Social Issues
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The French and Vietnamese had had conflict for quite a while
The Vietcong- South Vietnamese who are sympathetic to and joined with the communist Vietminh
It is very hard for American soldiers to tell the difference between the Vietcong, the Vietminh, and the nationalists. Part of the problem of not doing so well in the war.
We contained Communism in the Korean war. The 28th parallel still divided the two nations. The Korean War was a pretty pointless war because thousands of people died and the outcome wasnt different from what was happening before the war.
In 1954 the French decided to get out of Dien Bien Phu and this was basically the same time as the war in Korea was ending.
The main role of Americans in the Vietnam War was to help train the South Korean. They were called advisors.
Diem was leader of South Vietnam
He discriminated against Budhists
The main religion of Vietnam was Budhism
He also didnt hold the elections
He didnt want to lose
Many South Vietnamese sympathized with Communists
The elections were to be held when the country split
The Soviets didnt hold the elections required in the Declaration of Liberated Europe either
Many Vietnamese wanted a united, connected Vietnam. They didnt really care what kind of government there was.
They were mostly nationalists and had been colonized many times.
Americans gave the green light of Diems overthrow and assassination in 1963 after visiting South Vietnam
Three weeks later Kennedy was assassinated
The government in South Vietnam got worse and more unstable
We were worried that Diem wouldnt be able to contain communism and have a strong country.
There were 200,000 troops in Vietnam by the end of 1964
Support for the war began to decline as the war progressed.
There were a lot of student protests against the war in Vietnam.
Walter Cronkite- famous reporter. Uncle Walter. If he says that we cannot win Vietnam, we cannot win Vietnam– Johnson said this.
Johnson