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The Geneva Conference
mark the end of the Indochina war
had divided the country at the seventeenth parallel
planned an general election for reunification slated to take peace 2 years hence
Laos is declared neutral -
Election of Diem > Republic of Vietnam
"After a rigged referendum, he proclaimed the creation of the Republic of Vietnam, with himself as president. His government was supported by other anti-communist countries, most notably the United States." -
Program of terror
assassinating hundreds of Diem's village officials
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Sixteen new Africa States joined the United Nation
the number for just this year
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Creation of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
Southern communists acting at the direction of Hanoi organized the NLF
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2 visions
Khrushchev endorsed "wars of national liberation" vs Kennedy called for a "peaceful revolution" in the Third World -
American Aid Program
Multibillion dollar Alliance for Progress = to spur economic development in Latin America
Peace Corps = sent thousands of American teachers, agricultural specialists and health workers to assist authorities in the developing world
Improve the image/reputation of the U.S
Counter anti-communism
Counter revolutionaries -
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The fighting intensified
The U.S. stepped up aid $
Increasing the airdropping of raiding teams into the North Vietnam +launched crop destruction herbicides to starve the Vietcong (=NLF in the South) and explose their hiding
Strengthened the U.S military presence in the South -
The overthrow and assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
The U.S. > implicated and supported this action (CIA) > because Lumumba had financial and material support from USSR,= he represented a communist threat
Now Joseph Kasa-Vubu's position as president secure, the U.S. has power over the USSR since the government is pro-Western -
Laos was removed from the list of Cold war crisis point
Kennedy opted back a Soviet-sponsored initiative to convene a new Geneva Conference on Laos.
Deal was signed
An Amanrican diplomatic solution > the oppposition may find it too soft -
The U.S. sold Hawh surface-to-air missiles to Israel
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In the Dominican Republic, the American military had ousted the leftwing non-communist Juan Bosch
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Diem was overthrown and murdered
The Kennedy administration changed its position and supported this action.
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US President Kennedy's death in Dallas
U.S. Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeds to the office
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Political instability in South Vietnam deepened and the Vietcong continued to register gains
The possibility coomed that Saigon regime might collapse without a major increase in U.S. involvement.
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LBJ phone conversation
He fears it will turn into the Korean War > with an intervention of the China
He feels that U.S. won't be able to beat them -
Expansion of the war
The U.S. secretly planned an expansion of the war into North Vietnam ans sent more U.S. miltary advisers to the South
USSR + China > increasing their aid to North Vietnam (but never came close to matching U.S. totals for Saigon) and Hanoi stepped up the flow of material + men -
The incident in the Gulf of Tonkin (off the coast of North Vietnam)
The U.S. destroyers reported coming under attack from North Vietnamese patrol boats
The U.S President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnamesepatrol boat + an oil depot
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave of the presidnet the authority to "take all necessary measures to reply any armed attack against the forces of the U.S. and to prevnt further aggression" -
The eviction of Khrushchev
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The democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson won the U.S. presidential election
Was Kennedy's vice president
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Quagmire thesis
They criticized > said that the president didn't know what he was getting intobut this thesis is untenable (old documents)
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The United States bombed much of Vietnam, killing and maiming several hundred thousand Vietnamese (North and South).
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Period: to
Israel received the first shipments of the U.S. tanks and skyhawk bombers
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Johnson chose the escalation
U.S. could be a force for good in Vietnam > could help the Vietnameses to achieve a better life
reputation/ credibility
against communism -
The U.S. Vice President Hubert Hemphrey wrote to the U.S. President
an expanded war was both inadvisable and avoidable
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Period: to
Operation Rolling Thunder = Bombing Program
because > feb.1965 > Vietcong attacked American installations in Southstrategic failure
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The first U.S. combat battalions came ashore near Danag
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The Dominican Republic (continued)
A group of military leaders tried to restore Bosch to power but were thwarted by the ruling junta
Johnson sent nearly 23.000 soldiers to the country > end to the rebellion > but CIA said that no communists were involved > So FBI under the order of the president has to find communists in the country (false guilty) -
Johnson made his choice > the escalation of the conflict was already well under way
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The public announcement of the US President
A significant increase in troops and disclosed that others would follow
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McNamara - The Pentagon Papers
He ordered a huge study of all the documents on Vietnam going back to the 1940's
He is alert to the increase in the number of civilians killed and maimed by U.S. bombing and doubts that victory will be achieved in the long term. -
Superiority of U.S. weaponry
1.052 intercontinental ballistic missiles VS USSR = 900 -
Egypt threatened the Gulf of Aqaba (=the entranceway to Israel's key southern part of Elat
Johnson > begged Israel for more time > to secure a peaceful settlement
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Israel struck suddently - Six-Day War
Victory by seizing the Sinai Peninsula + the Gaza strip from Egypt / the West Bank + East Jerusalem from Jordan/ the Golan Heights from Syria
Gained 28.000 square miles
Ancestral home of hundreds of thousands Palestinians -
The USS Liberty incident
"was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship (spy ship),by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats
The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members +wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship." -
The U.S. and Israel continue to be allies despite the various actions and the UN resolution
"Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Both the Israeli and U.S. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the ship's identity" -
Summit in Glassboro, New Jersey
Johnson met the Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Minister Alexei Kosygin
The U.S. president wanted Moscow to pressure Ho chi Minh to make peace -
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The Prague Spring
"was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic" -
The Tet Offensive
Vietcong + North Vietnamese forces struck all across South Vietnam capturing provincial capitals and attacked some places like the American embassy
The heavy fighting called into question American military leaders confident prediction in earlier mnths that the war would soon won -
White House meeting
"we must begin take steps to disengage"
an increase of weapons, material and men will not change the outcome = failure -
The U.S. President Johnson announced he chose not to run for reelection in a televised speech
talked > peace in Vietnam > halt the bombing except for a small area
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Date of signature but it will take until 1970 for it to be applied. -
The Republican Richard Nixon won the U.S. Presidential Election
Won against incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey