JFK initially sent advisors to South Vietnam and increased troops to 16,000 to contain communism under the domino theory. LBJ significantly escalated US involvement through bombing campaigns and sending 500,000 ground troops, seeking to avoid another China. However, the Tet Offensive in 1968 turned US public opinion against the war, and massive protests erupted. Nixon continued bombing but started withdrawing troops and Vietnamizing the war. The US withdrew in 1973 after failed peace negotiations, and South Vietnam fell to communism in 1975. The war cost 58,000 US lives and over 3 million Vietnamese deaths but failed to achieve US objectives.
17. Containing Castro:
The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Political
• Popularity with gen. public
• Dems. gain seats in Congress (later impact
for LBJ)
• Diplomatic effects
• Cold War moves away from the “brink”
• Soviet military and nuclear buildup
18. A Marshall Plan for Latin
America?
• Thwart Latin American communist
expansion
• Alliance for Progress
• Designed to counter communist
movements
• $20 b. for schools, housing, health care
20. “New Frontier” Goals
• Increase education aid
• Health insurance for
elderly
• Create Dept of Urban
Affairs (later HUD)
• Help migrant workers
• Man on the moon by
1970
21. "I Have a Dream"
• May 1963: Birmingham, AL
protests
• JFK supports African-
Americans
• Asked Congress for Civil
Rights Act
• Aug 1963: March on
Washington
29. “[Richard Goodwin, a
former speechwriter and
aide to L.B.J.] experienced
the standard Johnson
outrages: an interview
with L.B.J. as the
President sat on the toilet,
a nude policy council in
the superheated White
House swimming pool.”
Sidey, Hugh. "Was Lyndon Johnson Unstable?"
Time. 05 Sept. 1988.
30. "Let Us Continue"
• Nov 22, 1963: JFK
assassinated
• Promised to continue
JFK programs;
exceeded JFK’s record
on economic, racial
equality
31. War on Poverty:
“The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all.
It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.”
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Corp. for Public Broad-
casting (PBS & NPR)
• National Traffic & Motor
Vehicle Safety (Nader)
• Economic Opportunity Act
(Head Start)
• Higher Education Act
• Economic Opportunity Act
(Job Corps)
• National Foundation for the
Arts and the Humanities
• Clean Air Act
• Elementary and Secondary
Education Act
• Truth in Packaging
• Water Quality Act
32.
33. SE Asia and
the Vietnam War
Late 1800s: France controlled
“Indochina” (Vietnam, Laos,
and Cambodia)
1940-1945: Japanese control
during WWII
1945: France fights to regain
control with US financial aid
34. 1954: French lose to
Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh
at Dien Bien Phu
35. Vietnam divided at 17th parallel
North
• Leader: Ho Chi Minh
• Left-wing communist dictatorship
• support from Soviet Union and
China
South
• Leader: Ngo Dinh Diem
• Right-wing anti-communist
dictatorship
• support from US
36.
37. Viet Cong attack S. Vietnam
1960: JFK increases to 16,000 “advisors”
Nov 2, 1963: JFK supports a Vietnamese military
coup d’etat – Diem and his brother murdered
JFK assassinated Nov 22
U.S. Military Involvement Begins
38. LBJ Sends
Ground Forces
1964: Saigon on verge
of collapse
LBJ remembers
Truman’s “loss” of
China Domino
Theory
Tonkin Gulf Incident,
1964 Tonkin Gulf
Resolution
I’m not going to be the
president who saw
Southeast Asia go the
way China went.” -LBJ
39. Who Was the Enemy?
Vietcong:
S. Vietnamese
communists
Farmers by day;
guerillas at night.
The guerilla wins if he does not
lose, the conventional army loses
if it does not win.
- Mao Zedong
40. The Ground War, 1965-1968
No territorial goals
– defense only
Search and destroy
On TV (first “living
room” war)
N Vietnam supplies
Viet Cong over the
Ho Chi Minh Trail
41.
42.
43. The Ground War
1965-1968
General Westmoreland, late 1967:
We can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
52. Impact of the
Tet Offensive
Domestic U.S.
Reaction: disbelief,
anger, distrust of
LBJ Admin
Hey, Hey LBJ! How
many kids did you
kill today?
53. “…I shall not
seek, and I will
not accept, the
nomination of
my party for
another term as
your President.”
March, 1968: Johnson announces
54. American Morale Begins to Dip
Disproportionate
representation of poor
people and minorities.
Officers in combat 6 mo.;
in rear 6 mo.
Enlisted men in combat
for 12 mo.; fighting
240/365 days a year
55. American Morale Begins to Dip
By 1970: 65,643 Army deserters;
52.3/1000
Fragging: 3% of officer deaths
Major drug problems:
~ 80% of the troops used drugs;
by 1971 over 30% of combat
troops were on heroin
Anti-war underground
newspapers
Sabotage and mutiny in Navy
56. The Student Revolt
• 1964: Student protest movement launched at
Berkeley
• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
• October, 1967: 100,000 protesters besieged
the Pentagon
57. Columbia University, 1967
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
58.
59. There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
60.
61. What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and they carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
Hell no, we won’t go!
62.
63. Democratic Convention in
Chicago, 1968
Student Protestors
at Univ. of CA
in Berkeley, 1968
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
68. Nixon on Vietnam
Nixon’s 1968 Campaign: Peace with Honor
“Silent Majority”, law and order, southern
strategy
Vietnamization
Expansion of war
The “Secret War”
Cambodia
Laos
69. The War In Cambodia
• 1970: US dropped over
500,000 tons of ordinance
on Cambodia
• ~ 600,000 Cambodians
killed
• Led to rise Khmer Rouge
and Cambodian genocide,
1975-1979; 1.4-2.2 million
(20-30% of pop.)
70. May 4, 1970
4 students
shot dead.
11 students
wounded
Kent State University Massacre
Jackson State
University
May 10, 1970
2 dead; 12
wounded
71. “Pentagon Papers,” 1971
Daniel Ellsberg
leaked LBJ era docs
to NY Times
Docs LBJ admin misled Congress & US public
Fighting not to eliminate communism, but to
avoid humiliating defeat.
NY Times v. US (1971) *
72.
73. The Ceasefire, 1973
Peace is at hand
Henry Kissinger, 1972
N. Vietnam attacks
Largest U.S. bombing
retaliation
1973: Ceasefire signed
74. The Ceasefire, 1973
Conditions:
1. U.S. to remove all troops
2. N. Vietnam troops in S. Vietnam remain
3. N. Vietnam to resume war
4. U.S. POWs/MIAs remain
1973: Last U.S. troops left S. Vietnam
1975: N. Vietnam defeats S. Vietnam
Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City
75. The Fall of Saigon
South Vietnamese
Attempt to Flee the Country
78. The Costs
1. 3 m. Vietnamese killed
2. 58K Americans killed; 300K wounded
3. Great Society under-funded
4. $150 B. in U.S. spending
5. U.S. morale, confidence, trust in government
devastated
79. The Impact
26th Amendment: 18-yr olds vote
Nixon abolished draft all-volunteer army
War Powers Act, 1973
Pres. must notify Congress w/in 48 hrs of deployment
Pres. must withdraw forces unless he gains
Congressional approval within 90 days
Disregard for Veterans seen as “baby killers”
POW/MIA issue lingered
81. “If we have to fight, we will fight.
You will kill ten of our men and
we will kill one of yours, and in
the end it will be you who tires of
it.”
And in the End….
Ho Chi Minh: