Key Terms

• De facto segregation• De jure segregation• Nation of Islam• Black Power• Black Panthers• Kerner Commission• Civil Rights Act of 1968

Key Terms (Cont.)

• Black Panthers• Kerner Commission• Civil Rights Act of 1968

People

• Malcolm X• Elijah Muhammad• MLK• Stokely Carmichael• Huey Newton• Bobby Seale• James Earl Ray

Ho Chi Minh

• Thin middle-aged man• Goatee• Created the Vietminh organization • Originally was an Allie with the US in WWII

Vietminh

• Rebel nationalist group • Sought Vietnam independence • Leader was Ho Chi minh

Domino Theory

• Theory that dealt with the spread of communism

• Linked all countries on the brink of communism together

• Stated that if one falls to Communism, they all fall

Dien Bien Phu

• The final, battle between the French and Vietminh

• Vietminh overran French outpost • After two months of heavy artillery, the

French pulled out of Vietnam

Geneva Accords

• Divided North and South Vietnam along the 17th parallel

• Ho Chi Minh controlled the North• Ant-Communists controlled the South

Ngo Dinh Diem

• Strong anti-communist president of south Vietnam

• Nov. 1st 1963, US supported military coup kicks out Diem

• Oppressed Buddhists because he was Catholic

Vietcong

• Formed in 1957• Communist group who assassinated

thousands of South Vietnamese officials • Later called NLF

Ho Chi Minh Trail

• A network of paths that connected from south Vietnam to North Vietnam, and the boarders of Laos and Cambodia.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution

• a) Granted Johnson the ability to use the full force of the military

• Started the Vietnam war• Did the opposite of what Kennedy had

planned to do

Terms

• Robert McNamara- Secretary of Defense during Johnson administration.• Dean Rusk- Secretary of State during Johnson administration.• General William Westmoreland- American commander in South Vietnam.• Napalm- a gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle.• Agent Orange- a leaf-killing toxic chemical that devastated the landscape.• Search-and-Destroy Missions- tactic used by U.S. where they would go to a certain

village and destroy the whole area and move to the next village.• Credibility Gap- the growth between what the Johnson administration reported and

what was really happening.

Quotes

• “not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” –Lyndon Johnson

• “once on the tiger’s back, we cannot be sure of picking the place to dismount.”

-Undersecretary of State George Ball• “cannot stand up to this pressure without substantial U.S. combat support on the

ground,” “The only possible response is the aggressive deployment of U.S. troops.” “lies within our grasp-the enemy’s hopes are bankrupt,”

-General William Westmoreland• “You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours,” “but even at those odds,

you will lose and I will win.” –Ho Chi Minh• “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.” –Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

• “The more the Americans tried to drive us away from our land, the more we burrowed into it,” –Major Nguyen Quot of the Vietcong Army

Vietcong Tunnels

• The Vietcong guerrilla groups using the jungle were still hit by U.S. airstrikes. So the Vietcong , made tunnels to hide in. This allowed them to leave booby traps and land mines all across the jungle. The U.S. responds with Napalm and Agent Orange.

Life at Home

• Economically struggling at home, president Johnson cannot pay for both the costs of the Vietnam War and the costs of his programs for The Great Society. This causes inflation to raise. For most of the 1960’s the inflation rate was 2% but by 1969 the inflation rate almost tripled. This leading to Johnson raising the taxes because he wants to keep his plans for The Great Society and he wants to contain Communism.

The American’s trust

• With the war not being a short easy victory like promised, the economy starting to tank, and brutal pictures from the war shown to the Americans at home every night on the news. The Americans start to think that U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a mistake. Also the credibility gap is considered because the people do not believe that Johnson is telling them everything. This causes the Americans to not support the war efforts.

Dates• 1964- Presidential election Lyndon Johnson (D) defeats (R) Barry Goldwater.• 1964- Johnson claims he will not send troops to Vietnam.• March 1965- tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers are dispatched to fight in Vietnam.• 1965- Poll showed that 61% of Americans supported the U.S. policy in Vietnam and only 24% did

not.• 1965-67- Nguyen Cao Ky leads the South Vietnamese government.• 1965-67- nearly 16,000 dead Americans.• 1966- Fulbright hearings.• 1966- McNamara tells reporters now he has regrets about U.S. involvement.• 1966- Buddhist Monks light themselves on fire in protest.• 1966-1973- Navy Pilot Gerald Coffee is held in enemy prison camp. • End of 1965- The U.S. has sent more than 180,000 troops to Vietnam.• 1967- The numbers reach 500,000 troops in Vietnam.• 1967- More than 3 million refugees in South Vietnam.• 1967- Majority of Americans still support the war.• 1969- Letter sent explaining the U.S. bomb that did explode than the North Vietnamese Army used

against the U.S.• 1969- U.S. inflation rate nearly triples from the 2% in the early 1960’s.

Working Class War • Men were registered in the draft from the age of 18, even

though they were still not eligible to vote• 80% of American soldiers came from the lower economic

level of the United States• Many men tried to find way around the draft by the use of a

medical deferment or a college deferment because it was a manipulatable system

• The upper class often received deferments because they would be in college or had the money to manipulate the system.

Medical Deferment Sheet

Racism and women In Vietnam

• In the first couple years, African Americans accounted for 10% of the U.S. Army but for 20% of the United States casualties

• Martin Luther King Jr. called this “cruel irony” that so many African Americans were dying but were regarded as second class citizens

• Racism caused the Army’s total morale to deteriorate • 7,500 women served in the navy and army as nurses in

the American Red Cross or the United States Organization which delivered entertainment to the troops

The New Left

• The New Left was an organization and activist group that wanted many new changes in the American society including issues with the government and war

Groups of the New Left• Students for a Democratic Society(SDS) created by Tom

Hayden and Al Haber in 1959 at the University of Michigan; this group wanted more individual freedom and also a greater freedom of speech

• The Free Speech Movement(FSM) was located at the University of California at Berkeley during a student and faculty altercation; the students wanted free speech and to rebel the American “machine” which were the issues with the government and business

Reasons for protesting

• Believed the war was unnecessary

• Thought of it as a Civil War

• Weakening the Unites States’ strength and reputation

• We were trying to police the world

Protests throughout Vietnam• April 1965- March on

Washington (20,000-30,000 people)

• 1976- New York Central Park Protest (500,000 people)

• October 1967- Washington Lincoln Memorial Protest (75,000 people)

Dividing the Nation The country was divided during the

Vietnamese War because many people believed in different things that the United States should do

• Doves- those who opposed the war and believed that the United States should withdraw from the war

• Hawks- those who felt that the war was the right decision and that America should unleash a greater show of military force to end the war

Problems in Office

• Johnson decided to stay steady with his plan of “slow escalation”

• President Johnson dismissed officials and members of Congress who did not believe in his plan or doubted what he was doing as president

• The Secretary of Defense, McNamara resigns - Believed Johnson’s plan did not add up - Didn’t trust his plan or believe that it would work• Turmoil between Johnson’s own administration

The Tet Offensive• January 30th during the Vietnamese new year• Vietcong snuck into S. Vietnam towns and cities• Vietcong attacked nearly 100 South Vietnamese

towns and cities• Military defeat for the North but The US took a

toll• The opinion back home of the war was

changing• Clark Clifford called Vietnam a sinkhole

The war at home

• Johnson loses more support for the war• Popularity drops by 60%• Students protests at colleges• People protest the war across the country• Johnson withdraws from the presidential race

Eugene McCarthy become the democrats prime candidate

• Johnson announces the withdraw from Vietnam on march 31st

Violence and Riots

• Chaos spreads as people hear of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4th

• Riots rip through more than 100 US cities and the capital

• On June 4th Robert Kennedy is Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan because of his support for Israel

• Nearly 100 college campuses repot riots

Chicago Turmoil

• Democrats hold the national convention in Chicago• McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey run for the primary spot• 10,000 protesters come to protest the war• Mayor Richard J. Daley sends police and national

guardsmen to calm the protesters• Violence soon erupts and chaos spreads through the park• The delegates hear the news and begin the argue• The whole country sees the disorder in the Democratic

party

Nixon is Elected

• Nixon uses the failure of the democrats to win the election for the democrats

• George Wallace also runs but loses• Nixon wins most of the electoral votes but

barley wins the primary votes