Background to Vietnam War
- Originally a French colony (Indochina)
- Ho Chi Minh and his communist supporters resisted Japanese occupation during WWII
- After WWII the French reoccupied
- Ho Chi Minh fought the French and defeated them in 1954 (Dien Bien Phu)
- Laos, Cambodia granted independence
- Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
- South Vietnam was led by a Catholic named Ngo Dinh Diem
- The mainly Buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Viet Cong (a guerrilla force)
- The North (Ho Chi Minh) supported both of these groups
- The north never accepted the Geneva agreement of 1954
- US saw this as another situation in which containment as necessary (SEATO)
- The US had supported the French (military advisors)
- Kennedy increased troops in 1962 from 500-10,000
- CIA overthrows Diem in 1963 (corruptness)
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam War
- A fabricated incident was set up; an American destroyer (USS Maddox) was torpedoed
- Led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Golf Resolution
- Lead to the commitment of regular grand troops and air support
- 200,000 troops in 1965 - 600,000 in 1968
summary
When the French left Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu it split the country into two at DMZ. THe US President Johnson wanted a full army installed in Vietnam and then when the fake incident occurred Johnson installed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
