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Vietnam

In: Historical Events

Submitted By boylank3
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Vietnam War:

U.S. Involvement increased to the brink of war with the Tonkin Gulf Incident

Questions to ponder…

1. Was the growing conflict in South Vietnam an “armed attack” from the North, as the Administration (Johnson) contended?
ANSWER:

2. Was it primarily a civil war, provoked by the brutal policies of the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, which drove desperate peasants, minority tribesmen, and urban intellectuals into the ranks of the NLF?
ANSWER: Yes, it was a civil war between the north and south for control of the country. Both sides were equally as brutal, however, the communists were more brutal when push came to shove.

3. Was the NLF itself a creature of Hanoi?
ANSWER: I believe that it was. I think it was a direct creature from the north Vietmin.

4. Was the NLF an independent organization truly representative of the aspirations of the people in South Vietnam?
ANSWER: No, it was an organization that represented Ho Chi Minh’s asperations to untie the north and the south under communist rule.

5. Had the United States, or the DRV, broken the Geneva Accords?
No, in 1954, The United States responded by hastily putting together a humanitarian mission to assist those wishing to move south. A joint US-French naval task force was assembled near Haiphong harbour, while US personnel and aid workers organised refugee camps, food and medical supplies in South Vietnam. The operation – pointedly titled Passage to Freedom – was a successful, if somewhat obvious propaganda ploy. American politicians described it as the generous act of a benevolent superpower, fulfilling its moral obligation to help freedom-loving people. Approximately 660,000 people chose to relocate from North Vietnam to the South, almost half of them on American ships. Many refugees were spurred by rumors, encouraged by the Americans, that the Viet Minh regime

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