History 1BB3: America and the World: The Twentieth Century

Dr. Stephen M. Streeter

McMaster University, Winter 2002

 

Overview of the Vietnam War

slide show (html)
slide show (pdf)

I. Origins of the Vietnam War

French Indochina (1887-1940): Tonkin, Annam, Cochin China
Japanese Occupation (1940-1945)
Ho Chi Minh
Vietminh (Front for the Independence of Vietnam) [photograph of Vietminh leaders]
Vietnamese Independence (1945)
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) (map)

II. First Indochina War (1945-1954)

Bao Dai
Dienbienphu
Geneva Accords (1954) [text of the agreement]
17th parallel
Southeast Treaty Organization (SEATO)
Ngo Dinh Diem
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)

III. Second Indochina War (1954-1975)

Diem Era (1954-1963)

Ngo Dinh Diem
National Liberation Front (NLF) [Vietcong in American usage]
North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
Strategic Hamlet (1962)

U.S. Escalation (1964-1968)

Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)
Rolling Thunder (1965)
Phoenix Program (1967)
Tet Offensive (1968)

Vietnamization (1969-1975)

Fall of Saigon (30 April 1975)

Further Reading

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