Vietnam

1
Vietnam

• Timeline

2
1945

• President Harry Truman refuses the request of Ho
  Chi Minh to recognize a free and independent
  Vietnam because Minh was a Communist.

3
Truman

• Will help France after China fell to communism
  (failure of containment)
• Will help because of the Korean War (again
  containment)

4
1954

• President Eisenhower refused to send troops but
  sent lots of money
• This forced France to surrender to the Vietminh
  at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ending the French
  Indo-China War. May 7, 1954
• French left VN
• Ho Chi Minh Vietcong (guerilla army)

5
Eisenhower

• Sent military advisers
• Protect pro-Western government in South Viet Nam
  17th parallel
• Geneva Accords divide Viet Nam
• Increase military and economic aid

6
1956

• The United States sent money and supplies to
  South Vietnam. Based on the American belief of
  the Domino Theory in South East Asia.
• Ngo Dinh Diem pro western and anti-communist
• France leaves and the US becomes the principal
  protector.

7
Domino Theory

• The belief that if Viet Nam fell to communism, so
  too would other nations in the region.

8
1961

• President Kennedy starts sending a total of
  16,000 U.S. Green Berets to South Vietnam to act
  as advisors to ARVN.

9
1962

• The first protest of American involvement in
  Vietnam is the Port Huron Statement issued by the
  Tom Hayden leader of The Students for a
  Democratic Society (SDS).

10
Kennedy

• Increase of aid and advisors
• Overthrow and execution of Diem
• Diem was Catholic and refused to Buddhist
  traditions
• Vietnamese generals threatened to overthrow Diem
  with American help they took over and killed
  him
• South Vietnamese government grew weak and unstable

11
1963

• Dictatorial South Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem is
  assassinated by a military coup.

12
1964

• With the North Vietnamese attack on the U.S.S.
  Maddox the United States Congress passes the Gulf
  of Tonkin Resolution which gave the President a
  blank check in Vietnam.

13
Johnson

• Became president when Kennedy was assassinated.
• Gulf of Tonkin resolution increased war powers
  of the president based on bad data

14
1965

• The first group of draftee combat troops arrive
  in Vietnam.
• War protest escalates as students burn draft
  cards and others defected to Canada to avoid the
  draft.
• Teach-ins college opposition to the war

15
1965

• Operation Rolling Thunder sustained bombing of
  North Vietnam
• By the end of 1965 there were more than 180,000
  American combat troops in Vietnam

16
1966

• General William Westmoreland announces his
  policies of escalation and attrition as a way of
  the U.S. to achieve victory in Vietnam.
• Such tactics included Search Destroy Missions,
  the use of Agent Orange and Napalm. Objective?
  Get the enemy into the open.

17
1967

• With the war in Vietnam escalating Senator
  William Fulbright starts conducting televised
  hearings to investigate his belief in a
  Credibility Gap.

18
1968

• During the TET New Years cease fire the Viet
  Cong launch an all out assault on every major
  city and military instillation in South Vietnam
  including the U.S. Embassy, Khe Sanh and Hue.

19
1968

• LBJ refuses to bomb the Ho Chi Minh Trail in
  Cambodia and Laos
• Johnson decides not to run again as popularity
  decreases and the war goes on
• Robert Kennedy who is a dove is the Democratic
  front runner
• Dr. King is killed by James Earl Ray (April)
• Robert Kennedy is killed while campaigning by
  Sirhan Sirhan

20
1968

• After Robert Kennedy was assassinated, violence
  erupts outside of Democratic National Convention
  as the party nominates Hubert Humphrey, a hawk,
  over the preferred dove candidates supported by
  the New Left.

21
Nixon

• Nixon wins the Republican nomination
• George Wallace runs as an independent outspoken
  segregationist
• Nixon wins over Humphrey hawk and Wallace

22
1969

• Henry Kissinger special assistant for national
  security
• Linkage improving relations with China and USSR
  hoping to cut off supplies to Vietcong
• 4 years of negotiations
• Vietnamization gradual withdrawal of US forces
• My Lai Lt. William Calley convicted and sent
  to prison for killing over 200 unarmed women,
  children, and elderly

23
1970

• The Invasion of Cambodia sparks a new wave of war
  protests on college campuses. At Kent State in
  Ohio 4 students are killed as the Ohio National
  Guard fires into the crowd of protesters.

24
1970

• Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• Police killed 2 African American students at
  Jackson State in Mississippi
• Lottery draft begins

25
1971

• Former Pentagon employee, Daniel Ellsburg, gives
  top secret documents to the press. These
  Pentagon Papers showed that President Johnson
  misled the American public regarding the early
  years in Vietnam.

26
1972-1973

• In 1972 President Nixon announces peace is at
  hand in Vietnam.
• In 1973 the U.S. The North Vietnamese sign the
  Paris Peace Accords.
• US to withdraw and exchange POWs
• Come back if needed

27
1975

• With both sides violating the Paris Peace Accords
  the Communists are able to capture the South
  Vietnamese capital of Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi
  Minh City.

28
1982

• Vietnam Memorial Wall is dedicated in Washington
  D.C. to honor the 57,000 soldiers who fought and
  gave their lives in Vietnam.
• Designed by a Vietnamese woman, Maya Ying Lin.

29
Image of Vietnam