1963 After Kennedy

The LBJ Brand on the PresidencyLyndon Johnson had been a senator in the 1940s and 50s, his idol was

Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he could manipulate Congress very well (through his in-your-face “Johnson treatment”); he was also quite vain and egotistical.

President Johnson proved to be much more successful than Kennedy at working with Congress.

As a president, LBJ went from mildly conservative to liberal, utilizing Kennedy’s death to pass a Civil Rights Act of 1964, which:

1. banned all racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public, including theaters, hospitals, and restaurants.

2. Banned sexual as well as racial discrimination.3. Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), aimed at

eliminating discriminatory hiring.

Johnson’s program was dubbed the “Great Society,” and it reflected his New Deal inspirations.

Public support for the program was aroused by Michael Harrington’s The Other America, which revealed that over 20% of American suffered in poverty.

Johnson Battles Goldwater in 1964• In 1964, LBJ was opposed by right-wing Republican

Arizona senator Barry Goldwater who attacked the federal income tax, the Social Security system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, civil rights legislation, the nuclear test-ban treaty, and the Great Society.

• However, Johnson used the Tonkin Gulf Incident, in which North Vietnamese ships allegedly fired on American ships, to look tough on communism in Vietnam.

• Johnson received congressional approval for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave him a virtual blank check on what he could do in affairs in Vietnam.

LBJ and Vietnam

The Great Society CongressOn election day, Johnson won a huge landslide over Goldwater to stay president.

Johnson’s win was also coupled by sweeping Democratic wins that enabled him to pass his Great Society programs and begin his “War On Poverty”.

LBJ and Reform

Congress doubled the appropriation on the Office of Economic Opportunity to $2 billion and granted more than $1 billion to refurbish Appalachia, which had been stagnant.

Johnson also created the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), headed by Robert C. Weaver, the first black cabinet secretary in the United States’ history.

LBJ also wanted aid to education, medical care for the elderly and indigent, immigration reform, and a new voting rights bill.

Johnson gave money to students, not schools, thus avoiding the separation of church and state by not technically giving money to Christian schools.

In 1965, new programs called Medicare and Medicaid were installed, which gave certain rights to the elderly and the needy in terms of medicine and health maintenance.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

abolished the “national origin” quota and doubled the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. annually, up to 290,000 – in effect, shifting our major sources of immigration to Latin America and Asia.

An antipoverty program called Project Head Start improved the performance of the underprivileged in education. It was “pre-school” for the poor.

The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities was created to aid artists of all sorts

Battling for Black Rights The 24th Amendment eliminated poll taxes, and in the “freedom summer” of

1964, both blacks and white students joined to combat discrimination and racism throughout the South by attempting to register black voters.

But in June of 1964, a black and two white civil rights workers were found murdered in Mississippi, and 21 white Mississippians were arrested for the murders. However, the all-white jury refused to convict the suspects.

Also, an integrated “Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party” was denied its seat.

Early in 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. continued his peaceful resistance to unjust laws and resumed his voter-registration campaign in Selma, Alabama. He and his followers were assaultedwith tear gas by state troopers.

LBJ’s responded by calling for America to overcome bigotry, racism, and discrimination.

Johnson’s Voting Rights Act of 1965 attacked racial discrimination at the polls by outlawing literacy tests and sending voting registrars to the polls.

Interestingly, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 resulted in white office-seeking southerners beginning to court black votes, as they realized they’d need their support.

Black Power1965 began a period of violent black protests and riots in major cities (ex. Watts in

LA). New black leaders such as Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), preached black separatism inspired by the Nation of Islam and its founder, Elijah Muhammed.

They urged action now, even if it required violence, to the tune of his battle cry, “by any means necessary.” Malcolm X was killed in 1965 by a group of Black Muslims after he had broken ties with the Nation of Islam.

Stokely Carmichael had formerly led the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and had a great appreciation for the two civil rights acts passed in ‘64 and ‘65, but because of the slow progress of the civil rights movement in bringing economic equality, he now urged an abandonment of peaceful demonstrations in order to more swiftly bring about GENUINE equality.

Carmichael’s new creed, “Black Power,” became a rallying cry by blacks seeking economic equality and equal cultural acknowledgement in American society, but just as they were slowly moving in that direction, more riots broke out, and nervous whites threatened with retaliation.

Plus, a new militant black political party known as the Black Panthers openly brandished weapons in Oakland, California, as a reaction against what they viewed as police brutality against blacks.

Tragically, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

As the years passed, thousands of blacks registered to vote and went into integrated classrooms, and they slowly built themselves into a politically

powerful group.

Combating Communism in Two HemispheresJohnson sent men to put down a supposedly communist coup in the

Dominican Republic and was denounced as over-anxious and too hyper.

In Vietnam, though, he slowly sent more and more U.S. men to fight the war, and the South Vietnamese became spectators in their own war. Meanwhile, more and more Americans died.

By 1968, he had sent more than half a million troops to Asia, and was

pouring in $30 billion annually, yet the end was nowhere in sight.

Vietnam VexationsAlongside the floundering Vietnam situation, the U.S. was also trapped in various world-wide

conflicts due to its new-found role as a superpower.

1. America was floundering in Vietnam and was being condemned for its actions there, and French leader Charles de Gaulle also ordered NATO off French soil in 1966.

2. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Israel stunned the world by defeating Egypt (and its Soviet backers) in the so-called 1967 Six-Day War, further intensifying Israeli-Palestinian relations that lasts to this very day.

Israel gained new territory in the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, numerous protests in America went against the Vietnam War and the draft. Opposition was headed by the influential Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, headed by Senator William Fullbright of Arkansas.

“Doves” (peace lovers) and “Hawks” (war supporters) clashed.

Both sides (the U.S. and North Vietnam) did try to have intervals of quiet time in bombings, but they merely used those as excuses to funnel more troops into the area. Johnson also ordered the CIA (in a clear violation of its charter) to spy on domestic antiwar activists, and he encouraged the FBI to use its Counterintelligence Program (“Cointelpro”) against the peace movement.

More and more, America was trapped in an awful Vietnam War, and it couldn’t get out, thus breeding more and more hatred and resentment to the American public.

Vietnam Topples JohnsonJohnson was personally suffering due to the number of American casualties, as

witnesses viewed him weeping as he signed condolence letters. He even prayed with Catholic monks in a nearby church—at night, secretly.

The most serious blow to LBJ’s foreign policy was the Tet Offensive of 1968 in which the communist Vietnamese attacked every U.S. base in South Vietnam simultaneously.

Though technically a victory, as the U.S. forces fought off the communists, it was a wakeup call to the American people that the war was far from over and was in fact NOT being won.

Johnson also saw a challenge for the Democratic ticket from Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, and the nation, as well as the Democratic party, was starting to be split by Vietnam.

Early in ‘68, LBJ refused to sign an order for more troops to Vietnam.

Then, on March 31, 1968, Johnson declared that he would stop sending in troops to Vietnam and that he would not run in 1968, shocking America.

The Presidential Sweepstakes of 1968• On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy, the “peace” candidate was fatally shot in

California while campaigning, and another Kennedy brother is tragically murdered.

Despite a massive effort by the New Left, new peace candidate Eugene McCarthy was NOT nominated after Kennedy’s death, as the Democrats chose to go with LBJ’s “successor” VP Hubert Humphrey.

At the Democratic Convention in Chicago, August 1968, angry antiwar zealots, deprived by an assassin’s bullet of their leading candidate, Bobby Kennedy, merged menacingly upon the streets of Chicago to protest Humphrey’s impending official nomination.

An exasperated international television watched as the crowd broke into a riot with the Chicago police department bloodily beating down the protesters.

The war had truly come home………….

Vietnam before Nixon

The gleeful Republicans responded with Richard Nixon, paired with Spiro Agnew, as their candidates running on a platform calling for victory in Vietnam and a strong anticrime policy. They simply sat back watching the Democrats destroy each other.

There was also a third-party candidate: George C. Wallace, former governor of Alabama, a segregationist who along with his running mate, former air force general Curtis LeMay, proposed to bomb the North Vietnamese back to the Stone Age.

Nixon won in a nail-biter, yet with only 43.4% of the popular vote. A minority president, he owed his victory to division over the war, and protest against the draft, crime, and rioting.

The Obituary of Lyndon Johnson• Poor Lyndon Johnson returned to his Texas

ranch and died there in 1973. • In the final analysis, LBJ’s Great Society

programs won some noteworthy battles in education (ex. Head Start) and health care (medicaid, medicare).

• He had committed Americans into Vietnam with noble intentions, but he was stuck in a situation where he was darned if he did and darned if he didn’t.

VIETNAMMoving towards conflict

Why Did The U.S Get Involved?

• When the Vietnam rebelled against the French the rebelled in a in a communist party , the leader of the rebellion group was Ho Chi Minh

• In 1941 the Vietnamese communists combined with other groups to form an organization called the Vietminh.

• The U.S. did not want the Vietnames to spread communism.

VIETCONG!!!

• By 1957 a rebel group had formed in the south. The group was known as the Vietcong. It fought against Diem’s rule. Ho Chi Minh supported vietcong from the north. He supplied arms to the group along a network of paths that ran between the north and south vietnam. Together these paths became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

TERMS AND NAMES

• HO CHI MINH- Leader of north Vietnam.• VIETMINH- Communist group led by Ho

Chi Minh. • Domino Theory- Eisenhower’s

explanation for stopping communism.• Dien Bien Phu- Major French outpost

captured by the Vietminh. • Geneva Accords- Peace agreements

that split Vietnam in two.

Terms And Names

• Ngo Dinh Diem- Leader of south Vietnam.• Vietcong- Communist rebel group in

south Vietnam.• Ho Chi Minh Trial- Network of paths

running between North and South Vietnam.

• Tonkin Gulf Resolution- Resolution that allowed president Johnson to fight in Vietnam.

United States History

Moving Towards Conflict

The Roots of American Involvement

From the late 1800’s until WWII France had ruled over Vietnam. Harsh treatment by the French led to many rebellions. Japan controlled Vietnam during most of WWII. After it had ended the French wanted to regain control. A communist party, the Vietminh, are claiming independence for their country. The French army came in and conquered the Southern half, while the North became communist.

The US supported the French in the war. Like many other nations they believed that they had to stop the spread of communism. They thought it was spreading in a domino kind of way. Like a set of dominos, if one falls, so will the next. The weak Asian nations being the dominos, if one fell to communism they thought the rest might fall one after another.

Domino Theory

The U.S supported France during the war. The U.S thought of the Vietnamese to be Commies.

The U.S was determined to stop Communism from spreading.

President Eisenhower came up with a new policy that is known as the Domino Theory.

Eisenhower compared the nations as domino’s. If one nation fell to communism, so would the rest of the world.

The Geneva Accords

The Vietminh defeated the French, the final blow came in 1954. That year, the Vietminh conquered the large French outpost at Dien Bien Phu. Several countries got together to negotiate a cease fire between the two. They came up with the Geneva Accords. It split the country in two. The Vietminh controlled the North, and the French controlled the South.

In 1956 the country would hold an election to unify the country under one government.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The United States Steps In

The Northern part of Vietnam was controlled by Ho Chi Minh, the South was controlled by Ngo Dinh Diem. When the election came around Diem refused to take part, he thought that Ho would win. The US backed his decision and sent him aid. They hoped he would turn the South into a great independent nation. They were wrong he ended up being a horribly corrupt, and a terrible leader.

Who were the Vietcong?

By 1957, a rebel group had formed in the South. The group was known as the Vietcong. They fought against Diem’s rule. Ho Chi Minh supplied the arms through a system of paths that ran through North and South Vietnam. The trails became known as Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Kennedy became president after Eisenhower. He continued to support the South Vietnamese army. He didn’t want communism to spread anymore.

Unstable GovernmentDiem’s government was steadily growing unstable.

The Vietcong were gaining mass support from the peasants. The Kennedy administration decided that Diem had to step down. In 1963, military leaders overthrew Diem. Against Kennedy’s wishes, they executed him. Two months later in Dallas, Kennedy himself was assassinated. The war in Vietnam was now Lyndon Johnson’s problem.

South Vietnam didn’t improve after Diems death. A string of military leaders tried to rule, each failed. The US still sent support, the president was determined not to lose Vietnam to the communists.

President Johnson Expands the Conflict

In August 1964, Johnson received reports of an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam. A Northern patrol boat had allegedly fired torpedoes at a US destroyer. The President responded by bombing North Vietnam. He also asked Congress for special military powers to stop any future N. Vietnamese attacks on US forces. As a result Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

The resolution gave Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam. In February 1965 he used his power. He launched a major bombing attack on North Vietnam’s cities.

The French treated the Vietnamese very badly.

From the late 1800’s until WWII, France ruled Vietnam, as a result, the Vietnamese often rebelled.

A Communist Party was organized for many rebellions.

The groups leader was called “Ho Chi Minh”

In 1941, Japan conquered Vietnam. After that the Vietnamese Communists formed with other groups to form an organization called “Vietminh”.

Their goal was to achieve independence from Vietnam.

In 1945, Japan was defeated.

The Japanese left Vietnam as the result.

France wanted to retake control of Vietnam, so the French troops moved back into the country.

For the next 8 years the 2 sides fought for control of Vietnam.

o The Ngo Dinh Diem led south Vietnam. When it was time for the all-country election, Diem refused to take part.

o They feared that Ho would win, then all of Vietnam would become Communist.

o The U.S supported their decision. We provided aid to Diem.

o America was in hopes that the Diem could turn Vietnam into an independent, strong, well-preserved nation.

o Diem turned out to be a horrible leader. o By 1957 a new rebel group was formed in the south.

This group was known as the Vietcong.o This group was made to fight against Diem’s rule.

vietnam• The war in Vietnam was a very sad

event. Many men lost their lives to fight for the freedoms of others.

• Thousands of men died for us that day. They are all now remembered on the wall in Washington D.C.

Famous picture taken a Kent State University

Demonstrations

Who supported Johnson’s decision to send U.S. troops to Vietnam?

• There was a split opinion with Johnson’s advisors on the idea of War in Vietnam

• Those that opposed the decision, felt that it would be too dangerous

• Supporters of sending troops in, included Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

and Secretary of State Dean Rusk

• These two along with other supporters—the public opinion—felt America had to

defeat communism in Vietnam.

• Johnson first sent troops to Vietnam in 1965

• By the end of 1965, there was more than 180,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam

• William Westmoreland, pictured in background, was the American commander in

Vietnam

• Westmoreland asked for more and more troops and by 1967, almost 500,000 American

soldiers were fighting in Vietnam

Why did the war drag on?

• The U.S. believed they would have a quick victory over the

Vietcong

• This, in reality, never happened

• 3 factors caused the war to drag on and on

• The Vietcong’s fighting style was the first factor of this long

war

• Due to their weaponry, the Vietcong used hit-and-run

ambush tactics.

• With these tactics, the Vietcong struck quickly in small groups

then disappeared into the jungle or a system of tunnels

• All of these tactics frustrated the American troops

• Su Tu choi de giao nop, or refusal to surrender in vietnamese, is the second factor contributing to

this long war

• Though the Vietcong suffered many deaths, they refused to give

up

• Throughout the war, U.S. troops could not win support from the

peasants

• This lack of support was brought about

through the American troops hurting the

peasants while fighting the Vietcong.

• The U.S. used several different tactics to fight the Vietcong, but at the same time these hurt the

peasants

• Napalm was one of these. This was a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle.

• Agent Orange was also used. This was a leaf-killing chemical that destroyed the landscape.

• Search-and-Destroy missions were also conducted, in which soldiers came and destroyed

villages they thought supported the Vietcong

How did the war affect Johnson’s domestic

programs?

• Not only did the number of troops in Vietnam began to increase, but the war cost went up as

well

• This caused the nation’s economy to suffer

• Inflation greatly increased. In 1960 the rate remained at 2 percent, but by 1969 it had

nearly tripled

• The cost of the war became so great that he had to take a $6 billion reduction in funding for Great Society programs, to help fund the war.

• By 1967, a majority of Americans still supported the war

• Vietnam became America’s first “living-room war,” in which footage of combat appeared nightly

on news

• With this living-room war, Johnson was telling the public that the war was going well

• This led to a credibility gap in the Johnson administration. This is where a number of people

didn’t believe what the president was saying.

Protests against Vietnam

Working Class AmericaMost soldiers in Vietnam were drafted

• People were so against the war that they tried to avoid the draft.

• Most would attend a university, they were mostly white and wealthy, so majority of the soldiers were lower class whites or minorities.

• 80 percent of American soldiers came from lower economic levels, that’s why it was known as the working class war.

• Early on in the war high numbers of African Americans were killed 20 percent of them.

• This caused protests and the civil rights movements.• Women were not allowed to serve in combat. Nearly 7,500

women served in Vietnam as army and navy nurses. Thousands more volunteered in the American Red Cross and the United Organization which provided entertainment for the troops States

The American College students became politically activeThe growing youth movement in the 1960’s known as the New LeftThey didn’t call for socialism just for a change in American SocietyStudents for a democratic society called for greater individual freedom in AmericaThe free speech movement became a issue between the administrators and students, They criticized the government and business institutions.They soon found that they could protest one issue and that was the Vietnam War

The Roots of Opposition

The protest Movement emeges

• Across America many college students began to protest against the war

• The most common reason was that the war was a civil war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, thus the united states had no reason to be there.

• Others believed it made America focus more on other places of the world

• They also thought it was morally unjust

• Musicians took up the anti-war cause and made many protest songs.

• The anti war movement reached past college campus’s

War Divides the Nation

Those who were strongly against the war and wanted the United States to withdraw from the war were known as doves.Those who were just as against but thought they should stay and unleash more military power were known as hawksDespite all of the anti war protesting in 1967 majority of the U.S was still committed to the war.

Hawks & Doves

• Hawks supported the war and wanted the United States to finish and Win the War.

• Doves however wanted to withdraw from the war and wanted the war to end. They called for peace.

• Many Americans took no stand on the war. However they did criticized the doves for protesting a war that U.S. Troops were fighting and dying in.

1968: A Tumultuous Year

The Tet Offensive Turns the War

• The Vietnamese equivalent to New Years.• Took place on January 30th • Rebels ended up launching a massive attack on nearly

one hundred towns and cities in South Vietnam, and twelve US air bases.

• These attacks were known as the Tet offensive.• After about a month of enduring attacks the U.S. and

South Vietnamese forces regained control of the cities.

1968 The Tet Offensive

Aftermath of the Tet Offensive

• General Westmoreland declared that the Tet Offensive was a major defeat for the Vietcong.

• He was right, at least from a military stand point.• Vietcong lost about 32,000 soldiers while the United States

and South Vietnam Combined only lost about 3,000 soldiers.• The Tet Offensive shattered America’s confidence in the war,

it seemed as if the enemy was everywhere.• Many Americans began to think the war was unwinnable.• It hurt president Johnson’s popularity.• The presidents secretary of defense Clark Clifford decided

that America could no longer win the war.• Nearly half of the country said it was a mistake sending troops

into Vietnam.

Days of Loss and Rage

• Even before the Tet offensive an anitwar group in the Democratic Party had taken steps to unseat Johnson.

• The group looked for someone to challenge Johnson in the 1968 primary election, they asked the senator from New York, Robert Kennedy. Kennedy declined.

• The Minnesota senator agreed, Eugene McCarthy. He would run on a platform to the end of the Vietnam war.

• McCarthy surprised many people by nearly beating Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.

• Suddenly Johnson appeared politically weak, so as a result Robert Kennedy declared himself a candidate for President.

• Now the Democratic party was badly divided.

Cont’d

• President Johnson decided to address the nation on television and announce that he would seek peace in Vietnam.

• The country was shocked when Johnson then announced that he would not seek reelection as president.

More Events that Shocked the Nation

• On April 4th, a gunman killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.• Two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert

Kennedy was also assassinated.• Meanwhile antiwar protests continued to rock college campuses.• During the first six months of 1968 almost 40,000 students on more

than 100 college campuses held demonstrations.

A Turbulent Race for President

• In August 1968, the Democrats met in Chicago for their presidential convention.

• There a presidential candidate would be chosen.• Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was chosen.• This angered many antiwar activists because they

favored McCarthy.• About 10,000 antiwar protesters went to Chicago; some

wanted to pressure the Democrats to create an antiwar platform, some wanted to voice they’re opposition to Humphrey, and some just wanted to create violence to discredit the Democratic Party.

What Happened in Chicago

• Violence eventually erupted at a downtown park away from the convention hall.

• Police moved in on thousands of demonstrators with mace and nightsticks.

• Many of the protestors fled, but some fought back.• This violence highlighted the democrats division.• The republicans were much more unified, so former

Vice-President Richard Nixon was nominated for president.

Vietnamization

The Nixon Campaign

• Nixon campaigned on a platform of law and order.• He assure the American people that he would end the

Vietnam war.• Nixon’s campaign was helped by the entry of a third-

party candidate, George Wallace.• Wallace took many democratic votes away from

Humphrey.• In November, Nixon won the election.• It was now up to him to resolve the crisis in Vietnam.

U.S. History

The End of the War and its legacy.

• Nixon's plan to end the war was Vietnamization

• Which was to gradually bring home troops and have south Vietnamese

•Over three years troops began to drop.

•By August of 1969 the first 25000 troops came home.

•But Nixon didn’t want to lose

•Nixon pulled as many troops out as possible

•Ordered a massive bombing against North Vietnam

•Also Laos and Cambodia for suspicion of helping the North

•November of 1969 Americans learned that more then 100 unarmed Vietnamese in My Lai was massacred by the U.S. troops

•In April of 1970 Nixon announced that troops have been sent to invade Cambodia

•Congress was angry and repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Gave the president freedom to conduct war policy

•A protest at Kent State Ohio Turned tragic.

•To restore order the National Guard was called.

•Students began to throw rocks and what ever they can get a hold of.

•Guards became afraid and fires where shot 4 students where killed.

•Nixon believed the war had to end so he called to Henry Kissinger the adviser for national security affairs

•Kissinger settled a peace treaty with the North Vietnamese.

•On October 1972 He announced the peace was close at hand.

•A month later Nixon was reelected.

•How ever the south didn’t agree and the north didn’t keep there promise.

•Nixon responded by ordering more bombing against the North.

•In January 1973 the warring parties signed a peace agreement.

•By the end of March the last U.S. troop left and the was over.

•The affect of the war was big for both sides.

•58,000 Americans died in Vietnam and 365,000 were wounded.

•Vietnamese deaths of troops where 1.5 Million

•In Cambodia a communist group took over in 1975 the Khmer Rouge

•They killed Government officials and intellectuals and believed to have killed more then 2 million Cambodians.

•November of 1973, Congress passed War Power Act.

•Prevented the president from committing troops in a foreign conflict without approval from Congress.

•The war lead Americans to mistrust their Government and willing to become evolved in foreign wars.