vietnam

• Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel
• Eisenhower provided support for the South Vietnamese government in the form of money, weapons and military advisers
• Domino theory


  If one country in Asia fell to communism, more would follow
• As part of the Truman Doctrine, France was given $1-4 billion to help contain communism in Asia
• Ngo Dinh Diem was an unpopular leader in South Vietnam, his regime was brutal and corrupt
• Ngo Dinh Diem's unpopular regime


  Led to more support for the Viet Cong
• In November 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown and assassinated, shortly after Kennedy was killed
• By 1963, there were 16,000 US military advisers in Vietnam
• In 1964, North Vietnam attacked a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin
• Lyndon Johnson believed the attack provided an excuse for massive American involvement in Vietnam
• The US Congress agreed, allowing the president to fight the war as he saw fit
• Over 3 years, a massive number of US troops landed in the country and fought against the Viet Cong
• The US used napalm and Agent Orange in bombing raids
• By 1968, there were 500,000 US troops in Vietnam
• The Viet Cong used guerrilla warfare tactics, such as surprise attacks, tunnels and supply routes through Cambodia and Laos
• The Tet Offensive in 1968, with surprise attacks on urban areas, made Americans feel they could not win the war
• The war was a humiliation for the US and a setback for containment in Indochina
• Two years later, all of Vietnam was communist
• The war did not increase US power in Asia and did not destroy détente in the 1970s
• Vietnam was economically and socially devastated after the war
• Many US veterans suffered severe PTSD and other injuries
• The war resulted in heavy casualties on all sides