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Ho Chi Minh had been fighting for Vietnamese independence since World War I.

The U.S. gave France aid to win its support in American anticommunist efforts in

Western Europe.

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Ho Chi Minh had been fighting for Vietnamese independence since World War I.

The U.S. gave France aid to win its support in American anticommunist efforts in

Western Europe.

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Realizing he would lose, Diem (with US support) backed out of elections.

The decision not to hold elections made war inevitable.

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JFK realizes Diem is a liability; offers quiet support to a Vietnamese military

coup d’etat.

The coup results in the brutal murders of Diem and his brother

The Vietnamese generals overthrow one another. A relatively stable, but

tyrannical government emerges. It is little better than Diem’s.

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What Johnson told Congress

What he didn’t tell Congress:

He had already written the resolution before the “incident.”

The U.S. naval vessels were aiding ARVN in commando raids

in North Vietnam at the time.

He learned that the 2nd attack hadn’t occurred.

The U.S. navy was not on the “high seas” but in N. Vietnam’s 12

mile territorial limit.

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Kennedy’s advisors were clearly fighting a covert war by 1963.

In March 1965 the first American ground troops landed at Da Nang.

The first major military engagement between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces

occurred on November 14-16, 1965.

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The number of bombs dropped over Vietnam in this campaign alone was greater

than the total dropped during the entire Second World War:

the equivalent of roughly 15 kilograms of bombs for every man,

woman and child in Vietnam.

Chemical weapons defoliated 10 percent of the country's surface.

The country was devastated by years of carpet-bombing.

Thousands of square miles were laid waste.

Thousands of acres of forest were destroyed by the dropping of

poisonous chemicals by the US air force ("defoliants"). This, in plain English, is

known as chemical warfare.

Many US soldiers developed serious illnesses through contact with

these chemical agents. But for a huge number of Vietnamese it meant

generations of deformed babies, miscarriages, cancers and all manner of

hideous illnesses.

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The heart wrenching photo above was taken in June , 1972, after an Army of the

Republic of Vietnam dropped Napalm on a Vietnam village.

SOUTH VIETNAM — Phan Thi Kim Phuc was 9 in June 1972 when a South

Vietnamese plane mistakenly dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese

troops and civilians. The photo, by Nick Ut of AP, 'made America conscious of

the full horror of the Vietnam War,' Life magazine editors said.

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SAIGON, South Vietnam — South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen.

Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong officer with a shot to the head, one of

the most chilling images of the Vietnam War. Photographer Eddie Adams, who

won a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph, argues the execution was justified,

because the Viet Cong officer had killed eight South Vietnamese ARVN. The

furor created by this 1968 image destroyed Loan's life. He fled South Vietnam in

1975, and moved to Virginia, where he opened a restaurant. He died in 1998 at

age 67.

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The Tet Offensive -between 30 January and 23 September 1968, by the Viet

Cong, or NLF, and the North Vietnamese army, or People's Army of Vietnam

against the ARVN and the United States, and their allies during the Vietnam

War.

The purpose of the offensive was to take every major southern city and to spark

a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon

government, thus ending the war in a single blow.

The operations are referred to as the Tet Offensive because they began during

the early morning hours of 30 January 1968, the new year day according to the

lunar calendar; the most important Vietnamese holiday, Tết Nguyên Đán

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little effect on the war, since North Vietnam had little difficulty making up the casualties inflicted by the offensive

when General William Westmoreland reported that completing the Vietcong's defeat would necessitate 200,000 more

American soldiers and require an activation of the reserves, even loyal supporters of the war effort began to see that a

change in strategy was needed.

To a growing segment of the American public, Tet demonstrated the resolve of the Vietcong and the tenuous control

South Vietnam had over its own territory. It also helped unite those at home in their dissenting opinions of the war.

According to public opinion polls, the percentage of Americans who believed that the U.S. had made a mistake by

sending troops to Vietnam had risen from 25 percent in 1965 to 45 percent by December 1967.

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In the end Johnson was effected by the rapid growth of the anti-war movement

in America.

disproportionate number of poor working class and black kids among the

casualties.

Inside the USA there was a growing swell of discontent.

The black Americans were tired of being second-class citizens. In the Southern

States, the civil rights movement was engaged in a ferocious struggle against

discrimination and racism, for equal rights. But the war in Vietnam highlighted in

an extreme form the oppression of the blacks. The two issues became

indissolubly linked.

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Anti-war movement and civil rights movement fed off each other

The disproporationate/second class treatment of blacks in Vietnam mirrored

their complaints back home

North – although could vote, the large majority remained (de facto) segregated

in slum housing, inadequate schools, impoverished neighborhoods, high

unemployment

From 1967-74 – arrest rate for black males shot up 50%

Surge in black nationalism

1964 – NYPD killed a black boy – riots for 5 days

1965 – confrontation between LAPD and young blacks – 6 days (34 dead)

1966 – 40 riots

1967 – over 160 riots 1 in Detriot – injured 1000, killed 43

Total 64-68 200 dead, 7000 injured

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The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and some of whom were women and children, conducted by U.S. Army forces on March 16, 1968.

Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, or maimed, and some of the bodies were found mutilated.

While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served three years of his life sentence.

When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre also reduced U.S. support at home for the Vietnam War.

Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by U.S. Congressmen, received hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on their doorsteps. Only 30 years after the event were their efforts honored.

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The Americans found no enemy fighters in the village on the morning of March 16. Many soldiers suspected there were NLF troops in the village, hiding underground in the homes of their elderly parents or their wives. The U.S. soldiers, one platoon of which was led by Second Lieutenant William Calley, went in shooting at a "suspected enemy position".

After the first civilians were killed and wounded by the indiscriminate fire, the soldiers soon began attacking anything that moved, humans and animals alike, with firearms, grenades and bayonets

BBC News described the scene:

“ Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. ... Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. Some victims were mutilated with the signature "C Company" carved into the chest. By late morning word had got back to higher authorities and a cease-fire was ordered. My Lai was in a state of carnage. Bodies were strewn through the village.[2] ” Dozens of people were herded into an irrigation ditch and other locations and killed with automatic weapons.[17] A large group of about 70 to 80 villagers, rounded up by the 1st Platoon in the center of the village, were killed personally by Calley and by soldiers he had ordered to fire. Calley also shot two other large groups of civilians

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with a weapon taken from a soldier who had refused to do any further killing.

He fired at it [the baby] with a .45. He missed. We all laughed. He got up three or four feet closer and missed again. We

laughed. Then he got up right on top and plugged him.[

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In April 17, 1965 the first major anti-war rally was held in Washington.

By October of the same year anti-war protests are held in about 40 American cities.

As is usually the case, the ferment began among the students

25,000 people gathered in Washington,

20,000 in New York and 15,000 in Berkeley, California, to demonstrate against the war.

In April 1967, 300,000 people demonstrated in New York On Oct. 21-23, 1967

50,000 people demonstrated against the war in Washington.

The anti-war movement was now spreading fast. More than five million people are estimated to have been involved one

way or the other.

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Peace with Honor – preserving an independent, proUS gov in Saigon

Nixon Doctrine – publicly claimed to Vietnamize (decrease US personell,

increase aid in future)

Reality = troops decreased from ½ million (1969) to 30,000 (1972) – but he

expanded US effort by attacking:

Cambodia invaded in 1970: Ho Chi Minh Trail

Laos invaded in 1971: Ho Chi Minh Trail

While sending Kissinger secretly to Pairs to negotiate with the VietMinh

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Commissioned by United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in 1967, the study was completed in 1968.

The papers first surfaced on the front page on the New York Times in 1971

The Pentagon Papers revealed many things, including the extent of the John F. Kennedy administration's involvement

in Vietnam and his major role in sanctioning the overthrow of Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem.[5] The most damaging

revelation was that the US deliberately expanded its war with carpet bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on

North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks — which had all gone unreported in the US.[6] The revelations widened the

credibility gap between the US government and the people, hurting President Richard Nixon's war effort.

The papers showed that President Lyndon Johnson had planned to bomb North Vietnam well before the 1964 Election.

Johnson had been outspoken against doing so during the election and claimed that his opponent Barry Goldwater was

the one that wanted to bomb North Vietnam.

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Kissinger continued to neg. with the North (in Paris)

Kissinger returned to US shortly before the Nov. 72 presidential election,

announcing above blue quote

However, SV President Thieu resisted agreement – Nixon tolerated Thieu –

responded by ordering the most extensive bombing of NV yet – destroying

factories, hospitals

73 – agreement finally signed

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Nixon resigns over the Watergate Scandal in 1974.

Ford takes the helm.

In the U.S., South Vietnam was perceived as doomed. President Gerald Ford

gave a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the Vietnam War and

all U.S. aid. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as North Vietnamese

tanks breached defenses on the outskirts of Saigon. The song "White

Christmas" was broadcast as the final signal for withdrawal. In the early morning

hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter,

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On 30 April 1975, VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing key

buildings and installations. A tank crashed through the gates of the Presidential

Palace, and at 11:30 a.m. local time the NLF flag was raised above it. Thieu's

successor, President Duong Van Minh, attempted to surrender, but VPA officers

informed him that he had nothing left to surrender. Minh then issued his last

command, ordering all South Vietnamese troops to lay down their arms.

The Communists had attained their goal: they had toppled the Saigon regime

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Diversion of capital to the war indirectly caused economic recession: 11%

inflation and 12% unemployment!

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War Powers Act., 1973, passed over Nixon's veto,

(Each President since has denied its validity, though the issue has never been

tested.)

Troops = high unemployment, alcohol & drug abuse; poor care of disabled vets:

underfunded vets hospitals, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Agent Orange

health problems, birth defects in vets’ children.

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