1. U.S. Involvement in Southeast Asia (The vietnam War)

2. Vietnam Before World War II, Vietnam was a French colony.
During the war, the Japanese occupied Vietnam.
After the war Vietnam was divided into two countries.
-North Vietnam, supported by the
Soviet Union and China
-South Vietnam supported by the
U.S. and its allies.

3. north
south
Vietnam war
a civil war
North Vietnamese attempting to unify the country under communist control.
The United States viewed the civil war as a Communist threat to spread communism.
The U.S. never formally declared war, but its involvement in the Vietnam conflict was substantial, involving thousands of troops and lasting nearly twenty years.

4. Presidents and Vietnam
1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower
-pledged training and equipment
from American military.
-fewer than 800 troops
1961 President John F. Kennedy
-increased aid by sending money,
training, and more advisors.
-stopped short of full-scale military intervention
1962 U.S. had 9,000 troops
**U.S. worked under the "domino theory," *

5. Presidents and Vietnam
After Kennedy was assassinated in Nov. 1963, Lyndon Johnson became president.
-moved to further increase U.S. military and
economic support in Vietnam.
-ordered retaliatory bombing of military targets
in North Vietnam after North Vietnam torpedoed
2 U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin

6. Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
-Navy ship U.S.S. Maddox was torpedoed by North Vietnam.
-Johnson talks Congress into escalating the war.
-U.S. begins regular bombing raids in Feb
**It was revealed years later that Johnson had not been
truthful. The Navy ships weren’t
“patroling” but were instead helping
south Vietnamese commandos
raid islands belonging
to North Vietnamese.

7. Johnson sends u.s .troops to Vietnam
In March 1965, Johnson send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam.
-Full support of American people
-82,000 combat troops by June
-100,000 by July
-another 100,000 in 1966

8. Amount of us involvement increases
By November 1967
-U.S. troops in Vietnam 500,000
-U.S. casualties
15,058 killed
109,527 wounded.
As the war stretched on, some soldiers came to mistrust their government's reasons for keeping them there, as well as Washington's claims that the war was being won.

9. TURNING POINT OF THE WAR
The Tet Offensive (Vietnamese new year)
-Jan. 30, 1968
-North Vietnamese (Vietcong) attacks cities,
towns, U.S. bases, airfields, and U.S. embassy
in Saigon
-violated a two-day truce
-Americans see graphic
images on T.V.
-start to believe the war
might not be winnable.

10. The dilemma
On one hand, refusing to fight was to support communism and was considered un-American.
On the other hand, some felt that agreeing to go was considered weak-willed or supportive of an unjust war fought by a government that did not care about the people it killed.
The anti-war protest created distrust of Government, and eventually rose to such a level that in 1968 President Johnson pulled out of the presidential race.

11. Election of 1968
Americans had grown weary of the political and social turmoil that had gripped America.
-Richard Nixon elected president
-his election was a new conservative movement
-he pledged to represent the “silent majority” who
were civic-minded individuals who wanted to
restore law and order to society.

12. Opposition to involvement in Vietnam
Casualties were high among Americans fighting in Vietnam, so the draft was instituted.
-young men who had no role in military suddenly thrown into service
-On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service conducted two lotteries to
determine the order of call to military service in the Vietnam War for
men born from 1944 to 1950.
- lotteries were conducted again in 1970 (for those born in 1951) and
1971 to 1975 (for 1952 to 1956 births). The draft numbers issued in
1972 were never used to call for induction into service,
Many young men objected to the war and ran off to Canada and other nations to avoid being drafted. (draft dodgers)
Others openly revolted by burning their draft cards and refusing to fight if selected.

13. Anti-war protest
Protests were not new to America when Nixon took office.
However, peaceful protest had become mixed with tense confrontation and even violence.
In May of 1970, Ohio National Guard soldiers, on the campus of Kent State University, killed four student protestors.

14. Anti-war protests
The violence on college campuses in America affected public opinion by altering how people viewed both the government and the protestors.
For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent.
For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous.

15. The beginning of the end
As a result of the shift of public opinion, Nixon began to draw back American troops in Vietnam.
Nixon ended draft calls in 1972, and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year.
The last US troops returned home in 1973

16. Vietnam war ends
The war ended in 1975, when the South Vietnamese surrendered to the North Vietnamese Army.
The famous scenes of American helicopters picking up American soldiers and embassy workers from the embassy roof top in Saigon signaled the end of the war for many Americans.
About 58,000 Americans, two million Vietnamese civilians, one million North Vietnamese fighters, and over 200,000 South Vietnamese fighters were killed.

17. Effects of Vietnam on u.s.
In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in 1973.
-spent $120 billion from
which caused massive inflation.
-divided the nation
-showed us we weren’t invincible
-health problems from Agent Orange
-negative reaction to returning soldiers
(by both war supporters and opponents)

18. Vietnam Memorial
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C.
On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American armed forces killed or missing during the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.

19. Richard Nixon’s popularity rating was over 60%
Richard Nixon’s popularity rating was over 60%. He easily won the 1972 election.
Watergate Scandal
*Burglars are caught breaking into the Democratic National
Headquarters which was located in the Watergate Hotel.
-On trial, one burglar admits the white house knew
-Burglars had close ties to Nixon’s reelection campaign
-Nixon denies involvement
-”I am not
a crook.”

20. **Two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward, and Carl
Bernstein investigate the burglary and its connection to
the president.
-follow clues from “Deep Throat” (top FBI official)
-it is discovered that Nixon secretly tapes all conversations
-Nixon refuses to give up tapes (executive privilege)
-Nixon has special prosecutor fired
-U.S. v. Nixon (Supreme Court says give them up)
-Senate investigation finds that the tapes have a lot of gaps
in them.

21. -Nixon’s vice-president, Spiro T. Agnew resigns after taking bribes
-Nixon appoints Gerald Ford as vice-president
*Finally it appears the House of Representatives is going to impeach
Nixon.
-obstructing justice
-misuse of power
-refusing to comply with subpoenas
**Nixon knows there is enough evidence for a conviction by Senate.
-Nixon resigns the presidency (only one every)
-Ford pardons Nixon

22. **There is debate as to whether or not Nixon knew about
the break-in. However, tapes proved that he did try to
cover it up.
Consequences of Watergate
Damaged the reputation of the office of the President
Shook the public’s confidence in government
(confidence dropped from 80%-33%)
It showed the strength of the American system of checks
and balances.