Vietnam War

Vietnam War

Spencer palmer

reason

• The Vietnam war was the legacy of France’s failure to suppress nationalist forces in indochina as it struggled to restore its colonial dominion after world war 2

• Ho chi Minh a communist, revolutionary movement to the Viet, minh waged political and military struggle for Vietnamese independence from France in 1954.

North and South

• In 1954 the country is divided into a north and south Vietnam

• North being the communist government led by Ho Chi Minh

• South being the anti communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem

U.S involvement

• The aim behind the United States involvement was to contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

• The U.S. supported an anti communist regime known as the Republic of Vietnam (south Vietnam) in its fight against a communist take over.

Tett Offensive

• Early in 1968 the Communists launched a major offensive to coincide with the traditional Vietnamese New Year celebrations (29 to 31 January). It was a time of an agreed cease-fire. NVA/VC suicide troops struck in Sai Gon, Hue was temporarily occupied, news media reported immense damage in the South and 19 suicide sappers broke into the compound of the American Embassy. They were all killed.

•Bombing

• Over 7 million tons of U.S. bombs were dropped on Vietnam

Napalm• the United States Airforce dropped a

considerable number of incendiary devices. The most infamous of these was napalm, a mixture of petrol and a chemical thickner which produces a tough sticky gel that attaches itself to the skin. The igniting agent, white phosphorus, continues burning for a considerable amount of time. A reported three quarters of all napalm victims in Vietnam were burned through to the muscle and bone (fifth degree burns). The pain caused by the burning is so traumatic that it often causes death.

Protesting

Protest songs

• The Byrds, Turn Turn Turn• For what its worth, Buffalo Springfield• Credence Clear Water Revival, Fortunate son

Operation Linebacker

• Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in late December 1972 On January 15, 1973, after pressuring South Vietnam to accept the peace deal, Nixon announced the end of offensive operations against North Vietnam.

The end of the War• In 1975, a sustained North Vietnamese

offensive forced South Vietnamese troops to begin withdrawing from northern provinces; the withdrawal quickly became a disorganized retreat. When communists began moving on Saigon, President Gerald Ford, who succeeded to the presidency in August 1974 after the resignation of Richard Nixon, announced that the Vietnam War was "finished." As Saigon fell, Ford ordered an evacuation of American citizens and Vietnamese sympathizers. More than one hundred thousand Vietnamese refugees entered the United States.

Death Tolls

1965–1975 58,151 deaths, 26 killed a day

YouTube - Forrest Gump Vietnam

• YouTube - Forrest Gump Vietnam War Scene