Vietnam: America’s Longest War
Johnson’s War
Kennedy had sent in many military advisors
Lyndon B. Johnson makes the decision to engage in a major war
Hoped to stay the course in Vietnam
Realised that a loss or stalemate would cripple his re-election chances
The Tonkin Gulf resolution passed to give Pres the authority to take “all necessary measure” to defend US armed forces
A “functional equivalent” to a declaration of war
Johnson campaigns under a non-interference policy
“Don’t send in US boys to do what Asian boys should be”
govt in Saigon near collapse & Vietcong still pushing hard despite bombing
Deeper into the Quagmire
Feb 1965: Vietcong fire at a US base
Johnson uses this to rationalize the war on North Vietnam
Air strikes & Operation Rolling Thunder
Up to 431,000 US troops in Vietnam at one time
War of attrition
Bombing would destroy the Vietcong
US troops destroy South Vietnam’s society
Trying to root out Vietcong support
Operation Ranch Hand
1965-1971
3.6 million acres of land sprayed with Agent Orange
The Credibility Gap
Johnson’s popularity rises rapidly during Tonkin Gulf resolution
Wanes as war drags on & body count told on every news show every day
Badgered at press conference in 1967 for creating the credibility gap
News networks begin to show human suffering in Vietnam
J. William Fullbright of Arkansas= most vocal congressional critic of the war
Arrogance of Power: proposes a negotiated withdrawal from a neutralized Southeast Asia
Persuaded many congressman & 1967: Congress appeals to UN to try to negotiate a war end
War cost $21 billion per year
10% surcharge on taxes to cover this debt
tapped the Social Security Fund
Generation in Conflict
“The Times They Are A-Changin”
First protest at U Cal Berkley for free speech in 1964
Civil rights activists return from Mississippi Freedom Summer
Picketed San Francisco stores that practiced discrimination in hiring
Tried to recruit students & administration said no
“Students from Goldwater” say that this restricts their free speech
University breaks up protests and presses charges
Sit in against charges and more arrests
Free Speech movt spreads across college students
Demand a curriculum restructuring & treat students as “adults not children”
“In loco parentis” rules allow for more student freedom
1967 “Summer of Love” brings 75,000 “hippies” form a ‘counterculture’ in San Francisco
“Just be” there (ie: drugs, music & sex)
Sexual revolution causes adult-hippie friction
1970: 75% of college seniors weren’t virgins
The “pill” becomes widely available
Sex more widely discussed
“Sexual communities” created
Share child care & sex partners
Drugs play a large role in this counterculture
Marijuana & rock become intertwined
Bob Dylan: “Everybody must get Stoned”
Folk to rock
Woodstock (August 1969)
400,000 people gather for 3 day rock concert
sex & drugs run rampant while police stand by
counterculture= “Woodstock Nation” (WN)
From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization
After Operation Rolling Thunder starts, students have a day long class boycott
War related research boycotted on campus
Dow Chemical Company (manufacturers of napalm) tried to recruit at the University of Wisconsin
Sit in starts to prevent them & police violently break it up
Students chant “Sieg Heil”
Protests spread from colleges
Sheep Meadow Protest in Central Park draws 300,000 people
Protests draw pro-war response from democrats & conservatives
Veterans of Foreign Wars have a “Loyalty Parade” in NYC to support Vietnam
“One Country, One Flag, Love it or Leave it”
Draft Dodging becomes a federal offence with 5 yr jail term & $10,000 fine
Sheep Meadow Protest has 200 men tear up draft cards
Jesuit Priests raid the draft office in Catonsville Maryland & burn the draft records
Teenage Soldiers
Average age of Vietnam Soldiers is 19
Many young Latino & Black men sign up for vocal training and a chance to move up the social ladder
They bore the brunt of the combat
Only 12 percent of soldiers were college students
GIs not isolated from the “WN”
Smoked marijuana & listened to music
But most condemned antiwar protests
As the war wore on, GIs got frustrated & became peace advocates
RITA (resistance in the army)
Many began to condemn combat operations
Some even “fragged” their commanders
Black Power resents the war as a “White mans war”
US soldiers hated by Vietnamese citizens as intruders
Wars on Poverty
The Great Society
Johnson’s ambitious reform program
1964: Economic Opportunity Act to abolish poverty
Establishes the Office of Economic Opportunity
Network of programs to increase education & employment opportunities
Job corps trains in vocation mostly urban black youths
Community Action Program
Empower the poor by giving them a direct say in the war on poverty
National emphasis programs
Legal Services Program
Gives poor people pro-bono legal rep.
Early education to poor kids through Head Start
Drop in Community Health Centers
Root cause of poverty was the unequal distribution of wealth
16% of the GNP in 1974 was for social welfare spending
Most to Medicare etc., not to the poor
More money gradually given to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
Crisis in the Cities
The nations poorest communities were in the deep south & Appalachian mountains
Since WWII, urban areas increasingly get worse
“White Flight” to the suburbs
Federal Housing Administration urges people to take out loans & buy houses in the suburbs
Also “redlining” to prevent the poor from maintaining loans
Military Spending for the Vietnam War creates an unemployment rate drop to 4%
Most of these jobs to whites
Pollution becomes a major problem in urban areas
Despite all these negatives, millions of people came to the cities
Mostly blacks from the deep south & whites from the appalacians & latinos from Puerto Rico
Urban Uprisings
“Long hot summers” of 1964-68 brought over 100 uprisings
1964: Harlem, Rochester & Philadelphia blacks became increasingly angry
Watts section of LA
1965: one minor arrest startrs a riot for 50 miles
50,000 troops & 20,000 national guardsmen sent to stop the uprising
1966:L major uprisings in San Francisco, Milwaukee, Dayton & Cleveland
July 13, 1967: Newark NT, huge house shortages have blacks angry
Beating of a black taxi driver by a white policeman provokes widespread protest
5 day riot & 25 killed by national guard
July 20, 1967: Detroit’s “Great Rebellion”
Police raid a bar & arrest 4 people
Week long riot breaks out & paratroopers & national guard called in
34 dead & 7,000 under arrest
Urban uprisings force Johnson to create a task force to allocate funds for urban antipoverty programs
Found that the rioters weren’t the poorest or the dumbest in the urban communities
Said that “white racism” was the main cause & suggested public housing programs, intergrated schools, 2 million new jobs & a national income supplementation program
Ignored & forgotten by congress
1968
The Tet Offensive
January 30: Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive
Pushed far into South Vietnam & into the US embassy in Saigon
US troops push them back
1600 dead US troops
40,000 dead Vietcong troops
US brutality & casualties show discredit the American leadership to the public
News shots of American troops showed their malicious behaviour
Polls show that 49% of Americans think the war is wrong
Johnson announces that he won’t run for re-election on March 31 after seeing the hopelessness of the next election
Declared a bombing halt & called Hanoi for peace talks
King, the War, and the Assassination
By 1968, civil rights leaders were against the war
MLK calls the govt “the greatest purveyer of violence in the world today”
Memphis: MLK gives his “I have a dream” speech to the Poor People’s Campaign for peace and justice
April 4, 1968: MLK shot by James Earl Ray
Riots broke out in 100 + cities
27,000 blacks jailed in 1 week
The Democratic Campaign
Robert Kennedy= Candidate of popular choice
Liberals dissatisfied with Johnson’s handling of Vietnam & blacks who have just lost their leader
Insisted that the citizens be told the truth about the war
Eugene McCarthy (opponent) agrees with him
Bobby Kennedy wins all but the Oregon primary & is shot right after the California primary
Shot by Jordinian Sirhan Sirhan
Hubert Humphrey (Vice Pres.) now the only suitable candidate
Supports the war fully
Lined up his loyal followers & gained the Democratic nomination before the convention started
“The Whole World is Watching!”
Anti-war activists organize a huge demonstration outside the convention
Youth International Party calls for big counter-culture celebration
Parade permit turned down & police riot starts
Police savagely beat demonstrators
Humphrey gains momentum from this as he praises the war & gains support from most of the pro-war democrats
The Politics of Identity
Black Power
Failure of the Poverty War & disproportionate amount of black deaths in Vietnam starts collapse of faith in the govt.
Black Power adopted by Stokely Carmichael as a way for blacks to take control of their future
Self-determination & self-sufficiency
Adopted separatist ideas (separate the US into black & white nations)
Black Panther Party for Self Defense
Black extremist group headed byHuey B. Newton & Bobby Seale
Armed heavily & dressed in black leather & berets
Ruined by long jail terms of their members
Jesse Jackson turns black power into a peaceful protest
“Operation Breadbasket”
Black students strike on San Francisco State University campus for black studies dept.
Win with the help of the Panthers
Sisterhood is Powerful
Middle class white women unhappy with their role in society
National Organization for Women established
Spearheaded campaigns to end sex discrimination
Women’s liberation movts talk of separatist ideals
Many radical women’s activists split off with male civil rights & anti-war activists
Most in the women’s rights movt were not radical, just trying to get equality
Women’s rights begin to show up in literature
“Sexual Politics” by Kate Milett
By 1975: 150 women’s studies programs created
Gay Liberation
Mattachine Society & the Daughters of Bilitis campaign to reduce homophobic discrimination in employment & the armed forces
Many gay activists live in Greenwich Village & the San Francisco Bay Area
“Stonewall Riot” when police raid a Greenwich Village Gay Bar & Gay Power starts
Gay Liberation Front formed
Against the war & supported the Black Panthers
1973: American Psychiatric Assoc. takes homosexuality of the list of treatable mental illnesses
The Chicano Rebellion
Young Mexican Americans form a collectivist group to resist white domination
La raza= Aztecs (root of their language & heritage)
1969: Chicano high school students in the Southwest skipped school to celebrate the Mexican Independence Day
Brown Berets formed to encourage teenagers to express Chinanismo (Mexican pride)
Texas-based La Raza Unida party increased Mexican-American Representation in local governments
Red Power
Seek to restore the legitimacy of tribal laws
Achieved in the Civil Rights Act of 1968
American Indian Movt (AIM) founded by the Chippewas
Organized for Self Defence & challenge the Bureau of Indian affairs
Occupied the deserted Alcatraz Island penitentiary to get govt funds for a cultural centre & University
Govt doesn’t respond
Nov 1972: AIM occupies the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 1 week
The Asian American Movt (yellow power)
1968: Asian students at U Cal Berkley formed the Asian American Political Alliance
Against the war in Vietnam
1968: Asian Americans give the San Francisco city council a list of grievances over the condition of Chinatown & attempted to save a low-income housing area mainly for Chinese & Filipino men
Both failed
The Nixon Presidency
The Southern Strategy
Builds support from the “silent majority”
Tax paying normal citizens
Republicans organize around the importance of the Sunbelt
Conservative region of high tech industry & retirement communities
Nixon appeals to them by promising to appoint federal judges who would undercut liberal interpretations of civil rights & be tough on crime
Running mate of Nixon= Spiro T. Agnew
Good orator
3rd Party nominee George Wallace from Alabama
Wins Alabama governorship on a segregation platform
Nixon wins with 43.4% of the popular vote to 42.7% by Hubert Humphries
Nixon’s War
Henry Kissinger on the National Security Council wouldn’t let the US pull out
Don’t appear weak to our enemies
Nixon followed a “Vietnamization” policy in public
Give their fighting to the South Vietnamese
In private, Nixon & Kissinger debated giving the “final blow” to the North Vietnamese
April 30, 1970: Nixon adds Cambodia to th ewar zone without congressional approval
Much unexpected protest
Kent State University: National Guardsmen panicked & shot into an unarmed crowd of 200 students
Killed 4 & wounded 9
The Senate adopts a resolution to disallow the use of US funds for the war in Cambodia
Rejected by the House of Representatives but showed Nixon that nobody wanted the war
Feb 1971: Nixon orders the South Vietnamese to cut the Vietcong’s supply lines in Laos
April 1972: Nixon orders the bombing & mining of North Vietnamese & Cambodian targets
Kissinger negotiates the cease-fire with North Vietnam
Nixon bombs one last time for a better negotiating position
Paris Peace Agreement signed in 1973 differed little from the one Nixon could have signed in 1969
April 1975: N. Vietnamese troops take Saigon & communist led Democratic Republic of Vietnam unifies the country
The war costs the US 58,000 troops & $150 billion
“The China Card”
Nixon could have formed an alliance with the People’s Republic of China against the USSR
“Ping Pong” diplomacy starts in 1971 when a US ping pong team visits China
Feb 1972: Richard & Pat Nixon fly to China & the US-Chinese diplomacy begins
Nixon uses this alliance against the USSR & they agree to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
First success of strategic arms control in the cold war
Domestic Policy
Nixon wanted to restore order in the American society
Stop drugs, crime, racial discord & draft resistance
Supported the new social security benefits in 1972 to allow for re-election
Creation of the Environmental Protection Agency & the Occupational Safety & Health Administration
Family Assitance Plan to provide minimal income to the poor instead of welfare benefits
Turned down by Congress
Embraced fiscal liberatism
Accepted deficit spending& took the nation off the Gold Standard
Watergate
Foreign Policy as Conspiracy
Issued a tough mandate against info leaks by govt personnel, media & politicians
Accelerated the delivery of arms to foreign dictators
Shah of Iran & Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines
Provided monetary aid to Latin-American dictators
Somoza of Nicaragua
Tried to overthrow the illegally elected socialist govt in Chile
Used the Chilean military to overthrow the govt
The Age of Dirty Tricks
Nixon tightens his inner circle as he neared the 1972 election
“The plumbers” to halt info leaks
First hit against Daniel Ellsberg
Turned over military documents outlining the military history in Vietnam
Nixon attempts to stop the NY Times from printing these “Pentagon Papers”
Supreme Court rules in favour of the Times
Nixon attempts to prosecute Ellsberg on espionage charges
Again failed after Nixon charged with misconduct
Ran a successful negative campaign against George McGovern
He supported “Abortion, acid, and amnesty”
The Committee to Re-Elect the President
Wiretaps the Democratic National Committee headquarters
June 17, 1972: security team finds the intruders & arrests them
Attempting to wiretap the conference room in the Watergate hotel
Nixon said he had nothing to do with it
Nixon aid forced to tell of the secret Oval Office tapes of Nixon
The tapes were partially erased when they were handed over
Fall of the Executive
Watergate tapes full of Nixon swearing & racial slurs
Proved that he knew about the wiretaps
July 1974: House Judiciary Committee adopts 3 articles of impeachment
Obstructing justice
Nixon’s govt had been clouded with disgrace when his VP, Spiro Agnew, admitted to taking kickbacks when he was the govnr of Maryland
Resigned in disgrace & Gerald Ford takes over
Nixon sees his impending impeachment & resigns on August 9, 1974
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Chpter29.doc | 26 KB |
Subject:
Subject X2:
