1. The Vietnam War

2. U.S. Troop Deployments in Vietnam
2 million Americans
draftees were young, poor, less educated, minorites

3. Escalation
Show 8:16-12:50

4. Discuss: What would be the best strategy to win the war in Vietnam?

5. The Air War 1965-1968 1965: Sustained bombing of North Vietnam
Operation Rolling Thunder (March 2, 1965)
: Ongoing bombing of Hanoi nonstop for 3 years! Esp. targets the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Downed Pilots: P.O.W.s
trails quickly repaired by Vietcong who worked non-stop to fix them
bombing expanded to Cambodia and Laos

6. The Air War 1965-1968 Defoliants – Napalm, Agent Orange
trails quickly repaired by Vietcong who worked non-stop to fix them
bombing expanded to Cambodia and Laos

7. The Air War
trails quickly repaired by Vietcong who worked non-stop to fix them
bombing expanded to Cambodia and Laos

8. The Ground War 1965-1968 No territorial goals
Body counts on TV every night (first “living room” war)
Viet Cong supplies over the Ho Chi Minh Trail
: US troops increase from 185,000 to 486,000
Intense bombing persuaded many S Vietnamese to joing Vietcong

9. Ground War Strategies Search & Destroy Pacification
Search & Destroy - drive Vietcong from hideouts, call in air support to kill them, made difficullt by use of snipers and booby traps
Pacification - move villagers to secure location and burn villages
“If it’s dead and Vietnamese, it’s VC”

10. Who Is the Enemy? Vietcong: Farmers by day; guerillas at night.
Very patient people willing to accept many casualties.
The US grossly underestimated their resolve and their resourcefulness.
The guerilla wins if he does not lose, the conventional army loses if it does not win Mao Zedong

11. Who Is the Enemy?

12. We can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Ground War
General Westmoreland, late 1967:
We can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.”

13. Show until 9:30

14. The Tet Offensive, January 1968
N. Vietnamese Army + Viet Cong attack South simultaneously (67,000 attack 100 cities, 12 bases, and the US embassy in Saigon)
Take every major southern city
U.S. + South Vietnamese beat back the offensive
40,000 Communists dead
1,100 Americans, 2,300 S. Vietnamese

15. The Tet Offensive, January 1968

16. Impact of the Tet Offensive
Domestic U.S. Reaction: Disbelief, Anger, Distrust of Johnson Administration
Walter Cronkite – “I
thought we were winning the war –
what the hell is going on?”
Hey, Hey LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?

18. Johnson’s popularity dropped in 1968 from 48% to 36%.

19. Are We Becoming the Enemy?
Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry
Mylai Massacre, 1968
unarmed villagers
Lt. William Calley, Platoon Leader

20. Criticism Doves Hawks pacifists supported war goals
Vietnam not crucial to national secuirty
fear nuclear war
could not win
Students for a Democratic Society
Hawks
supported war goals
more troops
heavier bombing
“Here we are at the height of our power. The most powerful nation in the world. And yet we’re afraid to use that power.”
- Air Force General Curtis Le May

21. Anti-War Demonstrations
Columbia University 1967

23. Hell no, we won’t go!

24. Anti-War Demonstrations
Student Protestors at Univ. of CA in Berkeley, 1968
Democratic Convention in Chicago, 1968

25. The “Silent Majority”

26. Impact of the Vietnam War
Johnson announces (March, 1968):
…I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.

27. 1968 Election
Nixon’s 1968 Campaign promised an end to the war: Peace with Honor
Appealed to the great “Silent Majority”
Vietnamization - secret plan to end the war
Bring back law and order
Campaign Commercials
Vietnamization Video
Nixon’s “secret” plan never materializes.
He involved us more.
“Peace with Honor” We’ll win befoe we withdraw.
Expansion:Cambodia invaded in 1970: Ho Chi Minh Trail
Laos invaded in 1971: Ho Chi Minh Trail

28. 1968 Democratic National Convention
10,000 anti-war protesters
Chicago Mayor sends in police
clubs, tear gas
100s injured & arrested
Video

29. Vietnamization Turn over fighting to S. Vietnamese
Gradual removal of US troops
“Peace with honor”
Peace talks with Le Duc Tho (N. Vietnamese revolutionary)
Slow process ,000 US troops in Vietnam, ,200 US troops remained

30. Invasion of Cambodia Secret Air Strikes on Ho Chi Minh Trail
revolt installs new leader
“defending friendly nation”
invasion of Cambodia

31. Kent State May 4th 1970 National Guard fired into group of protesters
4 dead, 9 injured

32. “Pentagon Papers,” 1971 Former defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg
Leaked govt. docs. regarding war efforts during Johnson’s administration to the New York Times.
Docs.→ Govt. misled Congress & Amer. People regarding its intentions in Vietnam during mid- 1960s.
Primary reason for fighting not to eliminate communism, but to avoid humiliating defeat.
Information was kept secret from the public
Nixon resigns over the Watergate Scandal in 1974.
Ford takes the helm.

33. Madman Theory Make the enemy believe Nixon is crazy and unpredictable!
I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, "for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about Communism. We can't restrain him when he's angry—and he has his hand on the nuclear button" and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.[1] –
Make the enemy believe Nixon is crazy and unpredictable!