2. Questions for Discussion
o What do you notice first as you look at these images?
o What has the photographer captured in this photograph?
o What do images such as these communicate about the Vietnam War
to us today?
6. “I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human
being; his body slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In
the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly.
Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was
too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even
think… As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward
composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”
David Halberstam
New York Times
10. What do you know about Vietnam?
o The War in Vietnam was hard to define;
o The war took a different meaning at home, different than any
other war in our history;
o The war is best defined by the photography that came out of
country;
o These photos played a major part in turning the public against the
war in Vietnam…
11. The Meaning of the War in Vietnam?
o The War in Vietnam was the longest in American history;
o Vietnam was also the most unpopular war of the 20th century…
o The conflict resulted in the deaths of nearly 60,000 US soldiers;
o Vietnam caused turmoil on the home-front;
o Anti-war protests became a daily part of life;
o Americans became divided: pro-war hawks and anti-war doves…
o The conflict was also the first war to come into the living rooms of
Americans on a daily basis…
12. Ho Chi Minh
o Ho Chi Minh was a man of small stature, he wore sandals and
shorts, his people called him “uncle ho”…
o Ho Chi Minh adopted Socialism while in the Soviet Union;
o While there he organized a revolutionary Vietnamese force;
o In 1945, Minh declared Vietnamese independence…
o The French, who returned to Vietnam following WWII had different
plans…
13. French Nam’
o The French took control of Indochina following WWII;
o They fought a war against Vietnamese rebel guerillas…
o The United States would begin to underwrite the war in 1950;
o Providing $2 billion to the French war effort;
o The French devised a plan to set a trap for the Vietnamese
rebels…
o 1954, Viet Minh defeated the French forces;
o The French became surrounded in the town of Dienbienphu;
o The French pleaded for US support, but President Eisenhower
resisted…
14. Vietnamese Politics
o The French and Vietnamese governments met in Geneva, Switzerland
to sign the Geneva Accords (peace agreement);
o The two sides agreed to temporarily divide Vietnam into a
Communist North and a Non-Communist South;
o The country would remain this way until elections in 1956…
o However, the elections never took place;
o S. Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, with US
backing, refused to participate;
o Diem was fearful of a Ho Chi Minh victory;
o This led to a distrust in diplomacy between the North and South
15. United States Enters the War
o Belief in the domino theory led President Eisenhower to back the
autocratic government of Ngo Dinh Diem, a fierce anti-Communist;
o What is autocracy?
o Groups opposed to Diem formed the National Liberation Front
(NLF), or the Vietcong;
o To prevent Communism, Kennedy tripled aid to Vietnam and
pressured Diem to reform;
o Diem refused to comply…
16. United States Enters the War
o November 1963, Vietnamese Army officials took the government by
force;
o This action was backed by the United States
o Diem was killed in the confusion
o A few weeks later an assassin’s bullet killed President Kennedy
17. Johnson’s War
o President Johnson saw Vietnam as a key battle in the Cold War;
o Johnson rejected any sentiment that did not guarantee a Non-
Communist South Vietnam;
o Using the attacks on two US destroyers, Johnson convinced
Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution;
o The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed Johnson to widen the
war…
o In Feb 1965, Johnson made two fateful decisions;
o He launched Operation Rolling Thunder, three years of non-stop
bombing of North Vietnam;
o He sent the first ground troops into South Vietnam…
18. Questions for Discussion
o When would it be justified, if ever, for the United States to fund
another countries war?
o During time of total war, what are the differences between civilians
and soldiers?
o What are rules of engagement?
o Should soldiers be held accountable for violating the rules of
engagement during war?
o What limits do military’s have in regards to getting information from
prisoners of war (POWs)?
19. Fighting the War
o Despite massive bombing campaigns the United States failed to route
the Vietcong [VC];
o The VC were kept well supplied by their allies in North Vietnam;
o The supplies were transported through a vast system of
tunnels…
o Warfare erupted throughout South Vietnam;
o The VC used guerrilla warfare to keep the American ground
forced guessing…
o Why can guerrilla warfare be so much harder to conduct a combat
defense against?
20. Fighting the War
o The United States forces went through a pacification program with
the South Vietnamese civilians;
o This program was designed to weed out VC living in S.
Vietnamese villages;
o This program was not effective as the VC knew the peasants
better than the US forces…
o The war in Vietnam seemed unwinnable for many of the US forces;
o Vietnam will prove to be both frustrating and a nightmare for
the US troops…
21. Tet Offensive
o The Tet Offensive showed the no
place in S. Vietnam was safe from
attack;
o Televised images of the war fueled
the antiwar sentiment;
o President Johnson announced the
he would bow out of the 1968
Presidential race;
o President Johnson also vowed to
get out of Vietnam…
22. Tragedy and Triumph
o The 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King launched the country
into chaos;
o The assassination caused rioting in cities across the country…
o The nation was launched further into turmoil when the presidential
front-runner Robert Kennedy was assassinated;
o The nation had lost two civil rights leaders within three months
of each other…
23. Election of 1968
o With the death of Kennedy, the 1968 Election was in shambles;
o Richard Nixon entered the race as the Republican candidate;
o Nixon saw that social unrest scared Americans…
o Nixon promised “peace with honor” in Vietnam, as well as an end to
“domestic violence”;
o George Wallace threatened Nixon by running an even more
conservative campaign
o Wallace appealed to those who feared school integration and
despised antiwar protestors…
25. The Student Movement
o Students protested the Vietnam War to no end;
o Although only a small population of students protested, they
belonged to prestigious universities;
o This attracted great attention to the student movement…
o Opposition to the war led to many refusing to be drafted;
o Reasons included deferment, refusal to register, burning of draft
cards, flight from the country, and going to jail;
o Some believed the draft was unfair because it fell on those who
could not afford to attend college…
o Should citizens who do not choose education as a path be considered
more so for military service?
27. Toward Peace
o President Nixon moved toward the Nixon Doctrine… what he called
“Vietnamization”;
o The United States would provide weapons and financial aid to
Asian countries;
o However, they would have to fight their own battles…
o As Nixon began the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam, he
ordered Sec. of State Henry Kissinger to take action;
o Kissinger met secretly with N. Vietnam’s government;
o In a televised speech, Nixon asked Americans to support a
“twist” in the war – sending troops into Cambodia…
28. Toward Peace
o Escalation of the war led to public outcry;
o Nixon and Kissinger promised that it was necessary to have an
honorable end to the war;
o The “Pentagon Papers” were released by the NY Times and
informed the American people the US Presidents had lied;
o The war in Vietnam was not continuing to stop Communism, but
rather “to avoid a humiliating defeat”…
o The Whitehouse tried to block the publication of these papers;
o However, the Supreme Court said they could be published by the
NY Times…
o Should the press have the freedom to print what they want about
the government? Should they have to give up their sources?
29. The Final Years of War
o Despite US training and billions of dollars spent, the South could not
defeat the North;
o The South also refused to sign a peace agreement in Paris in
1972;
o In 1973, the US negotiated a cease-fire… US prisoners of war
were returned;
o The Vietcong was allowed to remain in the South…
o After the final US troops left in 1973, the cease-fire ended;
o The South surrendered to the North in 1975;
o Vietnam remains a Communist country today…
30. Cost of War
o 58,000 troops were killed in Vietnam, over 300,000 were
wounded, many permanently disabled;
o The US government poured more than $150 billion into Vietnam
while underfunding many social programs;
o For the first time the US had lost a war, shattering the confidence
of the WWII victory…
o Two million Vietnamese and uncounted Cambodian and Laotian
were dead;
o More than 8 million tons of bombs had been dropped in
Southeast Asia…