1. The Vietnam War: Tracing America’s Withdrawal

2. Turning Point: Tet Offensive, 1968
Vietcong attack on over 100 towns and cities, 12 US airbases
US General “The Vietcong “lost” the Tet Offensive
Widening of credibility gap
Saigon Police Chief  Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong suspect on the street during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

3. The government was lying to us…
“Victory is in sight” – Sec. of Defense McNamara (Feb. 1963)
“I have never been more encouraged in my four years in Vietnam” – General Westmoreland (Nov. 1967)
“Hanoi has accepted near-total defeat” – Columnist Joseph Alsop (1972)
“I am absolutely convinced if Congress made available $722 million in military assistance by the time I asked—or sometime shortly after—the South Vietnamese could stabilize the military situation in Vietnam today” – President Ford (1975)

4. The Credibility Gap U.S. government’s lack of honesty
Television contradicts: Living Room War
American deaths: 16,000 by

5. The Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg, former US Marine and military analyst
Proves Credibility Gap is true
Releases top secret 7000 paged plan for Vietnam in 1971 to the New York Times
JFK okays DIEM overthrow
Coastal Bombings of North Vietnam under Nixon
Secret Bombing of Cambodia and Laos

6. 3. There was no national consensus…
By 1967, Protest movements all over America (+ Vietnam) by all groups of people
Students, GI’s, blue-collar, white collar, Catholic Church, government officials, youth
Protests centered on:
Vietnam as a Civil War
South Vietnam no better than Communists
Morally unjust (War of Attrition)
Draft

7. Protest “Message” Music
Phil Ochs “I aint marchin anymore”
Edwin Starr “War”
War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker.
War, friend only to the undertaker.
Peace, love and understanding.
Tell me, is there no place for them today.
They say we must fight to keep our freedom.
But Lord knows there’s got to be a better way.
It’s always the old to lead us to the war.
It’s always the young to fall.
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun.
Tell me is it worth it all?

8. On American Campuses
School Year: 1,785 Student Demonstrations and building occupations
Protest became a part of youth-dominated “counter-culture”
Columbia University Protest

9. Intensified Protest
Counter-Culture Movement: hippies, “doves” became more prevalent
Haight-Ashbury district in SF
Kent State shootings (1970)
LBJ, LBJ How many kids did you kill today!
Hell No We wont go!

10. Democratic National Convention of 1968
LBJ announces he will not run again
Democratic National Convention of 1968: 5000 demonstrators protest the administration’s war policies (where they are beaten by police)
Victory for Republican Party and Richard M. Nixon

11. Vietnamization 1969: Nixon begins “Vietnamization”
1972: Only 25,000 soldiers left
March 29th, 1973: Last US soldiers leave
Vietnamese Civil War
Ends in Fall of Saigon
War Powers Act: Nov 1973: The President must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area.
Nixon’s Foreign Policy: “Real Politik” + “détente”

12. Or DID we learn our lesson?
Vietnam vs. War in Iraq