• U.S. saw it as proof that attrition works

• The VC claimed that they had forced the U.S. into combat to inflict casualties and learn about U.S. tactics.

• VC did not consider this a defeat.

U.S. Infantry disembarks

Scene from 2001 motion picture, We Were Soldiers

Starring Mel Gibson

• U.S. assassination program • We tried to eliminate VC leaders• Thousands died in these related

attacks.

• North Vietnamese supply line from DRVN and ending at various points near the South Vietnamese border

• A honeycomb of routes through jungle and grassland areas that totaled 12,000 miles of trail

• Although Laos was supposedly neutral (per the Geneva agreement of 1954), 100’s of miles of the trail passed through that country

• Before 1964, the trail was used by bicycles that were specially modified to carry pallets of rifles and ammunition weighing 400 pounds.

• In 1964 the trail was upgraded with bridges, way stations, underground barracks, storage facilities, workshops, and fuel depots

• In 1965 80,000 laborers were building 2 miles of new road each day

• 2,294 trucks passed through from Jan to May of 1965

• 12,000 DRVN soldiers infiltrated into the South in 1965

• 24,000 DRVN soldiers in 1966• It became of primary importance to stop

this infiltration along the trail• April 1965, the U.S. began air strikes

against the trail called “Steel Tiger”

• This led to the secret expansion of the war into Laos in 1965

• In March of 1970 President Nixon finally admitted U.S. military operations in Laos, claiming that the North Vietnamese had violated the Geneva Accord “before the ink was dry” and that over ½ million North Vietnamese troops had entered the South though Laos

The Cu Chi Tunnel

• Of major importance during the Vietnam War

• About 250 kilometers long

• Destructive gelled gasoline chemical that burns uncontrollably

• Sticks to bodies and sears off flesh• Burns at 800 to 1200 degrees

Celsius

• A deforesting agent that killed jungle life, exposing VC hiding places

• Contained dioxin – extremely toxic• Reported to cause death, debilitating

diseases, and genetic defects to those exposed

C 123 “Supplier” of Agent Orange

Service Patch awarded for flying Agent

Orange “Ranch Hand”

missions

• May 1967 – CIA estimates that 430,000 Viet Cong had infiltrated the South

• Dec 1967 – 45% of American public said our involvement in Vietnam was a mistake

• Nov 1967 – Vice President Humphrey says on the “Today Show” – “We are on the offensive. Territory is being gained. We are making steady progress.”

• Nov 21, 1967 – General Westmoreland says that DRVN was “unable to mount a major offensive . . . I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing.”

• Westmoreland says in interview with Time Magazine, “I hope they try something, because we are looking forward for a fight.”

• Tết Nguyên Dán – January 31 - the lunar new year– most important Vietnamese holiday

• Both North and South Vietnam had announced on national radio that there would be a three-day cease-fire during the Tet celebration

• Jan 31, 1968 - The VC launched a series of unexpected highly coordinated attacks all across South Vietnam.

• 80,000 VC troops struck more than 100 towns and cities – including Saigon

• U.S. embassy in Saigon was invaded• The largest military operation by either side

in the war up until then

Saigon burns

• The North Vietnamese had hoped to spark a nationwide Communist rebellion among the people of South Vietnam.

• They were unsuccessful.• But it showed the American public that

our government had not been truthful about the situation in Vietnam.

• Attacks continued until September 1968.

• Ended U.S. hopes of winning the war• After Tet, we were looking for a way

out.

• The Media shapes how the public views events- through graphic images

• The public stops trusting the gov’t when they keep saying we are winning the war but the images show the opp.

• March 16, 1968• “Search and destroy” mission• A small village in South Vietnam

where 250 VC were rumored to be hiding

• When we arrived, we found only women and children

• Lt. William Calley ordered all of the inhabitants rounded up and executed

• Only one U.S. chopper crew flew in and stopped the slaughter.

• 407 villagers were killed• American public was shocked and

outraged

• Lt. William Calley was tried for murder• Claimed he was only following orders to kill

everyone in the village• Dishonorably discharged and received a life

term in prison • His sentence was later reduced by President

Nixon• Released on parole in November 1975

Lt. Calley escorted to Ft. Benning stockade March 31, 1971

My Lai Memorial at the site of the

massacre

• The U.S. launched secret attacks on Cambodia starting in 1969, looking for rumored VC headquarters.

• By 1975, the VC continued to use Cambodian supply lines

• Protests erupted across the U.S. when the public found out about these bombings.

Cambodia

• February 1971• RVN forces were to attack the Ho Chi

Minh Trail in Laos to cut off VC supply lines.

• Would prove that Vietnamization was working

• But as the RVN forces prepared, the VC attacked.

• Only U.S. B-52 bombers saved the day. • It was a disaster that proved that the

RVN existed only through massive U.S. support.

• Sit-ins • Marches

• Burning of draft cards• Blocking troops trains

• Self-immolation• Teach-ins

• Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee

• Helped organize many of the war protests on college campuses

Students would pick public businesses or college campuses and simply sit there in protest of the war. Made national news as they were dragged out by police.

University of Berkeley 1965

University of Berkeley 1965

• A series of nationwide debates and lectures about U.S. presence in Vietnam

• The goal was to educate the public and increase pressure on the government to change its Vietnam policy.

• American youth movement that blamed “the establishment” for

the war• The establishment – old

white men

Beliefs included: –questioning authority

– seeking personal pleasure–alternative lifestyles

–different clothing styles– rock music

–drugs

• A group that was part of the counterculture

• Valued youth, individuality, spontaneity, “living for today”

• Promoted non-materialism, peace, love of nature, and sexual freedom

• August 1969• 3 day music festival at Max Yazgur’s farm in

upstate New York• Organizers expected 10,000 – 20,000• 400,000 counterculture youth showed up• Concert organizers abandoned the plan to set

up fences and made the concert free

Jimi Hendrix

• Youth International Party• “Anarchist hippies” – Planned several

fictional events to alarm the public• Planned to go the Democratic Convention

in 1968 and protest by nominating a pig named “Pigasus” for president and then eating him

• Invaded Disneyland in August of 1970, where they planned to barbeque Porky Pig

Yippies invade Tom Sawyer’s

Island at Disneyland during

the “Yippie Invasion”

Yippies are arrested and the Disneyland closes 5 hours early

• November 1969• Thousands marched on Washington

D.C. to protest the war• At night they lit candles and marched

silently in honor of the dead

• Even government officials’ families participated, such as Vice Pres. Agnew’s daughter.

• Showed that mainstream Americans were opposed to the war, not just Hippies

Video: Protestors for Peace, Washington D.C., Nov. 1969

7:50

• An Ohio working-class commuter university

• May 2, 1970 - Students gathered on the grounds to protest the war

• A fire broke out in the ROTC building• The Ohio National Guard was called in

• On May 4, the National Guard threw tear gas into the crowd of students and ordered them to disperse.

• Students responded by throwing rocks at the armed guards.

• The guards fired into the crowd of students• 4 killed; 13 wounded – some not even

participants in the protest

“Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,We're finally on our own.This summer I hear the drumming,Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to itSoldiers are gunning us downShould have been gone long ago.What if you knew herAnd found her dead on the groundHow can you run when you know?

Video: “Ohio” cover by 4 Way Street

Video: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sing “Ohio” (1974)

Those who favored the war

Those who favored peace

• LBJ announced that he would not run for reelection, mainly because of the war in Vietnam.

• The election was highly turbulent as Americans protested and debated the war.

• JFK’s younger brother• U.S. Attorney General

under JFK • Entered Presidential

race when LBJ announced he would not run again

• Supported civil rights and the end of the war in Vietnam

Assassinated while campaigning in LA, California

June 5, 1968

Age 42

Video: Final interview and assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, June 5, 1968

2:00

• Democrat - Governor of Alabama (16 years total)

• Opposed integration – “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”

• Physically stood in the doorway to block entry of two black students to the University of Alabama in June 1963

• 1968 - Ran as an American Independent Party candidate in the Presidential election

• Took away enough votes from the Democrats to allow Nixon to win the election.

• Ran for President again in 1972 and was shot and paralyzed by a attempted assassin

Governor George Wallace

• Eisenhower’s Vice President

• Republican • Ran against JFK

in 1960 and lost an extremely close election

• Won Presidency in 1968 by promising a “secret plan” to win the war in Vietnam

• Secretly widened the war in Vietnam into Cambodia and Laos

• Passed in 1971 • Lowered the voting age to 18 • People believed that if a young

person is old enough to die for his nation at age 18, then he is old enough to vote.

• Nixon’s term• U.S. forces would be used to train RVN

forces • Eventually, the U.S. would scale back our

troop levels until the RVN could function self-sufficiently

• By 1972, U.S. troops in Vietnam had been reduced to 24,000

• Secretary of State under Nixon

• Helped ease tensions between the U.S., China and the USSR

• Helped negotiate the peace settlement in Vietnam

• Began May 1968• Made little progress• Stalled over various important issues

– Permanent international boundary between North and South Vietnam

– Withdrawal of all American troops– Continued American aid to the South– Return of all American prisoners of war– Continuation of President Thieu in the South

• Paris Peace Talks had stalled and the 1972 election was approaching.

• Jan. 1972, Nixon announced that the North Vietnamese had refused to accept our settlement offer.

• Just days before the election, Kissinger announced that “Peace is at hand,” even though the settlement was not final.

• Nixon was re-elected in Nov 1972.

• Dec. 1972 - “The Christmas Bombings”• The last American battle of the war• Nixon’s goal was to force the North

Vietnamese back to the Paris peace talks• Originally planned as a 3 day attack (Dec.

18 -20) on Hanoi and Haiphong• Operation was planned by SAC (Strategic

Air Command) Headquarters in Omaha

• They attacked at night in waves timed just a few minutes apart

• About100 B 52’s approached Hanoi in groups of 3, traveling in straight lines of exactly the same altitude, making it easy for SAM’s (Surface to Air Missiles) to track and shoot them down

• In the first 3 nights, 8 American B52’s were shot down

• On Dec. 21st Nixon ordered the attacks be extended past the original 3 days

• SAC reviewed and revised its tactics to reduce further losses of aircraft

• Bombings continued everyday (except Christmas) until Dec. 29th

• North Vietnam finally agreed to return to the Paris negotiations

• 729 night time B52 sorties and 650 daytime smaller fighter craft flown

• Over 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the Hanoi/Haiphong area.

• Over 2000 killed• 1600 civilians killed• 15 B52s lost / 12 smaller aircraft lost• 33 crew members killed/ 33 became POWs• World leaders denounced the bombings.• Nixon’s approval rating in U.S. fell to 39%.

• The North Vietnamese insisted that Americans are told the bombings were not the reason they returned to the peace talks.

• Jan. 1973 – final agreement signed:– U.S. would withdraw all troops within 60 days– All prisoners of war would be released– Ended military activities in Cambodia and Laos– 17th parallel would remain a “temporary”

dividing line• Nixon believed he had achieved “peace with

honor.”

• 58,000 dead• 300,000 wounded

• 2,500 POW’s and MIA’s• $150 billion spent

• Prisoners of war • Hundreds of U.S. soldiers had been

captured and detained by VC forces.• Some had been executed and some

were tortured before being returned at the end of the war.

• “Missing in action” • Hundreds of U.S. soldiers remained

unaccounted for at the end of the war.• We weren’t sure if they had been

killed, captured, had deserted, or something else.

Many people wore POW/MIA bracelets to honor those captured or missing

• 1974 – 1977• Republican• Became Vice President

when Agnew resigned• Became President

when Nixon resigned in Aug. 1974

• Brought Vietnam War to a final conclusion

• North Vietnam continued to invade the South after American troops withdrew

• In 1972, Nixon had secretly promised President Thieu of South Vietnam that America would begin bombing the North again if they violated the Paris peace agreement.

• In 1974, Ford asked Congress for aid, but they refused to send any more money or troops to help the South

• April 29, 1975 Communist forces surrounded Saigon.

• The U.S. frantically evacuated our embassy.• Helicopters airlifted over 1,000 Americans

and 6,000 Vietnamese out of the city to aircraft carriers.

• April 30, 1975 – Saigon government officially surrendered to the North

• Vietnam became a single Communist nation

Video: BBC report on the fall of Saigon, April 1975

4:48

• In 1975, Laos and Cambodia fell to Communism

• Cambodia was overtaken by the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist group

• They killed 1.5 million Cambodians – anyone they believed was tainted by “Western” ways

• Over 1.5 million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians fled their countries, many coming to the U.S. as refugees

• 1973 - A law designed to limit a President’s ability to wage war without Congressional approval. Passed over Nixon’s veto– Requires a President to notify Congress within

48 hours after deployment of troops, including reasons for and the expected length of the mission.

– Limits troop involvement to 60 days without Congressional approval.

– Congress can demand that the President bring the troops home.

Video: Charlie Daniels Band sings “Still in Saigon”

• Showed the Gov’t lied to the people about Vietnam

• Presidents didn’t want to admit the disgrace of the defeat

• Nixon’s re-election agents got caught breaking in the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.

• Nixon tried to cover up the scandal claiming executive privilege.

• Nixon resigned before being impeached.• Lowered public confidence in gov’t officals

• Nixon’s relaxing tensions with the Soviet Union

• Stopped the nuclear build-up between the two nations.