1. 1960s Culture and the Beginning of the Vietnam War
Unit 10, Lesson 5

2. Essential Idea
The 1960s was a time of social and political upheaval, which grew during the Vietnam War.

3. 1960s Youth and Politics Relation to Civil Rights struggles
SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)
New Left
Free Speech Movement
Student protests
The Weathermen
Relation to Civil Rights struggles- many groups, especially among the youth and college students, began to identify with black’s struggle against oppressive control and laws, and this same “question/challenge authority” philosophy spread to more groups and in favor of more causes.
SDS- this group started in Michigan under the leadership of Tom Hayden.
At the beginning of the 1960s, this group led many pro-civil rights, antipoverty, antinuclear, and antiwar campaigns.
The SDS represented the New Left, but they would eventually devolve into an extremist/terrorist group.
New Left- the New Left in general refers to the culture of activists in the 1960s and 1970s that pushed for social reforms, and was different from older leftist movements that had focused more on labor unionization and social class issues.
Free Speech Movement- this was the first major student protest, which took place in 1964 at the University of California at Berkeley.
Here, students protested the universities restrictions on student political activities and debate.
The protest lasted for months, and many students accused the university of being corporately run and not concerned with human issues.
Student protests- by the mid-1960s, university students across the nation would be protesting other university rules such as drinking rules and dorm room rules. Many others demanded a larger voice in the rules of the universities.
Eventually many of these protests would seems a bit trivial with the escalation of the Vietnam War—which many youth would also begin to protest.
Others would join the counterculture movement and “become” hippies.
The Weathermen- part of the SDS became extreme, and this group embraced vandalism and violence, which hurt the image of the SDS and largely discredited the New Left movement.

4. The Counterculture Movement
Hippies
Characteristics
Haight-Ashbury District
Music
Woodstock
Legacy
Counterculture
Hippies- many members of the New Left also joined with the counterculture movement, and many young people became hippies.
Characteristics- dressed flamboyantly, lived communally, sexually liberal, used drugs liberally, and in general rejected the traditional values of society.
Many of these hippies rejected the values of mainstream society. They felt that society had only resulted in corporate greed, war, shallow conformity, and the risk the destruction of the world from nuclear attacks.
Hippies embraces values such as love, peace, tolerance, and individuality.
Over time, some hippies “grew out” of this movement and returned to traditional living, some destroyed their lives due to drug addictions, STDs, and poverty (get a job, hippie!), and a small group maintained the lifestyle long after the movement had ended.
Haight-Ashbury District- located in San Francisco, this was a “Mecca” for hippies.
Music- rock and folk music often served as a voice for this generation. Famous musicians that gave this voice included the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix.
Woodstock- the most famous music festival was Woodstock, which took place in upstate New York. This festival was enormous and represented the height of the counterculture in 1969.
The counterculture would lose its momentum in the 1970s due to its excesses and the economic conditions of the time (the long prosperous era that started in the 1950s finally ended)
Legacy- many of the hippies had been from the baby boomer generation who aggressively pushed the ideas of democracy, pushing against what they saw as an unresponsive authority, poverty, racism, and war—however, the tactics of this movement were largely self destructive and radical, which discredited them in the eyes of mainstream America.

5. Sexual Revolution Challenges to traditional values Medical influences
Alfred Kinsey
Medical influences
Popular culture
Homosexuality
Stonewall Rebellion (1969)
Eventual backlash
Challenges to traditional values- one aspect of the counterculture movement of the 1960s was the liberalization of sexual attitudes.
Alfred Kinsey- much of this challenge had roots in the work of Kinsey, whose 1940s and 1950s work had challenged traditional views on human sexuality.
Kinsey’s work had indicated that premartial sex, infidelity, and homosexuality were much more common than previously thought, which shocked and challenged mainstream sexual values.
Medical influences- these “looser” sexual values were further enabled by medical advances.
Medicines that cured/limited STDs and the introduction of the birth control pill in 1960 made casual sex and multiple partners less consequential and thus more tempting than ever before.
Popular culture- as in the 1920s, popular culture became more overtly sexual in terms of images and values (remember, Playboy magazine started in the 1950s). “Consuming” sex became just another product in this time of mass consumption and materialism.
Homosexuality- beginning in the 1950s and gaining momentum in the 1960s, homosexuals began to advocate for gay rights and gay tolerance.
Stonewall Rebellion- in 1969, a group of gay men were brutally attacked by a gang of off-duty police officers, and the victims fought back.
This conflict led to a rise in activism and militancy within the gay community and furthered the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Eventual backlash- eventually, in the 1980s, there was a backlash against the loosened moral codes. This was caused by the rise in illegitimate births, especially among teenagers, increased sexual abuse and rape, and the outbreak of a new, deadly STD—AIDS.

6. Women’s Movement Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963)
NOW (National Organization of Women)
Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique- in her book, Friedan argued against the perceived happiness of domestic life for women.
She challenged the “cult of domesticity” and called for women to leave the monotony of suburban life (as a wife, housekeeper, and mother) and seek fulfillment in professional careers.
NOW- in 1966, Friedan helped found NOW, which began to adopt activist tactics that had already been seen in the student movements and the civil rights struggles.

7. Equal Rights Amendment
Title IX (1972)
ERA (Equal Rights Amendment, 1972)
Phyllis Schlafly
Fate of ERA
Legacy of Women’s Movement
Feminism
Title IX- this law, passed in 1972, prohibited sex discrimination in any federally assisted educational program or activity (today, for example, male and female scholarships exist in schools, including sports—the roots of many professional women’s sports)
ERA- this amendment was proposed and passed by Congress in 1972 and then went to the states for approval.
This amendment would give complete equal rights to women (basically a 14th amendment for women)
The Amendment quickly gained 28 of the 38 states required.
Phyllis Schlafly- many people, including some women, opposed the ERA.
Schlafly argued that the ERA would remove many protections women had traditionally enjoyed, such as child support, alimony, and maternity leave. Some even argued that the ERA would allow women to be drafted in wartime.
Fate of ERA- in the end, society became more conservative, and the amendment was never ratified by the required number of states (three states short by the cut-off date of 1982)
Legacy of Women’s Movement- though the ERA failed, the women’s movement accomplished many reforms in employment and hiring practices.
Women increasingly took traditionally male-dominated jobs, for example in law, medicine, business, and politics.
Over time, leading up to present, the world has become less and less male-dominated.

8. The Vietnam War Cultural impact Political impact Foreign Policy impact
Cultural impact- the Vietnam War had a very divisive impact on the United States. Part of the baby boom generation was drafted and fought in the war, part of the generation joined the counterculture movement and actively protested the war. (the other generations were divided as well over whether fight was a good idea or not)
Political impact- the Vietnam War caused a lot of distrust in the government because of reports of military success from the government and conflicting images of carnage in TV news reports.
The war would keep LBJ’s Great Society from reaching its potential because of the diversion of funds and would ultimately cost him the presidency. Midway through the conflict, the country would vote in Republican Richard Nixon, largely because of distrust in the Democratic party.
Foreign policy impact- containment would not work in this war as South Vietnam would ultimately fall to communism. This would damage America’s standing in the war since a country of guerilla fighters would successfully thwart the world’s strongest nation.
In the years to follow, Americans would shy away from the idea of getting tied into foreign conflicts that could have similar results—known as “Vietnam Syndrome”

9. Vietnam North Vietnam South Vietnam Vietcong Invasion
North Vietnam- North Vietnam was headed by communist leader Ho Chi Minh, who hoped to reunited North and South Vietnam as a communist nation.
South Vietnam- South Vietnam was headed by anti-communist (and semi-dictatorial) Ngo Dinh Diem, though this rule would end with his assassination.
South Vietnam would then cycle through more leaders as the country became increasingly unstable and vulnerable to invasion.
Vietcong- many people in South Vietnam were armed guerrillas who were pro-communist and supported by Ho Chi Minh.
These people were known as the Vietcong, and would prove to be very difficult for Americans to stop once we entered the war.
Invasion- North Vietnamese has been invading South Vietnam since the early 1960s, working in conjunction and covertly with the Vietcong, becoming more overt when America entered the conflict.

10. Background Cold War Domino Theory JFK and Vietnam “Advisers” Diem
Instability
South Vietnam Falling Apart
Cold War- American concern over Vietnam was rooted in Cold War fears of the spread of communism, which were heightened by the fall of China and the Korean War.
Domino Theory- starting with Eisenhower, the “domino theory” had dominated foreign policy in Southeast Asia. America feared that if Vietnam fell to communism, other countries in the region would, and soon the majority of the world’s population (Asia) would be communist.
Therefore, communist aggression had to be stopped whenever it threatened to expand.
JFK and Vietnam- the situation in Vietnam escalated during JFK’s presidency—had he lived, would he have led America through the Vietnam War?
“Advisers”- though JFK would not send in troops to fight on behalf of South Vietnam, he sent many military “adviser,” who trained and gave supplies to South Vietnamese fighters, though they didn’t fight themselves.
There were about 17,000 “advisers” in Vietnam by the time JFK died.
Diem- eventually JFK supported a coup and assassination of Diem, whose oppressive leadership had destabilized South Vietnam (remember the Buddhist monk protests)
(two weeks later, JFK himself was assassinated)
Instability- the removal of Diem was meant to usher in better leadership, but the opposite happened and the country became more vulnerable to communist aggression from the north.

11. LBJ Inherits Vietnam LBJ and Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)
Legal war?
Great Society vs. Vietnam
LBJ and Vietnam- JFK died and LBJ became president just as South Vietnam began to seriously fall apart (7 different and failed governments in 1964 alone)
LBJ was eager to show strength against communism and the Vietcong.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution- LBJ and Congress changed American policies toward Vietnam in August of 1964 that would lead to direct, not indirect, troop involvement in Vietnam.
North Vietnamese gunboats fired on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin (remember, though, that Americans had been helping the South Vietnamese for some time, so this was not entirely unprovoked)
LBJ persuaded Congress that this action warranted a military response.
With the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Congress authorized Johnson to take “all necessary measures” to protect American and anti-communist interests in Vietnam—essentially giving Johnson a blank check to start a war.
Legal war?- the Vietnam “conflict” was not technically a war, and Congress never declared war (though in reality it was war).
There would be a backlash against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which would be manifested in future laws (War Powers Act) that limited the president’s authority to commit troops to conflict.
Great Society vs. Vietnam- the Vietnam War would prove to be expensive ordeal that would divert funds from LBJ’s Great Society, and LBJ would be personally conflicted on the choice.
LBJ wanted to go down as the best president in history, and may have become one of the best had it not been for Vietnam detracting from the Great Society (in the general opinion of historians)

12. The Vietnam War Saigon Operation Rolling Thunder (1965)
Troop escalation
General William Westmoreland
Saigon- Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam, and as Vietcong attacks grew, military advisers recommended that America ramp up operations in order to protect the South Vietnamese government.
The government was corrupt and unstable, but it was still seen as a symbol of democracy that needed to be protected.
The war would soon be fought much more by Americans than by Vietnamese.
Operation Rolling Thunder- In February of 1965, Vietcong forces attacked an American air base in Pleiku, South Vietnam, prompting a swift and hard reaction from LBJ.
Operation Rolling Thunder was a prolonged air attack using B-52 bombers against strategic targets in North Vietnam, starting in March of 1965.
Troop escalation- starting with Operation Rolling Thunder, LBJ, for the first time, committed American troops on the ground to fight.
By the end of 1965, about 184,000 troops were in Vietnam, entrenched in a difficult battle in against the Vietcong in the dense jungles of South Vietnam.
General William Westmoreland- Westmoreland was the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and he continually assured the American public that victory was in sight, even when it wasn’t.

14. Fighting Conditions Vietcong tactics American reactions
Guerilla fighting
Blending in
American reactions
Vietcong tactics- the tactics of the Vietcong are what made the fighting in Vietnam notoriously difficult and controversial.
Guerilla fighting- the Vietcong would employ guerilla tactics in fighting against American soldiers.
They would hide in the jungle and launch ambushes on Americans, and could often retreat into underground tunnels before Americans could react.
Vietcong would often set gruesome booby traps on soldiers. These traps often aimed to maim but not kill, therefore tying up multiple troops who cared for the injured and limiting their ability to fight.
Blending in- perhaps the Vietcong’s most sinister strength was their ability to blend in to 1. the environment and 2. the population
Vietcong new the land better than Americans and could use this “home field” advantage.
Vietcong, like the South Vietnamese, were Vietnamese—the looked exactly like the “good guys,” since their difference was ideological, not physical.
American reactions- the difficulty of fighting the enemy had terrible effects on American soldiers.
Many Americans suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
In some ways, the war turned Americans into “monsters.” Frustrated with the enemy’s ability to blend in to towns of innocents, the Americans would often simply torch the entire town.
Can the soldiers be blamed for ethically questionable actions such as killing civilians? (open)
How would these tactics impact the support of South Vietnamese civilians? (open)

15. Analyze.

16. Fighting Conditions American tactics Consequences The War Escalates
“Search and destroy”
Napalm
Agent Orange
Consequences
The War Escalates
American tactics- Americans struggled against the elusive Vietcong.
“Search and Destroy”- in these missions, helicopters (new technology) was employed—soldiers would be flown in to an area, search out the enemies, kill as many as possible, and leave.
The major obstacle in a search and destroy mission was the fact that the foliage was so dense and the landscape provided easy hiding to the Vietcong.
Napalm- this jellied gasoline was ignited in the jungle, burning down the trees and helping expose the Vietcong.
Agent Orange- this pesticide was used on the jungles—it killed the trees, and when the leaves had fallen off, again the Vietcong were exposed.
Consequences- the search and destory missions often destroyed civilian land and villages and often killed the innocent.
The use of these tactics further alienated the South Vietnamese from the American cause.
Additionally, Agent Orange had bad medical side effects that contaminated both American and Vietnamese for years to come.

18. The “Credibility Gap” Hawks and Doves “Hearts and Minds”
Fighting Continues
“Credibility Gap”
The “TV War”
Hawks and Doves- supporters of the war were known as “hawks.”
Hawks commonly saw the communists in Vietnam as being backed by the Soviet Union. They saw this war as a way to keep the Soviets from overtaking all of Southeast Asia.
“Doves” opposed the war and saw it as a civil war between North and South Vietnam who were trying to unify and overthrow the corrupt government in Saigon—and thought that America should not be involved (at least with the direct use of the military)
Over time, the “doves” grew as the costs of the war increased in terms of lives and money.
“Hearts and Minds”- LBJ and other officials harped on the idea of winning the “hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese (the war, like the Revolutionary War, would be most successful if there was support from the CIVILIAN population)
However, as time went on, America arguably began to lose the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese, especially with the destruction of civilian property and when Americans murdered civilians (My Lai, for example)
“Credibility Gap”- since early in the war, officials such as President Johnson, General Westmoreland, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had talked of the “winnability” of the war, claiming that victory was “just around the corner.”
However, as the war dragged on and the carnage grew worse, public sentiment grew steadily against the war (and the ranks of the “doves” grew).
A “credibility gap” grew between the government and the people as Americans increasingly felt they were being deceived.
As the war dragged on, even high ranking members of the government began to question the endeavor (McNamara was “eased out” of the cabinet when he became less confident in the war, and he later claimed that American had been “terribly wrong” on Vietnam)
The “TV War”- Vietnam was the first war where TV news cameras were able to film events as they unfolded and broadcast them the same day. Vietnam became a war that could be watched nightly, almost like TV episodes, but real.
*Americans heard that the war was successful from their government, but TV images indicated far less success, which largely contributed to the credibility gap.
Was the role of TV accurate? Should news reporters be allowed in war, and if so, to what extent? (open)

19. Protests The Draft 26th Amendment (1971) The Antiwar Movement
World reaction to Vietnam
The Draft- one of the most vocal anti-war groups was the youth, for it was them that would be drafted into the war after high school.
As in the Civil War, affluence aided in avoiding the draft—here, college-bound students could defer while non-college bound (often poorer) students would be drafted after high school.
Many people protested the war and burned their draft cards while others ran to other countries, especially Canada, to “dodge” the draft (illegal)
26th Amendment- the voting age was 21, but the drafting age was 18, which caused many to be angered since people who could be drafted into a war could not vote for the people who were authorizing them to go.
The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18.
World reaction to Vietnam- Vietnam hurt America’s image on the world stage.
Many other countries opposed the conflict (Vietnam was unilateral?) and the war was not authorized by the joint efforts of the UN (as Korea had been)
When the war proved unsuccessful, America appeared much weaker, and, to some, a bully.

20. Tet Offensive Tet Offensive (1968) Military results Political results
Tet Offensive- on the Lunar New Year of Vietnam (January), the Vietcong launched a major surprise offensive on nearly every strategic point in Vietnam.
Military results- American forces were able to successfully counterattack and inflict very heavy damages on the Vietcong (much more than the enemy inflicted on us). Political results- the American public had been told often by the government that the war was successful and that victory was coming soon, but the Tet Offensive made this appear to be a falsehood—if America was so close to victory, how could the Vietcong launch such a massive attack? How much longer would the war REALLY take?
Military advisers began requesting more troops (200,000), which made the impending “success” of the war even less probable.
TV cameras caught the attacks and broadcasted them to Americans stateside. The offensive was a POLITICAL victory for the Vietcong because it shattered American confidence (whether justly or not) and made support for the war dwindle.

21. South Vietnamese about to kill a Vietcong prisoner—killing an unarmed prisoner? More bad publicity for the war.

22. LBJ Scales Down the War LBJ announces withdrawal LBJ “steps down”
1968 peace talks
LBJ announces withdrawal- soon after Tet, LBJ turned against further escalation of the war and announced this on national television.
He announced that he would limit bombing and begin to negotiate a peace with North Vietnam.
LBJ “steps down”- while on TV, LBJ also announced that he would not run for reelection nor accept another nomination.
1968 peace talks- in May, peace talks began but with little success, largely over minor issues (trivial at times, such as the shape of the negotiating table)
As the negotiations dragged on, tens of thousands more people would die in the conflict.

23. Election of 1968 1968 Robert Kennedy (Democrat)
Assassination (1968)
Democratic National Convention
Chicago riots
1968- in general, 1968 was a very turbulent time in American history. Multiple major figures were assassinated (MLK and RFK), the counterculture movement was gaining momentum, race-related riots were common, and the Vietnam War was reaching the height of unpopularity.
The country was heavily divided and appeared in some ways to be falling apart.
Robert Kennedy- Kennedy became the rising star of the Democratic party, heir to the throne of his slain brother.
RFK has spoken in favor of civil rights before and he was opposed to the war in Vietnam.
He gained much momentum, especially after winning the California primary.
Assassination- just a few months before the election and with the nomination in sight, RFK was assassinated by an Arab nationalist named Sirhan Sirhan, who disliked RFK’s support of Israel.
Democratic National Convention- at the DNC, crowds angrily demanded that the Democrats nominate another anti-war candidate, but LBJ’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, won the nomination—and he had been supportive of LBJ’s controversial policies.
Chicago- in response, citizens in Chicago rioted, and the violence was televised nationwide.
The Democratic party was fatally split, leaving the door open for the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, to win rather easily.

24. From the Chicago Riots

25. Election of 1968 Hubert Humphrey (Democrat)
George Wallace (American Independent)
Richard Nixon (Republican)
The Country in Turmoil
*The Democratic party was in trouble. Citizens were split over Vietnam, and a major third party ran, further dividing the votes.
Hubert Humphrey- Humphrey had been LBJ’s vice president and won the Democratic nomination following the death of RFK, despite heavy protests from antiwar groups.
Having been a staunch supporter of LBJ’s policies (many of which were now unpopular—Vietnam), Humphrey was unlikely to win the election.
George Wallace- further splitting the Democratic vote was the fact that Southern Democrats left the part to vote for Governor George Wallace of Alabama.
Wallace was able to gain support from many whites who opposed federal desegregation, antiwar activists, and the race riots.
Wallace became the most successful third-party candidate in the “modern era.”
Richard Nixon- Nixon was the frontrunner for the Republican party and had “reinvented” himself as a more personable and positive person than he had been perceived in the early 1960s.
He easily secured the Republican nomination and ran with Spiro Agnew, the Maryland governor whose rhetoric was similar to Wallace.
Nixon was a “hawk” on the Vietnam War, but was much more moderate on domestic issues.
*The antiwar Americans had no one to vote for, but the rising tide of conservatism favored Nixon’s moderate domestic policies over Humphrey’s liberal ones.
*Nixon promoted “peace and honor” in Vietnam (maybe not outright victory, but some sort of face-saving measure) and “law and order”—ironic considering Watergate.

26. Election of 1968 Results Another return to normalcy?
Results- Nixon was a minority winner—he won the electoral vote, but with out 43% of the popular vote.
However, Congress remained staunchly Democrat, meaning he would have to face congressional opposition.
Another return to normalcy?- Nixon and Wallace received 57 percent of the vote, indicating that Americans were tired of protests, violence, loosened morality, counterculture, and the expanding federal government.
The next two decades would mark a decline in support for “New Deal” liberalism in favor of more conservative leadership, especially in the 1980s.