The Vietnam War Years

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The Vietnam War Years

• 1954-1975

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The Big Picture
George Kennan, who helped devise the containment
doctrine that drew America into war in Vietnam,
once called the conflict the most disastrous of
all Americas undertakings over the whole 200
years of its history. In retrospect, few would
now disagree. Yet, at first, the Vietnam War
seemed simply one more Third World struggle on
the periphery of the Cold War. No president
really decided to go to war in Vietnam. Rather,
the American involvement there emerged from years
of gradually increasing commitments that slowly
expanded.
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Roots of American Involvement

• Beginning in 1950 U.S. assisted French in attempt
  to retake Indochina
  
• Ho Chi Minh Vietminh sought Vietnamese
  independence
  
• Domino theory (1954) Dien Bien Phu
• Geneva Accords (1954) divided Vietnam at 17th
  parallel election to unify the country set for
  1956

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Ho Chi Minh
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U.S. Steps In

• Ho Chi Minh winning popular support
• Elections cancelled
• Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam corrupt govt
  restricting Buddhist practices
  
• Vietcong Communist opposition group in the
  South Ho Chi Minh Trail
  
• Kennedy and Vietnam increased military
  personnel Diem executed 1963

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LBJ Expands the Conflict

• Fear of being soft on communism losing
  Vietnam
  
• 1964 N. Vietnamese attacks on American destroyer
• LBJ launched bombing attacks
• Tonkin Gulf Resolution blank check gave
  Johnson broad military powers
  
• War became Americanized

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U.S. Involvement Escalation

• 1st U.S. combat troops sent to Vietnam March
  1965
  
• By end of 1965 180,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
• William Westmoreland
• ARVN

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A War in the Jungle

• Elusive enemy guerilla tactics, tunnels, living
  among civilian population
  
• Miscalculation of enemy resolve
• Battle for hearts minds rural peoples
• Napalm agent orange search destroy
• Low morale

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Early War at Home

• Great Society suffered
• living room war credibility gap
• Working-class war draft was manipulatable
• African Americans women in Vietnam

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The Roots of Opposition

• 1960s youth more socially active
• The New Left growing youth movement
• Students for Democratic Society (SDS)
  restoration of participatory democracy
  
• Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, CA

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Protest Movement Emerges

• Various reasons for opposition
• Draft opposition Nixon fades it out in 1970s
• War divides the nation hawks doves
• Johnson remains determined

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The Tet Offensive Turns the War

• 1968 surprise attack by Vietcong on numerous
  cities in S. Vietnam
  
• Changes public opinion credibility gap widens
• Nation turns on LBJ Democratic Party divided
  RFK/Eugene McCarthy
  
• LBJ decides not to run in1968
• New policy in Vietnam

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Violence Protest Grip the Nation - 1968

• MLKs assassination urban rioting
• RFKs assassination
• College campuses erupt in protest

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1968 Election, Nixon Vietnam

• Riots at DNC in Chicago
• Humphrey(D) v. Nixon (R) v. George Wallace
• Nixon wins
• Nixon Vietnamization
• Peace with honor
• Bombing in Cambodia Laos

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Trouble Continues

• Nixons appeal to the silent majority
• 1969 My Lai Massacre
• Invasion of Cambodia 1970
• Kent State 1970

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Legacy

• 1973 last U.S. combat troops head home
• Fall of Saigon 1975
• 1973 War Powers Act
• 58,000 Americans died
• Overall cynicism about govt politics