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Summary Vietnam War
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Summarised notes on important events of the Vietnam war
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The Vietnam WarImportant terms
● ARVN- Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese army)
● CIA- Central Intelligence Agency
● NVA- North Vietnamese Army
● Vietminh- League for the independence of Vietnam
● Viet Cong- ‘Vietnamese communists’ South Vietnamese fighting to
overthrow the government
● Guerilla- Soldiers that use hit and run tactics against an enemy
● Domino theory- The idea of communism spreading through countries
● Proxy War- When opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for
fighting each other directly
Important People
● Ho Chi Minh- Founder of the Vietnamese communist and
independence movement, president of North Vietnam
● General Vo Nguyen Giap- Founder of the Vietnamese communist party
and commander of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
● Ngo Dinh Diem- President of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
Assassinated by ARVN generals, backed by the CIA
● Lyndon B. Johnson- President of the USA. Escalated US involvement
and began the bombing of North Vietnam
● Richard Nixon- President of the USA. Initially escalated US
involvement but withdrew forces by 1973
● General William Westmoreland- Commanded US military operations
during the TET offensive. Adopted a strategy of attrition against the
Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army
● Attrition- Reducing something’s strength through sustained attack or
pressure
Background of Vietnam
● Vietnamese fought for independence from China, they used guerrilla
tactics to win but the Chinese returned
● The French helped expel the Chinese and in turn, took over Vietnam
● This made it part of French Indochina which included Laos and
Cambodia
● Ho Chi Minh demanded independence from the French and founded
the Vietnamese Communist Party with Vo Nguyen Giap
The Events Following World War 2
● Indochina was invaded by Japan and Giap founded the Vietminh to
fight for independence
● They had help from the USA. The Japanese surrendered and the
Vietminh had control of the North
● The British defeated the Japanese in the south and gave that land back
to France who tried to regain control over the whole of Vietnam
, ● The USA was fearful of the spread of communism and supported the
French with weapons and money
● The French were defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
● Vietnam was divided by a communist North, led by Ho Chi Minh
● And a non-communist South led by Bao Dai
● The US continued to support the South and Vietnamese people saw
them as a new colonial power
● Elections for a single Vietnamese government that would govern both
parts never took place because it was clear that communists would win
● Bao Dai was overthrown by the Prime Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem who
intended to rule South Vietnam as a separate country
● The US was afraid of the domino effect- if one Asian country fell to
communism, its neighbours would follow and therefore supported Ngo
Dinh Diem
● They intended to stop the process at the border between North and
South Vietnam
● The domino theory gave a civil war between Vietnamese
Stages of the War
1. 1957-1965: The struggle in South Vietnam between the ARVN
and Viet Cong
● Diem’s government in the South was unpopular. Peasants wanted land
and freedom from landowners but the government refused to
contemplate land reform
● The Vietminh had taken land from landowners and this increased
popularity of communism in the south
● The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), a group
of opposition parties was set up and was soon to be dominated by
communists
● They formed a guerilla army (the Viet Cong) which received training in
North Vietnam
● The VC fought using guerilla tactics. This made it difficult to find and
defeat them as they chose when and where to attack and then
disappeared
● The US support for South Vietnam under Eisenhower consisted of
supplying equipment and military advisors to train the ARVN
● In 1961 the US was faced with two crises, the Berlin Wall and the
failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. These made Kennedy believe that
another failure would damage the US’ reputation and thus Kennedy
was determined to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam
● Kennedy decided to increase military aid to the South. The USS Core
arrived and now there were 12 000 US military advisors in Vietnam
● Supplies for the VC from the North were carried along a network of
trails running through Laos and Cambodia. These were known as the
Ho Chi Minh trails
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