A Decade of Conflict

A Decade of Conflict

The Vietnam War One of the most traumatic periods of U.S. history. Spanned more than a decade Caused massive destruction both in Southeast Asia and on the American home front.

Lives Lost More than 58,000 American men and women were killed or went missing in the Vietnam War.

U.S. Deaths By Age 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 That s over 21,000 U.S. Deaths By Age men ages 17 to 20! 2000 0 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Age

Marines carry a wounded comrade from a Vietnam War battlefield. More than 153,000 were wounded during the war.

Many people wonder why the United States sent troops to Vietnam in the first place.. The answer: To try to prevent the spread of COMMUNISM

Definition of Communism: A social system characterized by the absence of classes Everyone is treated equal, or so it seems Citizens have no freedom

Quote from John F. Kennedy on the war in Vietnam: "I don't think that unless a greater effort is made by the Government to win popular support that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Viet-Nam, against the Communists." (Televised interview with Walter Cronkite, September 2, 1963)

Quote from Lyndon B. Johnson on the war in Vietnam: "Our purpose in Vietnam is to prevent the success of aggression. It is not conquest, it is not empire, it is not foreign bases, it is not domination. It is, simply put, just to prevent the forceful conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam." (Remark while accepting the Freedom House Award, March 4, 1966)

Although U.S. leaders were often ambiguous about American involvement in Vietnam, they nevertheless pursued a fairly unbroken policy of interference in the country in an effort to halt the spread of communism during the cold war. -Larry Berman

Vietnam Memorial Located in Washington, D.C., The capital's most visited monument The Vietnam Memorial is inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 American men and women killed or missing in the Vietnam War. Created by then 21-year-old Yale student Maya Ying Lin

Vietnam Memorial

From 1962 to 1973, the United States dropped nearly 8 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

The longest bombing campaign ever conducted by the U.S. Air Force, Operation Rolling Thunder lasted from March 1965 to October 1968.

U.S. Marines of the Special Landing Force approach the beach in Ru'ng Sat swamp during the Vietnam War. Some Marine officers considered amphibious warfare inappropriate for the overall needs of the counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam.

Many American s protested the war

Vietnam War protesters march to the Pentagon on October 21, 1967. In one of the first and most significant anti-vietnam War demonstrations, more than 100,000 people rallied at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. and then marched across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. during an anti-vietnam War demonstration in New York City.

Events that escalated the protests: Tet Offensive My Lai Massacre Draft Lottery

Tet Offensive A massive North Vietnamese military strike that swept across South Vietnam on January 30, 1968. The turning point of the war (Remember: The U.S. was helping the South)

U.S. troops prepare for battle during the Tet Offensive. The surprise attack during the Vietnam War was launched by Viet Cong on January 30, 1968, the first day of Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year holiday.

For several days, the North Vietnamese overran American positions in rural and urban areas as far south as Saigon and the Mekong Delta.

Black smoke covers areas of the capital city and fire trucks rush to the scenes of fires set during attacks by the Viet Cong during the Tet holiday period in 1968 during the War.

The American Embassy was assaulted by a heavily armed commando team of 16 North Vietnamese who killed several guards, held the building for 6 hours, and nearly captured the ambassador before being killed.

A U.S. Marine carries a Vietnamese woman to safety during the Battle of Hue, the longest and bloodiest of all the Tet Offensive battles. The old imperial city of Hue, ravaged during the war, was a cultural and intellectual center of Vietnam.

Residents return to the devastated region of Cho Lon in Saigon after fierce Tet Offensive attacks in 1968. Cho Lon, which was founded by Chinese immigrants, was for many years the great commercial center of the country.

Walter Cronkite (with a television crew) interviews the commanding officer of the U.S. Marines during the Battle of Huê The Battle of Huê was the longest and bloodiest of all the Tet Offensive battles of 1968.

The Tet Offensive escalated the anger of Americans who had grown tired of an unwinnable war.

What angered anti-war Americans even more was the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968..

My Lai Massacre An American named Lt. William L. Calley Jr. ordered his unit to gun down and burn hundreds of Vietnamese men, women, and CHILDREN.

During the most notorious publicly-acknowledged military atrocity of the Vietnam War, between 200 and 500 Vietnamese civilians were massacred by U.S. soldiers at My Lai hamlet on March 16, 1968.

The following photograph is quite disturbing. Men, women, children and babies lay dead on a dirt road where they were massacred. You may choose to not look.

Freedom of the Press??? The news of this was suppressed for more than a year by the Pentagon. It s release resulted in the imprisonment of Calley and major international criticism of American tactics in Vietnam.

Why do you think the Pentagon withheld this information?

Military Draft December 1, 1969 marked the date of the first draft lottery held since 1942. This drawing determined the order of induction into the military for men born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950.

A large glass container held 366 blue plastic balls containing every possible birth date and affecting men between 18 and 26 years old. If your birth date was drawn, you had to go.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk (left), President Lyndon B. Johnson (center), and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (right) meet on February 9, 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War.

It was time for a new leader By the end of Johnson s term as president our country was in complete turmoil. He told the nation in a televised address on March 31 that he would stop the bombing of North Vietnam. Despite his pledge to close down the war, Johnson increased troop strength to 500,000 men before leaving office.

He did not seek a second term in the 1968 Presidential election. His vice president, Hubert Humphrey ran against Robert F. Kennedy for the Democratic ticket.

Robert F. Kennedy opposed the Vietnam War and was promising to remove troops if elected. He was favored over Humphrey to win the democratic ticket.

RFK was assassinated just an hour after the California primary results came in giving him enough delegates to win the democratic nomination.

The public was outraged, and the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into one of the most violent protests ever.

A group of hippies, among the thousands of Vietnam War protesters converged on the Democratic National Convention They raised their arms in the air and taunted bayonet-armed National Guardsmen on August 28, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois.

1968 Democratic National Convention Shocked the nation due to the high level of police brutality against protesters. There were 4,500 antiwar protesters who marched toward the convention site.

Chicago police went into the streets and beat and tear-gassed more than 1,000 people, mostly innocent bystanders. As television cameras covered the event, the protesters shouted, The whole world is watching!

At the convention, Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey was nominated in Robert F. Kennedy s place by the Democratic Party.

Republican, Richard Nixon made a He promised to End the war and win the peace. He was nominated for the presidency by the Republican Party and quickly gained a large following. political comeback

In 1969, Richard Nixon became the 37 th President of the United States with Spiro Agnew as his vice president.

President Nixon had a tough road ahead of him Between the war protesters and the riots from the progression of the civil rights movement, our society had changed drastically from the innocent age of the 1950 s and early 1960 s.

The U.S. defeat in Vietnam proved costly Both financially and in terms of the number of lives lost. Diminished America s reputation as the defender of democracy and freedom.

The decade that seemed so full of promise back in 1960 ended in confusion, anger and despair, with political assassinations, an endless war in Vietnam with violent protests, and severe racial tension that tore the nation apart. -Feinstein

We can change the world Or can we????

VIETNAM WAR An Overview

Information: Cozzens, Lisa. "Brown v. Board of Education." African American History. http://fledge.watson.org/~ lisa/blackhistory/ early-civilrights/brown.html (25 May 1998). Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education 50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 710 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 tel: 404.651.2668 fax: 404.880.9816 Copyright 2005 Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education Pictures: Americanhistory.com http://www.lyricsfreak.com/ http://folkmusicarchives.org/ http://www.landyvision.com/slideshow/source/311.htm http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/laws/majorlaw/civilr19.htm Videos: http://people.clarkson.edu/~winklebh/vietnam2/byrds.html http://www.arlington.mccsc.edu/photo.html Works Cited http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blphotos_march_baez.htm