1.
Vietnam
The
Consensus
Unravels

2.
America’s Longest War
1950 - 1975

3.
Why?

4.
Why?
despite the expenditure of
more than $150 billion,

5.
Why?
despite the application of its
great technical expertise,

6.
Why?
despite the employment of
a huge military arsenal,

7.
“Why did the world’s most powerful
nation fail to achieve its objectives
and suffer its first defeat in war, a
humiliating and deeply frustrating
experience for a people accustomed
to success?”

8.
George C. Herring
Author, America’s Longest War

9.
John Olson, ©1968

10.
~58,000 ~millions

11.
Ho Chi Minh

12.
Vietminh + OSS
Office of Strategic Services

13.
1941-42

14.
1941-42

15.
“Your statesmen
make eloquent
speeches about
helping those
with self-
determination.
WE are self-
determined.

16.
Why not help us?
Am I any
different from...
even your George
Washington?”

17.
September, 1945
INDEPENDENCE

18.
“We hold these
truths to be
self-evident.
That all men are
created equal.”

19.
March, 1946

20.
“French…troops are
making active
preparations for a
coup…. I therefore
most earnestly appeal
to you…and to the
American people
to…support…our
independence…”
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

21.
President Harry S Truman

22.
The United States could not
“afford to assume that Ho is
anything but Moscow-directed.”
US State Department, 1947

23.
“Fall” of China
1949

24.
“domino theory”

25.
Bao Dai
(SOUTH)

26.
$50 million >
1950-51

27.
$152 million >
1952

28.
“New Look”

29.
$385 million >
1953

30.
Dienbienphu
1954

31.
Dienbienphu
1954

32.
Dienbienphu
1954

33.
“No more
Koreas”

34.
Geneva Accords
1954

35.
“[The USA]
has not been
party to or is
not bound by
the decisions
taken by the
conference.”

36.
17th
parallel

37.
Elections
1956

38.
CIA
(formerly, OSS)

39.
Ngo Dinh Diem
98%

40.
patronage

41.
abolished elections

42.
shut down

43.
dissenters

44.
A two-part Civil War

45.
Ho
Diem
vs.

46.
Ho
Diem
vs.
NLF vs.

47.
NLF: National Liberation Front
> Vietcong (VC)

48.
Understanding Vietnam

49.
vs.

50.
Consensus Assumptions

51.
JFK

52.
“Project Beef-up”

53.
16,000 “Advisers”
489 killed

54.
Strategic Hamlet program

55.
Thich Quang Duc burns himself to death on a Saigon street.

56.
“I feel that we must bear a good deal of the responsibility for it…”

57.
“Why do the leaves fall?....
<pause> I was shocked by…”

58.
Dallas, TX: 11/22/63

59.
LBJ
“I’m not going down in history as the first
American President who lost a war.”

60.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
August 7, 1964

61.
“take all necessary measures to repel any
armed attack against the forces of the United
States and to prevent further aggression.”
Tonkin Gulf Resolution

62.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
416-0 (House)
88-2 (Senate)

63.
On Kawara, Title ©1965

64.
Tet Offensive
January, 1968

65.
My Lai: March 16, 1968

66.
Above and Beyond © 2016

67.
“I feel like a hitchhiker caught in a
hailstorm on a Texas highway.
I can’t run, I can’t hide,
and I can’t make it stop.”

68.
Nixon

69.
Kent State: May 4, 1970

70.
“Vietnamization”

71.
The
Consensus
Unravels

72.
“The United States’ involvement in
Vietnam was not primarily the
result of errors of judgment of the
personality quirks of the
policymakers, although these
things existed in abundance.

73.
“It was the logical, if not
inevitable, outgrowth of a world
view and a policy; the policy of
containment which Americans in
and out of government accepted
without serious question for more
than two decades.”

74.
George C. Herring
May, 1979

75.
We must act to stop
Communism and we have the
right to do this, everywhere.

76.
DEFEAT
April 29, 1975

77.
We have faith in our leaders
and our [superior] political
institutions.

78.
End of the Great Society

79.
America can solve or is already
solving all of its problems.

80.
Vietnamese “boat people”