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The Vietnam Era

The Vietnam Era. Chapter 22. Vietnam: Roots of the conflict. Can be traced back to WWII Resistance to French colonization Ho Chi Minh, who is a communist and will eventually become dictator of North Vietnam, supports independence

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The Vietnam Era

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  1. The Vietnam Era Chapter 22

  2. Vietnam:Roots of the conflict • Can be traced back to WWII • Resistance to French colonization • Ho Chi Minh, who is a communist and will eventually become dictator of North Vietnam, supports independence • U.S. under Truman and Eisenhower pays for French war in exchange for French support in Europe (80% by 1954) • Kennedy increases U.S. involvement with “military advisors” • Do just enough to avoid “losing” Vietnam

  3. JohnsonAmericanizes the War • Escalation (1964) • LBJ announces that N. Vietnamese have attacked 2 American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. • LBJ claims attacks were unprovoked. • U.S. destroyers were monitoring S. Vietnamese raids against N. Vietnamese • Asks Congress for Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gives Johnson power to act in Vietnam. • Authorized the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

  4. The Road to Vietnam • Rolling Thunder • Air strikes • First sustained American bombings of N. Vietnam. • Designed to stop soldiers and supplies from going into the South.

  5. Goal in Vietnam • The Domino Theory • Southeast Asia would fall to Communism if American forces withdraw. • U.S. military involvement must not reach levels that would provoke the Chinese or Soviets. • Military victory in any traditional sense of the term was never possible. • America’s goal in Vietnam was to keep the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong from winning and thereby force a truce.

  6. Combat Troops • In 1965, General William C. Westmoreland named American army commander in Vietnam • Receives first installment of combat troops (to defend American airfields) • 184,000 by end of 1965 • 385,000 by 1966 • As combat operations increased, so did American casualties.

  7. Opposition in U.S. • Casualty rate reached 500 per week, which showed to most Americans that U.S. was not winning the war. • Announced on the nightly news. • Vietnam was the first war to receive extended television coverage. • “living room war” • American public support for the war eroded. • Draft Dodgers • Protests

  8. Tet Offensive (Jan 1968) • The Viet Cong and N. Vietnamese defied a holiday truce to launch a wave of surprise assaults. (Vietnamese New Year) • Within a few days, American and S. Vietnamese forces organized a devastating counterattack. • Psychological Impact • Stops escalation • Ruins Johnson politically

  9. The Unraveling: Tet Offensive

  10. 1968: A Traumatic Year • March - Johnson announced a limited halt to the bombing of North Vietnam and that he would not seek reelection. • The quest for military victory had ended. • How could we get out with a minimum of damage to our prestige? • April – Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated • June – Robert Kennedy assassinated after victory in California Democratic primary

  11. Election of 1968 • Democratic Convention in Chicago • VP Hubert Humphrey nominated • Riots broke out and were televised nationally. • “The whole world is watching” • Republican Victory • Richard Nixon wins with anti-war campaign. • Offered a vision of stability and order that a majority of Americans (“the silent majority”) wanted desperately. • Nixon insisted on “peace with honor”

  12. Vietnamization • Nixon starts the process of ending direct U.S. involvement. • The United States began to gradually withdraw its troops as a way to advance the peace talks in Paris. • The burden of fighting would then shift to South Vietnamese soldiers. • In an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table, Nixon enlarged the war by invading Cambodia in 1969 and 1970.

  13. The Counterculture • The events of 1968 led activists away from radical politics. • The “hippies” • Long hair, tie-dyed shirts, recreational drugs, rock music, and group living were more important that revolutionary ideology or mass protest. • The Woodstock Festival (1969 in New York) • Many of the flower children grew tired of their riches-to-rags existence and returned to school.

  14. Divisionsat Home • My Lai massacre (story broke in 1969) • Army Lieutenant William Calley • Ordered the murder of more than 200 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in My Lai village (1968). • 25 officers charged with complicity; Calley charged and convicte4d of murder. • Nixon granted him parole. • Nixon’s “incursion” into Cambodia, known as “Operation Menu,” was announced in 1970.

  15. Kent State • Campuses saw a new wave of protests in 1970. • At Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four students. • Polls indicated that the American public supported the National Guard. • “got what they were asking for”

  16. Pentagon Papers • In 1971, the New York Timesbegan publishing excerpts from a secret Defense Department study on the Vietnam War. • Confirmed what many critics of the war had suspected. • Congress and the public had not received the full story on the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964. • Johnson was developing attack plans while promising the American people that combat troops would never be sent to Vietnam.

  17. War without End • On January 27, 1973, the U.S., North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed an “agreement on ending the war.” • The North Vietnamese were allowed to keep troops in the South. • On March 29, 1973, the last combat troops left Vietnam. • In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion of the South to unify Vietnam under one government.

  18. Vietnam’s Legacy • The longest war in American history was finally over. • Between 1961 and 1973, the war claimed 58,000 Americans and left more than 300,000 wounded. • It cost $150 billion. • Americans simply wanted to “put Vietnam behind us” and revert to a noninterventionist foreign policy.

  19. Vietnam’s Legacy • Showed that democracy was not easily transferable to Third World regions. • Starts the decline of postwar liberalism – shattered the optimism of the early 1960s • Turns people against the government. • Eroded respect for the military. • Eroded the post WWII prosperity – U.S. slid into a long recession

  20. Nixon:Domestic Affairs • Continued to support the American Space program. • In 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. • Democratic Congress • (1971) 26th Amendment – 18-year-olds the right to vote • Pushed desegregation • Environmental programs • Clean Air Act • Environmental Protection Agency • Nixon turned his attention to foreign policy.

  21. Nixon Triumphant • China – Ping Pong Diplomacy • (1971) Henry Kissinger secretly visited China. • (1972) Nixon visited China and made recognition an official and public act. • U.S. Ping Pong team visits China. • U.S. ends restrictions on travel to China, ends trade embargo, UN admits PRC and expels Taiwan. • Détente • An easing of tensions. • (1972) Nixon visited Moscow and met with Leonid Brezhnev. • Signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

  22. The 1972 Election • Nixon’s foreign policy achievements allowed him to stage the campaign as a triumphal procession. • Democrats nominated George McGovern of South Dakota. • Former college history professor. • Liberal who had crusaded against the war and for social welfare programs. • Nixon won the greatest victory of any Republican presidential candidate in history.

  23. Nixon: 520 electoral votes and 60.7% of popular votes • McGovern: 17 electoral votes / 37.5% of popular votes

  24. Watergate • During the campaign McGovern had complained of “dirty tricks” by Nixon. • In the summer of 1972, burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington. • Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, reporters for the Washington Post discovered that the burglars had connections to the White House. • Nixon assured the public in a televised address, “I’m not a crook.”

  25. Uncoveringthe Cover-up • Senate hearings were held and Nixon began firing White House staff members. • White House counsel John Dean testified that Nixon had been personally involved. • Nixon was forced to turn over transcripts of secret recordings of conversations and phone calls from the Oval Office. • No evidenced surfaced that Nixon had ordered the break-in; however, Nixon participated in the cover-up.

  26. Nixon Resigns • The House Judiciary Committee adopted articles of impeachment against Nixon. • Before the House could meet to vote on impeachment; however, Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. • V.P. Gerald Ford becomes president. • Ford pardoned Nixon. • Effect of Watergate • Public cynicism toward government.

  27. Significant Events 1945 Ho Chi Minh unifies Vietnam 1954 French defeat at Dien Bien Phu  1963 Diem assassinated  1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution  1965 Rolling Thunder begins bombing of North Vietnam  1967 March on the Pentagon  1968 Tet Offensive Johnson withdraws from race Riots at Chicago Democratic Convention  1969 “Vietnamization” leads to reduction of American forces  1970 Killings at Kent State  1973 Vietnam peace treaty

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