Vietnam+-+Path+to+War

=VIETNAM - THE PATH TO WAR =

You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and __Creating America__, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...
 * be between two and four complete, well written paragraphs
 * contain the following terms - __France, Ho Chi Minh__, __communism__, __Ngo Dinh Diem__, __military advisors__, Gulf of Tonkin, __Truman__, __Kennedy__, __Johnson__, Rolling Thunder
 * be IN YOUR OWN WORDS (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * contain two images THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam in 1965

Need some help? How about ... //Creating America// [|Into Vietnam (Overview)] from ABC-CLIO [|**Vietnam War** - the **Causes**] [|Timeline of the Vietnam War] [|Vietnam Online Timeline] Causes of the Vietnam War video below

and this voicethread, made by your favorite 8th grade American history teacher that you have this year (I like to limit my chances)

France had almost all of indochina in the late 1800s, and that included Vietnam. It was a huge money maker for France. But while France grew rich on rice and rubber, the Vietnamese peasants lost their land and grew poor. With no love of French rule, the Vietnamese people often staged revolts and created political parties to try and gain their independence. The Indochinese Communist Party was one such group, led by a man called __Ho Chi Minh__. He led communist revolts in the 1930s, but had been pushing for an independent Vietnam since around 1919. When the French arrested him, he fled to China and then to the Soviet Union. In the 1940s, Indochina was taken over by the Japanese in WWII. Ho Chi Minh waged Guerilla war against Japan, and at this point, he began to gain some implicit support from the United States. But as soon as WWII is over and Japan had left, the French returned. Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietmihn Party and declared independence in 1945.

After nine years of fighting, the Vietmihn successfully defeated the French in North Vietnam. There, they established a communist government. In 1954, there was a push for free elections to unite the nation of Vietnam in 1956. At the same time, South Vietnam was created and their leader was __Ngo Dinh Diem,__ who was more American friendly, while Ho Chi Minh was more Soviet friendly. Nobody in the South supported the free elections because they knew that Ho Chi Minh would be elected. A civil war begins in the late 1950s between the communist North and the American-supported South.

__Harry S. Truman's__ containment policy sent money to France, and some of that economic and military aid went to the French trying to defeat the Ho Chi Minh revolt. Under Eisenhower's administration, a puppet state is set up in the South, and __military advisors__ are sent to help in the South. Kennedy does not support Ngo Dinh Diem, and supports an overthrow of him, during which Ngo Ding Diem is assassinated. Kennedy continues to send military advisors to Vietnam. When Lyndon __Johnson__ takes over for Kennedy, he commits the U.S. more fully to the war in Vietnam and originally sends more military advisors. Johnson wants to stop the spread of communism.

In 1964, there were American ships in the __Gulf of Tonkin__ that were fired at by North Vietnamese ships. Congress gives Johnson an enormous amount of power, to declare war without really declaring war. Operation __Rolling Thunder__ consisted of the United States air force repeatedly dropping bombs on North Vietnam. In 1965, the first U.S. ground troops were sent to Vietnam.