The People of Vietnam We Blood have is known boiling days in It of When is better to be a ghost in greatness your hearts the enemy comes, even the Vietnam than and times an emperor of decline, women but Countrymen! must We fight! are China. we have never Draw not fighting for lacked for The heroes. forth Pho your 19th freedom swords! Century and Tran Ning independence. Trong 17th We are Nguyen There is Century Trai heaven, 15th earth fighting Century because we are and us! This is what free and independent. we call true Student unity! 20th Century Phan Boi Chau 19th Century Vietnamese Independence Resisted Chinese colonization for over 1,000 years! Resisted French occupation In both cases, wore down technologically superior invader A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined. -Woodrow Wilson 14 Points #5" 1
Understanding Check The United States Primary enemy in the Vietnam conflict was A. The Vietcong B. The vietminh C. The Army of South Vietnam D. The Soviet Union Escalation of the War Under LBJ Domino Theory Tonkin Gulf Resolution War Powers Act Understanding Check The main purpose of the War Powers Act of 1973 was to A. limit the president s ability to send troops into combat abroad B. allow people to vote on the issue of United States commitments overseas C. end the Vietnam War on favorable terms D. expand the power of Congress to declare war 2
The Election of 1964 Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater Understanding Check Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election mainly because A. His views were too conservative for the country at large B. His views were too liberal for the country at large. C. He was the victim of a negative ad campaign by LBJ D. He threatened withdraw American troops from Vietnam. 3
Understanding Check: By allowing young people of affluence to get out of military service by enrolling in college, Vietnam was remarkably similar to which war that allowed people of means to evade military service? A. American Revolution B. Civil War C. Korean War D. WWI The Ho Chi Minh Trail Operation Rolling Thunder Napalm 4
American Methods Search and Destroy (search and avoid) Fragging Body Counts Air Cavalry Pacification Khe Sahn The Fool on the Hill 5
Understanding Check The United States' approach to fighting the Vietnam War: A) Brilliantly related American military power to the central task of building an effective South Vietnamese government. B) Was never appropriate for the war because the U.S. merely assumed that applying its superior military power would achieve victory. C) Was consciously designed to inflict the maximum number of civilian deaths possible. D) Was more political than military in nature. Tet Offensive Walter Croncite Democratic Convention of 1968! Robert Kennedy, who was against the war, shot in L.A.! Chose LBJ's VP, Hubert Humphrey! Worcester's Abbie Hoffman organizes 10,000 students protest! police sent in, hundreds injured! seemed like America was out of control! 6
Nixon 68: the secret plan Vietnamization US evacuates its embassy -1975 Bombing Cambodia and Laos Now, as I was saying four years ago 7
Mi Lai The Hippies and The Counterculture Who makes up the Counter Culture today? What is countercultural in this decade? The Baby Boomers challenged the values of American Society Civil Rights movement Rock n Roll encourages rebellion and individualism Inspired by Camelot (Ask not ) Peace Corps VISTA Grew up in Cold War, blame parents for current problems A generation gap between the Baby Boomers and their parents emerges Flower Power 8
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) issue the Port Huron statement Government Dominated by huge interests Rage against the machine LBJ! LBJ How many kids did you kill today? When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world: the only one with the atom bomb, the least scarred by modern war, an initiator of the United Nations that we thought would distribute Western influence throughout the world. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people -- these American values we found good, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency. We witnessed, and continue to witness, other paradoxes. With nuclear energy whole cities can easily be powered, yet the dominant nationstates seem more likely to unleash destruction greater than that incurred in all wars of human history. Although our own technology is destroying old and creating new forms of social organization, men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. While two-thirds of mankind suffers undernourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Although world population is expected to double in forty years, the nations still tolerate anarchy as a major principle of international conduct and uncontrolled exploitation governs the sapping of the earth's physical resources. Although mankind desperately needs revolutionary leadership, America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than "of, by, and for the people." African Americans overwhelming against the war Spreads unrest about the war from college campuses Anti-ROTC Yippies- Abbie Hoffman The Weathermen- you don t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows Bob Dylan The Counterculture free love Timothy Leary: Harvard Professor encouraged students to use acid tune in, turn on, drop out Communes Haight-Ashbury, Woodstock Ken Kesey many question organized religion many adapt Eastern religious POV 9
! Pop Art - art as consumer product! Artists slaves to the elite, do not reflect experience of average people! use found objects and everyday articles! "Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes"! "Everything -even art can be gloried, mass-produced and mocked Andy Warhol The Silent Majority: issue fatigue! Merchandizing the Counter Culture! Altamont- The "Anti- Woodstock! Hell's Angels M.C. kills three people Charles Manson The End 10
While many poor kids were in Vietnam, social protests erupts on college campuses questioning American involvement in that war Kent State 11