The Vietnam War Years

• The United States becomes locked in a military stalemate in Southeast Asia. U.S. forces withdraw after a decade of heavy war casualties abroad and assassinations and antiwar demonstrations at home.

A U.S. Marine in Vietnam (1968).

Section 1 – Moving Toward Conflict

• To stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States uses its military to support South Vietnam.

America Supports France in Vietnam• French Rule in Vietnam

– Late 1800s–WW II, France rules most of Indochina

– After World War II, the United States aided France in its efforts to keep control of Vietnam.

– Containing the spread of communism was the United States’ main goal in Vietnam.

– Ho Chi Minh—leader of Vietnamese independence movement • helps create Indochinese Communist

Party– Ho Chi Minh led the Indochinese

Communist Party and fought French, Japanese, and U.S. forces for the independence of Vietnam.

– 1940, Japanese take control of Vietnam– Vietminh—organization that aims to rid

Vietnam of foreign rule– Vietminh was formed by Vietnamese

Communists and other nationalist groups in 1941 they declared independence from foreign rule as its single goal.

– The Vietminh was a political organization whose goal was to win Vietnam’s independence from foreign rule.

– Sept. 1945, Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam an independent nation

Ho Chi Minh (1950’s)

America Supports France in Vietnam

• France Battles the Vietminh– French troops move into Vietnam;

French fight, regain cities, South– 1950, U.S. begins economic aid to France

to stop communism• The Vietminh Drive Out the French

– Domino theory—countries can fall to communism like row of dominoes

– The domino theory was based on the idea that countries on the brink of communism were waiting to fall to communism one after the other.

– A statement that best defines the domino theory is if one country falls to communism, others in the region will fall, too.

– 1954, Vietminh overrun French at Dien Bien Phu; France surrenders

– When Dien Bien Phu fell to Vietnamese forces in 1959, the French began to leave Vietnam.

– Geneva Accords divide Vietnam at 17th parallel; Communists get north

– Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel.

– Election to unify country called for in 1956

The United States Steps In• Diem Cancels Elections

– Ho has brutal, repressive regime but is popular for land distribution

– S. Vietnam’s anti-Communist president Ngo Dinh Diem refuses election

– Ngo Dinh Diem was the anti-communist South Vietnamese president who canceled elections that were supposed to unify Vietnam.

– U.S. promises military aid for stable, reform government in South

– Diem corrupt, stifles opposition, restricts Buddhism• Vietcong (Communist opposition group in

South) kills officials– The Vietcong were South Vietnamese citizens

who fought against the South Vietnamese government and American forces.

– The Vietcong were the South Vietnamese opposition group that carried out thousands of assassinations of South Vietnamese government officials.

– Ho sends arms to Vietcong along Ho Chi Minh Trail

– The Ho Chi Minh Trail enabled North Vietnamese to send troops to South Vietnam.

– The Ho Chi Minh Trail allowed Communists in North Vietnam to supply military arms to the government opposition group in South Vietnam.

The United States Steps In• Kennedy and Vietnam

– Like Eisenhower, JFK backs Diem financially; sends military advisers

– Diem’s popularity plummets from corruption, lack of land reform

– Diem starts strategic hamlet program to fight Vietcong

• villagers resent being moved from ancestral homes

– The Strategic hamlet program was the South Vietnamese policy that was intended to combat the growing popularity and presence of an anti-government group in the South’s countryside.

• Diem presses attacks on Buddhism; monks burn themselves in protest– U.S.-supported military coup

topples government; Diem assassinated

President Johnson Expands the Conflict

• The South Grows More Unstable– Succession of military leaders rule S.

Vietnam; country unstable– LBJ thinks U.S. can lose international

prestige if communists win• The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

– Alleged attack in Gulf of Tonkin; LBJ asks for power to repel enemy

– 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution gives him broad military powers

– President Lyndon B. Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf incident as an excuse to deepen U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

– President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

– The Tonkin Gulf Resolution granted the U.S. president broad military powers in Vietnam.

– 1965 8 Americans killed, LBJ orders sustained bombing of North

– U.S. combat troops sent to S. Vietnam to battle Vietcong

– The name of the first extensive U.S. bombing of North Vietnam was called Operation Rolling Thunder

Vietminh – an organization of Vietnamese Communists and other nationalist groups that between 1946 and 1954 fought for Vietnamese independence from the French.

Domino theory – the idea that if a nation falls under communist control, nearby nations will also fall under communist control.

Geneva Accords – a 1954 peace agreement that divided Vietnam into Communist-controlled North Vietnam and non-Communist South Vietnam until unification elections could be held in 1956.

Vietcong – the South Vietnamese Communists who, with North Vietnamese support, fought against the government of South Vietnam in the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh Trail – a network of paths used by North Vietnam to transport supplies to the Vietcong in South Vietnam.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution – a resolution adopted by Congress in 1964, giving the president broad powers to wage war in Vietnam.

Section 1

Moving Toward Conflict

Section 2 - U.S. Involvement and Escalation

• The United States sends troops to fight in Vietnam, but the war quickly turns into a stalemate.

Johnson Increases U.S. Involvement

• Strong Support for Containment– LBJ hesitates breaking

promise to keep troops out; works with:

• Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk

• As Secretary of defense Robert McNamara, admitted he “would have thought differently at the start” of the conflict in Vietnam if he had been aware of the Vietcong’s resilience.

• As Secretary of state Dean Rusk, argued for U.S. escalation in Vietnam, claiming that abandoning the South Vietnamese would cause “disaster to peace.”

– Congress, majority of public support sending troops

November 1965(R-L) Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, and Bill Moyers at a press

conference.

Johnson Increases U.S. Involvement• The Troop Buildup Accelerates

– General William Westmoreland—U.S. commander in South Vietnam

– William Westmoreland served as the commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam.

– As the U.S. commander in South Vietnam, general William Westmoreland introduced the concept of the body count in the belief that as the number of Vietcong casualties rose, the Vietcong would eventually surrender.

– Thinks southern Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) ineffective

– The Vietnamese forces that were supported by American troops was the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

– Requests increasing numbers; by 1967 500,000 U.S. troops

– The ARVN fought against North Vietnam.

Fighting in the Jungle• An Elusive Enemy

– Vietcong use hit-and-run, ambush tactics, move among civilians

– Tunnels help withstand airstrikes, launch attacks, connect villages

– Terrain laced with booby traps, land mines laid by U.S., Vietcong

• A Frustrating War of Attrition– Westmoreland tries to destroy

Vietcong morale through attrition– The main purpose of introducing

the “body count” was to persuade Americans that a Vietcong surrender was imminent.

– Vietcong receive supplies from China, U.S.S.R.; remain defiant

– U.S. sees war as military struggle; Vietcong as battle for survival

Tunnels of the Vietcong

Fighting in the Jungle• The Battle for “Hearts and Minds”

– U.S. wants to stop Vietcong from winning support of rural population

– Weapons for exposing tunnels often wound civilians, destroy villages

• napalm: gasoline-based bomb that sets fire to jungle

• To expose Vietcong tunnels and hideouts, U.S. planes dropped Napalm a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungles of Vietnam.

• Agent Orange: leaf-killing, toxic chemical

• The U.S. military used planes to spray Agent Orange a leaf-killing toxic chemical which devastated the landscape of Vietnam.

• Search-and-destroy missions move civilian suspects, destroy property

• Search-and-destroy missions were conducted by U.S. soldiers, that resulted in the uprooting of Vietnamese villagers with suspected ties to the Vietcong, the killing of their livestock, and the burning of their villages.

– Villagers go to cities, refugee camps; 1967, over 3 million refugees

Vietnamese women and children huddling together as U.S. soldiers enter their village (1967).

Fighting in the Jungle• Sinking Morale

– Guerrilla warfare, jungle conditions, lack of progress lower morale

– Many soldiers turn to alcohol, drugs; some kill superior officers

– Government corruption, instability lead S. Vietnam to demonstrate

• Fulfilling a Duty– Most U.S. soldiers believe

in justice of halting communism

– Fight courageously, take patriotic pride in fulfilling their duty

The Early War at Home• The Great Society Suffers

– War grows more costly with more troops; inflation rate rising

– LBJ gets tax increase to pay for war, check inflation

• has to accept $6 billion funding cut for Great Society

• The Living-Room War– Combat footage on nightly TV

news shows stark picture of war– Critics say credibility gap

between administration reports and events

– Senator J. William Fulbright’s hearings add to doubts about war

– Television, the worsening state of the U.S. economy, and the Fulbright hearings helped increase what Credibility gap.

– Critics of Johnson’s policies in Vietnam used the Credibility gap to describe their distrust of what Johnson’s administration reported to the public about the war.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk (left center) defends the U.S. Vietnam policy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1966).

Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) – the southern Vietnamese soldiers with whom U.S. troops fought against communism and forces in the North during the Vietnam War.

Napalm – a gasoline-based substance used in bombs that U.S. planes dropped in Vietnam in order to burn away jungle and expose Vietcong hideouts.

Agent Orange – a toxic leaf-killing chemical sprayed by U.S. planes in Vietnam to expose Vietcong hideouts.

Search-and-destroy mission – a U.S. military raid on a South Vietnamese village, intended to root out villagers with ties to the Vietcong but often resulting in the destruction of the village and the displacement of its inhabitants.

Credibility gap – a public distrust of statements made by the government.

Section 2

U.S. Involvement and Escalation

Section 3 - A Nation Divided

An antiwar movement in the U.S. pits supporters of the government’s war policy against those who oppose it.

The Working Class Goes to War

• A “Manipulatable” Draft– Selective Service

System, draft, calls men 18–26 to military service

– Most U.S. soldiers who fought in Vietnam were drafted.

– Thousands look for ways to avoid the draft

– Many—mostly white, affluent—get college deferment

– In the early years of the war, a young man could automatically be deferred from the draft by enrolling in college.

– 80% of U.S. soldiers come from lower economic levels

The Working Class Goes to War

• African Americans in Vietnam– African Americans serve in

disproportionate numbers in ground combat

– Defense Dept. corrects problem by instituting draft lottery in 1969

– Racial tensions high in many platoons; add to low troop morale

– The statement that best summarizes the opinion of Martin Luther King, Jr., about African-American troops in the Vietnam War is that he believed it was unfair that they were fighting for a country that treated them unfairly at home.

• Women Join the Ranks– 10,000 women serve, mostly as

military nurses– Thousands volunteer: American

Red Cross, United Services Organization

The Roots of Opposition• The New Left

– New Left—youth movement of 1960s, demand sweeping changes

– The growing youth movement of the 1960’s became known as the New Left, a term that encompassed many different activist groups and organizations.

– Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Free Speech Movement (FSM):

• criticize big business, government; want greater individual freedom

• Founded by Tom Hayden and Al Haber in 1959, Students for a Democratic Society called for a return to “participatory democracy” and greater individual freedom.

• Students for a Democratic Society, founded by Tom Hayden and Al Haber, charged that corporations and large government institutions had taken over America.

• Campus Activism– New Left ideas spread across

colleges– Students protest campus issues,

Vietnam war

The Protest Movement Emerges• The Movement Grows

– In 1965, protest marches, rallies draw tens of thousands

– 1966, student deferments require good academic standing

• SDS calls for civil disobedience; counsels students to go abroad

– Small numbers of returning veterans protest; protest songs popular

– Founded in 1964 at the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement focused its criticisms on what it called the American “machine.”

– The Free Speech Movement was led by Mario Savio and focused its criticism on the nation’s faceless and powerful institutions.

• From Protest to Resistance– Antiwar demonstrations, protests

increase, some become violent– Some men burn draft cards;

some refuse to serve; some flee to Canada

Demonstrators burn draft cards at an antiwar protest (1967).

The Protest Movement Emerges• War Divides the Nation

– Doves strongly oppose war, believe U.S. should withdraw

• American who strongly opposed the war and believed that the United States should withdraw from it were known as Doves

– Hawks favor sending greater forces to win the war

• Americans who supported strong military efforts in Vietnam were called Hawks.

• American who strongly felt that the Johnson administration wasn’t doing enough to escalate and win the war were known as Hawks.

– 1967 majority of Americans support war, consider protesters disloyal

• Johnson Remains Determined– LBJ continues slow escalation,

is criticized by both hawks and doves

– Combat stalemate leads Defense Secretary McNamara to resign

Draft – required enrollment in the armed services.New Left – a youth-dominated political movement of the 1960s,

embodied in such organizations as Students for a Democratic Society and the Free Speech Movement.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) – an antiestablishment New Left group, founded in 1960, that called for greater individual freedom and responsibility.

Free Speech Movement – an antiestablishment New Left organization that originated in a 1964 clash between students and administrators at the University of California at Berkeley.

Dove – a person who opposed the Vietnam War and believed that the United States should withdraw from it.

Hawk – a person who supported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and believed that the United States should use increased military force to win it.

Section 3

A Nation Divided

Section 4 - 1968: A Tumultuous Year

• An enemy attack in Vietnam, two assassinations, and a chaotic political convention make 1968 an explosive year.

The Tet Offensive Turns the War

• A Surprise Attack– 1968 villagers go to

cities to celebrate Tet (Vietnamese new year)

– Vietcong among crowd attack over 100 towns, 12 U.S. air bases

– Tet offensive lasts 1 month before U.S., S. Vietnam regain control

– Westmoreland declares attacks are military defeat for Vietcong

Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive Turns the War

• Tet Changes Public Opinion– Before Tet, most

Americans hawks; after Tet, hawks, doves both 40%

– The Tet Offensive was/were most effective in convincing the American public that the war was not winnable.

– Mainstream media openly criticizes war

The Tet Offensive Turns the War

– LBJ appoints Clark Clifford as new Secretary of Defense

– Clark Clifford was chosen to replace Robert McNamara as secretary of defense

– After studying situation, Clifford concludes war is unwinnable

– LBJ’s popularity drops; 60% disapprove his handling of the war

Days of Loss and Rage• Johnson Withdraws

– Eugene McCarthy gained popularity in the weeks following Tet and received 42 percent of the vote in the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic primary

– Senator Eugene McCarthy runs for Democratic nomination as dove

– Senator Robert Kennedy enters race after LBJ’s poor showing in NH

– Lyndon B. Johnson slim margin of victory in the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic primary was viewed as a defeat.

– LBJ announces will seek peace talks, will not run for reelection

– Lyndon B. Johnson voluntarily dropped out of the race before the national convention took place.

– Robert Kennedy decided to join the Democratic race for the presidency after seeing the surprising results of the 1968 New Hampshire primary.

Days of Loss and Rage

• Violence and Protest Grip the Nation– Dr. Martin Luther King

Jr. assassination was followed by violent riots in 130 U.S. cities.

– Riots rock over 100 cities after Martin Luther King, Jr. is killed

• Kennedy wins CA primary; is fatally shot for supporting Israel– Robert Kennedy was a

1968 Democratic presidential candidate that was assassinated.

– Major demonstrations on over 100 college campuses

A Turbulent Race for President• Turmoil in Chicago

– Hubert Humphrey was a 1968 presidential candidate that had the support of Lyndon B. Johnson.

– Vice-president Hubert Humphrey wins Democratic nomination

– Over 10,000 demonstrators go to Chicago

– Mayor Richard J. Daley mobilizes police, National Guard

– Protesters try to march to convention; police beat them; rioting

– Delegates to convention bitterly debate antiwar plank

– Hubert Humphrey was nominated for president at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

– Hubert Humphrey was guaranteed the party’s nomination before the national convention took place. summarizes the Democratic candidates for president in the 1968 election.

Demonstrators struggling with police outside the Federal Building in Chicago during the trial of eight people accused of conspiring

to promote riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (1969).

A Turbulent Race for President

• Governor George Wallace is third-party candidate– George Wallace ran in the 1968

presidential election as an independent on a platform supporting states’ rights and segregation.

– Champions segregation, states’ rights; attracts protest-weary whites

• Nixon Triumphs– Nixon works for party for

years, wins 1968 Republican nomination

– Richard M. Nixon was the Republican candidate for president in the 1968 election.

– Campaign promises: restore law and order, end war in Vietnam

– Richard M. Nixon won the 1968 presidential election.

Tet offensive – a massive surprise attack by the Vietcong on South Vietnamese towns and cities early in 1968.

Section 4

1968: A Tumultuous Year

Section 5 - The End of the War and Its Legacy

• President Nixon institutes his Vietnamization policy, and America’s longest war finally comes to an end.

President Nixon and Vietnamization• The Pullout Begins

– New president Richard Nixon finds negotiations not progressing

– National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger works on new plan• Henry Kissinger served as the top

U.S. negotiator in Vietnam.– Vietnamization—U.S. troops

withdraw, S. Vietnam troops take over

• “Peace with Honor”– Nixon calls for “peace with honor”

to maintain U.S. dignity– The Vietnamization of the war

President Nixon said would bring about “peace with honor” in Vietnam.

– Vietnamization called for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in Vietnam.

– President Richard Nixon was responsible for the Vietnamization of the war.

– Orders bombing of N. Vietnam, Vietcong hideouts in Laos, Cambodia

Trouble Continues on the Home Front

• Mainstream America– Silent majority—moderate,

mainstream people who support war

– In an attempt to win support for his war policies, made a special appeal to the silent majority

• The My Lai Massacre– News breaks that U.S. platoon

massacred civilians in My Lai village

– The My Lai massacre was the murder of more than 200 innocent Vietnamese villagers by U.S. troops shocked Americans when it was finally revealed to the public.

– Lt. William Calley, Jr., in command, is convicted, imprisoned

A rally supporting U.S. troops in Vietnam (1967).

The Invasion of Cambodia• The Invasion of Cambodia

– 1970, U.S. troops invade Cambodia to clear out enemy supply centers

– Angry with Nixon’s secret orders to bomb and invade Cambodia, Congress repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

– 1.5 million protesting college students close down 1,200 campuses

– Upon hearing of the Invasion of Cambodia, U.S. college students went on the first general student strike in the nation’s history.

• The Tet Offensive, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. occurred in 1968. – The invasion of

Cambodia set off the first general student strike in U.S. history.

Trouble Continues on the Home Front• Violence on Campus

– National Guard kills 4 in confrontation at Kent State University

– Guardsmen kill 2 during confrontation at Jackson State in MS

– 100,000 construction workers rally in NYC to support government

• The Pentagon Papers– Nixon invades Cambodia; Congress

repeals Tonkin Gulf Resolution– Pentagon Papers show plans to

enter war under LBJ– Confirm belief of many that

government not honest about intentions

– Publication of the Pentagon Papers revealed, among other things, that the Johnson administration had lied to the public about its intentions in Vietnam.

– Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration’s efforts to misled the American people were revealed by the publication of the Pentagon Paper.

America’s Longest War Ends

• “Peace is at Hand”– 1971, 60% think U.S. should withdraw from Vietnam by end of year– 1972 N. Vietnamese attack; U.S. bombs cities, mines Haiphong harbor– Kissinger agrees to complete withdrawal of U.S.: “Peace is at hand”

• The Final Push– S. Vietnam rejects Kissinger plan; talks break off; bombing resumes– Congress calls for end to war; peace signed January 1973

• The Fall of Saigon– Cease-fire breaks down; South surrenders after North invades 1975

The War Leaves a Painful Legacy• American Veterans Cope Back

Home– 58,000 Americans, over 2 million

North, South Vietnamese die in war– Returning veterans face

indifference, hostility at home

– About 15% develop post-traumatic stress disorder

• Further Turmoil in Southeast Asia– Communists put 400,000 S.

Vietnamese in labor camps; 1.5 million flee

– Civil war breaks out in Cambodia; Khmer Rouge seize power

– Khmer Rouge Communist group seized power in Cambodia after the U.S. invasion of that country unleashed a brutal civil war.

– Want to establish peasant society; kill at least 1 million people A Vietnamese woman and her child

aboard a refugee boat (1977).

The War Leaves a Painful Legacy• The Legacy of Vietnam

– Government abolishes military draft

– 1973 Congress passes War Powers Act: • War Powers Act requires a

president to inform Congress within 48 hours if U.S. forces are sent into a hostile area without a declaration of war.

– War Powers Act states that U.S. troops are not to remain longer than 90 days in a hostile area without Congressional approval or a declaration of war.

– War contributes to cynicism about government, political leaders

– The main purpose of the War Powers Act was to restrict the power of the president

– Congress passed the War Powers Act to limit the president’s authority to wage war.

Vietnamization – President Nixon’s strategy for ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, involving the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and their replacement with South Vietnamese forces.

Silent majority – a name given by President Richard Nixon to the moderate, mainstream Americans who quietly supported his Vietnam War policies.

My Lai – a village in northern South Vietnam where more than 200 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were massacred by U.S. troops in May 1968.

Kent State University – an Ohio university where National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970, wounding nine and killing four.

Pentagon Papers – a 7,000-page document— leaked to the press in 1971 by the former Defense Department worker Daniel Ellsberg—revealing that the U.S. government had not been honest about its intentions in the Vietnam War.

War Powers Act – a law enacted in 1973, limiting a president’s right to send troops into battle without consulting Congress.

Section 5

The End of the War and Its Legacy