The Tragedy of Vietnam

I.  Introduction:  A "noble cause" or a "terrible wrong"?

A.  Questions

• Why was America fighting in Vietnam?
• What was the war all about?
• Why did we lose and could we have won?
• What were its long term consequences

II.  Vietnamese History in the 20th Century

A.  OSS-Agent 19 (Ho Chi Minh)

B.  The French-Indochina War

C.  Geneva Accords of 1954

D.  Cold War Context:  Eisenhower and Vietnam

1.  Domino Theory
2.  Ngo Diem

E.  Kennedy

1.  American Military Advisors

III.  Johnson's War

A.  Introduction of American Combat Troops

1.  Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7, 1964)
2.  U.S. Troop Increases

B.  Johnson's Stubbornness

IV.  A War Against the Peasants

A.  A Peasant Revolution

B.  Bombing Civilians

1.  Strategic Hamlets
2.  "Free Fire Zones"

C.  Chemical Defoliation

D.  My Lai Massacre (1968)

V.  The Fall of Saigon

A.  Nixon's Secret Plan

1.  Expanding the War into Cambodia
2.  Vietnamization

B.  Nixon's Endgame

1.  Terror Bombing
2.  Declaring Victory and Pulling out U.S. Troops

VI.  Could the U.S. Have Won the War?