Cold War: Korean and Vietnam Wars

 Soon a PRO-AMERICAN government formed in SOUTH Korea and a COMMUNIST regime was established in NORTH Korea... War breaks out in Korea Koreans on BOTH sides of the dividing line wanted

Cold War: Korean and Vietnam Wars

Korean War

 American involvement in the

KOREAN WAR in the early 1950s reflected the American policy of CONTAINMENT of COMMUNISM

• Containment  “American policy of

RESISTING the EXPANSION of

communism around the world”

 War lasted 1950-1953

Japan had ANNEXED the Korean peninsula before WWI; Japanese defeated in WWII

Background

 Soon a PRO-AMERICAN government formed in SOUTH Korea and a

COMMUNIST regime was established

in NORTH Korea

War breaks out in Korea

 Koreans on BOTH sides of the

dividing line wanted to UNIFY their nation

 JUNE 1950: the Korean War broke out when NORTH KOREAN troops

INVADED South Korea over the 38th

parallel border  they were

determined to reunite Korea BY

FORCE

U.S response

1)Pres TRUMAN brought the issue of North Korean

aggression to the UNITED NATIONS

2)Truman ordered American AIR and NAVAL support + GROUND troops to aid the South Koreans

4) Truman did NOT go to CONGRESS for an official declaration of war (as required by the CONSTITUTION)

- Article 1, Section 8: Congress maintains the power to DECLARE

WAR

Waging the War

 American military forces led a United Nations COUNTERATTACK that drove deep into NORTH KOREA itself

 Communist CHINESE forces came

into the war on the side of North

Korea to PUSH BACK UN forces

 STALEMATE developed between the two sides

 TRUCE signed in 1953 left Korea

DIVIDED at almost the exact same place as before the war  near the

38th PARALLEL

Effects of Korean War

1) Enormous FRUSTRATION in United

States  54,000 dead, 103,000

wounded for LIMITED results

2) RESISTANCE of Communist forces,

containment WITHOUT nuclear war

3) INTEGRATION of UNITS in armed

Vietnam War

 American involvement in the

VIETNAM WAR also reflected the

Cold War policy of CONTAINMENT of communism

 “DOMINO theory”: refers to the fear that if one SOUTHEAST ASIAN nation fell to the Communists, the others

would also fall

 Because of its GEOGRAPHIC location,

a Communist TAKEOVER of Vietnam posed a THREAT to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand

Increasing U.S Involvement

 Beginning in the 1950s and

continuing into the early 1960s, the COMMUNIST government of NORTH Vietnam attempted to install a

communist government in SOUTH Vietnam BY FORCE

 The UNITED STATES helped South Vietnam RESIST

 The American military BUILDUP in Vietnam began under Pres

EISENHOWER and Pres John F

KENNEDY

 After Kennedy’s ASSASSINATION in

1963, the military buildup was

INTENSIFIED under Pres Lyndon

JOHNSON

 August 1964: Johnson

announced that North

Vietnamese TORPEDOES had attacked U.S destroyers in the GULF of TONKIN

(INTERNATIONAL waters)

 Johnson asked CONGRESS for authority to take ACTION

against North Vietnam 

Congress passed the Gulf of

Tonkin RESOLUTION

Gulf of Tonkin

Fighting the War

 Nearly 3 MILLION Americans served

in the Vietnam War

 Battlefield conditions were

DIFFICULT:

• Viet Cong (Communist guerillas in South

Korea) were familiar with LANDSCAPE

• South Vietnamese seemed

INDIFFERENT

• Couldn’t TRUST anyone

• Intense HEAT, jungle climate

Ground War

 Viet Cong lacked sophisticated

equipment, so they used GUERILLA warfare tactics

• Worked in small groups to launch

SNEAK attacks

• Hid in elaborate underground TUNNELS

• Set BOOBY traps like camouflaged PITS

and LAND MINES

Air War

 SATURATION bombing: huge B-52 American bombers dropped

thousands of tons of EXPLOSIVES

over large areas

 Chemical weapons:

• NAPALM: a destructive CHEMICAL,

splattered and burned uncontrollably

when dropped from airplanes, including

on human FLESH

AGENT ORANGE  HERBICIDE that

killed leaves and undergrowth to expose Viet Cong hiding places; also killed

CROPS and caused HEALTH problems

 Despite the LARGE United States

presence in South Vietnam (536,000

by end of 1968), Communist forces INTENSIFIED their efforts

 Tet Offensive

• Major offensive

launched by VIET CONG and NORTH Vietnamese on

January 30, 1968

• Communists were

extremely BRUTAL, killing anyone they labeled an enemy

• Viet Cong won

PSYCHOLOGICAL victory

Massacre at My Lai

 March 1968: U.S infantry company

entered MY LAI (small village that was

supposedly sheltering Viet Cong)

 U.S soldiers found only WOMEN,

CHILDREN, and OLD MEN in the village  the U.S soldiers massacred these civilians

 More than 400 INNOCENT Vietnamese

died until a U.S HELICOPTER crew

stepped in to halt the slaughter

Political Divisions

 The country became BITTERLY

DIVIDED over the Vietnam War

 Some Americans SUPPORTED the

American military and the war effort, hoped for military victory

 Other Americans believed the war

was MORALLY WRONG, urged

immediate withdrawal

Student Activism

 Active opposition to the war occurred especially on COLLEGE campuses

 Students were among the first to

speak out against the Vietnam War:

• “TEACH-INS”

• DRAFT RESISTANCE

• PROTESTS

Nixon and “Vietnamization”

 After Johnson declined to seek re-election, President NIXON was elected on his pledge

to bring the war to an HONORABLE END.

 He instituted the policy of

End of the War

 January 1973: U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and Viet Cong signed FORMAL PEACE AGREEMENTS

 Nixon FORCED out of office by the

WATERGATE scandal (1972-1974)

• Break-in at Democratic National

Convention headquarters

• Nixon part of illegal cover-up

• Nixon impeached, then resigned

 Ultimately “Vietnamization” FAILED when South Vietnamese troops were UNABLE to resist INVASION by the Soviet-supplied North Vietnamese

Army

 April 30, 1975  North Vietnam

completed its CONQUEST of South

Vietnam

 North and South Vietnam MERGED under communist control

Impact of Vietnam War

 More than 58,000 Americans dead

 300,000 Americans wounded

 More than 2,500 MIA (MISSING IN ACTION) and POWs (PRISONERS OF

WAR)

 LONGEST and LEAST successful war

in American history

 United States spent at least $150

billion on the Vietnam War

 MORE bombs dropped on Vietnam than on all the Axis powers in WWII

 DIVIDED the nation more than any other war besides the Civil War

Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.