The document summarizes the challenges faced by US troops in Vietnam, including difficult terrain and an elusive enemy using guerilla tactics. It also discusses the US strategy of attrition and pacification programs that aimed to win rural support but faced issues like lack of security. As the human and economic costs mounted, American public opinion turned against the war, aided by media coverage and anti-war protests. The pivotal Tet Offensive in 1968 was a military defeat for communists but undermined support for the war in the US and contributed to LBJ deciding not to run for re-election.
The Vietnam War EraDiscuss the range of American responses to the .pdfRAJATCHUGH12
The Vietnam War Era
Discuss the range of American responses to the war.
How did they change over time?
How did domestic political concerns shape the country\'s response to the war?
How did the war shape domestic politics in the 1960s and early 1970s?
Reference:
Goldfield, D. R., & In Wheeler, R. A. (2014). The American journey: A history of
the United States, Combined Volume (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson
Solution
In the United States, a nationwide debate ensued over participation in the war. The government\'s
official position was that it was involved in Vietnam at the request of the government of South
Vietnam and was helping to repel Communist aggression from the north. Its only avowed
objective was to secure a settlement that would allow the people of Vietnam to decide their own
form of government. To achieve this end, it was using only carefully controlled military
measures so as not to take innocent lives or bring about active participation by China or the
Soviet Union.
As United States involvement continued, however, Americans grew increasingly dissatisfied
with their nation\'s war policy. Some, described as \"hawks,\" argued that the United States
should use maximum military force to gain a quick victory. Others, called \"doves,\" argued that
the conflict in Vietnam was essentially a civil war in which the United States had no right to
interfere. Some of the doves demanded immediate American withdrawal, while others called for
a gradual disengagement from the war.
Some critics of the war charged that American use of bombers and of artillery was too
indiscriminate and that many innocent civilians had perished. The revelation that United States
troops in 1968 had massacred the entire population of My Lai, an enemy-held village, caused
much controversy over the way in which the war was being fought. Demonstrations were held in
the United States, especially in 1969 and 1970, to protest the war.
As the Vietnam War progressed, it lost much support from Americans because it was clear to
many that it was not justified. This caused for the country to view war as destructive, and
brought about a peace movement that is mostly associated with the decade of the 1960\'s but
lasted until the late 1980\'s..
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13.1 Nixon’s AmericaThe conservative consensus that supported .docxmoggdede
13.1 Nixon’s America
The conservative consensus that supported Falwell’s Moral Majority was not yet in place when Richard Nixon assumed the presidency in 1969. He campaigned against Johnson’s Great Society and the millions of dollars funneled into government programs. Although many Americans were disillusioned with the Vietnam War and concerned with urban unrest and the growing rights demands of various groups in society, Nixon won by a very small margin.
Once in office, Nixon departed from his campaign rhetoric and advanced the liberal causes of his predecessor in important ways. Many of Nixon’s programs and actions angered conservatives in his own Republican Party. However, the Vietnam War was the most pressing concern he faced upon assuming office.
Nixon and Vietnam
Nixon pursued a peace settlement already begun during Johnson’s administration. American and North Vietnamese leaders met in Paris to discuss the possibility of ending the hostilities. Though the diplomatic talks had no direct impact on the war, they helped boost Nixon’s popularity at home.
Nixon further increased his public approval with his policy of Vietnamization. This meant that the United States sought to limit its fighting on the ground by training South Vietnamese forces to wage their own war. The president had inherited a difficult situation, and he determined early in 1969 that there was little possibility of victory. He devised the Vietnamization strategy to ease the U.S. involvement before the almost inevitable collapse of South Vietnam. Nixon announced this policy directly to the American people in a televised address on November 3, 1969, saying:
Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I want to talk to you on a subject of deep concern to all Americans and to many people in all parts of the world—the war in Vietnam. I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Vietnam is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy. (as cited in Vilade, 2012, p. 196)
At that point 31,000 Americans had died in the war, and Nixon told the American people that there were just two courses of action. The first was immediate withdrawal. The second was to persist in “our search for peace” and “continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization.” Nixon concluded by saying, “I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way” (as cited in Gettleman, 1995, p. 444).
Cambodia and Its Consequences
Vietnamization did little to ease the conflict or the antiwar protests in the United States. In 1970 Nixon ordered troops into Cambodia, a neutral nation on the border of Vietnam. Aiming to cut off supplies to the North, the movement instead destabilized the Cambodian government and began a chain of events that saw the rise of the Communist Khmer Rouge party. During its reign, which lasted until 1979, Cambodians were indiscriminately killed and forced into rural communes.
The Cambodian cam ...
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2. Introduction
The idea was the same: the United States was
stuck in Vietnam with no easy way out.
The war had turned several hawkish advisers into
doves.
But with public opinion shifting against LBJ’s war
policy, he feared that he would also lose public
support for his civil rights and antipoverty
programs. The enormous pressures and
frustrations of the Vietnam War were taking a toll
on Johnson and his presidency.
3. U.S. Troops Face Difficult
Conditions
By 1968, most of the ground troops in Vietnam
were not professional soldiers like the marines
who first landed at Da Nang.
As the war progressed, more and more of the
fighting was done by men who had been drafted
into the army.
One set of difficulties had to do with the
geography and climate of South Vietnam.
Perhaps the greatest geographic challenge for U.S.
soldiers, however, was Vietnam’s rugged
topography.
4. In an effort to deny the enemy its forest cover, the
U.S. military sprayed chemical herbicides from
the air.
The ability of the insurgents to avoid detection
frustrated U.S. commanders.
To counter these guerrilla war tactics, the
commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, General
William Westmoreland, decided to fight a war of
attrition—a military campaign designed to wear
down the enemy’s strength.
5. Many soldiers managed to overcome these
challenging circumstances.
Others, however, became severely demoralized.
The United States had reasons for pursuing a
limited war. First, General Westmoreland
believed that a war of attrition could achieve
victory.
Second, U.S. leaders saw grave dangers in
pursuing a total war with no limits.
6. The limited war proved ineffective, however,
because the strategy of attrition failed.
Ultimately, Americans underestimated their
enemy.
7. The War Divides the People of
South Vietnam
The Vietnam War deeply divided the South
Vietnamese people.
The key to this “other war” was pacification—a
policy designed to promote security and stability
in South Vietnam.
Pacification involved two main programs, both
run by the Saigon government but organized by
the U.S. Army and the CIA and funded by the
United States. The first aimed to bring economic
development to rural South Vietnam.
8. The second pacification program sought to
undermine the communist insurgency by having
the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN)
remove the Viet Cong and their sympathizers
from villages.
The pacification campaign had many problems,
though. First, the ARVN lacked the leadership,
skills, and dedication to effectively provide
security for villages being pacified.
9. The lack of security, in turn, made it difficult for
rural development teams to carry out their
mission of building roads, schools, and other
basic infrastructure.
The Americanization of the war also undermined
efforts to lure rural Vietnamese away from the
Viet Cong.
Several other aspects of the U.S. war of attrition
hurt the pacification cause.
10. Growing Opposition to the War
Television continued to play an important role in
how Americans perceived the war.
The soaring costs of the war, both human and
economic, began to trouble more Americans.
As Americans began taking a closer look at the
war, some began to question LBJ’s policies.
Public opinion polls showed that by 1967 the
American public was about evenly divided on the
war.
11. The peace movement, or antiwar movement,
blossomed on college campuses.
Younger students also took action.
In 1969, the Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines
that students have a right to engage in symbolic
speech—actions that express an opinion in a
nonverbal manner.
Protesters also turned to civil disobedience.
Many young men took advantage of college
deferment, a law that exempted college students
from the draft.
Still, the draft fell disproportionately on poor
Americans and minorities who were unable to
attend college.
12. 1968: A Year of Crisis
By 1967, antiwar protesters had turned on
President Johnson.
On January 31, 1968, the Tet Offensive began.
Tet Offensive: a major offensive in 1968 by Viet
Cong and NVA soldiers that resulted in growing
opposition among Americans to the war.
Although it was a military disaster for the
communists, the Tet Offensive shocked the
American people and became a psychological
defeat for the United States.
13. On their TV screens, Americans saw enemy
soldiers inside the walls of the U.S. embassy. They
saw U.S. bases under attack. T
hey heard journalists’ startled reports about the
enemy’s ability to penetrate American
strongholds. No amount of positive analysis from
the administration could persuade reporters or
the public that this was a U.S. victory.
Instead, many Americans saw these statements as
another example of a widening credibility gap.
14. After Tet, polls showed that only 26 percent of
Americans approved of LBJ’s conduct of the war.
LBJ saw Tet as a political catastrophe.
The United States, he said, would try to
“deescalate the conflict” by cutting back on the
bombing of North Vietnam and by seeking a
negotiated settlement of the war.
The war had exhausted the president, and he
seemed to think he had lost his political
influence.
15. 1968 had already been one of the most turbulent
years in recent American history.
In November 1968, Americans voted for change,
electing Nixon as their new president.
16. Summary
The United States decided to wage a limited war in
Vietnam, with limited troop strength.
Fighting an elusive enemy on unfamiliar terrain
frustrated U.S. soldiers. The South Vietnamese
people themselves were unsure whom to support:
the Saigon government or the communist-backed
Viet Cong.
As the war dragged on, American antiwar protests
grew. Opposition to the war greatly affected the
1968 elections.