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The Vietnam War 1954-1975. Chapter 22. The U.S. becomes locked in a military stalemate in Southeast Asia. U.S. forces withdraw after a decade of heavy war casualties abroad and assassinations and unrest at home. Origins of the conflict. France had colonized SE Asia since the late-1800s.
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The Vietnam War 1954-1975 • Chapter 22
The U.S. becomes locked in a military stalemate in Southeast Asia. U.S. forces withdraw after a decade of heavy war casualties abroad and assassinations and unrest at home.
Origins of the conflict France had colonized SE Asia since the late-1800s Ho Chi Minh leads the Vietnamese Independence movement and helps create the Indochinese Communist Party He declares independence from France in 1945
French loose control of their former colonies in Asia • U.S. gives massive aid to the French to help them maintain their colonies • French are defeated at Dien Bien Phu • Country is divided into a communist north and a western-backed south
The original justification for the war was the “domino theory” which states that neighboring countries will eventually fall to communism
Diem leads the south • President Diem is installed as President of S. Vietnam by the U.S. and the French. • With the backing of the US he refuses to allow elections because he feared that the country would side with Ho Chi Minh and the communists
Diem is a corrupt politician who turns his back on the country’s poor. He persecutes Buddhists who demonstrate against his regime. Some monks and nuns respond by burning themselves in public.
Against Kennedy’s wishes, Diem is killed in a US-sponsored military coup (takeover) on November 1, 1963. Kennedy himself will be assassinated three weeks later.
Lyndon Johnson becomes President after Kennedy’s death and quickly escalates American involvement in Vietnam. Note: Jackie Kennedy is still wearing her blood-stained Chanel suit. She regretted washing the blood from her face and hands and told Lady Bird Johnson “I want them to see what they did to Jack.”