Upload
moises-boden
View
225
Download
4
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Getting Out of Vietnam
Richard Nixon wins 1968 presidential election
• “Silent Majority”• “law and order”• “peace with honor”
Republican Richard Nixon
• “Peace with Honor”• “Vietnamization”• Secret Cambodia
bombings to force negotiations– Paris Peace Talks
Realpolitik:•We can’t win.•We can’t quit
Henry Kissinger
Talks drag on….
• “Vietnamization” mostly fails.• Invasion of Cambodia causes NVN to boycott
talks.• Invasions/bombing in Cambodia and Laos
does not influence NVN to negotiate AND infuriates anti-war activists at home.
Nixon continues to draw down troops; 175,000 in 1971
Protests at home…
• Vietnam Moratorium Day– 2 million protesters– 250,000 in Washington DC
1968My Lai Massacre - William Calley
• 350 villagers killed• Calley is court-marshalled– life in prison/paroled after 3.5
Publicized Nov. 1969
Kent State Shootings - 1970
• Response to invasion of Cambodia– ROTC building burned– National Guard called to stop violence
• 4 students killed• 10 wounded
Jackson State- 2 killed
Controversy – a deeply divided people
• “law and order”• Anti-anti-war
• “peace and love”• Anti-war
Pentagon Papers-1971
• Top-secret Department of Defense files– “leaked” by Daniel
Ellsberg to the NY Times
• Supreme Court frees NY Times to publish– Government could not
prove a need for prior restraint
Congress responds to anti-war sentiment
• 1970 -repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• 1971-law prohibiting soldiers from fighting outside the borders of South Vietnam
• 1973-War Powers Act– Strict limits on the president’s power
to wage undeclared war (no Congressional approval)
Peace Accords Jan. of 73
• South Vietnamese government can stay in power
• North army can stay in South• Vietcong can join the political process• ceasefire• last US troops leave 3/73
Fall of Saigon 1975