The document summarizes key events in the Vietnam War and Cold War from 1964-1980s in the United States. It discusses the social protest against the war, the rise of the anti-war movement, Nixon and Reagan's presidencies continuing involvement in Vietnam and taking a hard line against the USSR, and the eventual end of the Cold War under Gorbachev and Reagan. Major events covered include the Tet Offensive, Kent State shooting, Watergate scandal, Iran hostage crisis, and Reagan's arms negotiations with Gorbachev that reduced Cold War tensions.

1. TheVietnam War
and Disillusionment
1964-1980s
Seymour Chwast, 1967
The Museum of Modern Art Collection
Accessed via ARTStor

2. Why does theVietnam
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

3. Ho Chi Minh

4. 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 aVietnamese independence movement, led by communist Ho Chi Minh, started to fight against French troops to gain control of
northernVietnam. On May 7th, 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu.The armistice, signed in Geneva, dividedVietnam into a Democratic
Republic in the North, under communst rule, and the State ofVietnam in the South, under French rule. INDOCHINA. First Indo-Chinese War. Don Qui
Thon.Vietminh prisoners replace bridges destroyed by aVietminh 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

5. US Commitments in
Vietnam
• US $ to create/prop-up
SouthVietnamese
government
• fear of “losing”Vietnam
• “counterinsurgency”
strategy
• Ngo Dinh Diem (r. 1955-
1963) Image: Malcolm Browne/AP
Accessed online via Time magazine

6. Cold War fears and frustrations showed
up in elections. Check out this famous
1964 presidential campaign ad:

7. 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

9. Napalm

10. “Hanoi Hilton”:
Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi

11. 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

12. ©Marc Riboud/Magnum
Photos
Accessed via ARTStor

13. 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 Photos
Hue, SouthVietnam, 1968

14. Nixon andVietnam
• Vietnamization
• Invasion of Cambodia - 1970
• Protests and violence on
campus - 1970 Kent State
University killings
• Declining morale among troops
Khe Sanh,VietnamWar
Robert Ellison, George Eastman House Collection

15. Kent State Shooting, 1970

16. Nixon andVietnam
• 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

17. End of theVietnam War
• 1973: Paris Peace
Agreement
• 1975:Vietnam
reunified under
communist rule
• 58,000 Americans
killed; 3-4 million
Vietnamese

18. 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

19. Throughout all the investigations, Nixon
maintains,“I am not a crook.”
Check out this clip from November 1973:

20. 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

21. Nixon and the
Cold War
• Warmer relations with
USSR/China: detente
• Vietnam’s end: eroding
confidence in government,
Cold War fight

22. Source: Ford Library/Museum

23. 1976: Carter vs.
Fordhttp://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1976
• Carter runs as a
political outsider
• Ford suffers from
ties to Nixon

24. 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 Begin
ARTStor Slide Gallery Collection

25. 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:

26. Iran Hostage
Crisis
• Partly produced
by U.S. Cold War
policy
• 52 hostages held
for 444 days
• Released on
Reagan’s
inauguration day

27. 1980 Elections: Reagan
• Carter approval
rating: 21%
• Reagan: 1970s
conservatism +
“white backlash”

28. 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

29. 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

31. 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.

32. Conclusions to the Cold War,
1969-End
• Nixon: Presides over end ofVietnam 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