Warm Up: Images Notes: Vietnam Era (2) Closing Activity: Quotes Review

1. Warm Up: ImagesNotes: Vietnam Era (2)Closing Activity: QuotesReview

6. Protests Begin • Students for a Democratic Society – Restoration of “participatory democracy” and greater individual freedom end of special interest. • Teach-ins about the war • Protests about the war held at Universities • Picketing the White House • Backlash against anti-war view • Jail, Injury

7. Tet Offensive • American forces were over ½ million • Leaders predicting end of war soon

8. Tet Offensive • Jan. 1968 major attack by Vietcong shows no sign of defeat to come – supposed to be a week-long truce for Vietnam New Year • Late at night attack of 100 towns & 12 U.S. air bases.

9. Tet Offensive • Public opinion turns on LBJ • Media begins to openly criticize the war.

10. Year--1968 • LBJ scales back war effort and decides to not seek re-election • Lost public approval • Assassinations of King, RFK • Protests increase • College protests

11. Year--1968 • Colombia University – Attention for a week – took over many campus buildings • Democratic Convention, Chicago • rioting occurs • Protesters went to walk on the convention, Police entered the crowd and protestors reacted. • “The World is Watching!”

12. Nixon Wins • Nixon wins election but stays in Vietnam??? • Vietnamization • policy of pulling American ground forces out of Vietnam while training Vietnamese troops to do most of the ground fighting with American air support

13. Nixon Wins • bombing of Laos and Cambodia • attempting to stop Viet Cong supply lines in and out of the country. • Nixon tries to leave without admitting defeat

14. Homefront • My Lai Massacre, 1968 – Massacre of innocent civilians – ordered by commanding officer when no rebels were found. • protest renew over Cambodia • Invading to destroy supply lines of the Vietcong • Kent State – Protestors burn down the ROTC building – National Guard comes in – protestors throw rocks – Guards open fire – 9 wounded, 4 killed

15. Homefront • Jackson State – Bottles instead of rocks – 12 students wounded and 2 bystanders killed. • Pentagon Papers • Classified documents taken from the Pentagon that document the actions of several Presidents during Vietnam acting without Congressional knowledge • NY Times v. US, 1971

16. Vietnam Ends • Early 1973 US leaves Vietnam • Paris Peace Accords – cease fire • Fall of Siagon, 1975 – N. Vietnam bunched a full scale invasion on S. Vietnam – surrenders w/ only economic assistance from U.S. • 58,000 killed 365,000 wounded • Vietnam Stats of Americans • Veterans treated differently • Faced indifference & hostility

17. Vietnam Ends • Passage of the 26th Amendment • 18 y/o to vote • Vietnam Memorial – 1982 • Vietnamese refugees – 1.5 million will flee • War Powers Act • Limits the ability of Presidents to wage war • Congress must be notified within 48 hrs. of sending forces in to hostile territories. No longer than 90 days w/o Congressional approval.

18. Quotes • “That…war killed the lady I really loved- the Great Society.” Lyndon Johnson • “Peace with honor” Richard Nixon • “We huddled them up…I poured about four clips into the group…The mothers were hugging their children…Well, we kept right on firing.” Soldier at My Lai Massacre, 1968 • “is our offspring and if it falls victim to any of the perils that threaten its existence…then the U.S….will be held responsible; and our prestige in Asia will sink…” John F. Kennedy, 1956 • “The year ended with the enemy increasingly resorting to desperation tactics; and he has experienced only failure in these events.” General William Westmoreland, 1967 • “I am taking the first step to de-escalate the conflict…unilaterally and at once…I have ordered our aircraft…to make no attacks on North Vietnam…I call upon President Ho Chi Minh to respond positively…to this new step toward peace.” President Johnson, March 1968 • “I won’t make it hard for the North Vietnamese…, but I will not be the first President of the U.S. to lose a war.” President Richard Nixon

19. Quotes • “Vietnam is still with us…We paid an exorbitant price for the decisions that were made.” Henry Kissinger • “I’m bitter…It’s people like us who give up their sons for the country…The college types…they go to Washington and tell the government what to do…But their sons, they don’t end up in the swamps over there, in Vietnam. No, They’re deferred, because they’re in school.” Firefighter • “more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” News Anchor Walter Cronkite • “If I’ve lost Walter Cronkite, then it’s over, I’ve lost Mr. Average Citizen.” Lyndon Johnson • “Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term of President.” Lyndon Johnson

20. QUIZ

21. This federal law was passed after Vietnam to restrict the military powers of the President?

22. Where was the 1968 Democratic Presidential Convention, where many protestors were violently met by police, held?

23. This was a famous student group who opposed the war and helped organize protests around the nation?

24. These secret documents were leaked to the press in order to show questionable activities by the nation’s leaders in Vietnam?

25. This was the turning point of Vietnam when public opinion decided that the war was a lost cause?

26. This amendment was passed as a result of the Vietnam War?