LBJ - The Great Society

Lyndon Baines Johnson Democrat from Texas

U.S. Representative from 1937 to 1949 U.S. Senator from 1949 to 1961

– (that’s 24 years in congress!) JFK’s vice-president succeeded Kennedy following the latter's

assassination on November 22, 1963

Elected President in his own right in the 1964 election, winning by a large margin over Barry Goldwater.

He is one of only four people who served in both offices of the executive branch as well as both houses of Congress.

He called his vision “The Great Society”The plan called for a War on Poverty which eventually helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during Johnson's presidency.

Civil rights bills signed by Johnson banned racial discrimination in public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace, and housing; and the voting rights act guaranteed full voting rights for citizens of all races.

Created Medicare, Medicaid, increased environmental protection, increased government aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development

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VIETNAM, 1946-75 (the 10 000 Day War)

Slide 3 Phase One – War of Independence

Vietnam - French colony under the name of French Indochina (along withCambodia and Laos)

Vietnam fights for independence from France during WW II

Vietnamese revolutionary leader was Ho Chi Minh, a Communist

wanted to be the leader ofan independent, communist Vietnam; received support from both the USSR and “Red” China

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French are defeated in 1954 at at Dien bien phu!

peace conference in Geneva, Switzerland (attended by France, Vietnam, the US, and the USSR)

Vietnam divided at the 17th parallel. Communist north (Led by Ho) and democratic south (led by Ngo Dinh Diem

Elections to be held in 1956 to end partition.

U.S. sees Vietnam as a “Domino”. Determined to stop it falling according to the U.S. policy of “Containment”

Slide 5Estimated that 80% of Vietnamese would have voted for the communists –elections

were never allowed to happen!Many ordinary Vietnamese viewed Diem as

an “elite” who had cooperated with the French

Diem tortures and executes nearly 40,000 political prisoners

Southern resistance increases as communist support grows – creation of

National Liberation Front (NLF)

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These Southern “freedom fighters” were also known as Vietcong

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1963

With U.S. approval, South Vietnamese Army kills Diem!

…and of course, Kennedy is killed…

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PHASE 2 – AMERICAN MILITARY INVOLVEMENT phase originated with

“Ike” and JFK but was intensified under LyndonBaines Johnson (LBJ)

1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident - 2 American destroyers “supposedly” fired upon by the North Vietnamese

Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions

- Congress gave LBJ their support in sending American personnel and materiel

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1965 – Operation Rolling ThunderSustained American bombing raids of North

Vietnam864,000 tons of bombs dropped on North Vietnam (503,000 tons in the Pacific theater during the

Second World War) 4 Objectives:

– Boost the Morale of South Vietnam– Persuade North Vietnam to stop supporting rebels in

the South– Destroy North Vietnamese industry and air defenses– Cease the flow of men and material along the Ho Chi

Minh Trail– Operation runs for nearly four years! (none of the objectives are met…)

Slide 11US ground forces sent to Vietnam – over 200,000 by the year’s end

Danang:     The first American combat troops, the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, arrive in Vietnam to defend the US airfield at Danang

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La Drang Valley

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. - heavy casualties are reported on both sides.

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Escalation! in spite of ongoing escalation (an increase in troop

levels and $ spent on fighting the war) throughout the 1960s, the US experienced a lack of success against the Vietnamese forces in S. Vietnam (the

Vietcong) as the US Army was unprepared for their tactics (Guerilla Warfare! ) and their revolutionary

mentality

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The US was never entirely successful in shutting

down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply line that ran between North and South Vietnam

difficult jungle terrain, often underground and through neighboring nations like Cambodia and Laos

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Ho Chi Minh Trail

The U.S. tries to destroy the trail

but the Vietnamese just go around it!

Slide 191968 – an awful year… In January, the Vietnamese

launch the Tet Offensive, a surprise offensive on a major Vietnamese holiday that saw attacks all over the country, including in Saigon itself

A Vietnamese defeat, but many in the U.S. now saw the war as unwinnable

ongoing US casualties and led to an increase in antiwar sentiment on the American Home Front in large part because Vietnam was a TV War where American audiences saw the brutality of war firsthand

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witnessed the usage of weapons like napalm and Agent Orange, which devastated the people and environment of Vietnam

Slide 24 My LaiWho is the enemy?How do you “find and eliminate

the enemy” if you can’t tell which side anyone is on?

"Who is my enemy? Anybody that was running from us, hiding from us, or appeared to be the enemy. If a man was running, shoot him, sometimes even if a woman with a rifle was running, shoot her.“ – Captain Ernest Medina

Between 350 and 500 raped, tortured and murdered

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26 US soldiers initially charged with criminal offenses

Only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader was convicted.

Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.

I was … getting orders from my commander and I

followed them- foolishly I guess

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Slide 27 Hippies!

hippies inherited the values of the 1950s Beatniks, created their own communities,

listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution, and some used drugs

such as cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms to explore altered states of

consciousness.

Slide 28 Protest increases at home! Hippies led the Counterculture movement

Protests became widespread and began to polarize the nation

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Not just hippies!

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250,000!

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LBJ chooses not to run for reelection in

1968

Polls show that over half of the country does not agree with the handling of

the war

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increasingly the American people came to perceive the “Credibility Gap”, i.e. they no longerbelieved that LBJ was telling them the truth about events in the war

Republican Richard M. Nixon was elected on a platform of “Peace with Honor”

Slide 40 Nixon wanted the South Vietnamese to play a greater role in the war, a policy he labeled Vietnamization

in spite of that, he continues carpet bombing Hanoi and orders a secret invasion of Cambodia

Seen as a further widening of the war! American’s feel deceived and protests erupt.

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Kent State - May 1970 Kent State

University (Ohio)

Students protest turns deadly when National Guard troops open fire on the students!

4 Students Dead

Slide 42 Tinker vs DeMoinesMary Beth Tinker

13-year-old junior high school student

she and others wear black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam.

5 students suspended

1969 – Supreme Court rules that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom

of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Slide 43 Pentagon PapersClassified documents

stolen from the PentagonExposed Government

knowledge that war would cost more lives than the public was being told

Public told war was ending but escalation was happening

Government censures the information but Supreme Court says NO!

PUBLIC DISTRUST OF GOVERNMENT!

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the US agrees to remove troops on Jan. 27, 1973

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PHASE 3 – VIETNAMESE CIVIL WAR, 1973-75

the NVA easily defeated the South by 1975

1975 – the US abandoned its embassy in Saigon, which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in the newly unified and communist Vietnam

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War Powers Act 1973 the President can send U.S. armed forces into action

abroad only by authorization of Congress or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."

The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.

Slide 47Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)

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