 4) Key chronology
 * 5) 1945: Minh declares independenceVietnam Declaration of Independence
 * 1) 1946-1954: French-Indochina War
 * 2) The US backed the French
 * 3) 1954: Geneva Accords divide Vietnam
 * 4) Vietnam would become an independent country
 * 5) Elections supposed to be held in 1956 to decide on government
 * 6) Until the elections, Vietnam split into North and South at the 17th parallel
 * 7) North would be the Viet Minh, South would be those who fought with the French
 * 8) Civilians allowed to relocate according to their political beliefs
 * 9) Ho Chi Minh lead North Vietnam and was beloved by his people, who referred to him as "Uncle Ho"
 * 10) 1954: US builds and supports Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
 * 11) 1973: US withdrawals last troops
 * 12) 1975: Communist victory


 * G. President Harry S. Truman**
 * 1) April 1945-January 1953
 * 2) Truman Doctrine: Global "containment" of Communism
 * 3) Supports French in their war against the Viet Minh (1946-1954)


 * H. President Dwight D. Eisenhowe**r
 * 1) 1953-1961
 * 2) 1954: Sends CIA and US military to "save" Vietnam from Communism
 * 3) Backs puppet government, Ngo Dinh Diem rule in South Vietnam
 * 4) His domino theory established stand on foreign policy, including Vietnam


 * I. North Vietnam**
 * 1) 1954-1959: Communist party consolidates its control in North under Ho Chi Minh
 * 2) One-party state that does not tolerate dissent, yet successfully mobilizes popular support for "sacred cause" of national reunification and independence
 * 3) Encourages southern political organizing against Diem, but doesn't endorse violent insurgency until 1960


 * J. President John. F. Kennedy**
 * 1) 1961-1963
 * 2) Raised US military in Vietnam from 700 to 1500
 * 3) Deceived public about "advisory" role of US military
 * 4) Authorized overthrow of Ngo Dohn Diem--November 1963


 * K. Key Terms**
 * 1) Viet Cong—Pro communist guerillas of South Vietnam
 * 2) North Vietnamese Army (NVA)—Call themselves the Peoples Army of Vietnam
 * 3) ARVN—The Army of the Republic of Vietnam; trained and financed by the US


 * L.President Lyndon B. Johnson**
 * 1) 1963-1969
 * 2) Ordered small secret attacks on NVM
 * 3) In Aug 1964, Johnson said NVN attack on US destroyers in Gulf of Tonkin was "unprovoked"
 * 4) Gulf of Tonkin incident gave LBJ power to escalate without declaration of war
 * 5) Raised US troops from 15,000 in 1963 to 540,000 in 1968
 * 6) Initiated massive bombings of North and South Vietnam
 * 7) Initiated aggressive ground patrolling to "search and destroy" Communist forces
 * 8) "Credibility gap"
 * 9) Gap between what President said and what the public believed is real
 * 10) Growing public skepticism
 * 11) Are we really supporting freedom and democracy?
 * 12) Click [|here] to know more about President Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam War


 * M. President Richard Nixon**
 * 1) 1969-1974
 * 2) Promised to achieve "peace with honor"
 * 3) Gradually reduced the number of US troops
 * 4) Increased bombing
 * 25,000 more Americans died under Nixon, and a million more Vietnamese


 * N. Fall of Saigon** (April 30, 1975)
 * The American Evacuation of Saigon was the largest helicopter evacuation in history.
 * For 18 hours, heavily loaded Marine helicopters ferried 7,000 Americans and South Vietnamese evacuees from the American Embassy compound to the Tan Son Nhut airfield, ultimately to ships of the Seventh Fleet.
 * The evacuation began when "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby was played on loop on the American radio station. That was the signal for Americans to report to their evacuation points.
 * After hours evacuating Americans and refugees, President Ford ordered the American military to leave Saigon, even though many South Vietnamese were still waiting to be evacuated. Ford allowed ships to remain off the coast to accommodate the waiting evacuees. The South Vietnamese army flew evacuees onto the waiting ships. Once dropping off the civilians, the helicopters were pushed into the ocean to make room for as many people as possible. After the helicopters were gone, boats brought the rest of the civilians to the boats.
 * When the North Vietnamese made it into Saigon, they quickly captured the capital by taking over important buildings.
 * The President of South Vietnam, Duong Van Minh, ordered a surrender. However, the North Vietnamese did not stop their attack until they reached Independence Palace, where they raised their flag at 11:30am.
 * Duong Van Minh offered to hand over his power, but the North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin responded, "There is no question of your transferring power. Your power has crumbled. You cannot give up what you do not have.” By 3:30pm, the South Vietnamese government was completely dissolved and Vietnam was united again.
 * Saigon was later renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Click here for more information.
 * United States failed to achieve western-style democracy in South Vietnam.
 * In 1975 Vietnam was reunified under Communist control.
 * In 1976 it officially became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Click here for resources on the Fall of Saigon

Click here for information on Operation Babylift, the evacuation of thousands of South Vietnamese orphans and children to be adopted by families all over the world


 * O. Paris Peace Accords**

Paris Peace Accords

Transcript of a 1998 Conference Reexamining the Paris Peace Accords

Pictures of the Vietnam War from Discovery News

"Sobering Lessons for the Afghan Pullout in Paris Peace Accord Anniversary" from National Journal

Women in Vietnam online exhibit

**Corita Kent **

 * Corita Kent was a Nun at the Immaculate Heart of Mary
 * Left the Order in 1968, when she moved to Boston and dedicated her life to her artwork
 * Produced many works of art that protested social issues, including the Vietnam War
 * One of her most notable, and controversial, artworks is the National Grid gas tank in Boston
 * Rumors and speculation arose about the gas tank, claiming that one of the splashes of color (blue) depicts the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh

(notice how the blue streak could resemble an old man with a long beard)

Links Corita Kent Biography