Vietnam War and Opposition Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Vietnam War and Opposition

Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962 • Exercise in and an excellent example of Brinkmanship • Display of deterrence and Mutually Assured Destruction, containment and spheres of influence

Vietnam as Proxy War • • France conquered Vietnam in 1880 s – 1940, WWII - Japan takes over French fight to regain control in 1946 – Nationalist Independence Movement (Communist) - leader: Ho Chi Minh – USA stayed out: Ho Chi Minh stated he only wanted independence • • 1949 Mao Zedong won control of China and USA fears Minh is China’s puppet government USA pays France $ Millions/year to help with the war and set up rival government in South. Eventually, French are crushed at the battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954) Geneva Peace Conference: French agreed to leave and Vietnam was left divided

Domino Effect • Beginning with Eisenhower, and heightened under Kennedy, the U. S. began providing military observers • Fear that if Vietnam fell to communism that other countries in the region would • Justified American intervention

Domino Effect

Domino Effect • “Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. ” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Escalation and the Gulf of Tonkin • Troop deployment continues to increase throughout 1961 -62 • U. S. ship attacked in Gulf of Tonkin in 1965 • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, gives President Johnson power to increase troop presence • Combat units deployed in 1965

Tet Offensive: 1968 • Major offensive launched by North Vietnamese Army • U. S. and South Vietnamese forces surprised, but eventually beat back attacks • U. S. public surprised by size of attack

Nixon Doctrine/ Vietnamization • End U. S. involvement in Vietnam • Build up South Vietnamese forces, or “Vietnamization” • Madman Theory • Pursue détente with Soviet Union and China

Fall of Saigon • Paris Peace Accords agreed to in 1973, U. S. to remove troops and South Vietnam to fend for itself • North Vietnamese forces overwhelmed the South • U. S. evacuate personnel from Saigon

Opposition to Vietnam • American public increasingly opposed to the war, especially after the Tet Offensive • Opposition to the Draft – – Kennedy Husbands Baby Boomers Hippies Drew from lower and middle classes

My Lai Massacre • Mass killing of 347 -504 civilians in 1968 by U. S. forces • “it was necessary to destroy the village to save it” • Winning the hearts and minds

Kent State: 1970 • Student protest increased after four students shot by Ohio Army National Guard • Nationwide student protests to war

Role of Media • American civilians exposed to the conflict like never before • American support for war decreased after exposure to atrocities • Citizens questioned purpose of war

“If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read ‘Vietnam’. ” - Martin Luther King Jr. , 1967