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"The Domino Theory"
President Dwight D. Eisenhower explains his idea of what would happen if communism was to keep spreading, as it was actively spreading from the USSR. He uses the term "domino theory," to describe what would happen. This term is obviously something important to history because we still learn about the domino theory. -
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The Geneva Accords
The Geneva Accords deployed a ceasefire for Indochina, and set up what was supposed to be an election for the state of Vietnam. This election never actually happened though, which concerned the US and encouraged the US to step in and make the election happen for the state of Vietnam. -
Bob Dylan "Masters of War"
Bob Dylan's song "Masters of War" was written about the cold war conflict that was going on at the same time as the Vietnam war. This is a good representation of the counter culture that was on it's way as the Vietnam war started. The counter culture was something that made people angry and probably added influence to continue the Vietnam war. -
Thich Quang Duc self immolation
A Buddhist monk burned himself to death as a protest against the way Buddhist were being mistreated by South Vietnam leader, Ngo Dimh Diem, a catholic. Diem was assassinated soon after, this incident probably being one of the big reasons he was assassinated. -
The assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
The leader of South Vietnam was assassinated which left South Vietnam without a leader. This caused the US to want to step in even more because South Vietnam was vulnerable to communist takeover. -
JFK assassination/LBJ inauguration
The assassination of JFK and inauguration of LBJ changed the war and urged it further as LBJ had a different approach than JFK did. This further led to the Gulf Tonkin resolution. -
Gulf Tonkin incident (1)
In the waters called The Gulf of Tonkin, an incident between the US and North Vietnam occurred. The USS Maddox was approached by three Northern Vietnam torpedo boats, Maddox sending off a few torpedo's as warnings, and the North Vietnam ships responded by shooting at the Maddox. -
Gulf Tonkin incident (2)
The US received radar images that they believed to be North Vietnamize torpedo ships coming close to the US ships again, possibly for another attack. There radar images hadn't been real though, so it was just a scare of a second incident. Many people believed that North Vietnam was truly coming for another attack though. Both the first incident and this one fueled the Gulf Tonkin resolution. -
Gulf Tonkin Resolution
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to respond to North Vietnam with military force without a congressional declaration of war. -
Provn is created
“A Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam” is what PROVN stands for. It was created to protect the citizens that live in villages of Vietnam. The goal was to not damage the lives and property of those citizens. This encourages the idea that the US was planning on being in Vietnam for a longer period of time that could have put the citizens of Vietnam in danger. -
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Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a series of coordinated attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The attacks were from the North Vietnamize. This was in an attempt to scare the US out of Vietnam. -
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Battle of Saigon
This took place at the same time as the Tet Offensive attacks. Saigon was the target of the Tet offensive attacks, but it wasn't possible to take over or fully destroy the capital, which is Saigon. That was also were the US embassy was located, which was another specific target for the battle as well as the Tet attacks.
