© AP. All rights reserved.

Vietnam
The Cold War
This icon indicates that detailed teacher’s notes are available in the Notes Page.

This icon indicates the slide contains activities created in Flash. These activities are not editable.

For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation.

1 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
What we will learn today

What we will learn today:

1. Why was there a problem in Vietnam?

2. Why did the USA get involved?

3. The impact of the Vietnam War at home in the USA.

4. The consequences of the war.

2 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Key terms and people

3 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

The location of Vietnam

4 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Why was there a problem in Vietnam?

Before World War II, Vietnam was a French colony. During

the war, Vietnam had been occupied by the Japanese.

The Vietminh, led by Ho Chi

Minh, had been fighting for
independence. During World
War II, they led resistance
against the Japanese.

In 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and

withdrew.

5 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

 The Geneva Conference temporarily divided Vietnam along
the 17th parallel.
North Vietnam South Vietnam
(Communist) (Capitalist)

Ho Chi Minh set up a A supposedly democratic

communist government. government was set up,
supported by the USA

Elections were meant to be held in South Vietnam in 1956.

The leader of South Vietnam, Diem, refused to hold
elections.
Ho Chi Minh wanted to control all of Vietnam. Communist
supporters in the south formed the Vietcong to fight Diem.

6 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Civil War

North Vietnam North Vietnam was larger and

(Communist) more populous and had the
support of the Soviets.
The USA in particular was
frightened that South Vietnam
would be taken over by
communism, so decided to get
involved.

TASK:
Consider why the USA got
South Vietnam involved in Vietnam.
(Capitalist)

7 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Why did the USA get involved?

8 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

The Vietcong

The Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops were used

to fighting in Vietnam. They had developed guerrilla
warfare against both the French and the Japanese.
This meant leaving mines and booby traps, ambushing
troops and then ‘melting away’ into the jungle.

Many women were members of the Vietcong – women

were be promoted on equal terms with men.

The Vietcong called the war the ‘People’s War’. The

whole population was expected to drive out the USA.

Why do you think the Vietcong was

so popular?

9 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Guerrilla warfare

Why were the Vietcong’s tunnel networks so successful?

How did it make the war harder for the USA?
10 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
The forces in Vietnam

By 1965, nearly 400,000 Americans, Australians and New

Zealanders were fighting in Vietnam.

11 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

The pacification programme

The USA realized that because of the tactics of the Vietcong,

they could not win by military might alone.
The USA had to convince the Vietnamese people to
support them. To do this, the US tried to help make the
peasants more prosperous and loyal.

They trained teams of South Vietnamese who went out

into the countryside to increase resistance to the Vietcong.
The teams also supervised the building of health centres
and schools, and organized the supply of seed, tools and
animals to help farmers. Wells were also dug.

This was known as the battle

for ‘hearts and minds’
12 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
US technology

Faced with guerrilla warfare, the USA tried to use their

superior technology to defeat their enemy.
Napalm – produced from jellied petrol – was used in
flame throwers and bombs. It caused extensive and
horrific burns.
Agent Orange – a strong chemical weed killer – was
used to try and destroy the jungle cover of the Vietcong.
It was later found to cause cancer and deformities.
B52 Bombers – used to ‘carpet bomb’ areas of enemy
territory, destroying everything. 3,500 helicopters were
used for transport and aerial attack.

In a battle for ‘hearts and minds’ how effective do

you think this ‘advanced’ technology was?
13 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
North Vietnamese ‘technology’

The North Vietnamese had their share of

technology too, including heavy artillery, rockets,
flame-throwers, Soviet PT76 tanks and MiGs.
These were supplied by the USSR.
Manpower was the major ‘technology’. The majority of
supplies were ferried on cargo bicycles along the Ho Chi
Minh trail into South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh cleverly instructed his soldiers to treat all locals
with great respect and do everything to gain their trust.
Compared with US soldiers who would storm into houses
and even pose for photos with dead Vietnamese soldiers,
this had an immense impact.
Create a diagram giving four reasons why the USA
didn’t get support from Vietnamese peasants.
14 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
Key events in the war

Click on the arrows to move through the timeline.

15 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004

Impact of Vietnam on the USA
Civil rights
The fight for civil
rights in USA joined
with the growing
campaign against war
in Vietnam.
12% of the USA was
black, but 16% of
draftees were black.
Images of fighting
Media reporting brought the
war into US households.
There were daily images of
‘good US boys’ dying far
away from home.
By the late 1960s, US public opinion
was strongly against the war.
16 of 18
Images of
Death toll
innocent children
Huge numbers of US There were horrific images
servicemen were being of children and innocent
killed or severely civilians badly burned and
wounded in a far off injured by US weapons.
country. Innocent people were
being killed and injured.
Impact
Refusal to serve
Public opposition By 1968, conscription was
the only way to get soldiers.
Many strongly questioned
Even then, many protested
US involvement in Vietnam
and burned their draft cards.
– what was the point of all
the death and destruction?
© Boardworks Ltd 2004
How did the Vietnam War end?

The USA finally pulled out of Vietnam due to massive

opposition from the general public in the USA. By the time a
ceasefire was agreed in 1973, over 50,000 US troops and
over 2,000,000 Vietnamese had been killed in Vietnam.
The last US troops finally left in 1973, but fighting
continued until 1975 when North Vietnam took over South
Vietnam, and united the two countries.
In 1975 the communist armies also triumphed in Laos and
Cambodia, helped and encouraged by the North
Vietnamese. Communism was now dominant in South-
East Asia.
1. What did the Vietnam War actually achieve?
2. What lessons do you think the USA learnt?
3. Was the Domino Theory correct?
17 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004
Consequences of Vietnam

What had it achieved?

Vast tracts of tropical
More bombs were
rainforest and important
dropped in the Vietnam
farmland were
War than in the whole
destroyed by napalm.
of World War II.
Feeding the population
became a major
Over 2,000,000 problem.
Vietnamese men,
women and children Some 700,000 US
were killed and soldiers suffered ‘flash-
many more maimed backs’ and psychological
and left homeless. effects.

Even into the 1990s refugee

Loss in confidence in US
‘boat people’ fled in leaky vessels
government – it had sent
from the brutal governments set
thousands of young men to their
up in this part of Asia.
deaths.
18 of 18 © Boardworks Ltd 2004