The Vietnam Era: A Nation in Turmoil

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The Vietnam Era A Nation in Turmoil

• Vietnam represented a turning point in American
  politics, society and foreign policy.

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I. The French Phase of the War
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A. World War II

• Japanese invasion of French Indo-China and its
  impact
• French resistance to giving up Indochina
• The Vietminh and their desire for independence
• Ho Chi Minh

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B. Post-War Fighting

• French reassert their control of Indochina
• Vietnam drifts into the Cold War
• Inconclusive fighting
• U.S. reaction
• Ho Chi Minh Nationalist or Communist?
• Containment leads U.S. to support French in
  Vietnam

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C. Dien Bien Phu (1954)

• The location and strategy of Dien Bien Phu
• Problems with this strategy
• Apparent French loss creates U.S. dilemma
• Eisenhowers decision

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D. The Geneva Conference (1954)

• 18 nations attended this Conference
• The Geneva Accords
• --Temporary division along the 17th parallel
• --nationwide free elections in 1956
• No one signed the Accords

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II. The Beginning of U.S. Involvement
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A. The Eisenhower Years

• Post-Geneva U.S. position
• New leader in the South Ngo Dinh Diem
• Diems mixed record
• Diems refusal to participate in 1956 elections
• Armed resistance against Diem grows in South
  Vietnam

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A. Eisenhower Years (cont.)

• Southern resistance fighters are known as the
  Viet Cong (VC)
• VC use of selective terror
• VC relatively independent of the North Vietnamese
  army
• Increasing disorder and confusion in South Vietnam

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B. The Kennedy Years

• JFK increases the number of military advisors
• Diem government became increasingly remote and
  corrupt
• Vietnamese Buddhist priests protest Diems rule
• U.S. sanctions assassination of Diem and a change
  in government

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C. The Johnson Years

• Johnsons background and political skills
• -- The Johnson Treatment
• Fluidity of Vietnam policy in the fall of 1963
• Vietnam seen as a traditional containment problem

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C. The Johnson Years (cont.)

• LBJ keeps all of Kennedys advisors
• LBJ meets with Henry Cabot Lodge 2 days after
  JFKs death
• Keeping Vietnam quiet
• By 1964, NVA troops are moving into South Vietnam

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III. The 1964 Presidential Election

• Republican party falls into the hands of the
  conservative right
• Barry Goldwaters unique ability to frighten
  voters
• Johnson appears moderate by comparison
• North Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox in
  August of 1964

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III. The 1964 Election (cont.)

• LBJ bombs torpedo boat bases
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• LBJs landslide victory
• New Liberal Democratic congressmen break the
  conservative stranglehold
• Johnsons mandate for change

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IV. The Great Society

• Johnsons War on Poverty
• Harringtons The Other America (1962)
• Great Society programs
• Medicare, Medicaid and Federal aid to education
• New immigration laws
• Problems with the Great Society legislation

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V. The Commitment of U.S. Ground Forces to
Vietnam

• The opportunity to get out of Vietnam in 1964
• The Domino Theory in Southeast Asia
• U.S. message that would be sent with ground
  troops
• Rolling Thunder (winter of 1964-1965)
• Inability to stop bombing

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V. U.S. Ground Forces (cont.)

• Need for air bases for bombing campaign
• Need for marines to protect the air bases (March
  8, 1965)
• Search and Destroy patrols
• Escalation of the War on both sides

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VI. An Overall Strategy in Vietnam?

• William Westmoreland claims that U.S. has a
  strategy
• No plans to invade and take over North Vietnam
• Limited U.S. commitment from the beginning

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VI. Overall Strategy? (cont.)

• U.S. support for the war eroded faster than North
  Vietnamese will to fight
• --Fulbright hearings (1966)
• Military regrets over the conduct of the war
• LBJs predicament
• Vietnam as a limited war of body counts

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VII. Increasing Costs of the Vietnam War

• U.S. seen as an international bully
• Less and less concern for South Vietnam
• South Vietnamese economy was destroyed
• War refugees and the unpopularity of the South
  Vietnamese government
• U.S. military loses prestige
• Presidential prestige was damaged
• The Great Society reform was sidetracked

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VIII. The Awful Realization 1968 Tet Offensive

• American belief that we were winning the war
• The Tet Offensive (January, 1968)
• The consequences of the Tet offensive
• The American press turns against the war effort
• --The significance of Walter Cronkites comments

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VIII. Tet Offensive (cont.)

• Calls for more troops
• Growing belief within the Johnson Administration
  that there is no hope for victory
• Morale of U.S. troops plummets
• -- fragging incidents
• -- Increased drug use
• --My Lai Massacre (1968)

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IX. The 1968 Presidential Election

• The Violence of 1968
• Johnsons Decisions to stop bombing and not to
  run for president
• A scramble for the Democratic nomination
• Republicans nominated Richard Nixon
• -- secret plan to end the Vietnam war

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IX. 1968 Election (cont.)

• The third-party candidacy of Governor George
  Wallace
• -- Segregation now . . Segregation forever
• The closeness of this election in the last few
  months
• Final Result and its implications

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X. Nixon and Vietnam

• U.S. strategy to get out of Vietnam
• Vietnamization
• Bombing to create a bloody balance
• Changes in the draft reduce public protests of
  the War

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X. Nixon and Vietnam (cont.)

• 1970 Invasion of Cambodia and subsequent protests
• --Kent State
• --Jackson State
• Reaction against these anti-war protests
• -- The Silent Majority
• Kissingers negotiations with Le Duc Tho
  (1969-1972)

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X. Nixon and Vietnam (cont.)

• 1972 election and social divisions at home
  produced shift in U.S. position
• -- Peace is at hand
• Savage B-52 raids and mining of harbors make
  North Vietnamese more flexible
• Truce signed on January 27, 1973

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X. Nixon and Vietnam (cont.)

• Post-truce warfare
• Last Americans leave in 1975
• Casualties and cost of the Vietnam War
• Questioning of Containment Policy
• Remembering the lessons of Vietnam
• Vietnam War Memorial

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XI. The Nixon Years at Home

• Nixons inability to influence a Democratic
  Congress
• Nixons opposition to Civil Rights laws
• --The Bakke decision (1978)
• Nixons appointments to the Supreme Court
• Getting Tough on Crime and Environmental Issues

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XI. The Nixon Years at Home (cont.)

• Economic problems plagued the Nixon White House
• -- Stagflation
• Causes of these economic woes
• The Nixon Recession
• Wage and Price Controls (1971)

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XII. The 1972 Presidential Election

• Nixons election seems assured
• Main threat seemed to be George Wallace
• Democrats nominate anti-war candidate George
  McGovern
• McGoverns campaign problems
• Election Results
• The dirty tricks of CREEP

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal

• Nixons preference for isolation
• Nixons sensitivity to criticism
• Nixons pattern of deceit
• Agnew as point man and the enemies list
• The Pentagon Papers

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal (cont.)

• Creation of the Plumbers Unit led by G. Gordon
  Liddy and H. Howard Hunt
• The Ellsberg break-in
• Plumbers caught breaking into Democratic
  headquarters at the Watergate hotel on June 17,
  1972

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal (cont.)

• Nixon had no knowledge of the break-in, but he
  was part of the cover-up from the beginning
• The cover-up begins to unravel
• Senate Watergate committee is formed to
  investigate

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal (cont.)

• John Deans testimony and the existence of the
  Oval Office tapes
• Year-long battle for the Nixon tapes
• -- Saturday Night Massacre
• Supreme Court rules that Nixon must hand over the
  tapes (July, 1974)

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal (cont.)

• Gaps in the tapes are discovered
• House Judiciary Committee recommends three
  articles of impeachment
• Nixon resigns on August 9, 1974

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XIII. The Watergate Scandal (cont.)

• Agnews resignation in October of 1973
• Gerald Ford appointed by Nixon to replace Agnew
• Ford succeeds Nixon as president
• Controversy over the Nixon pardon

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XIV. Lessons of Watergate

• First resignation of a U.S. president
• Most serious constitutional crisis since 1867
• Whole episode disclosed the strengths and
  weaknesses of the American political system
• Changing nature of presidential scandal

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XIV. Lessons of Watergate (cont.)

• Presidential prestige was significantly tarnished
• The good and the bad aspects of investigative
  journalism were displayed
• --Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
• -- All the Presidents Men

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XIV. Lessons of Watergate (cont.)

• Crisis displayed the importance of an independent
  federal judiciary
• Congressional power is rejuvenated
• -- War Powers Act (1973)
• --Campaign Finance Reform (1974)
• Public faith in politicians drops dramatically