Vietnam War

Examples of Vietnam War in the following topics:

• The Vietnam War

• Containment in Vietnam

  • The Vietnam War was fought on the principle that the spread of communism needed to be contained.
  • The U.S. war in Vietnam was fought on an ideology that communism and the spread of the Soviet Union needed to be contained, a policy that was contested in U.S. politics in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • " President Johnson, the Democratic nominee, answered that rollback risked nuclear war, and won the general election by a wide margin and adhered closely to containment during the Vietnam War.
  • As the war continued, it grew less popular.
  • This law ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and led to violent communist takeovers of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

• The Peace Accords and the Legacy of Defeat

  • The 1973 Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
  • The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War.
  • The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
  • More than 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5 million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam.
  • The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, concerning the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action, persisted for many years after the war's conclusion.

• The Widening War at Home

  • Public support for the Vietnam War declined dramatically in the late 1960s in the U.S., with protests and domestic activism growing steadily.
  • The Vietnam War met with rising opposition among Americans during the second half of the 1960s.
  • In February of 1965, United States President Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the war in Vietnam with a sustained bombing campaign and the introduction of ground troops.
  • In addition to student-led protests, there was a shift in mainstream public opinion about the Vietnam War.
  • Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison protested the war in Vietnam in 1965.

• A Growing War in Vietnam

  • The Vietnam War (1957–1975) was fought in South Vietnam and the bordering areas of Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.
  • The Vietnam War (1957–1975) was conducted in South Vietnam and the bordering areas of Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.
  • The U.S. framed the war as part of its policy of containment of communism in south Asia; however, the war was met with significant protests at home on American soil.
  • U.S. involvement in the region escalated until Lyndon Johnson deployed regular U.S. military forces for fighting the Vietnam War.
  • Interpret U.S. involvement in Vietnam in the context of the larger Cold War

• "Americanizing" the Vietnam War

  • Johnson dramatically increased U.S. presence in Vietnam in the late 1960s, an act referred to as the "Americanization" of the war.
  • The U.S. also financed and supplied the forces of all the American allies in the Vietnam War including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Phillipines, and the Republic of Korea (second only to the Americans in troop strength).
  • Westmoreland expanded American troop strength in South Vietnam.
  • Thieu and Ky were elected and remained in office for the duration of the war.
  • Summarize the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam under the Johnson Administration.

• Vietnam Becomes Nixon's War

  • Richard Nixon campaigned for the 1968 presidential election behind the promise that he would end the war in Vietnam and bring "peace with honor."
  • To this end, Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger employed Chinese and Soviet foreign policy gambits to defuse some of the anti-war opposition at home and to pressure North Vietnam into favoring negotiations.
  • In an effort to lessen opposition to the war, Nixon announced on October 12 that the U.S. would withdraw 40,000 more troops from Vietnam before Christmas.
  • After this, only 24,000 American troops remained in Vietnam and President Nixon announced that they would stay there until all U.S. prisoners of war were freed.
  • Analyze Nixon's strategies for ending American involvement in the Vietnam War

• Commitment to Vietnam

  • Johnson, committed to preventing the expansion of communism, increased U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam.
  • The South Vietnamese war effort was hindered by widespread corruption in the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam (in power since 1955).
  • The Gulf of Tonkin Incident proved an escalating factor of the war and justification of continued American presence in Vietnam.
  • Although at the time Congress denied that the Resolution was a full-scale declaration of war, the Tonkin Resolution allowed the President full discretion to commit military forces; thus, Johnson had initiated America's direct involvement in the ground war in Vietnam.
  • Some historians believe that Johnson knowingly used the Gulf of Tonkin incident to gain the support of the American people to enter into the Vietnam War.

• Indochina: The Background to War

  • The opposition against the French imperial presence, competing factions in Vietnam, and involvements of Western powers, China, and the Soviet Union led to the First Indochina and later Second Indochina Wars.
  • Soon thereafter, the Viet Minh began a guerrilla war against the French Union forces, beginning the First Indochina War.
  • However, after the Chinese communists reached the Northern border of Vietnam in 1949, the conflict turned into a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States and the Soviet Union.
  • Control of the north was given to the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh, and the south continued under Emperor Bao Dai (former Emperor of Vietnam and at the time the chief of state of the State of Vietnam or South Vietnam).
  • The war gradually escalated into the Second Indochina War, more commonly known as the Vietnam War in the West and the American War in Vietnam.

• Gradual Withdrawal

  • Adjusting to Nixon's policy of Vietnamization, General Creighton W.
  • Abrams, commander of the American military forces in Vietnam, advocated for smaller-scale operations against the logistics of the PAVN/NLF (People's Army of Vietnam/National Liberation Front), more openness with the media, and more meaningful cooperation with the South Vietnamese forces.
  • Vietnamization of the war, however, created a dilemma for U.S. forces: the strategy required that the U.S. troops fight long enough for the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) to improve enough to hold its own against Communist forces.
  • In 1971, the policy of Vietnamization was put to the test with Operation Lam Son 719.
  • One half of the invasion force was killed or captured during the operation, and Vietnamization was seen as a failure.