1968: A Turning Point

1. 1968: A Turning Point p.613-619

2. Late 1967 - U.S. military leaders notice a marked increase in traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, signaling an upcoming enemy offensive. • January 1968, The outpost of Khe Sanh is attacked by thousands of NVA. • Americans held the base despite 77 days of artillery fire. • This attack was later determined to be a diversion for the Tet Offensive, to draw US and ARVN forces away from the cities where attacks were planned.

3. In defiance of traditional cease-fires observed for the Vietnamese New Year, the Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968. • The attack involved some 84,000 VC and NVA, attacking 12 US military bases and more than 100 cities in South Vietnam. • The hopes of the North Vietnamese, that the Tet Offensive would inspire people to revolt against the North, did not transpire. Why? • The VC killed many South Vietnamese civilians, turning many against the VC. • Tet was the turning point in way many Americans viewed the war, rather than the decisive victory that General Westmoreland claimed it to be

4. Tet demonstrated that no part of Vietnam was safe from attack. • In February, on the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite Broadcast this message: ..We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders…For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate

5. Other news sources followed Cronkite’s lead and public support for the war began to shift. • Robert McNamara, secretary of defense began actively seeking ways to negotiate a peaceful end to the war. • LBJ lamented that losing Cronkite equated with losing middle America.

6. A number of candidates challenged Johnson for the Democratic nomination • Eugene McCarthy, a vocal critic of the War, and New York Senator Robert Kennedy joined the race. • In the face of America’s disapproval, LBJ declined to enter the presidential race in March of 1968. • Americans were outraged when General Westmoreland requested 206,000 additional soldiers for Vietnam. • Some in the military believed Johnson had doomed the war effort by not allowing an invasion of north Vietnam

7. Johnson, in the same TV announcement of his refusal to re-run for president, informed America of his intention to seek peace. • The Peace Talks in Paris, France stalled immediately, and did not produce resulted for several years. • LBJ’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, entered the race for president, defending the administration’s policies in Vietnam.

8. In the wake of winning the California primary, Kennedy, the leading Democratic candidate was shot and killed in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. • The Democratic convention in Chicago was a mess, with infighting in the convention, and rioters outside. Humphrey was nominated. • In contrast, Richard Nixon was nominated by a calm, well-run Republican Convention in Miami • Nixon appealed to many political conservatives in the middle class.

9. George Wallace of Alabama was nominated by the American Independent Party, mostly on the strength of his attacks on the war protestors. • Wallace had been a Democrat, but many feared he would take votes from Nixon. • At the Peace Talks in Paris, the north Vietnamese had agreed to include South Vietnamese reps. If the bombing of the North would cease. • Nixon received 43.4% of the popular vote, to Humphrey’s 42.7%. Wallace was a factor, receiving over 13% of the votes. • Nixon won with 301 electorate votes. • How was Wallace a factor in the 1968 election?