Unit 2 Essay: LBJ Goes to War

Unit Essay: LBJ Goes to War

In order to receive credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:

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:

Vietnam War (1955-1965)

Ngo Dinh Diem

National Liberation Front