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Panama Canal and Vietnam War. After the Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt needed a short cut. The Need for a Panama Canal. Speak Softly, But Carry a Big Stick!. Use Naval force to protect American Interest. T.R. and the Panama Canal. Teddy Roosevelt," I took Panama!”
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After the Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt needed a short cut The Need for a Panama Canal
Speak Softly,But Carry a Big Stick! Use Naval force to protect American Interest
T.R. and the Panama Canal • Teddy Roosevelt," I took Panama!” • U.S. makes a deal with Panama to build and control the canal
The Canal was Built at a Huge Cost • Built 1904 – 1914 • Challenges: volcanic soil, disease (malaria and yellow fever), dangerous conditions • Over 43, 000 workers employed • 5,600 die during construction (accidents + disease) • Cost U.S. about $380 million • U.S. paid Columbia $25 million for lost land
In 1977, president Carter signed two treaties, agreeing to return the Canal to Panamanians in 1999 Handover of the Canal
As Cold War intensified, the key to stopping the spread of Communism was Vietnam France gave up its control in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in what was called French Indochina Vietnam War
North Vietnam Communist leader Ho Chi Minh led a war of independence to unify the partitioned Vietnam Eisenhower saw the danger and made his Domino Theory speech in 1954 and laid the foundation for US involvement in Vietnam Containment Policy/Domino Theory
In 1964, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, where two American destroyers were apparently fired upon by the North Vietnamese, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions and gave president Johnson the power “to defend Vietnam at any cost.” Tonkin Bay Incident
LBJ started sending troops to Vietnam in 1965 By 1968, more than half a million US troops were fighting in Vietnam After the “Tet Offensive”, a surprise attack by the North Vietnam army in 1968, the US public began to doubt the government and its claim of winning the war The War Intensified
My Lai massacre, the use of napalm, public execution of suspects gradually turned the US opinion against the war
Nixon and his advisor Henry Kissinger wanted to gradually withdraw U.S. troops & replace them with South Vietnamese soldiers But he instead increased bombing Hanoi and ordered an invasion of Cambodia Nixon won the Whitehouse in 1968 and began his Vietnamization policy
In a series of peace talks, the US finally got out of Vietnam in 1973 after all parties signed a ceasefire In 1975, North Vietnamese violated the ceasefire, toppled the South Vietnamese government and unified the country The Fall of Saigon