null
US
Sign In
Sign Up for Free
Sign Up
We have detected that Javascript is not enabled in your browser. The dynamic nature of our site means that Javascript must be enabled to function properly. Please read our
terms and conditions
for more information.
Next up
Copy and Edit
You need to log in to complete this action!
Register for Free
4472299
Vietnam War
Description
GCSE History Mind Map on Vietnam War, created by Elliemd on 09/02/2016.
No tags specified
history gcse ocr
history
gcse
Mind Map by
Elliemd
, updated more than 1 year ago
More
Less
Created by
Elliemd
over 8 years ago
58
3
0
Resource summary
Vietnam War
Reasons for Involvement
Poor Leadership of Diem
Nepotistic
He prosecuted Buddhists (80% of population)
Loses support of the South Vietnamese (these people weren't yet communist)
They start to support the Vietcong
Domino Theory
If Vietnam falls, so will Laos and Cambodia
Containment
Military Industrial Alliance
US Industry and army knew war would generate wealth for US
they put pressure on the government to get involved
Gulf of Tonkin 1964
US Maddox (ship) reports it has been attacked by N. Vietnam whilst in the Gulf of Tonkin
Johnson asks Congress for permission to send combat troops
Congress agrees
Reasons for failure
Poor US tactics
Tactics ineffective
Causing S. Vietnamese peasants to support VC
Poorly equipped
Guns didn't work in the climate
Backpacks too heavy
Boots rotted away due to the water
Named missions
Strategic Hamlet
Upset peasants because it moved them away from their homes and ancestors
Search and Destroy
My Lai massacre
US soldiers vulnerable to ambush
Didn't know their enemy
Rolling Thunder
Horrific damage to land and people
Effective VC tactics
Guerilla Warfare
Knew the jungle
Booby traps e.g. punji sticks
No uniform - unidentifiable
Used tunnels and Ho Chi Minh Trail
Media
Made US people against the war
Live coverage of the execution of an unarmed V.C. suspect in Saigon
Shocked America
Photo of Kim Phuc after the Trang Bang bombings
Front of a magazine
Walter Cronkite (celebrity) said that the war was unwinnable live on TV
Government realised it had lost the support of the US public, so couldn't maintain war effort
Protest Movement
Pressurises government to take America out of the war
Convinces Johnson that US needs to withdraw
He doesn't stand for re-election in 1968
Cost
HUGE COST
Needed to help tackle poverty in US at the time
Civil Rights movement happens
Americans refuse to pay taxes, as a protest, because these pay for the war
Tet Offensive 1968
US thinks its winning war as VC had suffered great loses
Believed that open combat would ensure a win
VC attack US bases and S.V cities as a SURPRISE
Initial VC success - make it to Saigon
Shown on live TV
Failure to US because army realise they can't won because VC have an 'inexhaustible' supply of troops
Army generals tell Johnson they won't win
How they withdrew (1968-73)
Nixon's policy
Steps up Rolling Thunder in North Vietnam
Wants to intimidate
Includes Ho Chi Minh trail
Heavily criticised by other countries for bombing Laos and Cambodia
Trained and equipped South Vietnamese troops
They could then continue to fight
Gradually reduce no. of US troops
Last troops withdrawn in 1973
FAILS - Saigon falls in 1975
Show full summary
Hide full summary
Want to create your own
Mind Maps
for
free
with GoConqr?
Learn more
.
Similar
Conferences of the Cold War
Alina A
Bay of Pigs Invasion : April 1961
Alina A
The Berlin Crisis
Alina A
Development of Cold War Tensions
c7jeremy
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Olivia Andrews
Why did the Cold War begin?
n.mcdonald
The Berlin Crisis 1961 - Cause and Consequence
n.mcdonald
Hitler and the Nazi Party (1919-23)
Adam Collinge
GCSE History – Social Impact of the Nazi State in 1945
Ben C
Weimar Revision
Tom Mitchell
History of Medicine: Ancient Ideas
James McConnell
Browse Library