10.3 The Vietnam War

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3

The Cold War - Vietnam and the 1970s

Vietnam war 1946-1954 (France) and 1964-1973 (US)

Important questions:

• Why is this a Cold War conflict?
  
• Why didn’t the Americans succeed in winning?

Cold War conflict

• It’s a Cold War conflict when the US and SU or one of their allies are involved in the conflict
  
• The communists from North Vietnam (Vietcong) want to take over the South (capitalist) and make it communist
  
• Truman doctrine: Containment
  
• Domino theory
  

American Loss

American Loss

• Strongest army in the world
  
• Over half a million soldiers
  
• More bombs used than in WOII
  
• Napalm
  
• No success
  

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Causes

• Jungle: enemy almost invisible. Makes fighting difficult and frustrating
  
• Enemy is persistent: leader Ho Chi Minh
  
• Homefront is not always on the side of the US government - sixties/hippies!
  

AGE 10. The Time of Television and Computers

10.3  The Vietnam War

people in this lesson

Lyndon Johnson

president

USA

Richard Nixon

president

USA

Ho Chi Minh

leader

North Vietnam

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10.3 The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a war between communism and capitalism. And because both the USA and the SU got involved in this conflict, it is part of the Cold War

when: 1964 - 1973

Domino Theory

10.3 The Vietnam War

                   

North Vietnam   

• communist:

• Ho Chi Minh            communist leader
• Viet Minh / NVA    N-Vietnamese army
• Viet Cong                 communist guerrilla                     army operating in the  south          

• supported by:          China and the 
•                                     Soviet Union      

           

South Vietnam                                                 

•  capitalist:

• Nguyen Van Thieu    capitalist leader
• SVA                                 S-Vietnamese army

• supported by:               USA

                        

This 1965 photo by Horst Faas shows U.S. helicopters protecting South Vietnamese troops northwest of Saigon

Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The U.S. program, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 20 million gallons of various herbicides over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1961 to 1971. Agent Orange, which contained the deadly chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used herbicide. It was later proven to cause serious health issues—including cancer, birth defects, rashes and severe psychological and neurological problems—among the Vietnamese people as well as among returning U.S. servicemen and their families.

An abiding image of the Vietnam War: Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, burned by napalm dropped accidentally by South Vietnamese air force. The damage caused by napalm was more immediate compared to the slow long-term havoc wreaked by Special Agent Orange.

An American couple is watching the news footage of the Vietnam War in their living room, 1968.

Beginning of a university students' Anti-Vietnam War march, September 20, 1969.

Stars and Stripes photographer John Olson captured this image of A.B. Grantham, a Marine who had been shot in the chest in 1968. It is on display at the Newseum to mark the 50th anniversary of the Tet offensive. 

John Lennon (former member of The Beatles) and Yoko Ono pose on the steps of the Apple building in London, holding one of the posters they distributed to the world's major cities as part of a peace campaign protesting against the Vietnam War, Dec. 1969. The poster reads 'War Is Over, If You Want It'.

4.3 The Vietnam War

Results:

- USA lost a war for the first time

- 1973: peace treaty: Vietnam would remain divided;

              North: communist,  South: capitalist

- 1975: North Vietnam invaded the south and took over the government.

- Today: Vietnam is one country with a communist government