Chapter 29, Section 3

“The Vietnam War Ends”Antiwar Poster

A Growing Antiwar Movement• as the war escalated in

the mid-1960’s antiwar feelings grew

• college students made up a large and vocal group that opposed the war

• middle and upper class youths avoided the draft by going to college or getting released for medical or religious beliefs

270 walked out of graduation ceremonies at New York University (NYU) to protest the presentation of an honorary degree to Robert McNamara, then the Secretary of Defense and responsible for U.S. forces waging war in Vietnam.

Student Protesters• Students for a Democratic

Society – the largest and most influential radical student organization of the 1960s that grew with the escalation of the Vietnam War

• Hippies – as they became frustrated when the war lingered on, these young people chose to drop out of mainstream society and build a counterculture based on individual freedom, non-violence, and communal sharing

University of Wisconsin Protests

Protests were not uncommon on the UW-Madison campus well before the first violent one in October of 1967. Here, a May 1966 rally drew 6,000 students to Bascom Hall to hear the university chancellor promise a review of the university's cooperation with the Selective Service draft. The Selective Service had announced that draft deferments would be based on academic performance.

Anti-war demonstrators jam a corridor in Bascom Hall at UW-Madison in February 1967, the first protest against Dow Chemical Co.'s recruiting efforts.

When UW-Madison students tried to prevent Dow Chemical, manufacturer of napalm, from recruiting on campus in October of 1967 the Madison police were called in. They used tear gas and billy clubs to break up the protests.

Bascom Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1968, with crosses placed on the hill by students protesting the Vietnam war, and a sign saying:

"BASCOM MEMORIAL CEMETERY, CLASS OF 1968"

In 1970, radicals bombed Sterling Hall on the Madison campus, which housed the Army Math Research Center, killing a student and, as a result, hastening an end to anti-war protests on campus.

A Growing Antiwar Movement• an disproportionately high

numbers of African Americans fought in the war

• antiwar movement linked to the civil rights movement (leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out against the war)

• doves – those who opposed the war

• hawks – those who were in favor of the war

Nation's top Negro athletes gather to hear Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) give his reasons for rejecting the draft, June 4, 1967 (Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

"No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder, kill, and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slave-masters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end." —Muhammad Ali

The “Television War”

When news anchor Walter Cronkite came out against the war President Johnson said “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I have lost middle America.” (1968)

• The Vietnam War was the first U.S. war that was televised.

• Americans could watch events in Vietnam, and they were shocked by what they saw.

• The coverage of the Tet Offensive in particular turned many against the war, as they saw it as un-winnable.

Presidential Election of 1968

• Eugene McCarthy ran against President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President and nearly won the first primary (New Hampshire) running an anti-war campaign

• Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election

• Robert Kennedy, the favorite to be the Democratic Party candidate for president, was assassinated after winning the California primary election

• Hubert Humphrey (Johnson’s Vice-President) won the Democratic nomination for President while war protesters outside the convention hall in Chicago were clubbed by police

Richard Nixon – • He vowed to end the

chaos here in the U.S. and the war in Vietnam

• He won the Republican nomination for president

• He then won the 1968 Presidential Election over Humphrey by a large margin

Richard Nixon on the campaign trail in 1968

Nixon’s Vietnam Strategy• Vietnamization –

Nixon’s strategy in 1969 calling for gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and turning the fighting over to the South Vietnamese

• Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia to stop N. Vietnam from moving troops and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail there

President Nixon explains to the nation why we need to expand the war into Cambodia

Kent State Kent State shootings – on

May 1-4, 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio antiwar demonstrations were held (the first was held in response to Nixon’s widening the war into Cambodia)The Ohio Governor called in National Guard troops, who used tear gas on the crowds and on May 4th they opened fire on students killing 4

(1) On Friday, May 1st an antiwar protest began in response to Pres. Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia, and that night there

were several incidents involving violence and the police

(2) On May 2nd another antiwar protest led to the burning down of the ROTC building on campus (which was very old and scheduled to

be demolished anyway)

(3) On Sunday, May 3, approximately 1,000 National Guard soldiers were on campus. Some students helped clean up

damage from the previous night's activities, but other students continued to hold protests. The soldiers continued to

break up these demonstrations, including threatening students with bayonets.

(4) On Monday, May 4th classes resumed and another antiwar protest was scheduled for

noon; National Guardsmen above prepare to march on campus toward the protest

(5) the soldiers move in toward students

(6) Tear gas is used on the students, and some of the protestors threw the tear gas canisters, along with

rocks back at the soldiers

(7) Students run for cover as the National Guardsmen start firing, and four students are killed

• Pentagon Papers – documents released in 1971 to the New York Times that showed that presidents prior to Nixon were not honest about U.S. involvement and goals in Vietnam, which made Americans question their govt. and leaders even more

• Democratic candidate for President in 1972, George McGovern, was a outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War

• Nixon needed to make good on his promise to end the war fast to win re-election

Withdrawal from Vietnam• promising peace was at hand

right before the election, Nixon won re-election in 1972 in a landslide

• U.S. and S. Vietnam signed a peace agreement with N. Vietnam and the Viet Cong that ended the war in January, 1973

• civil war between Vietcong and South Vietnam’s govt. continued shortly after US troops left

• in 1975 N. Vietnam invaded and conquered S. Vietnam unifying the nation under communism

U.S. National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger (right) shaking hands with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho in Paris after their agreement on the cease-fire terms of the Vietnam War, 1973.

Legacy of the Vietnam War

• the war destroyed Vietnam’s landscape and economy, and over 1.2 million Vietnamese soldiers died (2 mill. civilians)

• after Vietnam was reunited under communism many Vietnamese from the south fled to the U.S.

• 58,000 U.S. soldiers died; over 300,000 were wounded

• returning soldiers often suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder which had symptoms like recurring nightmares, depression, fatigue, and flashbacks

Most soldiers who returned from the war were not welcomed home like soldiers from previous wars, and many took part in antiwar protests

• 26th Amendment – lowered the voting age from 21 to 18

• govt. ended the draft in 1973 as so many people were opposed to it

• War Powers Act – limits the president’s war-making powers– President must report to

Congress in 48 hours if troops are used

– President needs Congress’ approval to use troops for more than 90 days

• war made many Americans mistrust their govt.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial unveiled in Washington DC in 1982