Unit 2: From Military Advisors to Combat Troops (1954-1965)
Unit Overview:
1954-1965: Unit 2 mostly covers the story of the troubled Diem regime in South Vietnam. The unit begins with the Geneva Accords of 1954, which divided Vietnam into two parts until a unification election was to be held in 1956. Meanwhile, the US installed a pro-American Catholic "Miracle Man" in the South who seemed to do nothing right. By the end of this unit, President Lyndon B Johnson felt he had no choice but to send combat troops into Vietnam. The Vietnam War had officially begun. In the unit essay, you'll explain why LBJ felt he had no choice in beginning the Vietnam War.
Unit Essay: LBJ Goes to War
Immolation of Thich Quang Duc, June 11, 1963
LBJ Goes to War
This unit covers the early years of the Vietnam Conflict, from the Geneva Accords of 1954 to America's full time involvement through 1965. Much of the unit describes the troubled regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, who ruled South Vietnam from 1955 until he was assassinated in 1963. A Catholic who openly persecuted Vietnam's Buddhist majority, Diem fraudulently won the 1955 pleibiscite and only stayed in power with US support, which he eventually also lost. As Diem struggled to maintain his rule of the South, the North Vietnamese grew stronger, and by 1964 President Johnson used an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin to formally involve the US military in Vietnam. Using the knowledge that you have gained from your lessons in this unit and the two films assigned, write a well-developed essay of 600 words or more explaining why Johnson felt that the US had to intervene in Vietnam by 1964.
Helpful links:
Unit Videos:
Vietnam, a Televised History Part 2: America's Mandarin (55:10)
Vietnam, a Televised History Part 3: LBJ Goes to War (55:39)
Unit Lectures:
Unit Study Guides:
Unit 2 has 3 quizzes. You can access the quiz study guides by clicking the links below. The documents linked here are Google Docs. To print our download, select "file", "download as" and choose either Word, Open Office Document, or whatever format suits you.
It takes 5-10 minutes each lesson to fill out a quiz study guide, and these will definitely help you to perform well on the quizzes. If you do all three quiz study guides you will also be well-prepared for the test. Since these study guides give you what is important in each lesson, think of them as notes and fill them out as you go.
To watch a short video on how to use these study guides click this link: How to Use Study Guides: Vietnam History
Key Terms:
For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.
Unit 2 Key Terms:
Ngo Dinh Diem
Strategic Hamlet Program
Robert McNamura
Ngo Dinh Nhu
Thich Quan Duc
Battle of Ia Drang
Madame Nhu
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Lyndon B. Johnson
ARVN
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
National Liberation Front
Operation Rolling Thunder
Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:
William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)
Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)
Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam, known to the US as ARVN or SVA, as opposed to the NVA for the North Vietnamese Army.