Bellwork: Based on your knowledge on American Cold War Policies; 1. What policy is depicted by the soldier in the cartoon?

Transcription

1 Bellwork: Based on your knowledge on American Cold War Policies; 1. What policy is depicted by the soldier in the cartoon? 2. What war will result from the efforts shown in the cartoon 3. What Cold War theory does the cartoon depict? 1

2 The President's News Conference of April 7, 1954 Q. Robert Richards, Copley Press: Mr. President, would you mind commenting on the strategic importance of Indochina to the free world? I think there has been, across the country, some lack of understanding on just what it means to us. The President. You have, of course, both the specific and the general when you talk about such things. First of all, you have the specific value of a locality in its production of materials that the world needs. Then you have the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is inimical to the free world. 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. Then with respect to more people passing under this domination, Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and we simply can't afford greater losses. So, the possible consequences of the loss are just incalculable to the free world. Domino Theory Principle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954 Public Papers of the Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954, p

3 The Vietnam War and Counter Culture 1960 to 1975 Vietnam was a French colony before WW II. America supports French effort to control colonial holdings. Ho Chi Minh wants a united communist Vietnam. Eisenhower will send American advisors aid the French. French defeated at Dien Bien Phu and seek peace and release Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from French rule. Kennedy sends aid and troops to aid Diem's fight against communist Ho. Diem is unpopular due to outlawing Buddhism and making Catholicism the national religion. Ho Chi Minh Hanoi forms National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Diem government dubs them "Vietcong." 3

4 Corruption, religious differences, and mounting successes by the Vietcong guerrillas weakened the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was Catholic, and public protests over the repression of Buddhists threatened the stability of his regime. Buddhist monks protest Diem's law by setting themselves on fire. October 24, 1961 On the sixth anniversary of the Republic of South Vietnam, President Kennedy sends a letter to President Diem and pledges "the United States is determined to help Vietnam preserve its independence..." President Kennedy then sends additional military advisors along with American helicopter units to transport and direct South Vietnamese troops in battle, thus involving Americans in combat operations. The number of military advisors sent by Kennedy will eventually surpass 16,000. 4

5 Assassinations bring changes in leadership and the course of the war in Vietnam President Kennedy Assassinated in Dallas: Kennedy's death meant that the problem of how to proceed in Vietnam fell squarely into the lap of his vice president, Lyndon Johnson. Diem Overthrown, Murdered: With approval of the United States, operatives within the South Vietnamese military overthrow Diem. He and his brother Nhu are shot and killed in the aftermath. In the aftermath of the November 1 coup that resulted in the murder of President Ngo Dinh Diem, Gen. Duong Van Minh, leading the Revolutionary Military Committee of the dissident generals who had conducted the coup, takes over leadership of South Vietnam. A Buddhist named Nguyen Ngoc Tho became premier, but the real power was held by the Revolutionary Military Committee headed by General Minh. Gen. Duong Van Minh Nguyen Ngoc Tho Johnson takes the Oath of Office aboard Air Force One 5

6 U.S.S. Maddox U.S.S. C. Turner Joy The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in 1964, was a major turning point in United States military involvement in Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in August North Vietnamese warships purportedly attacked United States warships, the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy, on two separate occasions in the Gulf of Tonkin, a body of water neighboring modernday Vietnam. President Lyndon Baines Johnson claimed that the United States did nothing to provoke these two attacks and that North Vietnam was the aggressor. Subsequent reports show that the United States actually provoked these attacks by supporting South Vietnamese commandos operating in North Vietnam and by using U.S. warships to identify North Vietnamese radar stations along the coastline of North Vietnam. There remains no doubt that the North Vietnamese attacked the U.S.S. Maddox in the first incident, which occurred on August 2, 1964, although it does appear that the United States provoked this attack. 6

7 Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964) On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. The joint resolution to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia passed on August 7, and became the subject of great political controversy in the course of the undeclared war that followed. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution stated that Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repeal any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression. As a result, President Johnson, and later President Nixon, relied on the resolution as the legal basis for their military policies in Vietnam. The Resolution allows Johnson to wage all out war against North Vietnam without ever securing a formal Declaration of War from Congress. 7

8 What is the message or feeling portrayed in these images? 8

9 In the lead up to the 1964 presidential election, Johnson was chided by the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, for being too soft in his approach to the North Vietnamese. In response, Johnson told the public that he was not prepared to send US troops thousands of miles overseas to do what the South Vietnamese Army should be doing protecting its people. Johnson won the 1964 presidential election with ease. It was not long before US troops were sent to South Vietnam. 9

10 1965 Operation "Rolling Thunder" Deployed: Sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, begin in February. The nearly continuous air raids would go on for three years. Marines Arrive at Da Nang: The first American combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrive in Vietnam to defend the US airfield at Da Nang. Scattered Vietcong gunfire is reported, but no Marines are injured. Heavy Fighting at Ia Drang Valley: The first conventional battle of the Vietnam war takes place as American forces clash with North Vietnamese units in the Ia Drang Valley. The US 1st Air Cavalry Division employs its newly enhanced technique of aerial reconnaissance to finally defeat the NVA, although heavy casualties are reported on both sides. US Troop Levels Top 200,000 10

11 When the Americans escalated their involvement in the Vietnam War the Central Highlands the Montagnard occupied became strategically important as it included the Ho Chi Minh trail the North Vietnamese supply line. The Montagnard's unfailing support of the US agenda and willingness to fight for their cause against Communism earned the people the reputation as "America's most loyal allies in Vietnam." Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to Napalm in Vietnam In Vietnam, the most frequently used container of napalm held about 130 gallons of gasoline with a solution of six percent napalm added. When dropped from hedgehopping those flying at an altitude of about 100 feet the device was able to cover a surface with flames 270 feet long and 75 feet wide. Montagnard recon teams 11

12 Kim Phuc's village was bombed by napalm and is pictured running, the photographer took her and others to a hospital. She survived, became a doctor, has two children and is a Canadian citizen. Life after napalm, Kim and her husband meet the Queen of England. Fighting the illusive Vietcong often brought soldiers in contact with villages, some suspected in aiding the VC. Great suffering was frequently endured by the village farmers. 12

13 Air War over Vietnam Close air support, troop insertion, high altitude bombing and dogfights against communist MIGs all comprised the extensive air war during the war. 13

14 1968 North Vietnamese Launch Tet Offensive: In a show of military might that catches the US military off guard, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces sweep down upon several key cities and provinces in South Vietnam, including its capital, Saigon. Within days, American forces turn back the onslaught and recapture most areas. From a military point of view, Tet is a huge defeat for the Communists, but turns out to be a political and psychological victory. The US military's assessment of the war is questioned and the "end of tunnel" seems very far off. U.S. Embassy in Saigon Siege of fire base Khe Sanh, part of the Tet Offensive, lasted 77 days. Fighting to take back Hue Vietcong executed during Tet 14

15 The military defeat of North Vietnam after the Tet Offensive of 1968 became a political victory for North Vietnam because of anti war demonstrations and the sensationalism of the news media. The North Vietnamese interpreted the U.S. reaction to these events as the weakening of America's resolve to win the war. The North Vietnamese believed that victory could be theirs, if they stayed their course. War protest with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ud TyE Water Cronkite post Tet opinion Country Joe at Woodstock Jan & Dean Eve of Destruction CCR Run Through the Jungle Rolling Stones... door gunners Buffalo Springfield For What it's Worth 15

16 1. What was the Tet Offensive? 2. Which side won the Tet Offensive? 3. What impact did Tet have on the American war effort? 16

17 Television brings the war into America living rooms and has a major impact on public opinion. The horrors of war entered the living rooms of Americans for the first time during the Vietnam War. For almost a decade in between school, work, and dinners, the American public could watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home. Though initial coverage generally supported U.S involvement in the war, television news dramatically changed its frame of the war after the Tet Offensive. Images of the U.S led massacre at My Lai dominated the television, yet the daily atrocities committed by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong rarely made the evening news. Moreover, the anti war movement at home gained increasing media attention while the U.S soldier was forgotten in Vietnam. news footage news footage 1969 As the war progresses the news coverage is less optimistic and will cause many Americans to doubt the mission and the possible outcome of America's involvement in Vietnam. 17

18 LBJ Announces He Won't Run: With his popularity plummeting and dismayed by Senator Eugene McCarthy's strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Lyndon Johnson stuns the nation and announces that he will not be a candidate for re election. Upheaval at Democratic Convention in Chicago: As the frazzled Democratic party prepares to hold its nominating convention in Chicago, city officials gear up for a deluge of demonstrations. Mayor Richard Daley orders police to crackdown on antiwar protests. As the nation watched on television, the area around the convention erupts in violence. The worst day of protesting was Wednesday, and was dubbed the "Battle of Michigan Avenue." Protesters were stopped in their march to the convention site and the media recorded graphic violence on the part of the Chicago police. Many innocent bystanders, reporters and doctors offering medical help were severely beaten by the police. Humphrey easily won the nomination by more than a 1,000 votes, with the delegation from Pennsylvania putting him over the top. However, the Democratic Party was divided between pro war and anti war opinions. This will open the door for a Republican victory. 18

19 Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore "law and order". Mr. Nixon, who hated the media and the media hated him, had better coverage than the other candidates during this election because he had promised to end the War if he was elected president with his secret plan. 19

20 Nixon believes we can obtain, "Peace with honor" and begins Secret Bombing of Cambodia: In an effort to destroy Communist supply routes and base camps in Cambodia, President Nixon gives the go ahead to "Operation Breakfast." The covert bombing of Cambodia, conducted without the knowledge of Congress or the American public, will continue for fourteen months. Although Nixon knew, the war could not been won, he also knew the U.S. had the ability to severely damage North Vietnam and its army. So whenever he saw the need to bomb the North Vietnamese back to the table, he ordered bombing raids into Cambodia, Laos (which Johnson began) or even North Vietnam itself. Both Cambodia and Laos served the North as re supply roots, as North and South Vietnam were divided by a Demilitarized Zone. So North Vietnam established what was called the Ho Chi Minh Trial into the South. Nixon indeed withdrew American troops from Indochina. Mostly, whenever he declared that there was a new military operation, he also declared, the U.S. was to withdraw to troops. With half of the deaths since 1961, the election year of 1968 had been the bloodiest year since. But as it turned out, in 1969 the U.S. would have to suffer even losses. So in the U.S. there was hardly a topic besides Vietnam and protests intensified. The strongest military operations, however, were still to come. After the North had not only rejected a new American peace proposal the United States conducted the Christmas Bombing air raids, dropping more bombs than in all the years since 1961 together. The strategy behind the U.S. bombing raids was what was called the madman theory. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird describes a policy of "Vietnamization" when discussing a diminishing role for the US military in Vietnam. The objective of the policy is to shift the burden of defeating the Communists onto the South Vietnamese Army and away from the United States. AcZBn10 Nixon's Bombing of North Vietnam 20

21 1968 My Lai Massacre On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, American Division entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai. "This is what you've been waiting for search and destroy and you've got it," said their superior officers. A short time later the killing began. When news of the atrocities surfaced, it sent shock waves through the U.S. political establishment, the military's chain of command, and an already divided American public. Poised for Conflict My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply entrenched. Numerous members of Charlie Company had been maimed or killed in the area during the preceding weeks. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, entered the village poised for engagement with their elusive enemy. Massacre As the "search and destroy" mission unfolded, it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly. Calley ordered his men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire. As news of the massacre reaches the American public in 1969, anti war feeling grow along with questions of Military leaders abilities. Lt. William Calley Jr. is Court Marshalled for My Lai 21

22 Anti War Protest sweep across American college campuses and Washington D.C. Counter Culture members, Hippies and anti war activist travel across the country to join and organize war protest on college campuses. As the war drags on the protest become more violent and will boil over at Kent State University, Ohio on May 4, Hanoi Jane and Sec. of State Kerry 22

23 The Kent State Shootings On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. 1. Friday evening in downtown Kent began peacefully with the usual socializing in the bars, but events quickly escalated into a violent confrontation between protestors and local police. 2. Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency, called Governor James Rhodes' office to make an official request for assistance from the Ohio National Guard. 3. As the Guard arrived in Kent at about 10 p.m., they encountered a tumultuous scene. The wooden ROTC building adjacent to the Commons was ablaze and would eventually burn to the ground that evening, with well over 1000 demonstrators surrounding the building. 4. Monday, May 4. By noon, the entire Commons area contained approximately 3000 people. Across the Commons at the burned out ROTC building stood about 100 Ohio National Guardsmen carrying M 1 military rifles. 5. Tear gas canisters were fired into the crowd around the Victory Bell, and the Guard began to march across the Commons to disperse the rally. The protestors moved up a steep hill, known as Blanket Hill, and then down the other side of the hill onto the parking lot as well as an adjoining practice football field. Guardsmen followed the students directly and soon found themselves trapped on the practice football field because it was surrounded by a fence. 6. Yelling and rock throwing reached a peak as the Guard remained on the field for about ten minutes. Several Guardsmen could be seen huddling together, and some Guardsmen knelt and pointed their guns, but no weapons were shot at this time. 7. The Guard then began retracing their steps from the practice football field back up Blanket Hill. As they arrived at the top of the hill, twenty eight Guardsmen turned suddenly and fired their rifles and pistols. Four Kent State students died as a result of the firing by the Guard. Nine Kent State students were wounded in the 13 seconds. The Kent State killings will further divide the nation and increase the call for an end to the war. The anti War movement will gain momentum and the White House will feel the pressure. 23

24 Old enough to fight, old enough to vote! The long debate over lowering the voting age in America from 21 to 18 began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their country. In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to regulate the minimum age in federal elections, but not at the state and local level. Amid increasing support for a Constitutional amendment, Congress passed the 26th Amendment in March 1971; the states promptly ratified it, and President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law that July. Nixon declared: "The reason I believe that your generation, the 11 million new voters, will do so much for America at home is that you will infuse into this nation some idealism, some courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose, that this country always needs." 24

25 Nixon's efforts to achieve "peace with honor" and "vietnamization" of the war were marred by many events. The bombing of the North, troops sent to Laos and Cambodia to cut supplies allowed the numbers of American troops to be reduced. However, the effects of the Tet Offensive, Kent State and the leaking of the Pentagon Papers* will pressure the administration to negotiate a peace agreement. Paris Peace Accords The Paris Peace Accords ending the conflict were signed January 27, 1973, and were followed by the withdrawal of the remaining American troops. The terms of the accords called for a complete ceasefire in South Vietnam, allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the territory they had captured, released US prisoners of war, and called for both sides to find a political solution to the conflict. Signing the Paris Peace Accords Troops and POW's receive a modest welcome home * The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States Vietnam Relations, : A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to The papers were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971.[1] A 1996 article in The New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance". The Papers revealed that the U.S. had deliberately expanded its war with bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which had been reported by media in the US. The most damaging revelations in the papers revealed that four administrations, from Truman to Johnson, had misled the public regarding their intentions. 25

26 Vietnam brings another shift of power in Washington The War Powers Act is a reaction to the Vietnam War. Congress passed it in 1973 when the United States withdrew from combat operations in Vietnam after more than a decade. The War Powers Act attempted to correct what Congress and the American public saw as excessive war making powers in the hands of the president. Congress was also attempting to correct a mistake of its own. In August 1964, after a confrontation between U.S. and North Vietnamese ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving President Lyndon B. Johnson free rein to conduct the Vietnam War as he saw fit. The rest of the war, under the administrations of Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, proceeded under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Congress had virtually no oversight of the war. The War Powers Act says that a president has the latitude to commit troops to combat zones, but, within 48 hours of doing so he must formally notify Congress and provide his explanation for doing so. If Congress does not agree with the troop commitment, the president must remove them from combat within 60 to 90 days. 26

27 Spring 1975, North Vietnamese troops invade South Vietnam. President Ford sought financial aid to the South but it was turned down in Congress. As Communist forces moved on the capital city of Saigon, a mass evacuation was ordered. Marines will carry out the largest helicopter evacuation in history. The U.S. Embassy was the center of the operation. The Embassy grounds will be breached as the last Huey lifts off from the top of the Embassy. Embassy personnel, American troops and refugees will be landing on the flight decks a such a fast rate that some choppers are pushed overboard to clear the deck. The Communist will take control of Vietnam and Saigon will be renamed Ho Chi Minh City. 27

28 Let the dominos fall... The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January The party's existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves "Angkar Padevat"). While the Khmer Rouge was in power, under Pol Pot they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, "The Killing Fields" which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders. A dramatic event during the takeover of Laos by the communists was the evacuation of Vang Pao and other Hmong leaders by air from Long Tieng. The end came for Vang Pao on 5 May 1975 when he was called before Souvanna Phouma, the Prime Minister of Laos, and ordered to cooperate with the communist Pathet Lao. Vang Pao took the general s stars off his collar, threw them on the desk of Souvanna Phouma, and stalked out of the room. Four days later the official Pathet Lao newspaper warned that the Hmong would be exterminated to the last root. 28