vietnam war

• what was the my lai massacre?


  US forces killed 300 civilians in a search and destroy mission
• what was operation rolling thunder?

  air bombing campaigns across north vietnam
• South Vietnam was capitalist
• north Vietnam was led by who?

  Ho chi Minh
• north vietnam became communist
• Vietnam was divided into North and south
• The Viet Minh had control of North Vietnam
• US army tactics :

  • agent orange and napalm gas
  • bombed viet cong supply routes and strongholds
• The US army aimed to stop communism from spreading SOuth
• Many civilians were harmed by the US army
• Most US troops were qualified, but not all
• Viet Cong tactics :

  • Guerilla warfare - no headquarters , no uniform, they worked in small groups with limited weapons
• Vietcong army killed 27K civilians
• Vietcong army aimed to spread communism to the south
• The USA failed to stop the spread of communism
• Vietnam fell to communism
• The US' reputation was damaged due to the atrocities
• USA and the USSR agreed on the SALT which reduced nuclear weapons
• what did SALT stand for?

  strategic arms limitation treaty
• Ho Chi Minh was prepared to sacrifice his soldiers , there were always replacements - 1M soldiers lost
• 40K Vietnamese worked to keep their supply lines open at all costs
• anyone who didn't support the Viet song was executed
• what was the set offensive?


  viet cong fighters attacked over 100 cities and military targets. 116K civilians lost their homes
• US forces killed 300-400 civilians, some were gunned down in fields, some were piled into a ditch and shot
• it cost the US $500K to kill an enemy soldier and yet only $53 was spent yearly on helping the poor
• even the US' vast strength could not stop the spread of communism
• The US failed to stop south Vietnam falling to communism and by 1975, both Laos and Cambodia had communist governments as well
• Vietnamisation - handing the responsibility for the war to south Vietnamese forces and withdrawing US troops
• 30 years later, vietnam fell to communism
• in the 1960's,. the south Vietnamese government was losing control of the countryside to the "front for the liberation of south vietnam", or the vietcong
• domino theory - US government was sure that china and the USSR were planning on spreading communism to countries in Asia. They thought the if one country feel to communism, the others would fall like dominoes