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The USA and Vietnam: 1964-1975.

-Treaty of Geneva 1954 - Indo-China was divided into Laos, Cambodia, North and South Vietnam.

-Ngo Dinh Diem was the ruler of South Vietnam.

-Ho Chi Minh was the ruler of North Vietnam. He was a communist.

-1956 - there were meant to be elections to unite Vietnam, but Diem refused to hold them.

-1960 - Ho Chi Minh set up a communist army in South Vietnam, called the National Liberation Front (NLF). They started a guerrilla war.

-The Americans called the NLF the Vietcong and supported Diem.

-By 1963 most of South Vietnam was under Vietcong control.

-1965 - President Johnson declared was on North Vietnam.

-The Americans ended up at war for 4 main reasons: containment, domino theory, the weakness of South Vietnam and as retaliation for being attacked.

-The Vietcong fought a Guerrilla war - ambushing American patrols, planting bombs and setting booby traps.

-Their tactic was 'hanging onto the belts' of the Americans - staying close so America couldn't use air support without killing their own men.

-America fought a hi-tech war, with B52 bombers, helicopters, napalm, defoliants and artillery.

-US troops went on foot patrol, supported by air and artillery when attacked. This made the soldiers feel they were being used as bait.

-March 1965 - America stated Operation Rolling Thunder.

-1968 - the CIA started Operation Phoenix, arresting, interrogating and killing suspected Vietcong activists.

-1968 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered an end to the bombing of North Vietnam.

-1969 - Richard Nixon took over as President. He began a process of Vietnamisation.

- October 1972 - the National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, worked out a peace agreement with the North Vietnamese. But South Vietnam’s president refused to sign and the talks collapsed.

-Nixon mounted huge bombing raids until both sides agreed.

-January 1973 - the Paris Peace Treaty was signed and America left Vietnam.

-1973 - America left Vietnam. It continued to support the South Vietnamese army.

-1975 - the South Vietnamese government collapses, and Vietnam was united.

-Vietnam was ruined. Thousands of Vietnamese had been killed, their infrastructure was destroyed and their farmland polluted.

-58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, and 700,000 veterans suffered psychological after-effects.

-America had failed to 'contain' communism and its domino theory was proved wrong.

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