Transcript Vietnam PPT - Pascack Valley Regional High School District

Objective: To examine the causes and effects of the Vietnam War.
The Two Vietnams
· Vietnam, a former French
colony, was divided into two
sections in 1954.
· North Vietnam, led by
Ho Chi Minh, was
communist and backed
by the Soviet Union.
· South Vietnam, led by
Ngo Dinh Diem, was
democratic and backed
by the U.S.
When did the 60’s begin…who was
the “poet laureate”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6
_RV4VQ
What do we need to help us understand
Vietnam and the US?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=m5WJJVSE_BE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=uXnJVkEX8O4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=gp5JCrSXkJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=3W7-ngmO_p8
South Vietnamese paratroopers jump from U.S. Air Force
transports in an air assault against the Viet Cong, March
1963
Growing American Involvement
· The U.S. believed that if South Vietnam fell to the
communists, the rest of the nations in Southeast Asia would as
well in a theory called the domino theory.
Lyndon B. Johnson
• Lyndon Johnson served as the 37th
President of the United States (19631969)
• Johnson would succeed the presidency
following the assassination of John F.
Kennedy
• Johnson completed Kennedy’s term, and
then was elected in the 1964 election.
Johnson Domestic Policy
• Johnson was responsible for designing his
“Great Society” legislation.
• This included laws that upheld civil rights,
Medicare, Medicaid, environmental
protection, and aid to education.
• Also his War on Poverty, legislation that
was introduced as a response to the
national poverty rate of near 20% in the
United States
Johnson
• Shortly before his death Kennedy had
announced his intent to withdraw US forces from
South Vietnam.
• “In the final analysis, it’s their war” he declared.
• Whether Kennedy would have in fact withdrawn
from Vietnam remains a matter of debate.
• Johnson would escalate the nation’s role in
Vietnam and would lead the US into what would
become America’s longest war.
War under Johnson
• When Lyndon Johnson took over the
presidency Vietnam was not a priority.
• The decision in the early months of his
presidency was to hold it down and delay
decisions.
• Too many other things took primacy over
it, including Johnson’s Great Society, and
War on Poverty.
• Things would however change in 1964
Robert McNamara
• McNamara was one of the most forceful figures
of the Johnson Administration on Vietnam.
• Was a business executive and was the
Secretary of defense under the Kennedy and
Johnson administrations.
• McNamara would be extremely influential in
escalating the United States involvement in the
Vietnam War.
• Distressed about what he saw in Vietnam he
formulated covert operations against the North
known as 34A. He would also be instrumental in
presenting the Gulf of Tonkin crisis to Congress.
Robert McNamara
• Robert McNamara:
“We seek an independent on Communist South Vietnam.
We do not require that it serve as a Western base or as
a member of a Western Alliance. South Vietnam must be
free, however, to accept outside assistance as required
to maintain its security. This assistance should be able to
take the form not only of economic and social measures
but also police and military help to root out and control
insurgent elements. Unless we can achieve this
objective in South Vietnam, almost all of Southeast Asia
will probably fall under Communist dominance. “
Dean Rusk
• United States Secretary of State under the
Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.
• Rusk along with McNamara and Bundy
would help escalate American involvement
in the Vietnam War.
Rusk, LBJ, McNamara
USS Maddox
USS Maddox
• In 1964 the war in Vietnam was not going well
for the South, and the United States sent the
USS Maddox, an American destroyer, to
provoke the North Vietnamese radar in the Gulf
of Tonkin.
• Using expensive and sophisticated equipment,
the Maddox could simulate an attack on the
North, thus forcing the Chinese Communists and
the North Vietnamese to turn on their radar.
• This time the Americans could pinpoint where
the other side’s radar installations were located.
Maddox Cont…
• On August 2 the Maddox sighted three North
Vietnamese PT boats, was attacked by them, and
destroyed one.
• Robert McNamara would claim that the Maddox was
attacked when she was thirty miles from the North
Vietnamese coast. In truth the attacked began when the
Maddox was thirteen miles from a North Vietnamese
island.
• Out of this, and a subsequent incident was to come the
Tonkin Gulf incident, the first bombing of the North, and
almost immediately the Tonkin Resolution.
• But in particular, out of all this would come the sense
that we had been attacked, and we were the victims.
Maddox Continued
• The next day the Maddox was sent back into the
same dangerous waters as a sign that the
United States would not back down.
• Almost immediately the North Vietnamese
appeared to challenge them, in what would
become the second Tonkin incident.
• Whether there had been an attack was
somewhat unclear (in fact, much of the Tonkin
Gulf controversy centered around whether or not
an attack really took place )
On Aug. 4, 1964, Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara
reported to Pres. Johnson
that an American destroyer
in the region was under
torpedo attack by the North
Vietnamese. That brief
conversation was the tipping
point for the entire Vietnam
War.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• In response to the attacks on the
Maddox Congress passed the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on
August 7, 1964.
• The resolution gave the President
the authorization, without a formal
declaration of war by Congress,
to use military force in Southeast
Asia.
• Although we call it the Vietnam
war, war was never actually
declared by Congress.
• Through this resolution the
Johnson administration escalated
the US involvement in Vietnam
from just advisors, to actual
military forces.
Challenge Time:
• Go to the Historical
Newspapers Database—
Find an article on the Gulf
of Tonkin Incident
• Be prepared to identify what
newspaper the article is from
and what the key points of the
article are.
· By 1968,
over half a
million
Americans
were
fighting in
the
Vietnam
War.
· As the fighting escalated, the U.S. relied on the draft for
raising troops.
The War (or was it?)
• The United States entered the war in Vietnam
believing that its superior weaponry would lead it
to victory over the Vietcong.
• However, the jungle terrain and the enemy's
guerrilla tactics soon turned the war into a
frustrating stalemate.
• Adding to the enemy’s elusiveness was a
network of elaborate tunnels that allowed the
Vietcong to launch surprise attacks on American
soldiers and then disappear quickly.
• Of the 2.7 million Americans that served in
the Vietnam war…
• 300,000 were wounded in action
• 75,000 were disabled
• Of the casualties listed on The Wall,
approximately 1,300 remain missing in
action
• 58,129 were killed
• The average age was 19
Vietnamese Losses
• On the Vietnamese side it is
estimated…
• 1.1 million North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong (Southern resistance
soldiers) were killed
• Over 2 million North and South
Vietnamese citizens were killed
McNamara
• Defense Secretary Robert McNamara
confessed his early frustration over the
Vietcong’s resilience to a reporter in 1966.
• “I didn’t think these people had the
capacity to fight this way. If I had thought
they would take this punishment and fight
this well,…I would have thought differently
at the start.”
• in spite of ongoing escalation
throughout the 1960s, the US
experienced a lack of success
against the Vietnamese
guerrilla forces in S.
Vietnam (the Vietcong) as the
US Army was unprepared for
their tactics and mentality
 The US was also never entirely
successful in shutting
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a
supply line that ran between
North and South Vietnam via
difficult jungle terrain,
often underground and
through neighboring nations
like Cambodia
Video Clip: Platoon
The Uncertain Enemy
· Jungle warfare was
difficult, and it was hard to
locate the enemy.
· In addition, it was very
difficult to identify which
South Vietnamese were our
allies and which were
supporting the Vietcong.
Ex Vietcong showing secret
tunnels, November 7, 2004
Working Class War
• Because many middle class and upper class
American youths were able through college and
other means to avoid military service, most of
the soldiers who fought in Vietnam were from
the lower economic classes of American society.
• Many soldiers who fought in Vietnam were
drafted into combat under the country’s
Selective Service System.
• Under this system, which had been established
in the 1940s during World War II, all males had
to register with their local draft boards when they
turned 18.
The Draft
• Draft Boards
• Muhammad Ali
• Lottery
– Fairness?
African Americans and Women in
Vietnam
• African Americans served in disproportionate numbers in
ground combat troops. During the first several years of
the war, blacks ccounted for more than 20 percent of
American combat deaths despite representing only
about ten percent of the U.S. population.
• Many African Americans experienced the same racism in
Vietnam that they endured at home. Throughout the war
racial tensions between white and black soldiers ran high
in many platoons.
• In some cases, the hostility led to violence. In 1967, a
race riot erupted at the US Army stockade at Long Binh,
Vietnam.
Women
• While the US military in the 1960s did not
allow females to serve in combat, nearly
7,500 women served in Vietnam as army
and navy nurses.
• Thousands more volunteered their
services in Vietnam to the American Red
Cross and the United States Organization,
which delivered hospitality and
entertainment to the troops.
The Tet Offensive:
A Turning Point
· In January of 1968, the
Vietcong launched
surprise attacks on cities
throughout South Vietnam.
· The American embassy
was attacked as well in the
South Vietnamese capital
of Saigon.
· The attacks were known as the Tet Offensive because they
occurred during Tet, the Vietnamese News Year’s holiday.
· The Tet Offensive proved to the world that no part of South
Vietnam was safe, even with the presence of half a million
American troops.
The Tet Offensive: An Audio Description by NPR
• Cronkite and Johnson
• Who was Cronkite---CBS---Respected
Play
Video
What was Johnson’s quote about Cronkite?
“If I’ve lost Johnson, I’ve
lost (…the
country...America).”
After Tet
Results: US “military” victory?
Demonstrated that no part of South Vietnam
was safe from attack
Caused many Americans to question whether or
not the war in Vietnam could be won
“The enemy is close to defeat”
Widening of the Johnson Credibility Gap
Media openly criticized the war
LBJ Challenged by Eugene
McCarthy & Bobby Kennedy
LBJ will not run in 1968
Will negotiate w/North Vietnam
LBJ and Vietnam
March 1968-Johnson announces he will not seek
reelection.
1968 60% Americans disapprove of his handling of
the war
US will seek negotiations to end the war
US policy of escalation would end
Bombing would eventually cease
Steps would be taken to ensure that the South
Vietnamese played a larger role in the war
A Viet Cong base camp burns as Pfc. Raymond Rumpa of St.
Paul, Minnesota, walks away with his 45-pound 90mm rifle
in My Tho, Vietnam, April 1968
Tet and TV
• the war definitely turned against
the US in 1968, when the NVA’s
General Giap began the Tet
Offensive, a surprise offensive on
a major Vietnamese holiday that
saw attacks all over the country,
including in Saigon itself
• ongoing US casualties and losses
saw an increase in antiwar
sentiment on the American Home
Front,
in large part because Vietnam was
a TV War where American
audiences saw the brutality of war
firsthand
Televised War
• The horrors of war entered the living rooms of Americans
for the first time during the Vietnam War.
• American public could watch villages being destroyed,
Vietnamese children burning to death, and American
body bags being sent home.
• Though initial coverage generally supported U.S
involvement in the war, television news dramatically
changed its frame of the war after the Tet Offensive.
My Lai
• March, 1968
• Charlie Company 20th
Infantry Regiment enters the
village of My Lai
• Told Village full of Viet
Cong-go in “HOT”-no
civilians/innocents
• When the
shooting was
over, what did
they find?
My Lai
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/a
mericanexperience/featur
es/photo-gallery/mylaimassacre-evidence/
Exposed!
Seymour Hersh-New York TimesNovember, 1969-he is a???
Ron Haeberle Pictures-Cleveland
Plain Dealer-November, 1969-he is
a ???
Ronald
Ridenhour
Is a
????
My Lai
Lt. Calleywho is to
blame?
“Following
orders…”
Others? Captain
Medina
Do Nuremberg or
Tokyo Tribunals
apply?
Other members
of platoon?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperien
ce/films/mylai/
· Many South Vietnamese distrusted the leadership and joined
the Vietcong, a communist guerilla group supported by North
Vietnam.
But
these
were the
images
America
saw
An execution
of a Vietcong
prisoner Feb.
1, 1968
1968@Home
Chaos or Change?
April 4, 1968 MLK assassinated. Shot by James Earl Ray on the
balcony of hotel
June 6, 1968 RFK assassinated. Shot leaving a Las Vegas hotel
by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian immigrant who didn’t like
Kennedy’s support for Israel
Major college demonstrations targeting US involvement in
Vietnam
Columbia University-Students for a Democratic Society-SDSTakeover of President’s Office
Turmoil at Democratic National Convention
1968 Summer Olympics Boycott/Protest
Video
Protests at Home
· Thousands of Americans protested against the war, especially
on college campuses.
Video:
Country Joe
and the Fish,
Woodstock
Music Festival
(1969) 3:18
Anti-Vietnam
War protests,
Ohio State
University
Democratic Convention 1968
• Goal = select party nominee
– Eugene McCarthy (MN Senator)
– Robert Kennedy (NY Senator) (assassinated)
– Hubert Humphrey (Johnson’s VP)
• Description: antiwar protestors turned violent at
Chicago convention
– Protestors upset at selection of Humphrey as nominee
– Protestors wanted Democrats to adopt antiwar platform
– Police and protestors clashed (mace, beatings)
• Television cameras captured events
• “The Whole World is Watching!”
Chicago 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEFsBF1X1
ow Note-find the 2 errors in the video.
Bobby Seale-”so your brother’s
bound and gagged…”
YIPPIES--Not Hippies
• Youth International Party
• Abbie Hoffman (note the shirt-ask me about it)
• Jerry Rubin
•
•
•
•
Guerilla Politics
“Steal this Book”
Wall Street
1968 Democratic Convention
Other Contenders in 1968
Richard Nixon
•
Republican
•
Won the nomination at the
Republican National Convention
•
Chose Spiro Agnew as his
running mate
•
Appealed to the patriotism of
mainstream Americans
•
Promised “law and order”
•
Claimed to have a secret plan to
end the war “with honor”
•
Appeals to the “silent majority.”
George Wallace
•
Independent (former Democrat)
•
Former Alabama governor
•
Nominated by the American
Independent Party
•
Opposed the civil rights
movement and school
desegregation and war
protesters
•
Appealed to conservative
Democratic white southerners
and working class whites
Election of 1968
• Results: Democrats
perceived as chaotic and
disorganized
• Nominated Hubert
Humphrey-LBJ VP-reluctant
to denounce LBJ Policies
• Republicans win presidency
– Richard Nixon
Nixon
• Nixon would wins the Presidency in 1968.
• Announced a “secret plan” to end the war. Never
explained.
• Later he will begin what was known as Vietnamization.
• This was a plan for the gradual withdrawal of US troops
in order for the South Vietnamese to take on a more
active combat role in the war.
• Over the next three years the number of American
troops in Vietnam dropped from more than 500,000 to
less than 25,000.
• BUT….
· On May 4, 1970,
the Ohio National
Guard killed 4
anti-war protesters
at Kent State
University.
The protests were
a reaction to the
US expanding
military
operations into
Cambodia
This Pulitzer Prize winning photo shows Mary Ann Vecchio
screaming as she kneels over the body of student Jeffrey Miller at
Kent State University. National Guardsmen had fired into a
crowd of demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine.
“Ohio”
Crosby Stills Nash & Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68
g76j9VBvM
Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
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) Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you
know?
(chorus)
Tin soldiers and Nixon's
comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the
drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio. (9X)
Chemical Warfare?
• Over a ten-year period from 1961 to 1971 the US used an
estimated 77 million liters of herbicides as chemical
weapons for "defoliation and crop destruction" in Vietnam.
• Unable to control the Viet Minh's access to food supplies
or their grassroots village support, the US military
response was simple:
• Killing food crops was both a military strategy and - with
the procurement of tens of millions of liters of toxic
herbicides from US chemical companies - it was also a
very profitable business. Indeed, the notion of killing what
can't be controlled suited perfectly the logic of the agrochemical industry.
• The war also witnessed the usage of weapons like Napalm
and Agent Orange, which devastated the environment.
This Pulitzer Prize winning photograph is of Kim Phuc
Phan Thi, center, running down a road near after a napalm
bomb was dropped on her village by a plane of the Vietnam
Air Force. The village was suspected by US Army forces of
being a Viet Cong stronghold. Kim Phuc survived by tearing
off her burning clothes.
"Napalm is the most terrible pain you can imagine," said Kim Phuc.
“Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. Napalm generates temperatures of
800 to 1,200 degrees Celsius.“ Phuc sustained third-degree burns to half
her body and was not expected to live. Thanks to the assistance of South
Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, and after surviving a 14-month
hospital stay and 17 operations, Phuc eventually recovered.
Agent Orange
was the nickname
given to a
herbicide and
defoliant used by
the U.S. military
in its Herbicidal
Warfare program
during the
Vietnam War.
Cropdusting in
Vietnam during
Operation Ranch
Hand lasted from
1962 to 1971.
A guerrilla in the Mekong Delta paddles through a
mangrove forest defoliated by Agent Orange (1970).
Effects of Agent Orange
Images taken from Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Vietnam by
Philip Jones Griffiths
Agent Orange
Pentagon Papers
• In 1967-68, a group created by McNamara
created a study of US involvement and
decision-making in Vietnam.
• Daniel Ellsberg photocopies them and
releases to some Senators and the New
York Times.
Pentagon Papers-continued
• The papers show that LBJ systematically
lied to the public and the Congress about
the status and potential outcome of the
war.
• The New York Times starts to publish
these documents in installments (1 of 9)
Pentagon Papers-continued
• US goes to court to stop publication
• NY Times vs. US.
– Freedom of the Press-right to publish
• Ellsberg admits he released classified documents-prosecuted under
Espionage Age of 1917---remember that?
• Nixon’s group (ex-CIA) break in to Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office.
– Try to discredit Ellsberg
– The Plumbers---remember them!
• Charges dropped as “prosecution was infected,” Court rules
• Can we relate to today?
• Who was Bradley Manning?
Peace With Honor
Or
·
Peace Without Victory?
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho
In January 1973, the U.S. reached
a cease-fire agreement with North
Vietnam
and brought their troops
·
home.
However, the U.S. continued to
send billions of dollars in support
of the South Vietnamese.
· In April of 1975, the communists captured the South
Vietnamese capital of Saigon, renamed it Ho Chi Minh City,
and reunited Vietnam under one communist flag.
Video: People rush to leave Saigon as the city falls to the
Vietcong. April 30, 1975 (9 min.)
Civil War in
Cambodia
· The U.S. and
South
Vietnamese
began to secretly
bomb communist
bases in
Cambodia used
by the North
Vietnamese.
· Cambodia soon fought a civil war, which was won by the
communist Khmer Rouge in 1975, whereupon they changed
the name of the country to Kampuchea.
· The Khmer
Rouge were
brutal leaders,
killing
approximately
two million
people in just a
few short
years.
Cambodia: Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979 (2:55)
Vietnam Balance Sheet
· Between 1961 and 1973 over 58,000 Americans died in the
Vietnam War.
· During the same time
period, over 1,500,000
Vietnamese died as well.
Vietnam War Memorial,
Washington, D.C.
Veterans
• At first, rather than giving returning veterans of the war
welcoming parades, Americans seemed to shun the 2
million plus Americans who went to Vietnam.
• Virtually nothing was done to aid veterans and their
loved ones who needed assistance in adjusting.
• Then a torrent of fiction, films, and television programs
depicted Vietnam vets as drug crazed psychotic killers,
as vicious executioners in Vietnam and equally as
menaces at home.
• Not until after the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washing DC did American culture
acknowledge their sacrifice and suffering.
Two Different Views
Other Casualties of War
• POW’s
– Hanoi Hilton
– John McCain
• MIA’s-The silver bracelets
– 1,763
– according to Dept. of Defense (DOD)
– February, 2008
Lily Jean Lee Adams
• “In the bus terminal, people were staring at
me and giving me dirty looks. I expected
the people to smile, like, “Wow, she was in
Vietnam, doing something for her country
– wonderful.’ I felt like I had walked into
another country, not my country. So I went
into the ladies’ room and changed”
Vets Come Home
• Many Vietnam veterans readjusted
successfully to civilian life. However about
fifteen percent of the soldiers deployed
developed delayed stress syndrome.
• These veterans had recurring nightmares
about their war experience. Many began to
abuse drugs or alcohol and several
thousand would commit suicide.
• We now realize the effects of PTSD.
Then and Now
• By the mid-1960's, television was considered to be the
most important source of news for the American public,
and, possibly, the most powerful influence on public
opinion itself. Throughout the Korean War, the television
audience remained small.
• What is the impact of television on news today? In Iraq?
Afghanistan? Libya?
• Does Social Media play a role?
• Veterans---Vietnam vs. Afghanistan/Iraq
• Protesters---War vs. Troops
• Protest the war/support the troops.
Peter Paul & Mary
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgXNV
A9ngx8
Robert McNamara-the Final Word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMgjfNGI
O8A