The gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam War
Background to Vietnam War
Originally a French colony (indochina)
HO Chi Minh and his communist supporters resisted japanese occupation during WW2
After ww2 the French Reoccupied
Ho chi Minh fought the French and defeated them in 1954 (Dien Bein Phu)
Laos, Cambodia granted independence
Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
HO Chi Minh and his communist supporters resisted japanese occupation during WW2
After ww2 the French Reoccupied
Ho chi Minh fought the French and defeated them in 1954 (Dien Bein Phu)
Laos, Cambodia granted independence
Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
The climax of the struggle for power over Germany and Europe.
Avi Shlaim, Britain, the Berlin Blockade and the Cold War (1983)
Ho Chi minhHo Chi Minh, real name Nguyen Tat Thanh (1890-1969), Vietnamese Communist leader and the principal force behind the Vietnamese struggle against French colonial rule. Ho was born on May 19, 1890, in the village of Kimlien, Annam (central Vietnam), the son of an official who had resigned in protest against French domination of his country. Ho attended school in Hue and then briefly taught at a private school in Phan Thiet. In 1911 he was employed as a cook on a French steamship liner and thereafter worked in London and Paris. After World War I, using the pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quoc (Nguyen the Patriot), Ho engaged in radical activities and was in the founding group of the French Communist party. He was summoned to Moscow for training and, in late 1924, he was sent to Canton, China, where he organized a revolutionary movement among Vietnamese exiles. He was forced to leave China when local authorities cracked down on Communist activities, but he returned in 1930 to found the Indochinese Communist party (ICP).
A divided country
South Vietnam was led by a Catholic named Ngo Dinh Diem
The mainly Buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation front (NLF) and the Viet Cong (a guerrilla force)
The Norther (Ho Chi Minh) supported both of these groups
The north never accepted the Geneva agreement 1954
The mainly Buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation front (NLF) and the Viet Cong (a guerrilla force)
The Norther (Ho Chi Minh) supported both of these groups
The north never accepted the Geneva agreement 1954
The gulf of Tonkin Incident, 1964
A fabricated incident was set up; an American Destroyer (USS Maddox) was torpedoed
Led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Lead to the commitment of regular ground troops and air support
200,000 troops in 1965
600,000 in 1969
Led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
Lead to the commitment of regular ground troops and air support
200,000 troops in 1965
600,000 in 1969