The A (Advisors)

B (Bombings)

C (Combat Troops)  and   C Counter Culture)

of the Vietnam War

1950-   The United States began providing economic aid, and ADVISERS to France in a colonial war in which the Vietnamese are led by Ho Chi Minh, who was a communist and a nationalistic Vietnamese Declaration of Independence. It was the U.S. policy to provide money, weapons and/or troops to help stop the spread of communism.  when North Vietnam began aiding the Viet Cong (communists living in South Vietnam), the U.S. first sent aid and then troops to stop South Vietnam from turning communist.

1954-   The French surrender at Dien bien phu and a compromise is worked out at the Geneva Conference that split Vietnam into South Vietnam and North Vietnam with elections to unify the country to be held in two years. In order to retain US influence in the region, Eisenhower had used a truce to set up a client state in the South (a violation of the Geneva Agreement)  The Domino Theory

1965-   Feb. The US starts  BOMBING North Vietnam  - Operation Rolling Thunder

1965 -1968   April- The United States begins to use COMBAT TROOPS to fight against North Vietnam.  By the end of the year, the United States had 185,000 troops in Vietnam. By 1968 the United States will have 536,100 boots on the ground in Vietnam

The Counter Culture of the 1960s In the late 1960’s the U.S. was being divided between “hawks” (those supporting the war) and “doves” (those who felt the U.S. should withdraw from Vietnam.  By 1970, as public opinion turned against the war, anti-war protests were held throughout the country. Draft cards were burned and college campuses were shut down as hundred of thousands protested U.S. involvement in Vietnam.