Vietnam War. From French Colonialism to the American involvement to the killing fields of Cambodia

Transcription

1 Vietnam War From French Colonialism to the American involvement to the killing fields of Cambodia

2 The French Colonize Indochina French involvement started when French missionaries landed in Vietnam in the late 1700s. During the 1800s, the French established a colony in Southeast Asia, known as Indochina. By the 1890s, all of Vietnam was under French control. Indochina is composed of the modern nations of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The French exploited the Vietnamese by forcing each village to buy alcohol and opium. Many peasants worked in slave-like conditions on French plantations. In short, the French treated the Vietnamese poorly

3 Colonized Vietnam

4 Vietnamese Nationalism To administer their colony, the French had supported the development of a Vietnamese Western education middle-class. Many upper-class Vietnamese studied in French schools; they eventually got involved in nationalistic movements protesting French discrimination. During the 1920s, a clandestine Vietnamese Nationalistic Party(Vietnamese Quoc Dan Dong or VNQDD) was formed - it was committed to a violent overthrow of the French colonizers. The group was violently suppressed by the French secret police, the Sûreté. The VNQDD crushed, led an opening to its rival, the Communist Party of Vietnam, led by Nguyen Ai Quoc, later known as Ho Chi Minh.

5 The War of Liberation Against the French Ho Chi Minh was disillusioned by Vietnam s denial of a hearing for Vietnamese independence at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of WW1. - Ho dedicated his life to driving the French from Indochina. The Japanese invasion of Indochina in 1941 weakened the French and set the stage for the communists to advance their struggle for national liberation. The communist nationalist movement, called the Viet Minh, put their efforts in land reform and mass education

6 Ho Chi Minh

7 The War of Liberation against the French Using guerrilla tactics devised by Mao Zedong of China, the Viet Minh were able to win control of northern Vietnam and establish an independent state in August, After WWII, France wanted to regain colonial control of Vietnam - in March, 1946, the French reoccupied Saigon and much of southern Vietnam. They denounced Vietnamese independence and worked to regain control. However, the French lost a major battle at Dien Bien Phu and an international conference in Geneva promised the Vietnamese elections to decide who should govern Vietnam.

8 Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu

9 Vietnam s War Against the United States The promise at Geneva that free elections would occur in Vietnam was never kept. Vietnam had become entangled in the cold war saber rattling between the USA and the USSR. The U.S., fearful of communist movements, put a puppet leader Ngo Dinh Diem in control in the south. Diem, with the backing of America, worked to exterminate the communists in southern Vietnam - called the Viet Cong. The communists in the north began to support the south with weapons and advisors. When Diem proved ineffective, the U.S. authorized the South Vietnamese military to overthrow him and take direct charge of the war. The U.S. also stepped up its military intervention.

10 Napalm Attack

11 Political Cartoon - My Lai Massacre

12 Vietnam - Huey Helicopters

13 Grieving mother over the loss of her child

14 Vietnamese judicial system

15 Buddhist monk protesting the war by self-immolation

16 Anti-war protestors in Philadelphia

17 Fall of Saigon

18 Pol Pot

19 Mass Grave in Cambodia

20 Cambodian Victim

21 Vietnam s War Against the United States - p.2 The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ordered American bombing of Vietnam based on false reports of a torpedo attack against the U.S.S. Mattox. Despite the fact that America s growing intervention in Vietnam resulted in a force of over 500,000 men and that more bombs were dropped on Vietnam than all the theatres in WWII; the U.S. lost the war. Nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives and millions of Vietnamese perished as well America lost because the Vietnamese saw America as another imperial force there to exploit Vietnam. They were fighting for their independence. America negotiated a withdrawal and by 1975, the U.S. was out of Vietnam and the South Vietnam government fell to the communists. Saigon is today known as Ho Chi Minh City.

22 Vietnam: Epilogue Since the end of the war, America has worked to normalize relations with Vietnam. Initially, American corporations established contact with Vietnam to use its cheap labor for manufacturing(such as G.E.) You and I can go there as tourists today; although it is still has a communist government.

23 The Vietnam Memorial