Copie - guerre du Vietnam

Vietnam War

1955-1975

INDEX

I/The origins of the conflict

II/ The progress of the conflictA) Kennedy B) Johnson C) Nixon

III/ The failure of the USA and the consequences of the conflict

Introduction

Indochina = gathering of several Asian provinces: -> Vietnam + Laos + Cambodia. This group of regions belonged to the French colonial empire, which imposed a particularly austere political and economic regime on the locals, causing an uprising of the population.

The national revolutionary force of Indochina (Vietnam), claims control of the country in 1945. Ho Chi Minh, declared independence on 2 September.

-> France launches a military offensive = Indochina War -> End : defeat of France at Diên Biên Phu on 7 May 1954

I/ The origins of the conflict

Principal reason of the Vietam war: cutting of the country along the 17th parallel (Geneva Conference)

under the soviet domination

Consequences : Creation of an insurrectionary opposition movement : National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam or "Viet Cong", who fight for the reunification of Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

Domino Theory: American geopolitical theory according to which a country's ideological shift in favour of communism would be followed by the same change in neighbouring countries through a domino effect.

under the western influence

A real fear of communism is taking hold in the United States, as evidenced by McCarthyism. This is why they decide to intervene...

= authoritarian regime embodied by Ngô Dinh Diêm president until 1963

II/ THE COURSE OF THE CONFLICTA) John Fitzgerald Kennedy

He wants to save Diem's regime from communist invasion at all costs, even if it means supporting an autocratic leader, contrary to American ideology.

Diem murdered because considered too weak and unpopular

3th November 1963

22th November 1963

11th June 1963

1961

1963

Kennedy decides the withdrawal of his troops and military advisers from his country installed in South Vietnam

Buddhist monk sets himself on fire

Kennedy is assassinated, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson decides to continue the war by sending more troops

II/ THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFLICTB) Lyndon B. Johnson

Assault on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin -> the president launches the first American raids in South Vietnam on 4 August 1964 + obtains from Congress the right to "take all necessary measures to defeat communism"

1965: President Johnson decides to commit his country to war, with the massive sending of troops and equipment + military operations on the territory of North Vietnam.

2 March 1965: Operation Rolling Thunder from March 1965 to October 1968: 850,000 tonnes of bombs on North Vietnam

Determined to fight against communism and support South Vietnam

9 March 1965: Johnson authorises the use of napalm.

Beginning in March 1965, the human commitment of the United States increased:

Sending conscripts, this change allowed Lyndon Johnson to send more and more soldiers

Laos and Cambodia are soon drawn into the war Around 50,000 South Korean and 10,000 Thai soldiers are also fighting alongside US troops, amounting to about 700,000 soldiers.

550 000

Chemical defoliants: napalm and "Agent Orange". = burn vegetation cover, wooden houses and crops, with very long-term pest effects

390 000

185 000

125 000

In total, in June 1969, about one and a half million soldiers were fighting on the South Vietnamese side.

C) Nixon (1969-1974)(1969-1974)

February 1968: the turning point of the war with the Tet offensive launched on more than 100 towns in the South and on American bases.

However, the war continued between North and South Vietnam, which had rejected the Paris Agreements, until the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. The city was then renamed Ho Chi Minh City and the two Vietnamese states were reunited.

March 1970 : Nixon ordered a halt to the bombing and began negotiations with the FNL and North Vietnam. 1973 : he concluded the Paris Peace Accords in which the United States committed itself to withdraw all its troops and North Vietnam to release all its American prisoners.

The revelation in November 1969 of the My Lai massacre, an American war crime

III/US failure and the consequences of the conflict

Deaths : Americans: 58,000 Vietnamese: 3.8 million civilians and military = 8% of their population.... -Massacres of civilians since 10,000 villages were destroyed at the end of the war-the filmed war.

The Americans finally lost the war, despite their material superiority

America's prestige : strongly tarnished as a result, the USA has been heavily criticised The chemicals used by the Americans have sterilised a third of the land and are still the cause of many diseases among the Vietnamese. .

Conclusion

VS

THANKS !

Nia Urjukashvili