1946 - War for independence with the French

1953 - Stalin's death, KHRUSHCHEV COMES TO POWER

1954 - Geneva Peace Conference.
- Containment Policy - US knew the Communist Party in Vietnam were going to
win the elections and wanted to stop that
- USSR wanted to end the conflict
- Ceasefire in Vietnam
- Vietnam to be temporarily divided pending the general elections, and would
be unified afterwards

- As a result, SV and NV
- SV govt. with Diem, backed by USA, was very unpopular
- Ho Chi Minh based in NV
- Diem wanted to prevent the elections because Ho Chi Minh was expected to win
- China didn't want a repeat of the Korean war and wanted the US to gtfo
- Diem cancels elections.

START VIETNAM WAR

1959 - Sino-Soviet Split

- No more unified Communist bloc --> fail
- Worsening of relations between USSR and China
- Mao felt that the USSR were no long truly socialist, since Stalin's death

- However, both USSR and China helped NV out via weapons and military aid
- National Liberation Army (NLA/Vietcong) were a communist guerilla group in SV
backed by NV
- NV starts sending troops into SV, which asks the US for Aid

1964 - Gulf of Tonkin Incident; Johnson takes over as President

- Two US ships are supposedly fired upon
- Johnson gets Congress to pass a resolution which granted Johnson the
authority to assist any SEA country whose Government was jeopardised by "Communist
Aggression"
- Justification for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War

- Huge scuffles between USA and NV

- US troops don't hold or seize the ground after they attack NV - they take it
then leave and the North Vietnamese troops come back to seize the land
- Therefore, the US did not get support from any locals or villagers because they
would get shot once the US troops left the area

1968 - TET OFFENSIVE

- MAJOR turning point.
- Americans owned the North Vietnamese pretty badly
- NV lost 10 times as many men as the USA did
- However, it convinced the Americans that THE VIETNAM WAR COULD NOT BE WON
- NLA/Vietcong managed to attack SAIGON, which was an important base to the
USA
- Huge HUGE Anti-War movement going on in the USA

1969 - President Nixon Takes Over

- Withdraws troops from Vietnam

- SV is left to fight alone and gets owned.

The Significance of the Vietnam War

- Containment Policy implemented in Asia, again
- US fear of "domino theory"
- US Cold War Ideology
- Undermined America's position - economically
- Ideological war VS War of Independence & liberation