The Gulf of Tonkin and the Vietnam War
Background of war
•Originally a French colony (Indochina)
•Ho Chi Minh and his communist supporters resisted Japanese occupation during WWII
•After WWII the French reoccupied
•Ho Chi Minh fought the French and defeated them in 1954 (Dien Bien Phu)
•Laos, Cambodia granted independence
Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
Divided Country
•South Vietnam was led by a Catholic named Ngo Dinh Diem
•The mainly Buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Viet Cong (a guerrilla force)
•The North (Ho Chi Minh) supported both of these groups
The north never accepted the Geneva agreement of 1954
American Involvement
•U.S. saw this as another situation in which containment was necessary (SEATO)
•The U.S. had supported the French (military advisors)
•Kennedy increased troops in 1962 from 500-10,000
CIA overthrows Diem in 1963 (corruptness)
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 1964
•A fabricated incident was set up; an American destroyer (USS Maddox) was torpedoed
•Led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
•Lead to the commitment of regular ground troops and air support
200,000 troops in 1965 - 600,000 in 1968
•Originally a French colony (Indochina)
•Ho Chi Minh and his communist supporters resisted Japanese occupation during WWII
•After WWII the French reoccupied
•Ho Chi Minh fought the French and defeated them in 1954 (Dien Bien Phu)
•Laos, Cambodia granted independence
Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
Divided Country
•South Vietnam was led by a Catholic named Ngo Dinh Diem
•The mainly Buddhist south had opposition in the form of the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Viet Cong (a guerrilla force)
•The North (Ho Chi Minh) supported both of these groups
The north never accepted the Geneva agreement of 1954
American Involvement
•U.S. saw this as another situation in which containment was necessary (SEATO)
•The U.S. had supported the French (military advisors)
•Kennedy increased troops in 1962 from 500-10,000
CIA overthrows Diem in 1963 (corruptness)
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 1964
•A fabricated incident was set up; an American destroyer (USS Maddox) was torpedoed
•Led President Johnson to install the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
•Lead to the commitment of regular ground troops and air support
200,000 troops in 1965 - 600,000 in 1968
Summary: At Dien Bien Phu the French left Vietnam and what resulted was a split of the country. Johnson wanted a full army placed in Vietnam and then when the fabricated incident occurred Johnson installed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.