Vietnam

CHAPTER 7 · 1955–1975 · The Cold War, 1945–1991

Start at Dien Bien Phu, 1954 — the marker in the far northwest — where Giap’s army, hauling dismantled artillery up jungle mountains by hand, destroys a French fortress and with it French Indochina. Geneva splits Vietnam at the 17th parallel “pending elections” that Saigon and Washington, certain Ho Chi Minh would win them, never allow. The domino theory takes over from there: if Vietnam falls, runs the logic Eisenhower states and Kennedy and Johnson inherit, all Southeast Asia follows. So American commitment ratchets — advisers under Kennedy, then after the murky Tonkin Gulf incident of Augus

The turn: Tet, 30 January 1968 — the hinge of perception.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.