11/19 Bellringer 5+ sentences Television brought the Vietnam War directly in to the homes of US citizens. For the first time, people watched a war on the nightly news. How is seeing war on television different from reading about it in the newspaper or hearing about it on the radio? How does this difference affect people?

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964 In 1964, a North Vietnamese gunboat attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin Congress responded with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave Lyndon Johnson broad powers to “defend Vietnam at any cost”

U.S. Troops in Vietnam Goal = Containment “Operation Rolling Thunder”  bombing of North Vietnam The Escalation of the Vietnam War By 1968, over 500,000 U.S. soldiers were fighting in Vietnam 1965 – combat troops sent to Vietnam

Fighting the War in Vietnam Biggest problem: The enemy lived among civilians, had “home field” advantage, and used guerilla tactics The U.S. military used a variety of tactics Air force bombing – North Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh Trail Napalm and Agent Orange to destroy jungle “Search and Destroy” missions

The war in Vietnam becomes very unpopular in the US because television made Vietnam the first “living room” war “My Lai Massacre”

The American public believed their was a “credibility gap” between what the gov’t was saying & the reality of the Vietnam War “Vietcong surrender is imminent” General Westmoreland & the Credibility Gap “There is a light at the end of the tunnel” “The U.S. has never lost a battle in Vietnam” But, the military continued to draft more young men to fight in Vietnam