U.S. HistoryDistance Learning: Packet 2

This packet contains several readings pertaining to important Cold War events, such as the Space Race, Kennedy and Johnson’s presidencies, the Vietnam War, and more! Contact your teacher if you have any

questions.

The Space Race

In May 1961, President Kennedy told Americans that he wanted to send astronaut to the moon. No one had been to the moon and he wanted the United States to get there first. He wanted the United States to reach the moon before the country Russia reached the moon.

At this time the United States and Russia, also called the Soviet Union, raced to see who could do more in space. The two nations were fighting a Cold War against each other. In this war actions were important. Sending a man to the moon first would show that the United States was a leader in the world.

The Soviet Union started the race before John F. Kennedy became President. In October 1957 they used a rocket to send the first satellite into space. It was called Sputnik. People in the United States were shocked when they heard about Sputnik because it showed that the Soviet Union had the science to send an object to space. The United States worked hard and sent its first satellite in January 1958.

After a few years, the Soviet Union surprised the United States again. On April 12, 1961, The Soviet Union sent the first man to space. His name was Yuri Gagarin and he orbited the earth one time. It took him less than two hours to go all around the earth in his spacecraft. Americans were worried that the Soviet Union had better technology than the U.S. A few weeks after Gagarin’s flight, the United States sent Alan Shepard into space, but Shepard did not orbit the earth. Since the Soviet Union was winning the space race, President Kennedy decided that the United States would try to go to the moon first. The Soviet Union had the same goal. They went back and forth with new achievements. The United States finally sent John Glen to orbit the earth in 1962.The Soviet Union sent the first woman into space and was the first country to have a person go outside of a spacecraft in outer space on a space-walk. In February 1966 the Soviet Union came one step closer to the moon by landing the first unmanned space craft on the moon. It looked like the Soviet Union would win the race but the United States was able to pull ahead.

On July 20, 1969, two Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed a spacecraft on the moon and walked on the moon. The United States became the first –and only –country to have astronauts walk on the moon. The Soviet Union never landed a man on the moon. Instead, the country focused on using unmanned space craft to explore the moon and built a space station. After years of competition, the race to the moon was over.

1. Who was ahead in the Space Race when it first started?

2. How did Soviet advancements in space make the United States look?

3. List three important events within the Space Race.

4. Who “won” the Space Race by the end? Why?

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

In the days immediately after Fidel Castro's bearded guerrilla fighters seized power in Cuba on January 1, 1959, the United States government wished the rebels well.

"The Provisional Government appears free from Communist taint and there are indications that it intends to pursue friendly relations with the United States," Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-'61) in a memo.

It seemed like a promising start between the two neighbors, only 90 miles from each other. But the goodwill did not last long.

By the end of the year, Eisenhower had approved a secret plan to overthrow Castro that two years later became the Bay of Pigs invasion. And half a century later, the failed coup is widely recognized as a misguided monument to the fear and suspicion on both sides in the Cold War, a watershed moment that has left the U.S. and Cuba at odds ever since.

"The U.S. had already broken ties with Cuba by the time of the Bay of Pigs," says Ted Henken, a Cuba expert at Baruch College in New York. "But you could say the invasion was the final, ultimate, and irrevocable divorce."

For the Cuban exiles who participated, the attack was a chance to rescue their homeland from Castro and the Communists.

"We were full of hope," recalled Alfredo Durán, a Cuban exile from Miami who landed at the Bay of Pigs when he was 22. "We believed we were going to win or die."

Cold War Rules

What did the U.S., with all its power, have to fear from tiny Cuba, which is about the size of Pennsylvania and in 1959 had a population of less than 7 million?

The U.S. and its allies were in the midst of the Cold War with Communist countries of the East, led by the Soviet Union and China. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were allies in World War II, but they mistrusted each other. When Germany was defeated in 1945, the two superpowers competed fiercely for global influence. The Soviets installed Communist regimes in most of Eastern Europe after the war, and there was little the West could do about it.

But when the Soviet Union took an interest in Latin America, in what looked like a clear violation of the Monroe Doctrine—President James Monroe's 1823 policy that warned European colonizers to stay out of the Western hemisphere—the Eisenhower administration was determined to stop it.

Washington kept a close eye on Cuba after the new regime came to power. There was an uproar in the U.S. when hundreds of Castro's political opponents were executed without fair trials. Then Castro seized the farms, homes, and businesses of Cubans and Americans without compensation. Castro's increasingly belligerent anti-American tone also led Washington to fear that Cuba would strengthen its ties with the Soviet Union, and a secret plan to overthrow him was developed.

But under the unwritten rules of the Cold War, the U.S. could not be directly involved in military actions that the Soviet Union might consider threatening (though the two powers sometimes used other nations, called proxies, to fight on their behalf). Both sides knew that such open aggression could trigger an all-out nuclear war.

The C.I.A. (Central Intelligence Agency) plan was to secretly train a small number of anti-Castro exiles for a guerrilla insurrection similar to the one Castro himself had mounted to seize power from Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Preparations for the invasion coincided with the 1960 U.S. presidential election, which Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts won. He was inaugurated in 1961 and inherited the Cuba invasion plans.

By then, Castro had beefed up his armed forces with weapons from the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, so the C.I.A. called for a larger invasion force and an amphibious landing somewhere on the coast of Cuba. The invaders then would make their way to the Escambray Mountains and launch an armed insurrection with the help of what they believed were the many Cubans who opposed Castro. But the C.I.A. misled the young President, underestimating Castro's support in Cuba and exaggerating the invaders' military capabilities.

The C.I.A. set up training camps in Florida and Guatemala—a Latin American country where the U.S. had supported a coup in 1954 to oust a left-leaning President. About 1,500 Cuban exiles, most of them in their early 20s and living in Miami, volunteered to participate in the invasion to reclaim their country.

But as the plan grew bigger, word leaked out. In April 1961, The New York Times prepared a front page article on the planned invasion. But the newspaper's influential Washington bureau chief, James Reston, worried that publishing the story would tip off the Cubans and endanger the operation.

"A Colossal Mistake"

Reston convinced the publisher to tone down the article and remove some details, including the projected invasion date and the C.I.A.'s role. (After the invasion failed, Kennedy told a Times editor that he wished it had published more details about the planned invasion. "You would have saved us from a colossal mistake," Kennedy said.)

A week after the revised article hit newsstands, the first stage of the invasion began. Old American B-26 bombers painted to look like Cuban aircraft flew over Cuba on the morning of April 15. Their mission: knock out Castro's tiny air force. But Castro, anticipating such an attack, hid his fighter planes and put old planes on the runways as decoys.

The B-26s attacked Cuban airports and other areas, killing several civilians. At a public funeral for the victims the next day, Castro openly declared the Socialist nature of his revolution for the first time, aligning Cuba with the Soviet Union.

As the invaders prepared for a second day of bombing, Kennedy made a fateful decision. Worried that another round of air strikes would expose U.S. involvement, he grounded the planes and made it clear that he didn't want American troops or the warships that were waiting off the Cuban coast to directly help the invasion brigade.

The landing site the C.I.A. had picked was a swampy area on Cuba's southern coast known as the Bay of Pigs for the wild pigs that roamed there. Just after midnight on April 17, five privately owned merchant ships

carrying men and supplies quietly steamed into the bay. Within a short time, several light landing craft started to ferry the soldiers to the beach.

Almost immediately, the invaders—who had called in an urgent request for air cover that never came—were strafed by Castro's fighter planes. Before the battle ended two days later, Cuban pilots shot down nine B-26 bombers, sank two of the merchant ships, and destroyed eight landing craft.

Castro had sent thousands of soldiers to the Bay of Pigs and ordered his pilots to sink the supply ships. "Don't let those ships go," he told Captain Enrique Carreras, the pilot of one of Cuba's Sea Fury fighter planes. "I'll fulfill your orders," Carreras responded. Then, though the battle was just hours old, Castro boldly assured him, "We shall win." The invaders, fighting with patriots' passion but without reinforcements or air support, surrendered within three days. The last message from a brigade commander to a C.I.A. operative was: "I have nothing left to fight with. Am taking to the woods. I can't wait for you."

The final tally of the brief battle was 161 Cuban defenders dead, 114 invaders killed, and 1,189 captured. The victory made Castro stronger than ever, and aligned Cuba even more closely with the Soviets. For Kennedy, who had been in office just 90 days and who at age 43 was the youngest man elected President, it was an embarrassing failure.

Exploding Cigars

But Kennedy wasn't through with trying to bring down Castro. In November 1961, he approved Operation Mongoose, a series of schemes to destabilize the Cuban government. The plots were kept secret until 1993, when declassified documents revealed that at least eight attempts had been made on Castro's life, including plans that called for poison pills, exploding cigars, and a booby-trapped seashell. Another plan involved dousing the Havana radio studio, where Castro made some of his famously long addresses, with hallucinatory chemicals that would have made him ramble while on air, causing the Cuban people to lose faith in him.

A 1961 C.I.A. assessment of the Bay of Pigs invasion had predicted that failure would likely make the Soviets "more adventurous," and it did. In the months following the invasion, the Soviets secretly built missile sites in Cuba capable of firing nuclear-tipped rockets at the U.S. When President Kennedy found out in October 1962, he had only days to decide whether to react with force. For nearly two weeks, Americans literally woke up each morning wondering if nuclear war was about to break out.

But Kennedy didn't order a first strike. Instead, he set up a naval blockade around Cuba to keep out additional nuclear missiles. After a tense 13-day standoff, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, and Kennedy vowed that the U.S. would not try to invade Cuba again.

A few weeks later, most of the captured Bay of Pigs soldiers were released from Cuban prisons and returned to Miami in exchange for $53 million worth of food and medicine. At a ceremony in Miami's old Orange Bowl, President Kennedy accepted a banner that they had carried into battle and said, "I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana."

In the decades since the Bay of Pigs invasion, relations between the U.S. and Cuba have remained hostile. Castro has kept his people ever ready for another invasion and continued to whip up anti-American sentiment. An embargo ordered by Eisenhower and strengthened by Kennedy remains in effect, preventing most Americans from doing business with or traveling to Cuba. More than a million Cubans have fled the country, some in flimsy rafts. Many have died in their desperate efforts to reach Florida.

Cuba is still ruled by Castro and his brother, Raûl. In 2009, President Obama lifted some restrictions, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit family there. Obama has said he wants to improve relations with Cuba and has been encouraged by such recent actions as the release of scores of political prisoners.

But Cuba experts such as Professor Henken of Baruch College know that over the last half century, the Castro government has repeatedly brushed aside such openings, and this time could be no different.

"They may be going through counseling now, but the two sides are still divorced," he says.

And the banner that President Kennedy promised would be returned to a free Havana has yet to fly over Cuban soil.

1. What was the relationship like between the United States and Cuba when Fidel Castro first gained power?

2. What was the Monroe Doctrine?

3. Why did tensions build between Cuba and the United States?

4. What was the CIA’s plan? (Who were the training, where were they training, and why?)

5. What did the New York Times plan on publishing? How did Washington react?

6. Give a detailed description of the American invasion of Cuba (at least 5 bullet points—include what the original plan was, how Cuba reacted, Kennedy’s actions, Castro’s actions, and the outcome of the invasion):

7. What was Operation Mongoose? What plots were involved in the operation?

8. What happened in the months after the invasion?

9. How did President Kennedy react to this event?

10. How were the relations between the United States and Cuba in the decades after the Bay of Pigs invasion?

The Cuban Missile Crisis

You have just found out that Soviet missiles are now located in Cuba. You must go over all of the possibilities of how to handle this situation. What do you choose? Remember, the possibility of a nuclear war is suddenly very real!

Options:

1.) Do nothing & ignore the missiles in Cuba2.) Open direct negotiations with Khrushchev (the Chairman of Counsel of Ministers for the USSR) asking that the missiles be withdrawn3.) Order a blockade of Cuba until the missiles are removeda. A blockade of an island means that military ships surround the island so no imports or ships can reach the island and no exports or ships can leave the island4.) Send a warning to Castro and Khrushchev, and if the dismantling of the missile sits is not underway within 24 hours, order an air strike against the sites5.) Order an air strike against the missile sites without prior warning

What are your top two choices?1.)________________________________________________________________________________________2.)________________________________________________________________________________________

Pros & cons to choice #1: Pros & cons to choice #2: Pros (@ least 2): Pros (@ least 2):

Cons (@ least 2): Cons (@ least 2):

What is your final decision? Why?

Missiles in Turkey

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval "quarantine" of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place. The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a "clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace." What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on October 15, 1962—the day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The next day, President Kennedy secretly convened an emergency meeting of his senior military, political, and diplomatic advisers to discuss the ominous development. The group became known as ExCom, short for Executive Committee. After rejecting a surgical air strike against the missile sites, ExCom decided on a naval quarantine and a demand that the bases be dismantled and missiles removed. On the night of October 22, Kennedy went on national television to announce his decision. During the next six days, the crisis escalated to a breaking point as the world tottered on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers. On October 23, the quarantine of Cuba began, but Kennedy decided to give Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev more time to consider the U.S. action by pulling the quarantine line back 500 miles. By October 24, Soviet ships en route to Cuba capable of carrying military cargoes appeared to have slowed down, altered, or reversed their course as they approached the quarantine, with the exception of one ship—the tanker Bucharest. At the request of more than 40 nonaligned nations, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant sent private appeals to Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging that their governments "refrain from any action that may aggravate the situation and bring with it the risk of war." At the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. military forces went to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union.

On October 25, the aircraft carrier USS Essex and the destroyer USS Gearing attempted to intercept the Soviet tanker Bucharest as it crossed over the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. The Soviet ship failed to cooperate, but the U.S. Navy restrained itself from forcibly seizing the ship, deeming it unlikely that the tanker was carrying offensive weapons. On October 26, Kennedy learned that work on the missile bases was proceeding without interruption, and ExCom considered authorizing a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The same day, the Soviets transmitted a proposal for ending the crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba. The next day, however, Khrushchev upped the ante by publicly calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile bases in Turkey under pressure from Soviet military commanders. While Kennedy and his crisis advisers debated this dangerous turn in negotiations, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. To the dismay of the Pentagon, Kennedy forbid a military retaliation unless any more surveillance planes were fired upon over Cuba. To defuse the worsening crisis, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to dismantle the U.S. missile sites in Turkey but at a later date, in order to prevent the protest of Turkey, a key NATO member. On October 28, Khrushchev announced his government's intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba. With the airing of the public message on Radio Moscow, the USSR confirmed its willingness to proceed with the solution secretly proposed by the Americans the day before. In the afternoon, Soviet

technicians began dismantling the missile sites, and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was effectively over. In November, Kennedy called off the blockade, and by the end of the year all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey.

1. What event actually started the Cuban Missile Crisis?

2. How did tensions escalate between the United States and the USSR during the crisis?

3. Why do you think the US had missiles in Turkey, which bordered the Soviet Union?

4. What happened to the missiles in Turkey?

5. How did the Cuban Missile Crisis end?

6. Do you agree with the dismantling of the missiles in Turkey? Why/why not?

Origins of the Cuban Missile CrisisThe origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis lie in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, during which US-supported Cuban exiles hoping to foment an uprising against Castro were overpowered by the Cuban armed forces. After the invasion, Castro turned to the Soviets for protection against future US aggression. The Soviets provided Cuba with nuclear weapons on the condition that the deal would remain secret until the missiles were fully operational. Khrushchev claimed that his motivation for providing Cuba with nuclear weaponry was to safeguard the Cuban Revolution against US aggression and to alter the global balance of power in favor of the Soviet Union.

In October 1962, US U-2 spy plane flights over Cuban territory revealed the missile installation sites. This discovery inaugurated what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The strategic implications of these weapons were enormous: the missiles could easily reach targets in the United States, including New York City and Washington, D.C.

The Kennedy administration established a naval blockade to prevent any more missiles from reaching Cuba, and in no uncertain terms demanded the immediate removal of the missiles that had already been delivered. The danger of this approach was that if the Soviets refused to remove the missiles, the United States would be forced to escalate the crisis by authorizing air strikes over Cuba to bomb the missile sites. Contingency plans were drawn up for a full-scale invasion of Cuba and a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, in the event that the Soviets responded militarily to Kennedy’s demands.

1. In your own words, describe the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Negotiating a peaceful outcomeThough Khrushchev initially refused to acknowledge the presence of the missiles in Cuba and declared the US naval blockade to be an act of war, he ordered the suspension of all weapons deliveries currently in transit. Over the course of approximately two weeks, Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated a peaceful outcome to the missile crisis. The Soviets compared their provision of nuclear weapons to Cuba with the stationing of Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which were in range of Soviet territory. Kennedy agreed to remove the missiles from Turkey, and also pledged that the US government would not undertake another invasion of Cuba.

Throughout the negotiations, Khrushchev failed to consult with Castro. For Castro, this was humiliating and seemed to prove that the Soviets prioritized relations with the United States over relations with their own allies. Castro hoped to negotiate the closing of the US naval base at Guantanamo and the cessation of U-2 flights over Cuban territory. Ultimately, Khrushchev agreed to remove all of the nuclear missiles from Cuba, while failing to even broach the subject of Castro’s demands.

1. In your own words, describe the negotiation process between the United States, Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Consequences of the Cuban Missile CrisisAlthough the Soviets attempted to portray the outcome of the missile crisis as a victory, one of the consequences of the crisis was the ouster of Khrushchev. He was forced into retirement by other Soviet officials who claimed that the missile crisis was proof of Khrushchev’s reckless decision-making and his inability to lead the Soviet Union. Khrushchev’s successor, Leonid Brezhnev, came to power and sought to reduce tensions with the United States.

John F. Kennedy came out of the crisis in a much better position. His calm but firm stance in the negotiations was heralded as great statesmanship, though it is often forgotten that his bungling of the Bay of Pigs invasion had helped lead to the missile crisis in the first place.

The Cuban Missile Crisis also convinced Kennedy of the dangers of nuclear brinksmanship. He and Khrushchev had peered into the abyss of nuclear destruction but had managed to pull back from it. In order to prevent future crises, a Moscow-Washington hotline was set up in the White House to facilitate direct communication between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States.

In August 1963, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed a treaty banning atmospheric and underwater nuclear testing. Nevertheless, the test-ban treaty failed to halt the arms race, as Kennedy simultaneously authorized a massive arms buildup that vastly expanded the US nuclear arsenal and amplified US strategic superiority in the Cold War.

1. What were the consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Why is this an important event during the Cold War?

Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency

Lyndon Johnson ascends to powerLyndon Baines Johnson, a New Deal Democrat from rural West Texas, served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate before becoming vice president to John F. Kennedy. He was the Senate Minority Leader for two years, the Senate Majority Whip for two years, and the Senate Majority Leader for six years, and some historians believe he was the most effective majority leader in US history.

On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas, Texas. Two hours after the assassination, Johnson was sworn into office aboard Air Force One. He pledged to carry on Kennedy’s legacy and to fulfill his political agenda, particularly concerning civil rights. In the presidential election of 1964, Johnson won in a landslide against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater.

1. What political experience did Lyndon Johnson have before becoming vice president?

2. What event cause LBJ to become president?

LBJ and the Civil Rights MovementOnce in office, Johnson moved quickly to secure the passage of civil rights legislation that had languished in Congress during Kennedy’s presidency. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial segregation in public education and facilities, and prohibited discrimination in jobs and housing. In March 1965, Johnson delivered a speech in which he condemned racial bigotry and informed the nation that he was sending another civil rights bill to Congress. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other devices that had been used to prevent Southern blacks from voting.

Together, these two acts constituted the most comprehensive civil rights legislation ever passed, and were a paramount achievement of Johnson’s presidency.

1. What was the significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

2. What was the significance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

The Great SocietyJohnson’s major focus as president was the Great Society, a package of domestic programs and legislation aimed at eradicating poverty and improving the quality of life of all Americans. The Great Society vastly expanded the welfare state and included initiatives such as the War on Poverty.

Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law, 1965. Image courtesy Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.Johnson launched the War on Poverty in March 1964, when he sent the Economic Opportunity Act to Congress. The bill created the Job Corps and the Community Action Program, which aimed to eliminate poverty through job creation and block grants to local communities for services such as Head Start for early childhood development. The Office of Economic Opportunity was established to oversee the disbursement of

funds to community-based anti-poverty programs, and the Food Stamp Act of 1964 expanded the federal food stamp program.

President Johnson’s Great Society also established Medicare and Medicaid, which provide healthcare to the poor and to the elderly.

The Great Society also involved education reform. The Primary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 authorized $1 billion in federal funding for public education and established special programs for schools in low-income areas. The Higher Education Act of 1965 increased federal funding for universities and extended scholarships and low-interest loans to college students.

In sum, the Great Society was an ambitious domestic program that expanded the scope of the federal government far beyond the limits of the New Deal, and it constitutes one of Johnson’s most enduring legacies.

1. In your opinion, was the Great Society program helpful to the American people?

2. What would the Great Society programs have done to federal spending?

3. In your opinion, which Great Society program was the most important? Why?

Johnson and the war in VietnamIn August 1964, reports that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin led Johnson to request and obtain from Congress the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the use of military force in Southeast Asia. Johnson made a series of controversial decisions that dramatically escalated military action and enlarged the US troop presence in Vietnam.

As US casualties mounted, the conflict stalemated, and revelations emerged that the Johnson administration had lied to the American public about the nature and scope of the war. Anti-war sentiment intensified and LBJ’s approval ratings plummeted.

Johnson chose not to run for re-election in 1968, largely due to the disastrous war in Vietnam and the internecine conflicts tearing apart the Democratic Party. He was succeeded in office by Richard M. Nixon.

1. What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

2. Why did anti-war sentiments against the Vietnam War increase during the 1960s?

3. Why did LBJ choose not to run for reelection in 1968? Who won?

The Vietnam War

Origins of the war in VietnamThe origins of American involvement in Vietnam date back to the end of the Second World War, when the Vietnamese were struggling against the continued French colonial presence in their country. Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh (Vietnamese Independence League) and the founder of Vietnam’s Communist Party, successfully blended nationalist, anti-French sentiment with Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideology. In 1954, after a prolonged guerrilla war to liberate Vietnam, the Viet Minh captured Dien Bien Phu, and decisively routed the French.

In peace negotiations at Geneva, the decision was reached to divide Vietnam into northern and southern halves. The communists, headed by Ho Chi Minh, would govern the northern half, with its capital at Hanoi, while South Vietnam, with its capital at Saigon, would remain non-communist. The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China supported the north, while the United States was determined to maintain an independent, non-communist South Vietnam.

In December 1960, the National Liberation Front, commonly called the Viet Cong, emerged to challenge the South Vietnamese government. A civil war erupted for control of South Vietnam, while Hanoi sought to unite the country under its own communist leadership. The Second Indochina War began in earnest with the US commitment to prevent the communists from overrunning South Vietnam. In spring 1961, the administration of John F. Kennedy expanded US support for the South Vietnamese government, including an increase in US military advisers, the doubling of military assistance, and authorization of the use of napalm, herbicides, and defoliants.

The escalating US involvement in Southeast Asia was driven by the logic of the domino theory, which contended that the falling of one country to communism would result in other surrounding countries succumbing to communism, much as one toppled domino will take down others in a row. The containment strategy, laid out by George Kennan in the Long Telegram, dictated that the United States do everything in its power to prevent the spread of communism. US officials believed that if South Vietnam fell to communism, so would the surrounding countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Laos, and Cambodia.

1. When do the origins of American involvement in Vietnam date back to?

2. Who was Ho Chi Minh?

3. Describe the divide of north and south Vietnam.

4. Who did the U.S. support in the Second Indochina War?

5. How had President Kennedy expanded US support?

6. What was the domino theory?

7. What was the fear of the United States if Vietnam fell to communism?

Lyndon Johnson and the war in VietnamIn August 1964, the US government received word that two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Lyndon Johnson requested authorization from Congress for the use of military force, resulting in the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which laid the groundwork for the full-scale US military commitment to Vietnam. The resolution declared the support of Congress for “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the armed forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

The 1968 Tet Offensive, a bold North Vietnamese attack on the south, convinced many US officials that the war could not be won at a reasonable cost. Heightened opposition to the war was one of the major factors in Johnson’s decision not to run for re-election in 1968.

1. What was the importance of the Tet Offensive?

Richard Nixon and VietnamRichard Nixon campaigned for the presidency with a “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam. Once in office, his administration sought to achieve “peace with honor.” Nixon ultimately expanded the war into neighboring Laos and Cambodia, while simultaneously encouraging the “Vietnamization” of the war effort, which entailed the gradual withdrawal of US troops and an increasing reliance on the South Vietnamese armed forces. By the end of 1969, the number of American troops in Vietnam had been cut in half.

The Paris Peace Accords established the terms according to which the last remaining US troops in Vietnam would be withdrawn. In 1975, the North Vietnamese finally achieved the objective of uniting the country under one communist government. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was formally established on July 2, 1976, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Though the outcome of the war was a clear defeat for the United States, the countries surrounding Vietnam did not subsequently fall to communism, demonstrating the flawed reasoning of the domino theory.

The war in Vietnam had lasting consequences for US foreign policy. Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973, in a clear attempt to reassert a measure of control over the making of foreign policy and to impose constraints on presidential power. For well over a decade, American public opinion was hostile to the idea of foreign interventions. This was known as the “Vietnam syndrome,” and it entailed an unwillingness to become bogged down in foreign wars in which American national security interests were unclear.

1. How did Nixon expand the Vietnam War?

2. What happened to Vietnam in 1975?

3. Did the other countries around Vietnam fall to communism?

4. What was the War Powers Act?

5. What was the Vietnam syndrome?

"Fortunate Son"—Creedence Clearwater

Some folks are born made to wave the flagOoh, they're red, white and blueAnd when the band plays "Hail to the chief"Ooh, they point the cannon at you, LordIt ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, sonIt ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah!Some folks are born silver spoon in handLord, don't they help themselves, ohBut when the taxman comes to the doorLord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, noIt ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks inherit star spangled eyesOoh, they send you down to war, LordAnd when you ask them, "How much should we give?"Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, sonIt ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no noIt ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no

1. According to the song, who started the war in Vietnam?

2. According to the song, who is fighting the war?

3. How would this be considered an anti-war song?

The Kent State Shooting4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops8 Hurt as Shooting Follows Reported Sniping at RallyBy John KifnerSpecial to The New York Times

Kent, Ohio, May 4 -- Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.

The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.

In Washington, President Nixon deplored the deaths of the four students in the following statement:

"This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nation's campuses, administrators, faculty and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strong against the resort to violence as a means of such expression."

In Columbus, Sylvester Del Corso, Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard, said in a statement that the guardsmen had been forced to shoot after a sniper opened fire against the troops from a nearby rooftop and the crowd began to move to encircle the guardsmen.

Frederick P. Wenger, the Assistant Adjutant General, said the troops had opened fire after they were shot at by a sniper.

"They were understanding orders to take cover and return any fire," he said.

This reporter, who was with the group of students, did not see any indication of sniper fire, nor was the sound of any gunfire audible before the Guard volley. Students, conceding that rocks had been thrown, heatedly denied that there was any sniper.

Gov. James A. Rhodes called on J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to aid in looking into the campus violence. A Justice Department spokesman said no decision had been made to investigate. At 2:10 this afternoon, after the shootings, the university president, Robert I. White, ordered the university closed for an indefinite time, and officials were making plans to evacuate the dormitories and bus out-of-state students to nearby cities.

Robinson Memorial Hospital identified the dead students as Allison Krause, 19 years old, of Pittsburgh; Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, of Youngstown, Ohio, both coeds; Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, of 22 Diamond Drive, Plainsview, L.I., and William K. Schroeder, 19, of Lorain, Ohio.

At 10:30 P.M. the hospital said that six students had been treated for gunshot wounds. Three were reported in critical condition and three in fair condition. Two others with superficial wounds were treated and released.

Students here, angered by the expansion of the war into Cambodia, have held demonstrations for the last three nights. On Saturday night, the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps building was burned to the ground and the Guard was called in and martial law was declared.

Today's rally, called after a night in which the police and guardsmen drove students into their dormitories and made 69 arrests, began as students rang the iron Victory bell on the commons, normally used to herald football victories.

A National Guard jeep drove onto the Commons and an officer ordered the crowd to disperse. Then several canisters of tear gas were fired, and the students straggled up a hill that borders the area and retreated into buildings.

A platoon of guardsmen, armed- as they have been since they arrived here with loaded M-1 rifles and gas equipment - moved across the green and over the crest of the hill, chasing the main body of protesters.

The youths split into two groups, one heading farther downhill toward a dormitory complex, the other eddying around a parking lot and girls' dormitory just below Taylor Hall, the architecture building.

The guardsmen moved into a grassy area just below the parking lot and fired several canisters of tear gas from their short, stubby launchers.

Three or four youths ran to the smoking canisters and hurled them back. Most fell far short, but one landed near the troops and a cheer went up from the crowd, which was chanting "Pigs off campus" and cursing the war.

A few youths in the front of the crowd ran into the parking lot and hurled stones or small chunks of pavement in the direction of the guardsmen. Then the troops began moving back up the hill in the direction of the college.

Students Cheer

The students in the parking lot area, numbering about 500, began to move toward the rear of the troops, cheering. Again, a few in front picked up stones from the edge of the parking lot and threw them at the guardsmen. Another group of several hundred students had gathered around the sides of Taylor Hall watching.

As the guardsmen, moving up the hill in single file, reached the crest, they suddenly turned, forming a skirmish line and opening fire.

The crackle of the rifle volley cut the suddenly still air. It appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer.

Some of the students dived to the ground, crawling on the grass in terror. Others stood shocked or half crouched, apparently believing the troops were firing into the air. Some of the rifle barrels were pointed upward.

Near the top of the hill at the corner of Taylor Hall, a student crumpled over, spun sideways and fell to the ground, shot in the head.

When the firing stopped, a slim girl, wearing a cowboy shirt and faded jeans, was lying face down on the road at the edge of the parking lot, blood pouring out onto the macadam, about 10 feet from this reporter.

Too Shocked to React

The youth stood stunned, many of them clustered in small groups staring at the bodies. A young man cradled one of the bleeding forms in his arms. Several girls began to cry. But many of the students who rushed from the scene seemed almost too shocked to react. Several gathered around an abstract steel sculpture in front of the building and looked at the .30-caliber bullet hole drilled through one of the plates.

The hospital said that six young people were being treated for gunshot wounds, some in the intensive care unit. Three of the students who were killed were dead on arrival at the hospital.

One guardsman was treated and released at the hospital and another was admitted with heat prostration.

In early afternoon, students attempted to gather at various areas of the Commons but were ordered away by guardsmen and the Ohio Highway Patrol, which moved in as reinforcements.

There were no further clashes, as faculty members, graduate assistants and student leaders urged the crowd to go back to dormitories.

But a bizarre atmosphere hung over the campus as a Guard helicopter hovered overhead, grim-faced officers maneuvered their men to safeguard the normally pastoral campus and students, dazed, fearful and angry, struggled to comprehend what had happened and to find something to do about it.

Students carrying suitcases and duffel bags began leaving the campus this afternoon. Early tonight the entire campus was sealed off and a court injunction was issued ordering all students to leave.

A 5 P.M. curfew was declared in Kent, and road blocks were set up around the town to prevent anyone from entering. A state of emergency was also declared in the nearby towns of Stow and Ravenna.

Questions:1. What events led to the shooting? (Who was involved, what was occurring on the campus the night

before and day of, etc.?)

2. Describe the shooting in detail:

3. How would the Kent State shooting affect people’s sentiment towards the Vietnam War as well as the government?

Richard Nixon’s Presidency

Richard Nixon, the politician's politicianRichard M. Nixon was a career politician, whose all-consuming passion was getting and holding onto power. As one historian put it, "Political maneuvering was the great game of Richard Nixon's life. He played it grimly and with pride in his expertise at it. He had no other hobbies."

Eight years later, with the Democratic Party in disarray amidst the quagmire of Vietnam, Nixon had a second chance at the highest office in the land. He won the election of 1968 against the uninspiring Democratic challenger Hubert Humphrey, but Democrats still controlled both houses of Congress. Although Nixon was no fan of the Democratic social programs that had taken root during Johnson's presidency, he initially did little to roll them back, choosing to spend what political capital he had on achieving his vision for US foreign policy.

Thus, Nixon focused his attentions mainly outside of the United States, promising that he would bring "peace with honor" after years of bloodshed in Vietnam.

1. What did Nixon focus on more in his first term-domestic or foreign policies?

Nixon's foreign policyDespite the debacle in Vietnam, Nixon did achieve a few key foreign policy victories during his time in office. Notably, Nixon reopened the American diplomatic relationship with the People's Republic of China, which the United States had refused to recognize since its communist revolution in 1949. The president and first lady Pat Nixon took a two-week-long public relations trip to China in 1972.

Astutely judging that a closer US relationship with China would make the Soviet Union very anxious, Nixon took a trip to the USSR shortly thereafter. He and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev agreed to a policy of détente (relaxed tensions between the two nations) and signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), reducing the number of nuclear missiles in their arsenals.

1. What were some of Nixon’s foreign policy victories?

2. What does détente mean?

3. What did SALT do?

Domestic policy under NixonWith Democrats dominating both the House and the Senate, legislation in the early 1970s looked a lot like legislation in the 1960s. Spending for social programs actually increased in the first years of Nixon's presidency, with expansions to Social Security, increases in food stamps and Medicaid benefits, and new funding for the arts and for cancer research. During these years, Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency to combat pollution, as well as protections for female university students in Title IX.

Although Nixon hoped that appointing right-leaning Supreme Court Justices like Warren Burger and William Rehnquist would counteract the liberal rulings of the 1950s and 1960s, the increasing conservative court largely upheld earlier decisions and even ruled that abortion was a private matter between a woman and her doctor in the landmark Roe v. Wade case. The Burger court had a mixed record on racial issues, however, extending affirmative action protections but ruling against busing students to combat de facto segregation.

Economically, Nixon tried and failed to cope with the growing issue of stagflation, an unprecedented combination of wage stagnation and price inflation. In 1971, Nixon announced a ninety-day wage and price freeze, and in a bid to increase American exports he took the dollar off the gold standard. Neither of these solutions did much to resuscitate the struggling American economy.

1. Describe some examples of how social programs expanded during Nixon’s first years as president?

2. What was the purpose of the Environmental Protection Agency?

3. What is the significance of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade?

4. What was stagflation?

Nixon's fall from graceA secretive and paranoid man, Nixon believed everyone was plotting against him. In reality, he was his own worst enemy. In 1972, allegations emerged that Nixon loyalists had wiretapped the Democratic National Committee office in Washington's Watergate building in order to spy on Democratic nominee George McGovern. Tapes of Nixon's conversations in the Oval Office revealed that he had forbidden the FBI from investigating the incident, a clear obstruction of justice.

Facing the threat of impeachment, Nixon resigned in 1974. He was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who immediately pardoned Nixon on all charges.

1. Describe the Watergate scandal and its outcome.

Economic Problems in the 1970s

Economic woes of the 1970sDuring the twenty-five years after World War II, the economic power of the United States was unparalleled. Indeed, contemporary observers commented that the postwar United States was in the midst of "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." The American gross national product (GNP), a measure of all goods and services produced by a country's citizens, increased from $200,000-million in 1940 to more than $500,000-million in 1960 to nearly a trillion dollars by 1970. Thanks to increases in productivity, the American standard of living had doubled between 1945 and 1970. With just six percent of the world's population, the United States enjoyed 40% of the world's wealth.

But troubling signs began to emerge in the late 1960s. Unemployment rose by 33% between 1968 and 1970, while the consumer price index went up by 11%. At the same time, real wages began to stagnate.

Simultaneous inflation and stagnation, nicknamed stagflation, puzzled economic analysts: usually, when wages fell, prices fell, and when wages increased, prices increased. But not in the 1970s. As a result, Americans had less purchasing power, and increasingly expensive American exports were at a disadvantage in the international market. In 1971, the United States experienced its first unfavorable international trade balance since 1893.

What caused this slump? The massive cost of the war in Vietnam and the expansion of social programs at home without commensurate tax increases helped to drive inflation (the price of goods and services).

Meanwhile, US manufacturing (especially automotive manufacturing) had become less competitive over time compared to efficient overseas rivals, particularly in Germany and Japan. More and more American jobs were in the service sector, which had lower wages and fewer benefits than manufacturing jobs. Individuals born on the tail end of the baby boom found themselves competing in a very crowded labor market, especially as more women and immigrants entered the workforce.

1. What had happened to the American standard of living between 1945-1970?

2. What economic issues did the United States start to experience in the 1960s?

3. What is stagflation? How did stagflation impact American society?

4. What caused the economic slump?

5. What happened to American manufacturing?

The oil embargoIn 1971, Richard Nixon attempted to remedy inflation by imposing a 90-day wage and price freeze. At the same time, he attempted to boost American exports by taking the dollar off the gold standard, devaluing the currency. These measures resulted in a short-term improvement (just long enough to get Nixon reelected in 1972) but did nothing to address the tangled roots of the problem.

Then the energy crisis hit. In October 1973, the United States supported Israel after a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur War. The oil-rich nations of the Middle East, already angry with the United States for devaluing the dollar (the currency used to purchase oil) determined to exact their revenge with an oil embargo. Led by Saudi Arabia, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced an oil shipping embargo against the United States as well as Israel's European allies.

The effects were immediate and dire. The price of oil shot up to $11.65 per barrel, an increase of 387%. Lines miles-long formed at gas stations. The United States consumed one third of the world's oil, and its citizens quickly discovered just how much of daily life depended on cheap oil. Families living in far-flung suburbs depended on automobiles to get everywhere. Even after the embargo ended in March 1974, prices for oil remained about 33% higher than they had been before the crisis.

Stagflation and the oil embargo both seemed to suggest that the American golden age that had followed on the heels of World War II was at an end. First Vietnam and then the Middle East had revealed the limits of US power abroad.

The complex forces which led to the downturn of the 1970s have continued to shape the American economy, particularly globalization (international interdependence of business and culture), which has accelerated as information technology has made communication and coordination easier. For example, many companies have moved manufacturing jobs out of the United States in order to save on labor costs. Today, 80% of all American jobs are in the service industry.

Since the oil embargo, the United States also has worked to reduce its dependence on foreign oil through a variety of means, including reducing energy usage, improving vehicle fuel-efficiency, investing in renewable energy, and increasing domestic oil production.

The quarter century after World War II was a time of incredible growth in the United States which produced the richest nation in human history, as well as a sense of unbridled optimism about the future. By the early 1970s, that chapter of the American adventure had ended. A new, altogether more uncertain era had begun.

1. What caused the energy crisis?

2. What were the effects of the energy crisis?

3. Define globalization.

4. What has happened to many manufacturing jobs in the U.S.? Why has this happened?

5. What efforts has the U.S. made to reduce its dependence on foreign oil?

During the oil crisis, gas stations ran out of gas and Americans had to ration what gas they did have. How is this similar to the coronavirus shortages today?