The 1968 Election Lyndon Johnson did not run for re-election. Democratic Party split. Robert Kennedy...
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Transcript of The 1968 Election Lyndon Johnson did not run for re-election. Democratic Party split. Robert Kennedy...
The 1968 Election• Lyndon Johnson did not run for
re-election.• Democratic Party split. Robert
Kennedy assassinated. Hubert Humphrey nominated.
• Nixon vowed to restore law and order, and to end the war in Vietnam
“Vietnamization” of the War
• Nixon’s plan for “peace with honor.”• Let South Vietnam do most of the actual
fighting.• Reduced U.S. troops steadily from 1969 –
1973.
Continued U.S. Involvement
• Nixon ordered invasion of Cambodia in 1970.
• Continued bombing of North Vietnam (the “mad bomber”). Hope to bring them to the negotiations table.
Problems and Protest Back Home
• The My Lai Massacre: A company of American soldiers brutally killed the majority of the population of the South Vietnamese village of My Lai in March 1968.
• In 1970, a U.S. Army board charged 14 officers of crimes related to the events at My Lai; only one was convicted.
• Led to further opposition to the war and greater division at home.
The My Lai Massacre
Kent State
• In response to the invasion of Cambodia, colleges burst out in protests, 1.5 million students closed more than 1,200 campuses
• On May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University, the National Guard opened fire on protestors after the ROTC building was burned down and rocks were thrown at the National Guard.
• 4 were killed, nine wounded.
Kent State University
U.S. Pulls out of the War –March of 1973
• All U.S. troops left Vietnam.• The war between the North and South
continued for two more years.• Threat of renewed U.S. bombing kept
North Vietnam from conquering South Vietnam.
• Nixon resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.
North Vietnam captures Saigon – August 1975.
• South Vietnam surrendered.• Vietnam united under Communist Rule.
The Fall of Saigon
1982: The Wall• The Vietnam Veterans’
Memorial unveiled in Washington, DC