The American War in Vietnamese History Three Indochina Wars

– The , 1946 – 1954

– The Second Indochina War, 1965 – 1975

– The Third Indochina War, 1978 – 80 and China: A History of Ambivalence Anti-Chinese Resistance: The Trung Sisters (39 A.D) Han China (206 B – 220 AD) and the “Southern Viet” Viet Southward expansion,10th – 18th centuries Encounters with the West

• 1500s: Russian, Portuguese and other European traders and missionaries first encounter Vietnam • 1665: Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit priest, adapts Roman alphabet for • Late 18th.early 19th century: French military interests extend to “Indochina” , 1887 - 1954 French Indochina - administration

• 3 countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) divided into five parts: A. (southern Vietnam): colony B. Tonkin, Annam (northern and central Vietnam), Cambodia, Laos: protectorates

Capital: Anti-Colonialism, , Communism • Modernization and resistance under the French • Rise of nationalism in early 20th century • Phan Boi Chau and “Go East” movement • and Communist Party World War II and Japanese Occupation • 1940: Indochina under control of Vichy France, Japanese troops enter Vietnam • Ho Chi Minh forms Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội (Viet Minh) • March 1945: Japan takes over directly • August 15: Japan surrenders to Allies • Ho declares “Democratic Republic of Vietnam,” Sept. 2, 1945 The French War, 1946 - 1954

• Reassertion of French control in Indochina • Anti-French resistance led by Viet Minh • US support for France • Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu, April 1954 Divided Vietnam, 1954 - 1975 North and South Vietnam

• Geneva 1954: “temporary” division • Insurgency and American intervention • The Second Indochina War • Internationalization

1. US-allied combatants: ARVN, South Korea, , Australia, New Zealand 2. North Vietnam: Soviet, Chinese, North Korean and East German supplies, support and advice 3. Role of world opinion War’s End and Aftermath

• Vietnam reunified – but devastated by war, economically isolated, beset by internal and external tensions • The Third Indochina War, 1978 - 80 • Doi Moi (“restructuring,” 1986 - present) and the End of the Cold War • US-Vietnamese normalization, 1995 Memorializing the Vietnam-America War Remembering the War Forgetting the War