Quick questions on The Vietnam War 1955 to 1975: QCE Modern History Unit 4

French colonialism in Indochina. France ruled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from the 1860s. Resistance was led from the 1930s by Ho Chi Minh, founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1930) and the Viet Minh nationalist movement (1941).

Containment and the domino theory. Eisenhower articulated the domino theory in 1954: if Vietnam fell to communism, neighbouring states (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) would follow. US support for Diem's South Vietnam was framed as containing communist expansion in Southeast Asia.

Gulf of Tonkin incident (August 2-4, 1964). US destroyer USS Maddox reported attacks by North Vietnamese boats. The second alleged attack (August 4) was later acknowledged as not having occurred. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7) authorising military action without formal declaration of war.

Nixon was elected in November 1968 promising "peace with honour". His strategy:

After the US withdrawal, North Vietnamese forces resumed offensives. In spring 1975, a rapid advance overwhelmed South Vietnamese resistance. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. The last US helicopters lifted Americans and selected Vietnamese from the US embassy rooftop.

Vietnam reunified. Communist government from 1975. Economic hardship through the 1970s and 1980s; later reforms ("Doi Moi", 1986) opened the economy.

France ruled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from the 1860s. Resistance was led from the 1930s by Ho Chi Minh, founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1930) and the Viet Minh nationalist movement (1941).

Japan occupied Indochina from 1940. Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh fought a guerrilla campaign against Japanese forces. In August 1945, the Viet Minh declared independence (Hanoi declaration, September 2, 1945, paraphrasing the US Declaration of Independence).

France refused to recognise Vietnamese independence and re-imposed colonial control. The First Indochina War (1946-1954) was an anti-colonial conflict. France was supported by the USA after 1950 (when the Cold War reframed the conflict as anti-communist).

Vietnamese forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap besieged and defeated a French fortified position. The decisive defeat ended French resolve.

Conference of major powers and Vietnamese parties: - Vietnam temporarily divided at the 17th parallel. - North: Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) under Ho Chi Minh, communist. - South: State of Vietnam (later Republic of Vietnam) initially under Bao Dai, then Ngo Dinh Diem.

Eisenhower articulated the domino theory in 1954: if Vietnam fell to communism, neighbouring states (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) would follow. US support for Diem's South Vietnam was framed as containing communist expansion in Southeast Asia.

Communist sympathisers in the South (later organised as the National Liberation Front, "Viet Cong", from 1960) began guerrilla operations against Diem's government. The North supported them through the Ho Chi Minh Trail (1959 onwards).

Authoritarian, Catholic-dominated, alienating the Buddhist majority. The "Buddhist crisis" (1963) saw monks self-immolate in protest. Diem was assassinated in a US-supported coup on November 2, 1963 (three weeks before Kennedy's own assassination).

US destroyer USS Maddox reported attacks by North Vietnamese boats. The second alleged attack (August 4) was later acknowledged as not having occurred. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7) authorising military action without formal declaration of war.