a direct telephone link which was set up between …………………………………… and

……………………………….. so now the heads of state could communicate directly and avoid future
misunderstandings.

THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE COLD WAR - DÉTENTE

1963 - 1989/ 90
The 1970s were the era of improving and relaxing relations
between the superpowers. "Détente " a French word meaning
"release of tensions.
THE VIETNAM WAR – 1965 - 1973/ 75
Vietnam was a colony of France called Indochina (+ Cambodia,
Laos). After WWII, French rule became unpopular, so communist
rebels led by HO CHI MINH
overthrew the French control of
Vietnam.
Vietnam was divided into two states.
a) a communist state led by Ho Chi Minh in the north.
b) a southern state supported by the French and the US.
The dividing line was set at the 17th parallel and was surrounded by a
demilitarized zone. The communist guerrillas (the Viet Cong) kept
attacking South Vietnam to unite the country under their leadership. After
North Vietnamese forces attacked U. S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, however, Johnson
(president) was given carte blanche in the form of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. He began to send U.S.
troops to Vietnam. The Viet Cong's guerrilla tactics frustrated and demoralized U.S. troops, while its
dispersed largely rural presence left American bomber planes with few targets. The United States used
unconventional weapons such as napalm and the herbicide defoliant Agent Orange but still managed to make
little development. In 1968, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched a massive campaign
called the Tet Offensive. Although the United States pushed back the offensive and won a tactical victory,
American media coverage characterised the conflict as a defeat, and U.S. public support for the war
plummeted. The American public saw brutal images of the war on TV. They were also shocked by news
of the 1968 My Lai massacre where civilians were murdered by US troops. The new American president,
Nixon introduced a policy of Vietnamization of the war, promising to withdraw U.S. troops gradually. The
war became very unpopular with American public, and many Americans protested (e.g. demonstrations, the
Hippie movement, musical Hair).

Finally, in 1973 peace was signed in Paris and American troops began to pull out of Vietnam. The USA lost
the Vietnam War, with 55,000 dead.
The result of war: In 1975 Saigon (the South Vietnamese capital) fell, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City
and the whole Vietnam was united under communism.