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Vietnam Declared Independence from the French.
Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independence in an address to his people on Spetember 2, 1945. This is what caused conflict between the French and Vietnam, which started the war. The United States was behind Vietnam's decision to declare independence even though they had a communist leader.
Info:Slide 15 and
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/van_kien/declar.html
Picture:http://my.opera.com/rdandelion/blog/2010/08/20/the-magnitude-of-august-revolution' >http://my.opera.com/rdandelion/blog/2010/08/20/the-magnitude-of-august-revolution -
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Vietnam War
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Vietnam is divided.
Vietnam was divided by the Bến Hải River at the 17th parallel. North Vietnam was communist under Ho Chi Minh's rule. South Vietnam was considered a "democratic" country, but it really was not.This is significant because the U.S. becomes South Vietnam's allie and we aid them.
Info: Slide 15 of http://csrmedia.education.asu.edu/Lectures/SS3/HistoryCore/Basic9/index.htm -
The French were defeated by Vietnam .
The French were defeated in their final battle at Dien Bien Phu. Under General Vo Nguyen Giap, 40,000 communist soldiers won the battle there. Even though the Vietnamese were now free, this is not the end of the war.
Info: Slide 15 and
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-defeated-at-dien-bien-phu
picture: http://padresteve.com/2011/05/09/a-quiet-remembrance-the-fall-of-dien-bien-phu-may-7th-1954/ -
South Vietnam is now Republic of Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem became the president of the anti-communist state.This is when the U.S. increased their amount of aid to the republic. This is also when created a good army for themselves.
Info: South Vietnam Wikipedia Picture: http://battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam -
Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated.
The president of the Republic of Vietnam was killed by a group of soldiers. The people of the republic were happy, but it sent the country into political chaos. It was the Americans that met with the generals and told them to go through with the assassination. The U.S. was more involved from then on in trying to fight the communists.
Info: History.com -
Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president of the United States.
LBJ becoming president after JFK's assassination related to the Vietnam War because he wanted to have the least amount of involvement as possible, while still not losing to the communist powers. He was very emotionally distraught because of the war ad would constantly be checking up o the casualty numbers and sometimes even just breaking down and crying.
Info: Slide 25 Lecture -
The Gulf of Tonkin incident happened on the North Vietnamese coast.
There was a confrontation involving the USS Maddox and some North Vietnamese soldiers were injured and some killed. There were no U.S. casualties. It has been accused of being a false flag situation. All of the Americans thought they were going to be sending more men to the war after this incident.
Info: Slide 24
Picture: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=23 -
United State sends comabt troops to Vietnam.
Communist countries threatened the U.S. if we helped the South Vietnamese any more. Some countries even attacked their U.S. Embassy. President Johnson just wanted to protect the airbase we had in South Vietnam.
Info:History.com
Picture: http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/12764 -
The Tet Offensive happens in South Vietnam.
The Tet Offensive was when Communist forces in North Vietnam attacked the cities of South Vietnam. This was out of character for the war, because it had been mostly in the suburbs previous to these attacks. This event is why President Johnson decides not to run for president again.
Info: Lecture Slide 26
Picture: http://www.onthisdeity.com/31st-january-1968-%E2%80%93-the-tet-offensive/ -
The My Lai massacre happened in South Vietnam.
American soldiers kill about 500 people, including children, women, and elderly people. The Army officers were able to hide this massacre for about a year before the American people found out. Only one soldier was finally convicted for this event.
Info:History.com
Picture: http://www.mylaipeacepark.org/archives -
The last of the American troops came home from Vietnam.
As the troops were leaving, they changed into civilian clothes so that people would not harass them when they got back into the states. These veterans were treated very poorly even though they should not have been. Since then, our government has helped soldiers coming out of other wars with PTSD and other things.
Info and picture: American Troops -
South Vietnam surrenders to the communists.
The North Vietnamese soldiers took over Saigon with little resistence coming from the South Vietnamese soldiers. This impacted America because we practically went to the war for no reason since they surrendered and we lost many men in that war.
Info: History.com
Picture: http://www.archives.com/genealogy/newspapers-vietnam-war.html -
Vietnam is unified again.
They two seperate states joined together again to create the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Up to 3 million Vietnamese people died during the war.
Info: Vietnam Wikipedia
Picture: http://www.impresstravel.com/the-socialist-republic-of-vietnam.html
