VIETNAM, CH 22Section 4

1968

• Tet• Lunar New Year• Truce• War funerals

• Tet Offensive• Vietcong launch attack on over 100 towns and 12 U.S. air

bases• Takes U.S. a month to regain control of towns• 32,000 Vietcong die • 3,000 U.S/ARVN die

• Shook American public

Election of 1968/Democratic Party

• Eugene McCarthy• Senator• Runs on anti-war platform

• Robert Kennedy• At first, isn’t going to run• After McCarthy holds his own in primary against Johnson,

Bobby changes his mind

• Hubert Humphrey• Johnson’s Vice-President

Tragedy

• April 4, 1968• Martin Luther King assassinated• June 5, 1968• Robert Kennedy assassinated

Presidential Election

• August 28, 1968• Protesters converge in Chicago at Democratic National

Convention

• Nixon wins Republican candidacy• Nixon wins the Presidential Election in November

NIXON AND VIETNAMSection 5

Vietnamization

• Henry Kissinger• National Security Advisor to Nixon

• “Body Count” • Number of Vietcong dead• Show that the U.S. was winning, (but we weren’t)

• Vietnamization• “Peace with Honor”• Gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops, 500,000 to 25,000• Vietnamese slowly take over• August, 1969, first 25,000 troops head home• Over the next three years, less than 25,000 remain by 1971

The WAR continues

• Nixon wanted to maintain U.S. dignity during withdrawal• He secretly ordered bombing of Laos and Cambodia• Vietcong strongholds

• Silent Majority – Nixon’s belief that the moderate, mainstream Americans supported war

• Even as troops coming home from Vietnam, Nixon announces invasion of Cambodia

My LAI

• Seymour Hersch• New York Times

reporter

• March 16, 1968• U.S. platoon under

command of Lt. William Calley, Jr. ordered to “kill anything that breathed”

• Over 200 innocent women, children, elderly killed

Protests

• April 30, 1970• Nixon orders invasion of Cambodia

• College students protest• Kent State University• Protesters burn ROTC building• National Guard fires on crowd• 9 wounded, 4 killed

• Jackson State College• 12 wounded, 2 killed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyzoNCJvy4c

Pentagon Papers

• Leaked to public• 7,000 documents that laid out the plans of U.S. entering

Vietnam War• Showed mistakes made with Vietnam by Johnson

administration• Hurt Nixon administration• Confirmed the growing belief that the American people

couldn’t trust the government

1972 Election/Nixon wins

• March, North Vietnam launch massive attack on South• Nixon responds with bombing campaign• October, Kissinger secretly meeting with Le Duc Tho

(N.V. negotiator) for last year, drops demand the North withdraw

• Last bombing on Hanoi and Haiphong, 100,000 bombs • Moscow, Beijing, Congress say ENOUGH• March 29, 1973 Last of U.S. troops come home

Legacy of Vietnam War

• Americans• 58,000 killed• 303,000 wounded

• Vietnamese• Over 2 million killed• North and South

• War Powers Act• RESTRICT THE

POWER OF THE PRESIDENT

• President must inform Congress within 48 hours of troop deployment

• 90 days or less American foreign policy altered

…pause, consider risks People NO LONGER

TRUST government