Vietnam


Harvard-educated, Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh led the North Vietnamese, pro-communist forces.	Fearing the domino effect, American troops, first under Kennedy, "advised" the South Vietnamese. But following JFK's death, Johnson escalated the "chopper war" so that by '65, more than 500,000 GI's were in country.	The enemy and the environment (often one in the same) became difficult hurdles for American troops.

As the death tolls began to rise on both sides, and the Vietcong seemed no more willing to cease their resistance. Frustration on both the political and home fronts began to surface.	Two events in Vietnam in 1968 began the slippery slope. First, the Tet Offensive became a moral victory for the North. And second, what became known as the My Lai Massacre, where more than 500 villagers, including women and children, were killed by American soldiers.	The 1968 Election became crucial for anti-war demonstrators who descended upon the Democratic convention in Chicago. Mayor Richard Daley and his police were widely criticized for using excessive force in subduing protestors outside the convention hall.

When Nixon began bombing Cambodia and Laos in May, 1970, America erupted in protest again. On the campus at Kent State, four students were shot by National Guard troops.	In April, 1975, helicopters evacuate the nearby US Embassy in the capital city of Saigon; the city America defended for nearly two decades falls. Did America lose its longest war in history?

Chapter 30
Section One	Sections Two
Ho Chi Minh, Dien Bien Phu and the Domino theory	Define containment and escalation
Vietminh and Vietcong - the difference	Difficulties of jungle warfare
Diem's assassination and the Gulf of Tonkin - Green lights to war	Low morale in the field and at home...why?
Section Three	Section Four
Explain the "working class war"	1968 - Tet and My Lai
Role of SDS and Campus activism	Crisis throughout the nation - where, why
Relevency of doves and hawks	Nixon's promise - Vietnamization
Section Five
Pullout and Peace with Honor - Define
Connection between Cambodia and Kent State
The war's numerous painful legacies