![“[The USA]
has not been
party to or is
not bound by
the decisions
taken by the
conference.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vietnambush-190604202850/75/Vietnam-the-Consensus-Unravels-43-2048.jpg)
![We have faith in our leaders
and our [superior] political
institutions.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/vietnambush-190604202850/75/Vietnam-the-Consensus-Unravels-90-2048.jpg)
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Vietnam: the Consensus Unravels
The document explores America's prolonged involvement in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975, questioning the failures despite significant military expenditure and advanced technology. It highlights the contradictions within U.S. policy, particularly the belief in self-determination juxtaposed with Cold War fears of communism, which led to misguided strategies. The text reflects on key events, notable figures, and the ultimate fallout of America's first major defeat in war.
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Vietnam: the Consensus Unravels
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- 4. Why? despite the expenditureof more than $150 billion,
- 5. Why? despite the applicationof its great technical expertise,
- 6. Why? despite the employmentof a huge military arsenal,
- 7. “Why did theworld’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
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- 18. Vietminh + OSS Officeof Strategic Services
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- 21. “Your statesmen make eloquent speechesabout helping those with self- determination. WE are self- determined.
- 22. Why not helpus? Am I any different from... even your George Washington?”
- 23.
- 24. “We hold these truthsto be self-evident. That all men are created equal.”
- 25.
- 26. “French…troops are making active preparationsfor 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:
- 27. President Harry STruman
- 28. The United Statescould not “afford to assume that Ho is anything but Moscow-directed.” US State Department, 1947
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- 43. “[The USA] has notbeen party to or is not bound by the decisions taken by the conference.”
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- 56. NLF: National LiberationFront > Vietcong (VC)
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- 64. Thich Quang Ducburns himself to death on a Saigon street.
- 65. “I feel thatwe must bear a good deal of the responsibility for it…”
- 66. “Why do theleaves fall?.... <pause> I was shocked by…”
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- 69. LBJ “I’m not goingdown in history as the first American President who lost a war.”
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- 71. “take all necessarymeasures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Tonkin Gulf Resolution
- 72. Tonkin Gulf Resolution 416-0(House) 88-2 (Senate)
- 73. On Kawara, Title©1965
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- 76. My Lai: March16, 1968
- 78. Above and Beyond© 2016
- 79. “I feel likea hitchhiker caught in a hailstorm on a Texas highway. I can’t run, I can’t hide, and I can’t make it stop.”
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- 82. Kent State: May4, 1970
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- 85. “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.
- 86. “It was thelogical, 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.”
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- 88. We must actto stop Communism and we have the right to do this, everywhere.
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- 90. We have faithin our leaders and our [superior] political institutions.
- 91. End of theGreat Society
- 92. America can solveor is already solving all of its problems.
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