LibGuides: MS Humanities: Vietnam War: People, Places & Events

Events

End of WW2
For five years during World War II, Indochina was a French-administered possession of Japan. On Sept. 22, 1940, Jean Decoux, the French governor-general appointed by the Vichy government after the fall of France to the Nazis, concluded an agreement with the Japanese that permitted the stationing of 30,000 Japanese troops in Indochina and the use of all major Vietnamese airports by the Japanese military. The agreement made Indochina the most important staging area for all Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia.
August Revolution
The August Revolution of 1945 was an attempt by Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh to claim Vietnamese independence and self-government. Though successful at first, the Viet Minh was soon supplanted by Allied forces, which occupied Vietnam at the conclusion of World War II.
The First Indochina War
The First Indochina War, fought between December 1946 and August 1954, was a struggle between the Viet Minh and the French for control of the country. In the West this conflict is usually referred to as the First Indochina War; in Vietnam it is called the Anti-French War.
Dien Bien Phu
Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946–54). It consisted of a struggle between French and Viet Minh (Vietnamese Communist and nationalist) forces for control of a small mountain outpost on the Vietnamese border near Laos. The Viet Minh victory in this battle effectively ended the eight-year-old war.
The Geneva Conference
n an effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina, representatives from the world's powers meet in Geneva. The conference marked a turning point in the United States' involvement in Vietnam.
The Cold War
The Vietnam war is sometimes seen as a proxy for the war that could not be fought between the USA and Russia.
The Caravelle Manifesto
In April 1960 a group of nationalist politicians and intellectuals drafted and signed the ‘Caravelle manifesto’, a document criticising Diem’s rule and demanding immediate political reform.
The Tet Offensive
On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year holiday called Tet), a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam.
My Lai Massacre
The Mỹ Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, committed by the U.S. Army soldiers. Victims included women, men, children, and infants.
The massacre, took place in two hamlets of Son My village.
The Cease-fire and the Fall of Saigon
On April 30, 1975, Saigon, capital of the Republic of Vietnam, falls to Communist troops from North Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War.
Fall of Saigon
On This Day: Saigon Falls to Vietcong, Ending Vietnam War
Operation Babylift

Southern Vietnamese

In this site Bryan Lichtwark talks about "Training the South Vietnamese"

The following people were important in South Vietnam - (source The Vietnam Centre & Archive)

North Vietnamese

The following people were important in North Vietnam (source - The Vietnam Centre & Archive)

Northern Vietnamese war strategy
Professor Donald Stoker gave a lecture in his “Strategy and War” course at the U.S. Naval War College in Monterey, California. The course examines the relationship between political goals and the use of military force. During this class he used slides as he talked about North Vietnamese strategy during the Vietnam War.
North Vietnamese Master plan
The People's Army of Vietnam published an official history in Hanoi in 1994 that has shed light on a number of crucial actions taken by the North Vietnamese leadership.

Ho Chi Minh

Spartacus - including primary sources
Ho Chi Minh was born in Vietnam in 1890. His father, Nguyen Sinh Huy was a teacher employed by the French.

He had a reputation for being extremely intelligent but his unwillingness to learn the French language resulted in the loss of his job. To survive, Nguyen Sinh Huy was forced to travel throughout Vietnam, offering his services to the peasants. This usually involved writing letters and providing medical care.
Think Quest
Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese Communist leader, who was primary force behind the revolutionary spirit of the Vietnamese. He led his people to independence and achieved what he had always desired, freedom.
History.net
Although the most visible symbol of America's chief enemy in the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh was still a difficult figure to hate. A frail and benign-looking old man in peasant garb or Mao jacket, the leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam seemed perfectly described as 'Uncle Ho,' an epithet bestowed upon him by friend and enemy alike. Indeed, he often seemed more symbol than substance–a mere face on a poster, an intangible foe unreachable by modern means of warfare, an almost mythical personification of the Communist enemy.

The USA - Hawks & Doves

Try looking up the people below on Biography.com and get an idea of their lives, history and achievements. Find different sources writing about their lives, for and against what they did. Do you agree with the categories "hawks" and "doves" below?

HAWKS:

Robert S. McNamara Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.

Henry Kissinger for his work prior to becoming National Security Advisor.

Lyndon B. Johnson for his escalation of the war.

McGeorge Bundy a forceful advocate of expanding American involvement in the Vietnam War.

John F. Kennedy for his involvement prior to the declaration of war.

DOVES:

Ron Dellums for his election as an anti-war activist, and his war crimes exhibit.

Tim L. Carter, Republican congressman from Kentucky who implored the US to withdraw troops, in 1967.

John Lennon for his activism including his "bed-ins for peace".

Martin Luther King, Jr. for his opposition to the war.

Jane Fonda for her activism.

Muhammad Ali - boxing authorities in America stripped him of his world heavyweight title and suspended his boxing licence after he had refused to be inducted into the United States Army.

(Image credit)

Video - Ho Chi Minh

EASYBIB: Bibliography for Grade 8 Humanities

Anti-War Movement

The first protests to the Vietnam war started in October 1965 when the draft was increased. In February 1965, it had only been 3,000 a month but in October it was increased to 33,000 a month. Tearing up or burning your draft paper became a common occurrence and was seen to be the first of the protests. The protests against the war started to pick up when body bags started to return to America in increasing numbers.

In March 1966, 50,000 anti-war protesters took part in a rally in New York. In 1967, 100,000 took part in a protest rally and in 1971, 300,000 in Washington DC.

Vietnam Protest Movement
This Spartacus Educational site explains the evolution of hte protest movement and gives primary sources.