Take a packet. a) Study the six photos.

What do you already know about these images?

Jot it down next to the photos
What questions do you have about these images?
Write those down as well.
b) Turn to your partner and share what you have
written.
c) Have this discussion with one more person
outside of your seating area.
d) On the bottom of the page, use your note and
your conversations to complete the following
complex sentence: The Vietnam War was ____
because ________ .

16.1 Origins of the Vietnam

War
What can you
learn about
the Vietnam
War by
studying this
photograph?
Why did the United
States become
involved in the

France Rules Indochina in

Southeast Asia
Indochina:
Vietnam, Cambodia
and Laos
Rice, minerals,
rubber
Poverty
Rich stay rich
Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh
Anti French
Traveled
Vietnamese
independenc
e
Communist

The French Battle Nationalism

and Communism
Fr struggles
US decision France
or Vietnam?
Cold War
US $2.6 bil to Fr
1950-1954
Goal contain Ho Chi
Minh - Vietminh

 You have a row of

dominos set up, you
knock over the first one,
and what will happen to
the last one is the
certainty that it will go
over very quickly. So
you could have a
beginning of a
disintegration that
would have the most
profound influences.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954

The Domino
Theory

Stopping communists in
Vietnam was important to
the protection of the
entire region

Battle of Dien Bien Phu

French lose hold of Vietnam
Vietminh trap &
hold Fr. military
base 55 days
hell in a very
small place
May 7, 1954 :
FRENCH
SURRENDER

BATTLE RESULTS
Geneva Conference
free elections &unity
1956
independence Vietnam, Laos &
Cambodia
17th parallel:
N Vietnam &
S Vietnam

WHY DID PRESIDENTS TRUMAN AND

EISENHOWER SUPPORT FRENCH
EFFORTS AGAINST HO CHI MINH?

CONTAINMENT ASIA
ANTICOMMUNIST W.
EUROPE

AMERICA OPPOSES COMMUNISM

IN VIETNAM
Ngo Dinh Diem
unpopular/South
Vietnam

Vietcong/NLF
Guerrilla Fighters!

National
Liberation Front
Communist
rebel group
South
insurgents

 Devout
Roman
Catholic
antiBuddhis
t laws

Ngo Dinh Dien

Kennedy Sends US 1961 -Army of

the Republic of
Troops

Vietnam (ARVN)
Diem hindrance
Nov 1, 1963
removed &
assassinated

LBJ LEADS NATION

TO WAR

August 2, 1964
USS Maddox
aggression by terror

against peaceful villages

of South Vietnam has
now been joined by open
aggression on the high
seas against the United
States of America

orders air strike

against North Vietnam

I AM THE
ULTIMATE Cold
Warrior!

CONGRESS GIVES JOHNSON

BROAD MILITARY POWERS
Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution
to take all
necessary
measures to repel
an armed attack
against the forces
of the United States
and to prevent
further aggression

Before you take out your

notes,
notes talk to your neighbor:
Identify
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ho Chi Minh
Dien Bien Phu
Vietcong