Transcript vietnam_summary_pop_culture1

Born on the 4th of July
Based on the true story
of
Ron Kovic
The Vietnam
War
1945-1973
How did we get involved?
•America’s biggest fear…Communism will spread!
•Domino Theory
USSR China Korea Cuba
Vietnam??
U.S. EARLY Involvement
LBJ sends troops
1968
JFK sends advisors
Truman/Eisenhower
Sent $$
1965
Nixon withdraws troops
1975
Johnson and Vietnam
(1963-1968)
1963: Lyndon B. Johnson = President
LBJ has to decide:
Do we go to Vietnam? Or Withdraw Troops?
•Johnson decides to go to war = afraid it would
look like U.S. gave up, “soft on communism”
1964 Re-Election Year! 
Event U.S. Ship is attacked in the
Gulf of Tonkin (truth? Propaganda?)
As you watch:
PART ONE:
Answer the following.
1.) At first, how did American’s feel about our
nation’s involvement in Vietnam?
2.) Why did Ron Kovic volunteer for Vietnam?
3.) Describe what combat in Vietnam was like.
Fighting the Vietcong
Cu Chi Tunnel (Saigon)
130 Miles!
How can America tell if they are winning the battle?
•Westmoreland used body counts to prove the US
was winning.
How do we fight an enemy we can’t find?
* Search & Destroy = destroy everything, force
the Vietcong out of hiding.
But the Vietcong keep hiding in the jungle…
•Napalm = jelly gasoline bomb.
•Agent Orange = chemical pesticide that kills all
vegetation (plants)
The Living Room War = TMI
Vietnam is sometimes called the
“Living Room War”
Live coverage of the conflict was aired on TV nightly…
Once America saw how brutal the battle was…they
started to questions why America was in Vietnam.
I report to you
that our country
is challenged at
I'm tired.
homeI'm
andtired
of
feelingthat
rejected
abroad:
it is
Doing
what's
by
American
ourthe
will
thatright
is
isn't
the I'm
problem.
It is
people.
tired
being
tried
andof
knowing
right.
waking
up
in the
not
ourwhat's
strength;
middle
the night
our of
sense
of
worrying
the
purposeabout
and not
war. to
our ability
achieve a better
America.
As you watch:
PART TWO:
Answer the following.
1.) Describe how Vietnam Veterans were treated
when they came home?
2.) Why were they treated this way?
Use specific scenes from the film to support your
answer
As you watch:
PART THREE:
Answer the following.
1.) How does Ron Kovic’s views on Vietnam
change? Why are they changing?
As you watch:
PART Four:
Answer the following.
1.) What is the anti-war movement’s message?
Why do they protest the war and the US
government?
My Lai Massacre
(1968, but covered up until 1969)
Anti-War Protest outside
Democratic National Convention
1968
Kent State Shootings
How did it end?
After 17 years of involvement and 10 years of combat,
America signs peace treaty with N.V. (1973)
When we leave: North Vietnam invaded and took
over South Vietnam
Vietnam Today?
It has reunited
North & South
and is communist.
What happened Ron Kovic:
•This film is based on his best
"I wanted people to understand. I wanted to share with
selling
book.
He helped
write
them as nakedly and openly
and
intimately
as possible
what I had gone through,
I had endured.
I wanted
thewhat
dialogue
for the film.
them to know what it really meant to be in a war—to be
shot and wounded, to be fighting for my life on the
intensive care ward—not
the myth
we had grown
•Won
the Golden
Globeupfor
believing. I wanted people to know about the hospitals
“Bestwhy
Screen
Play” Jan
20,
and the enema room, about
I had become
opposed
to the war, why I had grown
moreafter
committed
to
1990more
= 20and
years
he was
peace and nonviolence. I had been beaten by the police
paralyzed.
and arrested twelve times
for protesting the war and I
had spent many nights in jail in my wheelchair. I had
been called a Communist
and
a traitor,
simply for trying
•He
never
married.
to tell the truth about what had happened in that war, but
I refused to be intimidated."
•Still part of the anti-war
movement today.