1. AP United States History Unit 10
Modern America
AP United States History
Unit 10

2. Indochina

3. Ho Chi Minh
Ngo Dinh Diem

4. The Domino Theory

5. Buddhist monks practice self-emolation in protest of Ngo Dinh Diem

6. Gulf of Tonkin incident (1964)

7. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression…
This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace and security of the area is reasonably assured…

8. Escalation

9. “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”
I got a letter from L. B. J. It said this is your lucky day. It's time to put your khaki trousers on. Though it may seem very queer We've got no jobs to give you here So we are sending you to Viet Nam
Lyndon Johnson told the nation, "Have no fear of escalation. I am trying everyone to please. Though it isn't really war, We're sending fifty thousand more, To help save Viet Nam from Viet Namese."
I jumped off the old troop ship, And sank in mud up to my hips. I cussed until the captain called me down. Never mind how hard it's raining, Think of all the ground we're gaining, Just don't take one step outside of town.
Every night the local gentry, Sneak out past the sleeping sentry. They go to join the old VC. In their nightly little dramas, They put on their black pajamas, And come lobbing mortar shells at me.

10. “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”
We go round in helicopters, Like a bunch of big grasshoppers, Searching for the Viet Cong in vain. They left a note that they had gone. They had to get down to Saigon, Their government positions to maintain.
Well here I sit in this rice paddy, Wondering about Big Daddy, And I know that Lyndon loves me so. Yet how sadly I remember, Way back yonder in November, When he said I'd never have to go.
“Some others are eager to enlarge the conflict [in Vietnam]. They call upon the U.S. to supply American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do. We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. We don't want to get tied down to a land war in Asia.”
Lyndon Johnson, 1964 campaign speech

11. The “Television War”

14. Berkeley anti-war protests

15. Tet Offensive

16. Public Opinion on Vietnam War
Percentage of Americans who responded that the U.S. did NOT make a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam? (Gallup poll)
Aug, 1965
61%
Feb, 1968
42%
Feb, 1967
52%
Aug, 1968
35%
Dec, 1967
46%
May, 1970
36%
Jan, 1968
Tet Offensive
May, 1971
28%

17. Walter Cronkite on Vietnam (Feb. 1968)
Cronkite’s editorial:
“For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate….To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past….But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
LBJ’s reaction:
“If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.”

18. My Lai Massacre (1968)

19. My Lai Massacre (1968)

20. My Lai Massacre (1968)

21. LBJ and the Anti-war Protests

22. “I left the woman I really loved for that bitch of a war in Asia.”
LBJ in his own words…
“I left the woman I really loved for that bitch of a war in Asia.”

23. LBJ in his own words…
“I knew from the start if I left a woman I really loved – the Great Society – in order to fight that bitch of a war in Vietnam then I would lose everything at home. My hopes, my dreams.”

24. Lyndon Johnson Drops Out (3:55-5:50)
LBJ drops out (March, 1968)
…I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
Lyndon Johnson Drops Out (3:55-5:50)

25. Martin Luther King Assassination

26. 1968 Race Riots

27. Robert Kennedy Assassination

28. 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago
1968 DNC (Chicago)

29. Election of 1968

30. When the South was “Solid”

31. The Collapse of the “Solid South”

32. The Collapse of the “Solid South”

33. The Collapse of the “Solid South”

34. Nixon announces incursion into Cambodia

35. Kent State (May 4, 1970)

36. Kent State “Massacre”

37. The Fall of Saigon (1975)

38. Fleeing Communist Vietnam

39. Lessons of Vietnam future wars must be short
must have minimal American casualties
restrict media access to battlefield
maintain congressional and public support
set clear, attainable goals
develop an “out strategy”