15. Who’s Who Ho’s Vietminh : North Vietnam - fought for independence from French - become NV Army. National Liberation Front : Political movement in the South. (P.R.G. = Provisional Rev Gov’t - at Peace talks) Vietcong : N.L.F. guerilla fighters in the South. 17°N N.V.A. Regulars N.L.F. V.C.
16. Gulf of Tonkin Incident NVA torpedo boats attack USS Maddox (acting as an intelligence ship) 02 August, 1964
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19. Op Rolling Thunder 1965 - 1968 More dropped on North Vietnam than on Germany and Japan in WW2
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23. The US was never able to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail Ho Chi Minh Trail
30. John Kerry, 2004 Democratic candidate / John Lennon Some other guy
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34. Not embedded: what’s the difference? 'Vietnam syndrome' " Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America - not on the battlefields of Vietnam. " Marshall McLuhan, 1975
1949 Mao defeated Chiang and China became Communist.
Operations at Dien Bien Phu began at 10:35 on the morning of November 20, 1953. In Operation Castor, the French dropped or flew 9,000 troops into the area over three days. THE FRENCH WERE STILL OUTNUMBERED 5 TO 1.
On May 8, the Viet Minh counted 11,721 prisoners, of whom 4,436 were wounded .[65] This was the greatest number the Viet Minh had ever captured The prisoners, French survivors of the battle at Dien Bien Phu, were starved, beaten, and heaped with abuse, and many died .[69] Of 10,863 survivors held as prisoners, only 3,290 were repatriated four months later.[65] The fate of 3,013 prisoners of Indochinese origin is unknown.[70]
L to R: Ho, Bao Dai, Diem
A Buddhist monk commits self- immolation in Saigon, June 11, 1963 in protest of Diem’s persecution of Buddhists in South Vietnam. Diem promised reforms but continued attacks on Buddhist temples. In November a military coup toppled Diem’s govt.
In 1969 the NLF created the PRG in order to have government status and thus be able to attend the Peace Talks.
General Westmoreland
ARVN = Army pf the Republic of South Vietnam
Pronounced “Me Lie” - over 100 killed: Sentenced but released after only a couple of years.
Operation Ranch Hand 1961-1972
May 4, 1970
In 1972 the North allowed that the South’s gov’t could stay in place and there would be free elections so that the reunification of Vietnam could be “carried out step by step in a peaceful means.”
The USA cancelled the universal draft shortly after Vietnam.