The United States and Vietnam: An Outline


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INTRODUCTION: The Cold War and the Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam
A. Cold War
B. Containment
C. Europe
D.  Beyond Europe: Revolution in China; War in Korea
E.  The Cold War Frame: America Confronts the World
I.  Early History of Vietnam (to 1954)
A.  Historic Relationship of Vietnam to China
B. History of French rule of region
C. Emergence of revolutionary movements
D. Ho Chi Minh; Vietminh
E. Vietnam during and immediately followingWWII:
1.  Japanese Occupation
2.  British and Chinese (Nationalist) Occupation at Warís End
3. Democratic Republic of Vietnam proclaimed, 1946
4. First Indochina War, 1946-1954
5. Dienbienphu (1954)
F.  The Geneva Accords (1954)
1.  Vietnam partitioned along the 17th parallel; military
           disengagement
2.   Insulation from Cold War
3.   Elections to be held and the nation united in 1956
4.   Expectations: Vietnamese, French, United States and others
II. United States and Vietnam,  1945-1954
A. WWII
B. 1945-46: U.S. acquiesces in re-imposition of French colonial rule
C. 1947-49:  the US  dilemma
D. 1949: the "Fall" of China
E. 1950: before the Korean War, and After
F. 1954: Dienbienphu: "The Day We Didn't Go To War"
III.  U.S. and Vietnam: 1954-1963
A.  Eisenhower and the Falling Dominos

B. The United States Creates "South Vietnam"

1)  US Economic and Military Aid
2) Elections renounced
3) SEATO organized
4) Ngo Dinh Diem replaces Bao Dai
5) Counter-Insurgency begins
C. Insurgency Begins, 1958: North and South.  The People's Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) established

D. 1961-3(US):  Kennedy increases the US commitment

E. 1961-3 (Vietnam): "South" Vietnam Nears Collapse; overthrow and murder of Ngo Dinh Diem.

IV.  Increasing U.S. Involvement under Lyndon Johnson
A.  Lyndon Johnson: background and character.
B.  Death of Diem, Kennedy; reappraisal of U.S. involvement (DeGaulle, U Thant)
C.  Political Instability ends in rise to power of  Generals Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu (1965)
D. U.S. increases involvement; by July, 1964: 25,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
E. U.S. Election.  Johnson v. Goldwater
F. Gulf of Tonkin incident, resolution (August, 1964)
G. The Decision to Expand the War (1965)
V.  The War in Vietnam
A.  An Expanded War

B.  A New Kind of  War

1) Guerilla Warfare
2) Technology and Bureaucracy
3) Coverage: The Television War
4) Increasingly unpopular
VI. Anti-War Protest Grows:
A. Old pacifist and anti-war origins.  (e.g., SANE)
B. Teach-ins & Campus Protest (Emergence of The New Left)
C. Press
D. Political Leaders:  Wayne Morse, Eugene McCarthy, J. William Fulbright,
                                    Robert Kennedy
E. 1968: A Critical Year
1. Gene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy  challenges Johnson
2. TET Offensive (February, 1968)
3. Johnson announces he will not run; orders partial bombing halt
4. Kennedy, King are assassinated
5. 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago
6. Presidential Campaign: Nixon Defeats Humphrey
VI.  NIXON AND VIETNAM, 1968-1975
A.  Nixon Biography: Rise & Fall and Rise Again
B. Campaign of 1968
C. Vietnamization, Peace with Honor and the Decent Interval.
D. Bombing intensifies; the war spreads to Laos and Cambodia; Protest
            Mounts; My Lai Revealed; Invasion of  Cambodia; Kent State;
            Pentagon Papers published
E. Election of 1972.
F. Bombings resume (Christmas, 1972)
G. January, 1973, agreement announced
H. May 1975: South Vietnam collapses
VII.  The Meaning of Vietnam

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