1. Chapter 29 Section 3 The Vietnam War Riddlebarger
1968
A Turning Point
Chapter 29
Section 3
The Vietnam War
Riddlebarger

2. Khe Sahn
Khe Sahn

3. Tet Offensive- Goals/Outcome

4. The Tet Offensive

5. “In all honesty, we didn’t achieve our main objective, which was to spur uprisings throughout the south. Still, we inflicted heavy casualties on the Americans and their puppets, and that was a big gain for us. As for making an impact in the United States, it had not been our intention- but it turned out to be a fortunate result.” Tran Do
Vietnamese General, head of Communist Party ideology dpt.

6. With North Vietnam's Tet Offensive beginning, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam's national police chief, was doing all he could to keep Viet Cong guerrillas from Saigon. As Loan executed a prisoner who was said to be a Viet Cong captain, AP photographer Eddie Adams opened the shutter. Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for a picture that, as much as any, turned public opinion against the war. Adams felt that many misinterpreted the scene, and when told in 1998 that the immigrant Loan had died of cancer at his home in Burke, Va., he said, "The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.”
cs024/imagesHistoric.html

7. Walter Cronkite Respected news anchor for CBS Tet changes his views on the war
“We have been too often dis-
appointed by the optimism of the
American leaders…For it seems
now more certain than ever that
the bloody experience of
Vietnam is to end in a
stalemate.”

8. Democratic Challengers

9. not accept, the nomination of my
Shaken by divisions within his own party & his own performance in the New Hampshire primary, LBJ makes a surprising announcement:
“With America’s sons in the fields
far away, with America’s future
under challenge right here at home
…I do not believe that I should de-
vote an hour or a day of my time
to any personal partisan causes…
accordingly, I shall not seek, and will
not accept, the nomination of my
party for another term as President.”
LBJ withdraws from the race.

11. Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara:
“The picture of the world’s greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 [civilians] a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed is not a pretty one.”
Some in the military feel the administration is not doing all it can to win the war
LBJ decides to try negotiating

12. Gen. William Westmoreland
Tet devastating to enemy?
Request of 206,000
Public response
LBJ response
Negotiations

13. Democratic Primary 1968

14. Robert F. Kennedy, March 16, 1968 “The reality of recent events in
Vietnam has been glossed over
with illusions…I have tried in vain to
alter our course in Vietnam before it
further saps our spirit and our
manpower, further raises the risks of
wider war, and further destroys the
country and the people it was
meant to save. I cannot stand
aside from the contest that will
decide our nation’s future
and our children’s future.”
Robert F. Kennedy, March 16, 1968

15. Juan Romero, Amabassador Hotel- family moved from Mexico when he was 10. Gave rosary to RFK, who couldn’t hold it so he wrapped it around his thumb. As he was about to shake RFK’s hand, Sirhan shot just over his shoulder.

16. George Smathers- Florida, Orange- Stephen Young, Purple-RFK, Green- McCarthy

17. 1968 Democratic Convention

18. Violence Erupts
Mayor Daly
Protesters
‘Generation Gap’?

19. Richard Nixon, Republican
Law
&
Order
Peace
With
Honor

20. George Wallace, Independent

21. Richard Nixon wins