The Vietnam War: 1968

Mid 1960s Review

• Civil rights strife: assassination of Macolm X; SNCC, Black Panthers

• LBJ's first election, 1964• LBJ’s Great Society

programs extended JFK’s New Frontier: War on Poverty, Medicare, Medicaid

• LBJ's policy of escalation in Vietnam, 1965-1968

• American justification for intervention: "Aggression from the North"

1967 “Vietnam Summer”

• 1967: "Vietnam Summer"• US involvement reached

550,000-troop presence• Generational split

– Elder generation supported use of force to prevent the spread of communist threat

– Younger generation believed "threat" to be of too little consequence to justify their participation in war. 41% of pop was under 20.

1967 Student Protests• Martin Luther King, Jr.: billions

spent in Vietnam could be better spent combating domestic poverty

• US society wrenched by racial tension and movement for racial equality

• Marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs accepted by "counter culture," especially in SF Bay Area

• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) focused in UC Berkeley: speeches, demonstrations, folk music, “teach-ins”

• October 1967: protestors raised Vietcong flag on Pentagon flagstaff, burned draft cards

Vietnam Troop LevelsSource: Congressional Quarterlies

1960 900

1961 3,200

1962 11,300

1963 16,300

1964 23,300

1965 184,300

1966 385,300

1967 485,600

1968 536,100

1969 475,200

1970 334,600

1971 156,800

1972 24,200

Into the 1968 Election• Eugene McCarthy, Democrat from

Minnesota: immediate withdrawal from Vietnam

• New Hampshire primary: McCarthy received 42%; Johnson 49%

• Bobby Kennedy entered Democratic race four days later

• Tet Offensive: January-September• General Westmoreland's Appraisal

of the 1968 Tet Offensive– further escalation of troop

commitment needed to "win" the war

– invasions of Cambodia and Laos were necessary

– invasion of North Vietnam necessary

– cost should increase from 17b to 27b yearly taxes would have to be raised

Assassinations

• MLK– April 4, 1968 in Memphis– Race riots erupted across US– Johnson declared April 9

national day of mourning– 2 months later, James Earl Ray

captured in UK, confessed, but later retracted confession

• Bobby Kennedy– June 4, 1968 in L.A.– Had been leading Demo-cratic

primary race– Hubert Humphrey won primary,

and lost to Nixon

1968 Democratic Convention• After appraisal of the Tet Offensive,

Johnson announced – his decision to withdraw from the

presidential campaign– Cessation of bombing north of 19th

parallel– hope for immediate peace talks with

Ho Chi-minh• Chicago Democratic Convention

– Democratic incumbent withdrawn– Pro-McCarthy Student

demonstrations and police clash televised

– Failure to convince moderate Democrats

• Republican challenger: Richard M. Nixon, Republican from California– Campaigned against Kennedy in

1960– "End the War and Win the Peace"

1968 Election Illustrated…• Public perceived US policy in

Vietnam as a failure• Public opinion changed policy

in Vietnam• Huge generational gap in

opinion about government and war

• Public’s perception of the Cold War had changed

• Heightened responsiveness of president to American popular opinion

• US public changed morality regarding foreign policy: foreign intervention might not be justified