The Vietnam War and American Society – 1960-1975

1. The Vietnam War and American Society – 1960-1975 “The times are a-changin’” – Bob Dylan

2. Section 1 – The War in the 1960s • Background before war • Vietnam has a history of nationalism • After WWII Ho Chi Minh resisted China and France • The U.S. saw Ho as a communist and enemy in the cold war. • As the independence movement turned into a civil war in the 1960’s, the U.S. was supporting the anticommunist government in South Vietnam

3. Background of the War • American policy members supported France as they tried to stop Ho Chi Minh. • French effort failed, and as a result of the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was split into two separate nations. • Ho Chi Minh – Communist leader in North Vietnam • Ngo Dinh Diem – Premier of South Vietnam, who became President in 1955, with the support of the U.S.

4. JFK and Vietnam • Kennedy sent Lyndon Johnson to Vietnam. • Increased military advisors to Vietnam to more than 16,000! • Diem was lacking support in his own country. He imprisoned people, gave powerful government positions to family members, and dismissed Buddhism. • Kennedy realized the struggle against communism could not be won under Diem’s rule. • U.S. officials did not object to the overthrow of Diem from power. • Vietnamese troops assassinated Diem in 1963, and took control of the government.

5. Lyndon Johnson’s War • Viet Cong was gaining control over more territory and began gaining support in South Vietnam. They received assistance from Ho Chi Minh. • Johnson was determined to stop the spread of communism and started to intensify the war. • He gained the broad authority to have nearly complete control over what the U.S. did in Vietnam by the Congressional passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Congress never officially declared war. • Escalated the war effort – 1965- 25,000 American troops in Vietnam. By 1968 there were 543,000 American troops in Vietnam. • U.S. originally went to Vietnam to advise the South Vietnamese. Now they are taking responsibility for trying to prop up the South Vietnamese government. • Tet Offensive – demonstrated the Viet Cong could launch a massive attack on targets through S. Vietnam. U.S. citizens were beginning to have their reservations about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

6. Review • Define: • Viet Cong • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution • Escalation • Tet Offensive • Identify • Ngo Dinh Diem • Saigon • 1. Why did the U.S. support the government of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam? • 2. How did President Kennedy increase the United States involvement in Vietnam’s civil war in the early 1960s? • 3. How did President Johnson use the Gulf of Tonkin incident to further his goals in the Vietnam conflict?

7. Section 2 – The Brutality of War • Many American soldiers went to war with high enthusiasm, unaware of the conditions in Vietnam. • Walking through jungles carrying heave backpacks, fighting leeches, fever, jungle rot, and having to deal with racial tensions in the military was common. • Troops never knew what to expect as women and even children could be assisting the Viet Cong. • Viet Cong used guerilla warfare in which they would often launch sneak attacks and practice sabotage. • Often set traps such as landmines and snipers.

8. Civilians and the War • American soldiers were never sure who may be sympathetic to the Viet Cong. Civilians in Vietnam suffered as much as the soldiers. • Saturation bombing – air raids that dropped thousands of tons of explosives over large areas and threw pieces of metal in all directions when exploding. • Agent Orange used to expose Viet Cong hiding places -> later discovered to cause health problems in humans and livestock. • Napalm – Jelly-like substance which burned uncontrollably as it stuck to people’s bodies and seared off their flesh.

9. My Lai Massacre • March 1968 – small village in South Vietnam names My Lai • Soldiers received word it was housing 250 Viet Cong members • Instead they found women, children, and old men. Soldiers were worn down by uncertainties of guerilla warfare and lost control. • American Lieutenant gave orders to round everyone up and kill them. • Soldiers shot and killed more than 100 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai and the news of this shocked Americans.

10. Review • Define: • My Lai Massacre • 1. Why was the war so hard on American troops? • 2. How did the war affect Vietnamese civilians? • 3. What happened at My Lai, and how did it change the Americans’ perception of war?

11. Section 3 – Student Protest • “The Pentagon Papers” – revealed that government officials lied to Congress and the American public about the war. • Opposition to the war had been growing since the early 1960’s but continued to increase • Students were at the front of the anti-war movement and their activism undermined support for the war.

12. Student Activism and Changing Times • Popular culture including rock and roll music and rebellious youths on the movie screens had indicated that many young Americans were not happy with the values of their parents. • Civil Rights Movement was a stepping stone for many other movements. • Civil Rights activists organized the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1960. • The SDS played a major role in the development of the New Left which consisted of people seeking radical change in areas such as poverty and racism.

13. The Free Speech Movement • University of California at Berkeley in 1964 – Students were not allowed to pass out pamphlets on campus and claimed it was in violation of their right to free speech. • They resisted the university and police came in to arrest a leader. Students surrounded the police care and kept it from moving. This became the start of the free speech movement. • Charges were pressed against the students, who in turn held large demonstrations led by student leader Mario Savio. When police arrested students, other students (who were supported by the faculty) went on strike to show their support for the free speech demonstrators.

14. The Free Speech Movement • Berkeley remained the most radical campus but their agitation there spread to many other campuses in the United States. • Activist challenged regulations they felt violated their freedoms such as restrictions on the hours when men and women could visit each other’s dorms and seeking greater involvement in college affairs. • SDS recruited discontented students to work in campaigns to improve conditions in the cities of the United States.

15. Teach-In Movement • When Vietnam intervened, students were among the first to protest American involvement in the war. Some opposed “American imperialism,” while others questioned American interests in a civil war. All called for withdrawal. • Teach-In – extended lecture on a controversial issue to protest the Vietnam War. • First teach-in took place at the University of Michigan in March 1965. 50-60 professors decided to teach a special night session concerning Vietnam. Several thousand people showed up. • Teach-ins followed at colleges around the country. Antiwar voices dominated the proceedings.

16. Resistance to War • Resistance to the military draft was sweeping the country. • Selective service act allowed the government to draft men between the ages of 18 and 26 since 1951. As more men were drafted for Vietnam, more Americans questioned the morality and fairness of the draft. • College students could receive deferments which meant they did not have to go to war. • Many other men tried to avoid the draft by leaving the country or by declaring they were conscientious objectors – they opposed fighting in the war on moral grounds. • SDS grew as it led a campaign against the drafts. ROTC’s, CIA recruiting offices, and napalm manufacturer buildings were being attacked by the SDS.

17. Resistance to War • “Hey, hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today?” • Protests and marches – 300,000 opponents to the war marched in New York City while 100,000 tried to close down the Pentagon. • More than 200 major demonstrations erupted on colleges against the war in 1968 alone. • The “Weathermen” – a radical, sometimes violent faction of the SDS. Example: Demonstration in Chicago in which members carried lead pipes, clubs, rocks, and chains.

18. Review • Define: • SDS • New Left • Teach-in • Conscientious objector • 1. What were the roots of student activism in the 1960s? • 2. What was the role of SDS in the growing protest movement? • 3. How did the Vietnam War affect the student protest movement? • 4. What did activists hope to accomplish, and what methods did they use?

19. Section 4 - The Counterculture • Counterculture – cultural movement in the 1960s formed mostly of young people who rejected conventions and experimented with new practices in dress, sexual relationships, and drug use. • Hippies – Members of the counterculture, who often tried to look different by not wearing the normal looking “school clothes” of middle class youth. • Resulted in the youth looking for alternatives to traditional patterns of living.

20. The Sexual Revolution • Demanded more freedom to make personal choices and some argued that sex should be separated from its traditional ties to family life. • Newspapers, magazines, and books published more articles on sex, which might not have been printed, even in the recent past. • 1962 Book – Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown • 1966 Book – Human Sexual Response by William Masters and Virginia Johnson. • Previously banned books such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence now became available. • Men and women experimented with new living patterns. Some hippies rejected traditional relationships and lived together in communal groups. More and more people lived together as couples without getting married.

21. The Drug Scene • Psychedelic drugs – drugs that cause the brain to behave abnormally. • Became more widespread among the nation’s youth. • Drugs such as LSD were popular and proponents preached that drugs could free your mind. • Soldiers who used drugs in Vietnam brought them home with them to the U.S. • Marijuana became common among middle-class college students. • Overdoses and deaths increased. They represented the tragic excesses to which some people were driven by their reliance on drugs as an escape.

22. The Music World • Music contributed to cultural changes – rock and roll and the folk music gave way to a new kind of rock. • The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin • Woodstock – Rock music festival of 1969 that became a symbol of counterculture music and behavior -> New York, 300,000 people in 1969 • 1969 Woodstock was trouble free as the police chose not to enforce drug laws. “Woodstock Nation” was born. • Other Americans viewed Woodstock with distaste. Not interested in the changes occurring. Opponents deplored the drugs, sex, and nudity they saw at Woodstock and throughout the country. • Some people felt the counterculture represented a rejection of morals and honored values and seemed a childish reaction to the problems of an era.

23. Altamont • The fears of those who criticized Woodstock came true at Altamont Speedway in California in 1969. • 300,000 people were in attendance for The Rolling Stones concert. • Promoters failed to have enough security so the band hired the Hell’s Angels, a biker gang. • The gang battered any people who annoyed The Rolling Stones and even beat a man to death on stage.

24. What happened to the hippies? • Most hippies were children of the middle class and melted right back into it when the counterculture fell apart. • Many American companies marketed items such as blue jeans and stereo equipment to member of the counterculture who bought the products. • By the 1980s, many hippies and people involved in the counterculture movement who once opposed the capitalistic values of business would be holding executive positions in the same corporations they once denounced.

25. Review • Define: • Hippie • Psychedelic drug • Woodstock • 1. Describe the values that were rejected and those that were embraced by the counterculture of the 1960s. • 2. How was the counterculture reflected in the sexual values, drug use, and music of its members? • 3. How did Americans outside the counterculture view the movement?

26. Section 5 – The End of the War • By 1968 the antiwar movement was in full swing. • Years of protest and a growing list of American casualties had steadily increased public opposition to the war. • Johnson’s popularity as President declined • After the Tet Offensive, Johnson recognized that American public opinion had shifted in such a way that he could not win another election. • Johnson rarely left the White House at the end of his presidency, as he feared he would be assaulted by angry crowds of war protestors. • President Johnson declared on television he would not run for another term as President.

27. Richard Nixon’s Approach • Won the presidency with the claim that he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam. • He never divulged the details and critics claim no such plan ever existed. • Nixon dedicated to Vietnamization – the replacing of American forces in Vietnam with South Vietnamese soldiers. • Between 1968 and 1972 American troops in Vietnam dropped from 543,000 to 39,000.

28. Richard Nixon’s Approach • Nixon, however, became caught up in the war as he was still determined not to lose. • As he withdrew troops, he resumed bombing raids, keeping his actions secret from critics. • Nixon widened the war beyond the borders of Vietnam. In April 1970, he announced that the United States and South Vietnamese forces were moving into Cambodia to clear out communist camps existing there by the Viet Cong and used to mount attacks on South Vietnam.

29. Renewed Protests • Nixon’s invasion on Cambodia in 1970 renewed the protest movement on college campuses. • Kent State University – riots broke out, Ohio National Guard ordered in, students threw rocks at the guardsmen, guardsmen fired their rifles at the students. • 13 seconds of firing – 4 students lay dead, 9 injured • A similar attack took place at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Policemen and highway patrolmen fired into a women’s dorm killing 2 people. • Americans were horrified by these attacks.

30. The U.S. Withdraws • To reassure the S. Vietnamese of continuing American concern, Nixon ordered the most intense bombing campaign of the war in the spring of 1972. • “Peace is at hand” was declared, as Nixon won reelection. • In January 1973, a cease-fire was signed and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam came to an end. • The civil war in Vietnam continued for another two years. • After the withdrawal of the U.S., South Vietnamese soldiers lost ground to their North Vietnamese enemies. • On April 29th, 1975, the U.S. carried out a last-minute evacuation of Saigon. • In 1975, the North Vietnamese issued a campaign of strikes and on April 30th, the Saigon (capitol) government officially surrendered to the North Vietnamese.

31. Legacy of the War • The Vietnam War was the longest and least successful war in which the United States had ever participated. • 58,000 Americans dead and about 300,000 wounded. • Cost more than $150 billion and disrupted the American economy. • The number of dead and wounded Vietnamese soldiers ran into the millions, with countless civilian casualties. The landscape would long reveal the scars of war.

32. Legacy of War • American beliefs about their strong abilities to defend against the spread of communism and the beliefs that technology and money could always bring victory were proven false. • Soldiers did not all receive a heroes welcome on their return home. • Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in Washington, D.C.

33. Review • Define: • Vietnamization • Identify: • Kent State University • 1. What were the political effects of growing public disapproval of the war in 1968? • 2. What was Richard Nixon’s approach to the war in Vietnam? • 3. How did the war in Vietnam finally end? • 4. What was the lasting impact of the war in Vietnam and in the United States?