hist 12 online the vietnam war and disillusionment pdf
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The Vietnam War and Disillusionment 1964-1980s
Seymour Chwast, 1967The Museum of Modern Art Collection
Accessed via ARTStor
Why does the Vietnam War matter?
• Social protest - younger generation rebels against older
• Helps us to understand the flaws in America’s Cold War vision:
• Willingness to sacrifice democratic principles to fight communism
• Secrecy of the government and military
• Overconfidence in military might - with a lack of awareness of local reality
INDOCHINA. First Indo-Chinese War (1946-1954). After World War II France reinstalled its colonial government in Indochina (after the Japanese invasion during the war). In 1946 a Vietnamese independence movement, led by communist Ho Chi Minh, started to fight against French troops to gain control of
northern Vietnam. On May 7th, 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. The armistice, signed in Geneva, divided Vietnam into a Democratic Republic in the North, under communst rule, and the State of Vietnam in the South, under French rule. INDOCHINA. First Indo-Chinese War. Don Qui
Thon. Vietminh prisoners replace bridges destroyed by a Vietminh attack. May, 1954.©ROBERT CAPA © 2001 By Cornell Capa / Magnum Photos
Indochina (Vietnam)1945-1954
• After WWII, Japanese expelled
• American support for French colonies - 80% of war funding
• 1954 French lose: Eisenhower does not want to commit troops, Vietnam independent
US Commitments in Vietnam
• US $ to create/prop-up South Vietnamese government
• fear of “losing” Vietnam
• “counterinsurgency” strategy
• Ngo Dinh Diem (r. 1955- 1963) Image: Malcolm Browne/AP
Accessed online via Time magazine
Cold War fears and frustrations showed up in elections. Check out this famous
1964 presidential campaign ad:
Lyndon Johnson’s War
• August 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• National Security Council recommends air strikes and ground troops
• By 1968, 500,000 US troops - brutal war
Source: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/outline.weeknine.html
The Antiwar Movement• Cold War consensus
unravels
• Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out in 1967
• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS): 25,000 at Washington, DC protest
• October 1967: 100,000 protesters at Lincoln Memorial
Photo: http://library.sjsu.edu/online-exhibits/vietnam-protest
1968
• January: Tet Offensive
• April 4: MLK assassinated
• June: Robert F. Kennedy assassinated
• August: Chicago Democratic National Convention, protests and repression - see video clip from the news, next slide
Philip Jones Griffiths/Magnum PhotosHue, South Vietnam, 1968
Nixon and Vietnam
• Vietnamization
• Invasion of Cambodia - 1970
• Protests and violence on campus - 1970 Kent State University killings
• Declining morale among troops
Khe Sanh, Vietnam WarRobert Ellison, George Eastman House Collection
Nixon and Vietnam
• Waning public support for war
• Press plays role:
• NY Times publishes details of My Lai massacre (1968) in 1969
• NY Times publishes Pentagon Papers 1971
• 1973: War Powers Act
Daniel Ellsberg, outside a federal courthouse in 1971, faced 12 felony counts as a result of his leak of the Pentagon Papers; the charges were dismissed in 1973. Source: nytimes.com
End of the Vietnam War
• 1973: Paris Peace Agreement
• 1975: Vietnam reunified under communist rule
• 58,000 Americans killed; 3-4 million Vietnamese
Watergate and Aftermath
• June 1972: break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in Watergate apt complex
• Washington Post investigation of cover-up: Woodward and Bernstein
• By 1974, Nixon’s involvement in cover-up clear
• Church Committee - revelations re: FBI and CIA
US President Richard NIXON©Rene Burri/Magnum Photos
1974
Throughout all the investigations, Nixon maintains, “I am not a crook.”
Check out this clip from November 1973:
Conclusions
• Vietnam War is total failure: only war U.S. lost
• Leads to crisis of confidence in American government - massive protest
• Liberal upheaval and protest of the 1960s leads to conservative backlash
Nixon and the Cold War
• Warmer relations with USSR/China: detente
• Vietnam’s end: eroding confidence in government, Cold War fight
1976: Carter vs. Ford
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1976
• Carter runs as a political outsider
• Ford suffers from ties to Nixon
Carter and Human Rights Politics• US commitment to
protecting human rights
• 1978 cuts off aid to Argentina’s military dictatorship
• lack of emphasis on Cold War thinking
• Camp David Accords (1979)
• BUT unable to fully enact vision
Diplomatic Miracle: Jimmy Carter links Egypt's Sadat and Israel's BeginARTStor Slide Gallery Collection
Carter’s most major defeat was the Iran Hostage Crisis.
Check out this film clip from the movie Argo (2012) for some background context
about Iran’s recent history:
Iran Hostage Crisis
• Partly produced by U.S. Cold War policy
• 52 hostages held for 444 days
• Released on Reagan’s inauguration day
1980 Elections: Reagan
• Carter approval rating: 21%
• Reagan: 1970s conservatism + “white backlash”
Reagan and the Cold War
• USSR as “evil empire”
• Strategic Defense Initiative (1983) - “star wars” technology
• overturn “Vietnam Syndrome”: more aggressive interventions
• US support for “authoritarian” regimes, e.g. El Salvador and Guatemala
The Iran-Contra Affair
• 1984: Congress bans military aid to Contras
• 1985: Reagan secretly authorizes Iran arms sales in exchange for hostages
• CIA director William Casey and Lt. Col. Oliver North, NSC diverted funds for Contras weapons
Reagan and Gorbachev
• glasnost = political openness
• perestroika = economic reform
• reduction in military budget, arms control negotiations
Switzerland. Gorbachev and Reagan Summit. Michael GORBACHEV, Ronald REAGAN, Roxanne RIDGEWAY at the Geneva Summit. Switzerland. Geneva. The summit between Ronald REAGAN, the American President and Mikhail GORBACHEV, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR.The two leaders listening to their interpreters during a press conference. 1985. ©Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos. Accessed via ARTStor.
Conclusions to the Cold War, 1969-End
• Nixon: Presides over end of Vietnam War; plays USSR and China off each other in détente
• Ford: 2.5 years in office, limited accomplishments
• Carter: Human rights ideas; more hard-line after Iran Hostage Crisis
• Reagan: Tough talk, but softens in second term
• Cold War ends 1989-1991