HIST 1378 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Operation Rolling Thunder, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barry Goldwater
4 Nov 2020
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China and viet nam hated each other, so the idea that ho chi minh was a puppet of soviets and. China was dumb (of course this was what the us said) The americans go in: the 2nd indochina war. John kennedy sent in 16,000 advisors, helicopters, armor, napalm, agent orange (toxic carcinogenic defoliant destroys forest so viet cong has nowhere to hide) 1964 election year: johnson was running as a peace candidate vs barry goldwater (father of hardcore conservative movement; wanted to bomb the crap out of viet nam). August 1964 johnson found a reason to get involved in vietnam. International law: your territorial waters go out 12 miles: american intelligence, 2 ships, were in the gulf of tonkin inside viet nam"s territorial waters. The 2 ships sent letters saying they were attacked by north. Vietnamese gunboats: lyndon johnson used that to increase the american role in vietnam. By 1964 viet cong victory is almost certain.
