Draft Offenses

Burning draft cards, moving to Canada

More than 200,000 men accused Nearly 4000 imprisoned About 10,000 fled to Canada

Doves & Hawks

Doves – opposed war and wanted U.S. to withdraw the troops

Hawks – U.S. should use all it’s military might to win the war

December 1967 – 70% of Americans believed war protests were “acts of disloyalty”

1968 Turmoil

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. – April in Memphis, Tennessee

Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy – June in California

Violence between the police &

anti-war demonstrators at the

Democratic National Convention

in Chicago

Tet Tet is the Vietnamese New Year Vietcong & North Vietnamese army

launch a surprise attack on numerous cities

A truce had been proclaimed for the week and villagers streamed into the cities to celebrate

Many funerals were being held for the war dead The coffins contained weapons and most of the villagers were Vietcong

Tet Offensive

Even attacked U.S. embassy in Saigon and 12 U.S. air force bases

After about a month the U.S. and South Vietnamese regained control

Vietcong lost about 32,000 and Americans & ARVN lost about 3,000

However the public no longer believed the U.S. was close to victory – major political loss

Tet Aftermath

Before Tet – Only 28% of American public opposed the war 56% of Americans supported the war

After Tet 40% opposed 40% supported

Walter Cronkite told the public, it seemed “more certain now than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.”

Robert McNamara resigned as Secretary of Defense

Primaries of 1968

Even before Tet, anti-war Democrats were encouraging, Robert Kennedy to run against President Johnson but he declined

• Senator Eugene McCarthy chose to run against Johnson

Democratic Convention

Eugene McCarthy vs. Hubert Humphrey (V.P.) Robert Kennedy, the early leader had been

assassinated after winning the California primary

100,000 war protesters showed up in Chicago Many didn’t like Humphrey who they felt would

continue Johnson’s policies

Yippies

Members of the Youth International Party – hoping to provoke violence and discredit the Democratic Party

Yippies oppose loss of civil rights in Vietnam such as this execution without trial

Violence

12,000 police & 5,000 National Guard called on by Mayor Richard Daley to maintain order

As delegates cast votes for Humphrey, protesters gathered in a downtown park to march to the convention

With television cameras rolling, police used mace and nightsticks

Protesters fled but some threw rocks and bottles at the police

The riot spilled into the streets

Election of 1968

Democrat Hubert Humphrey Republican Richard Nixon Independent George Wallace – former

Alabama governor and champion of segregation. He was shot and paralyzed during the next presidential campaign in 1972

In the end, Nixon won He promised to restore law & order and to end the war in Vietnam

War under Nixon

Their plan was called Vietnamization Gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops South Vietnamese take a larger role in combat By August 1969, the first 25,000 American soldiers

came home Over the next three years the number of troops went

from more than 500,000 to fewer than 25,000

• National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger – expert on international relations – 3 degrees from Harvard - was Nixon’s top advisor

Nixon & Kissinger

“peace with honor” – maintain U.S. dignity Preserve U.S. power in negotiations Appealed to mainstream “silent majority” of

Americans who supported U.S. efforts in Vietnam

My Lai Massacre

November 1969 – New York Times correspondent Seymour Hirsch reports on the massacre of innocent civilians in the small village of My Lai

Lt. William Calley led the troops and ordered the village destroyed because he believed it was harboring Vietcong

Finding no Vietcong, the military rounded up about 200 civilians and shot them

“I poured about four clips into the group…The mothers was hugging their children…Well, we kept right on firing.”

Troops insisted they were just following orders and when asked what

those orders were one replied,

“Kill anything that breathed”

Invasion of Cambodia

April 30, 1970 – Nixon announces that US troops invaded Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese and Vietcong supply centers

This led to a fresh round of protests on college campuses First strike of college students 1.5 million students closed

down 1,200 campuses

Kent State – May 4, 1970

Students burn ROTC building and mayor brings in the National Guard

Two days later while students are crossing between classes, the National Guard fires on the students

4 Killed – one shot in back, one just going to class

9 wounded

“Ohio”Crosby Stills Nash & Young

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drummin'.Four dead in Ohio.

(chorus) Gotta get down to it.Soldiers are cutting us down.Should have been done long ago.What if you knew her andFound her dead on the ground?How can you run when you know?

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.

(chorus)

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drummin'.Four dead in Ohio. (9X)

Jackson State – May 14, 1970

All-black college in Mississippi National Guardsmen confront antiwar

demonstrators and fired on the crowd 2 killed 12 wounded

Pentagon Papers

Former Defense Dept. worker Daniel Ellsberg leaked a 7,000 page document written by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1967-68

Revealed plans for entering the war started while LBJ was promising not to send American troops to Vietnam

No plan to end the war as long as North Vietnam persisted

Government was lying about the war to the people

Peace Negotiations

Henry Kissinger & Le Duc Tho were secretly negotiating starting in 1969

Nixon is reelected in 1972 Talks end in December 1972

Christmas Bombings

Hanoi & Haiphong – 2 largest cities in North Vietnam U.S. planes dropped 100,000 bombs over 11 straight

days – pausing only on Christmas Day

Parties return to the peace table January 27, 1973 sign an agreement to end the war –

Nixon agrees to withdraw and allow North Vietnamese troops to stay in the South

March 1975

Within months of the cease-fire, the fighting resumes

March 1975 – North Vietnam launches a full-scale invasion of the South

America provides economic aid but no troops

Fall of Saigon – Renamed Ho Chi Minh City

April 30, 1975 – tanks roll into the city

Toll of the War

58,000 Americans killed 303,000 Americans

woundedd Over 2 million Vietnamese

dead

Veterans

Nation as a whole turned its back on returning veterans

Many faced hostility from those upset over the war

About 15% suffered from PTSD Others turned to drugs or alcohol Several thousand committed suicide

1982

Boat People

Communists imprisoned over 400,000 people in “re-education” camps or labor camps

1.5 million fled Vietnam – citizens who had supported the U.S., business owners

Many boat people met tragedy on the South China Sea and nearly 50,000 died of exposure, drowning or piracy

Cambodia – Khmer Rouge – Pol Pot

U.S. invasion led to civil war By 1975 Pol Pot seized power

using his military group the Khmer Rouge

Massive executions “Re-education” camps –

wanted to rid country of professionals and educated – wanted a peasant society

At least 1 million killed

War Powers Act

A president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war

Troops may remain there no longer than 90 days unless Congress approves the president’s actions or declares war

Vietnam Legacy

Overall cynicism among Americans about the government and political leaders

Suspicious of misleading information from government

Suspicious of

government conducting

secret activities