THE VIETNAM WAR ERA
Chap 30
THE BACKGROUND
Vietnam was a French colony that was
SUPPOSED to be free after WW2
 French refused to give it up – the US stepped in
to help because of the communist leanings of the
Vietnamese nationalist movement

Leader- Ho Chi Minh believed that foreign control in
Vietnam was ruining the country’s development and
culture
 Domino theory – keeping communism contained so
that it would not spread to neighboring countries
 UN divided Vietnam (as it had Korea) into a
COMMUNIST North and a “Democratic” South at
17th parallel

IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE
1957 – communistic opposition group, Viet Cong,
formed. National liberation front to reunite
Vietnam.
 Ho Chi Minh sent supplies along the Ho Chi
Minh trail
 South Vietnamese dictator, Ngo Dinh Diem,
persecuted Buddhists and all political dissidents

Buddhist monks began to publicly protest, some
through the extreme action of self-immolation
 Diem eventually assassinated in 1963

Thich Quang Duc, June 11, 1963
last words: “Before closing my eyes and moving towards
the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo
Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of
the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the
strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables,
reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to
organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”
GULF OF TONKIN INCIDENT
August 2, 1964: supposed “attacks” on US ships
led President Johnson to launch bombing strikes
in North Vietnam
 Tonkin Gulf Resolution - Aug 7 – led to LBJ
having power to engage in acts of war without
officially declaring war (which needs
Congressional approval)
 Feb 1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder


By June, 50,000 American troops in Vietnam
1964 ELECTION

LBJ v. Barry Goldwater
LBJ maligned Goldwater as an anti-communist that
would engage in war with the Soviet Union
 LBJ’s famous campaign commercial :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTBnsqxZ3k
 Played on fears of mutually-assured destruction

FURTHER ESCALATION
Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara and
Sec’y of State, Dean Rusk advised the President
to send more troops
 Many who had voted for LBJ to avoid war felt
betrayed, YET the war had 61% support at the
start. Supporters = hawks, non-supporters =
doves
 American soldiers were not prepared for this
experience

TACTICS
American/South
Vietnamese Army





Land mines – 3.5
million still active; kill
160 people/month in
Vietnam today
Agent Orange –defoliant
Napalm – incendiary
Carpet bombing
campaigns
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=GKaYOW9zM
oY
Search and destroy
missions to weed out
suspected Viet cong
Viet Cong
Monetary
disadvantage
 Viewed the war as a
struggle for their
lives, not for
“winning” a war
 Booby traps
 Jungle terrain
 Guerrilla tactics
 spy networks

http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/02/01/196
8-nguyen-van-lem/
VIETNAM ERA PART 2
Issues at home and abroad
99 PROBLEMS…FOR LBJ

President and administration’s credibility was
questioned because of the different reports
coming from the White House versus what people
were seeing on TV


Televised nightly, the images on TV helped the war
to drop in popularity (down to 50% by 1967)
Great Society’s Money was being funneled into
Vietnam War/defense budget

LBJ had hoped the war would be over quickly
99 PROBLEMS CONTINUED…THE DRAFT
Selective Service Act had been
passed during WW1 and used during
WW2 as well.
 All male citizens had to register
when they were 18. Could be called
up or “drafted” from 18 – 26

Many enrolled in college to defer
military service – eventually had to
have good grades in college to use this
excuse
 4,000 Americans served jail time,
18,000 fled country (Canada and
Sweden), 200,000 accused of draft
offenses
 Rallying cries: “Hell, no, we won’t go!”
and “Burn draft cards NOT people.”

WORKING CLASS WAR
80% of soldiers were from the working class
– couldn’t get deferments easily. Working
class and poor whites, blacks and Hispanics
made up the majority of the soldiers
 African-Americans were 20% of the
draftees, but only 10% of the American
population
 MLK called it a cruel irony that black
soldiers, treated as second-class citizens at
home, were now fighting “America’s War”
 LBJ changed it to a draft lottery system
where numbers were called at random
based on birthdays

MORALE IS A PROBLEM….
IN VIETNAM
AND
AT HOME
Racial tensions high
 Soldiers turning to
escapes like drinking,
drugs
 Reports of fragging –
killing superior
officers


Conservatives saw
war protests as “antiAmerican” and had
own slogans like,
“America, love it or
leave it.”
PROTEST MOVEMENTS GROW
The New Left – a demand for sweeping changes
in American government and society
 SDS – Students for a Democratic Society – 1960 –
restoration of participatory democracy


Creation of a “domestic terrorism/liberation” group
called the Weather Underground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3cxgeQkK-o
Free Speech Movement – 1964- Started at U of
California at Berkeley – called the American
government a “nameless, faceless machine
controlled by $$”
 College campuses across the country erupted into
protests – organized sit-ins, teach-ins, boycotts

1968 – IT’S HITTING THE FAN

January 30 – Tet Offensive – surprise attack by
North Vietnamese/Viet Cong
Funerals for war victims in the north were actually
ploys to smuggle weapons to Viet Cong
 US and South Vietnamese eventually gained upper
hand after a month
 LBJ said it was a victory BUT changed many
American perspectives on war. Support down to 40%
 Viet cong lost 32,000 and US/SV lost 3,000

April 4 – MLK assassination
 June 5 – RFK assassinated on campaign trail

1968 - CONTINUED
LBJ decided not to run (which is why RFK was
seeking the Democratic candidacy)
 Chicago Democratic Convention in August –
10,000 protesters showed up to push an antiwar
platform

Yippies- Youth International Party – came to provoke
violence to discredit the Democratic party
 12,000 policemen on hand; the mayor of Chicago,
Richard Daley, had ordered use of brute force – tear
gas, night sticks, riot gear
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYp1JgwotXU
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epxmX_58tOo

NIXON AND ‘NAM
REPUBLICAN RETURN TO OFFICE

Nixon won election in 1968 against Hubert
Humphrey due to the divided Democratic party
 George
Wallace, independent (states’ rights) party won 5
southern states. Assassination attempt in ‘72 left him
paralyzed
Nixon said he represented a “silent majority” of
conservative Americans who felt that the country
was taken hostage by counterculture radicals.
 Goal for Vietnam was “Vietnamization” –
training the South Vietnamese to take over so
Americans could leave
 Secretly ordered the bombing of not only Vietnam
but neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia

END TO THE WAR







Nixon’s tactics accelerated America’s
departure, but also destabilized the
areas surrounding Vietnam
By 1975, the South Vietnamese
(ARVN) forces succumbed to the
North.
Cost $150 billion dollars,
57, 939 American soldiers killed,
55,000 North Vietnamese killed,
estimates from 160,000-400,000
South Vietnamese CIVILIANS killed
Limitations brought in on the
President’s powers to wage war
Today, Vietnam is a one-party,
socialist state
It is a 3rd world country, where most
people are still farmers, but it is
stable politically and economically
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY INCIDENT
May 4, 1970 – National Guardsmen opened fire
on a crowd of college protestors upset about the
escalation of the Vietnam War by Nixon
 4 students were killed, 9 wounded – chaotic on
college campuses
 National Guardsmen were not prosecuted


Nixon basically blamed college students and anti-war
protestors publicly
RELEASE OF INFO ON ATROCITIES IN VIETNAM

1969 – My Lai massacre (took place in ‘68)
200 – 500+ civilians in a small village were killed
without reason (“weeding out Viet Cong” but there
were many elderly, women and children targeted)
 Lieutenant Calley convicted (spent only 3.5 yrs of
house arrest), 25 others brought up on charges

Effects on the health of American soldiers and
Vietnamese populous exposed to Agent Orange
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/agentoran
ge/chi-agent-orange3-dec08,0,2946008.story
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/agentoran
ge/chi-091204-vietnam-agent-orangepictures,0,4281985.photogallery?index=chi-b041209-agentorange20091202223844
