1 / 16

The Vietnam War: 1954-1975

The Vietnam War: 1954-1975. The End of the War: 1968-1975 Seeking Peace with Honor. The Paris Peace Talks and the Election of 1968. Begun May 5, 1968. No results. Nixon campaign message claimed he had a secret plan to end the war. LBJ - not seeking re-election Democratic race included:

whitney
Download Presentation

The Vietnam War: 1954-1975

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Vietnam War: 1954-1975 The End of the War: 1968-1975 Seeking Peace with Honor

  2. The Paris Peace Talks and the Election of 1968. • Begun May 5, 1968. • No results. • Nixon campaign message claimed he had a secret plan to end the war. • LBJ - not seeking re-election • Democratic race included: • VP Hubert H. Humphrey • Sen. Robert F. Kennedy • Sen. Eugene McCarthy

  3. Republican Richard Nixon won in 1968 - a political comeback. • Robert Kennedy assassinated in June. • McCarthy - outspoken anti-war candidate. • Democratic National Convention - Chicago riot • Nixon defeated Humphrey. • Promised to end the war and sought “peace with honor”.

  4. “Vietnamization” and Peace with Honor • Plan of removing American troops and replacing them with South Vietnamese soldiers. • US continued heavy bombing of Vietnam • US troop strength dropped from 500,000 in 1969 to 24,000 by 1972

  5. Widening the war into Cambodia… to end it. • Nixon ordered secret bombing of Viet Cong sanctuaries insided Cambodia (1970) • US and South Vietnamese troops also invaded Cambodia • Nixon hoped to win concessions at the bargaining table. Operation Linebacker B-52s to bomb Cambodia

  6. Kent State (Akron, Ohio) 1970 • News of Cambodian invasion set off a new round of campus anti-war protests (May 1970) • Jackson State (MS), 2 killed, 11 wounded • Kent State - Ohio National Guard confronted hundreds of protesters -- 4 students killed, 9 wounded • Hundreds of campuses shut down early due to unrest.

  7. Nixon calls for law and order • Nixon appealed to the great “silent majority” of Americans. • “If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majoirty, this nation has no future as a free society.”

  8. “Hard Hat” riots in New York City in support of Nixon • Over 100,000 construction workers marched. • Angry at the student anti-war protestors

  9. 1972 - “Peace is at Hand” • Paris Peace talks stalled since 1968. Renewed periodically. • National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger claimed peace was at hand - just before 1972 election. • December 1972, new round of bombing - “Christmas bombings” (Nixon - a “mad bomber”) • Bombed Hanoi, North Vietnam

  10. 1973 - Paris Peace Accords • The United States would withdraw all its forces from South Vietnam within 60 days. • All prisoners of war would be released. • All parties to the agreement would end military activities in Laos and Cambodia. • The 17th parallel would continue to divide North and South Vietnam until the country could be reunited.

  11. South Vietnam falls • North continued its assault on the South • Saigon (capital of South) fell to communists in April, 1975 • US evacuates 1,000 remaining Americans and 6,000 Vietnamese to aircraft carriers • Vietnam united under communist rule

  12. Saigon - 1975: the final days

  13. “Dominoes” of Laos and Cambodia fell to communism - no other SE Asian countries Cambodian Khmer Rouge government seized control under Pol Pot. Vietnam - 100,000s of South Vietnamese civilians, soldiers, civil servants, professionals forced into ‘re-education’ camps. 1.5 million Vietnamese fled the country (100,000s of Cambodians and Laotians also) to the United States. Southeast Asia after the war.

  14. Scenes of post-1975 SE Asia

  15. Legacy of the War • 58,000 Americans dead • 300,000 wounded • 2,500 POWs • $150 billion • More bomb tonnage than in all Axis countries of WWII - combined • Millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed • 1994 - end of US embargo • 1995 - formal US recognition of Vietnam

  16. The Vietnam Memorial - The Wall…

More Related