TET OFFENSIVE:

Turning point of Vietnam

and the effect of
Journalism

Jesus Najera
Ricky Ramirez

Vietnam Saigon Bombing

Hamburger Hill 1969

American War Casualties

American Revolutionary War
1775-1783
25,000
War of 1812
1812-1815
~20,000
Mexican-American War
1846-1848
13,283
Civil War
1861-1865
~625,000

Spanish-American War

 The US just have imperialistic goals and should just let

the Viet Cong be, this was is immoral

 Captain Bay lop of Viet Cong commanded a death squad

murdering South Vietnamese policemen and their
families during Tett offensive

Terror Squad
US soldiers were ordered to destroy normal citizen and
farmers food such as their rice. These people worked
their hearts off for this food, they were just peasants
and we destroyed it!

 The Viet Cong were coming in and stealing their

supplies from them and using it to supply their army
and other war efforts

TRANG BANG NAPALM STRIKES

TheTimesobituary described the photograph as
showing the aftermath of one of the thousands of
bombings in the countryside by American planes: a
group of terror-stricken children fleeing the scene, a girl
in the middle of the group screaming and naked, her
clothes incinerated by burning napalm.

 The napalm was dropped in error by a South

Vietnamese warplane These were South Vietnamese
planes dropping napalm on South Vietnamese peasants
and troops, Christopher Wain of Britains ITN television
network, who saw the attack, wrote in a dispatch for the
United Press International news service.

TRUE/FALSE
America was in war because JFK said As you know, the
US for more than a decade has been assisting the
government, the people of Vietnam to defend their
independence

US intervention was influenced by the domino theory. If one

country (Vietnam) fell to Communism, then other countries in
Asia would soon fall

 If JFK had lived, he would have kept America out of the

war

 America was already in the war when he took office.

Instead of wanting to pull out, he wanted to double
down military intervention. These people who say that
we ought to withdraw from Vietnam are wrong because
if we withdrew from Vietnam, the Communists would
control all of Southeast Asia

 Only America and the Vietnamese were fighting

 South- Americans, Australia, New Zealanders, Most

Asians (Thailand, Taiwan, Philliphines, South Korea)
North-Chinese, Soviet, North Korea

 The Fighting was only in South Vietnam

Lao and Cambodia included, Cambodia invaded

many times, Lao most bombed county per capita
in history

 All American Media coverage was negative

 Mainstream press helped cover up military disasters

and framed reporting to meet American needs and
goals. Vietnam Veterans wrote in about the My Lai
Massacre and the media refused to touch it

 The US Army was comprised mostly of Draftees

 Only 21% were actually drafted. Compare that to

WWI-60
WW2-63
Korea- 27

 Vietnam was exactly like the movie Platoon

 75% of US Soldiers were on bases with all the luxuries

of living at home

 War ended after the final withdraw of troops after the

Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973

 ANTI-WAR PROTESTS ended. South Vietnam was left to

defend itself. Many South Vietnamese fled to the United
States. Saigon surrendered to the North in 75. Laos and
Cambodia were overrun by troops that spring.

 Americans had the most casualties in the Vietnam War,

making them one of, if no the most deadly war in our
history

 3-4 mil Vietnamese dead

1.5-2 cambodian or laos dead
58k americans dead