Born on the 4 th of July Based on the true story of Ron Kovic

The Vietnam War

How did we get involved? America’s biggest fear…Communism will spread! Domino Theory Vietnam?? KoreaChina USSR Cuba

U.S. EARLY Involvement Truman/Eisenhower Sent $$ JFK sends advisors LBJ sends troops Nixon withdraws troops

Johnson and Vietnam ( ) 1963: Lyndon B. Johnson = President LBJ has to decide: Do we go to Vietnam? Or Withdraw Troops? Johnson decides to go to war = afraid it would look like U.S. gave up, “soft on communism” 1964 Re-Election Year!  Event  U.S. Ship is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin (truth? Propaganda?)

As you watch: PART ONE: Answer the following. 1.) At first, how did American’s feel about our nation’s involvement in Vietnam? 2.) Why did Ron Kovic volunteer for Vietnam? 3.) Describe what combat in Vietnam was like.

Fighting the Vietcong Cu Chi Tunnel (Saigon) 130 Miles!

How do we fight an enemy we can’t find? * Search & Destroy = destroy everything, force the Vietcong out of hiding. How can America tell if they are winning the battle? Westmoreland used body counts to prove the US was winning. But the Vietcong keep hiding in the jungle… Napalm = jelly gasoline bomb. Agent Orange = chemical pesticide that kills all vegetation (plants)

Vietnam is sometimes called the “Living Room War” Live coverage of the conflict was aired on TV nightly… Once America saw how brutal the battle was…they started to questions why America was in Vietnam. The Living Room War = TMI

Doing what's right isn't the problem. It is knowing what's right. I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength; our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America. I'm tired. I'm tired of feeling rejected by the American people. I'm tired of waking up in the middle of the night worrying about the war.

As you watch: PART TWO: Answer the following. 1.) Describe how Vietnam Veterans were treated when they came home? 2.) Why were they treated this way? Use specific scenes from the film to support your answer

As you watch: PART THREE: Answer the following. 1.) How does Ron Kovic’s views on Vietnam change? Why are they changing?

As you watch: PART Four: Answer the following. 1.) What is the anti-war movement’s message? Why do they protest the war and the US government?

My Lai Massacre (1968, but covered up until 1969)

Anti-War Protest outside Democratic National Convention 1968

Kent State Shootings

How did it end? After 17 years of involvement and 10 years of combat, America signs peace treaty with N.V. (1973) When we leave: North Vietnam invaded and took over South Vietnam

Vietnam Today? It has reunited North & South and is communist.

What happened Ron Kovic: This film is based on his best selling book. He helped write the dialogue for the film. Won the Golden Globe for “Best Screen Play” Jan 20, 1990 = 20 years after he was paralyzed. He never married. Still part of the anti-war movement today. "I wanted people to understand. I wanted to share with them as nakedly and openly and intimately as possible what I had gone through, what I had endured. I wanted them to know what it really meant to be in a war—to be shot and wounded, to be fighting for my life on the intensive care ward—not the myth we had grown up believing. I wanted people to know about the hospitals and the enema room, about why I had become opposed to the war, why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence. I had been beaten by the police and arrested twelve times for protesting the war and I had spent many nights in jail in my wheelchair. I had been called a Communist and a traitor, simply for trying to tell the truth about what had happened in that war, but I refused to be intimidated."