Background to the Vietnam conflict
Cards (15)
- In 1965 the USA launched Operation Rolling Thunder: the bombing of military targets in North Vietnam
- Vietnam is a LONG way from America so, why did the US get involved in this conflict?
- Viet MinhAn organisation dedicated to removing foreign imperialist powers from Vietnam
- CommunismA classless society where all property is owned publicly
- BankrollA person or organisation paying for something to happen
- Truman Doctrine shaped American politics during the early days of the Cold War
- Battle of Dien Bien PhuThe French were finally defeated by the Viet Minh
- The outcome of this defeat was formalised in the Geneva Agreement of July 1954 and temporarily separated Vietnam into two zones: a northern zone to be governed by the Viet Minh, and a southern zone to be governed by an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem
- 17th ParallelThe border that separated North and South Vietnam
- ContainmentAn American policy to try and stop communism from spreading, to restrict it from spreading to other countries
- Domino theoryAn American idea that if one country fell to communism, others would follow - like a row of dominoes
- America was operating a policy of containment so decided to give its support to the non-communist government of South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem
- Ngo Dinh Diem
- He had removed the previous leader in a fraudulent election, in which he had won 600,000 votes in a country with only 450,000 people eligible to vote
- He was a rich landowner in a country of poor peasant farmers
- He was a Catholic and openly discriminated against Buddhists (the majority religion in Vietnam at the time)
- He was a staunch anti-communist and the USA was operating a strategy of containment
- Some Buddhists, for example the Buddhist monk Quang Duc, burnt themselves to death in protest at Diem's government
- Observe this map of Vietnam in the 1950s, and label it.A) North VietnamB) South VietnamC) Gulf of TonkinD) ChinaE) LaosF) CambodiaG) 17th