Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

• Versailles• 1949 division• 1954 Dien Bien Phu• US Advisors in 55• Escalation in 60

Kennedy takes over

• Gotta look tough• 15,000 “advisors”• Diem’s continues to fail

pretty epically • Strategic hamlets • Green Berets

Diem’s downfall

Lodge to Saigon

• Henry Cabot Lodge causes the line to be drawn

A War of Attrition• “We seek no wider war…The

battle against communism must be joined…with strength and determination” – Lyndon Johnson

• Worried that if the Democrats “lost” Vietnam to Communism, it would “shatter my Presidency, kill my administration, and damage our democracy”

The Gulf of Tonkin• Turning point• Secretary of

Defense Robert McNamara

• National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy

The start of the divide

• Not everyone agreed with the “hell yeah lets go to war” attitude following the Gulf of Tonkin incident (page 778)

• George Ball (Undersecretary of State) SUPER opposed, saying it’d be difficult to get out if we got too far in. “Once on the tiger’s back, we cannot be sure of picking the place to dismount”

Operation Rolling Thunder

• Bombing Hanoi • Napalm• Ho Chi Minh trail

Agent Orange is kinda messed up

Dividing the Nation

• As of 1965, 66% of Americans supported the policy in Vietnam, but then things changed

• Several years in a row, General William Westmoreland reported that the enemy was on the verge of defeat. In ’67 “the enemy’s hopes are bankrupt…we have reached an important point where the end begins to come into view”

Credibility Gap

• Vietnam is the first “television war”

• February 1966, Congress begins to hold “educational” hearings

• Sec of State Dean Rusk vs. George Kennan (anyone remember him?)

Antiwar movement

• Teach-ins• The draft system• Martin Luther King, Jr. • Hawks vs. doves

The Peace Symbol

• Created by a British artist in 1958

• Intended to stand for the fight for nuclear disarmament

• Semaphore for the letters “N” and “D”

1968A pivotal year for

America

The Tet Offensive (Jan. 30 – Feb. 10)

• One of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War

• Major turning point• The Vietnamese

New Year (January 30)

• A disaster and yet a victory

In Hue…

• During the 25 days the communist troops held the city, 2500 – 6000 people were killed

Johnson gives up

• Eugene McCarthy – a threatening dove• Robert Kennedy (but not for long)• Hubert Humphrey• “the whole world is watching”

A new president, a new plan?

• Richard Nixon• Henry Kissinger and the

linkage policy

The End is Near

• “Vietnamization”• Nixon vs. John Kerry

My Lai Massacre

Cambodia and Kent State

Pentagon Papers

• Trying to determine the real cause of the Vietnam War

• Daniel Ellsberg leaked the documents to newspapers across the nation

Pulling Out of Vietnam• 1972 election• Nguyen Van Thieu• “Christmas bombings” aka

Operation Linebacker II• Fall of South Vietnam

Legacy of Vietnam

• The human toll• Coming home• POWs/MIA• War Powers Act