The Vietnam Era

Kent State—buried Constitution, burned ROTC building: National Guard opens fire; four dead, nine wounded

Jackson State—again, unarmed students (this time, at black school) fired upon; two dead, dozen wounded

The Road to Vietnam Ho Chi Minh—nationalistic, independent,

communist: wary of China, France, U.S.

Ngo Dinh Diem—Eisenhower’s choice

over free elections; Vietcong, Buddhists rise up

The domino theory—if one falls, all fall

Tonkin Gulf incident—skirmishes,

deception provide pretext for “all

necessary measures”: “blank check”

Escalation—full bore or get out

Air strikes—Operation Rolling

Thunder aimed at North: failure—why?

A Buddhist monk sacrifices himself to protest against the South Vietnamese Catholic-

dominated government of Ngo Dinh Diem.

North Vietnamese

leader Ho Chi Minh.

Social Consequences of the War Body counts—only way

to keep score, territory irrelevant—why? Technology and its limits

—overwhelming supplies, napalm, white phosphorus, cluster bombs, Agent Orange: “destroying in order to save”; more bombs than WWII

Hawks and doves McNamara loses faith–no

“light at the end of the tunnel” Inflation—massive war, Great

Society spending

Johnson and McNamara agonize over the War.

American “grunts” (avg.

age, 19) in Vietnam.

The Unraveling Stalemate—intelligence nightmare, Tet creates

“credibility gap” in U.S. public opinion

My Lai—body count gone wild: tip of iceberg?

“Clean for Gene”—hippies got

haircuts in supporting McCarthy for

N.H. defeat/victory: RFK jumps in, too

LBJ withdraws– “I shall not seek,

and I will not accept…”

Summary execution of a Viet Cong by South

Vietnamese officer during Tet Offensive.

The King/Kennedy assassinations—shocking events in turbulent times: much of the

strength of liberal tradition gunned down with them

Revolutionary clashes worldwide—Chicago one of many student uprisings

worldwide in 1968Aides point out the direction of the fatal gunshot that struck down Martin Luther

King; a busboy tries to help the fatally wounded RFK in a Los Angeles hotel.

Chicago Police clash with

protesters who chanted “The

whole world’s watching” during demonstrations at

the 1968 Democratic

convention.

Nixon’s “silent majority”—hard-working, non-protesting

The election of 1968—Vietnam, civil rights, Wallace

overwhelm Humphrey

End of Reading

Nixon’s War Henry Kissinger—Nixon’s foreign

policy man: end the war 1st priority

Invading Cambodia—escalating

again to put hurting on North, give

South time; disillusionment at home

Nixon Doctrine—U.S. can’t do it

all: others should share burden;

“détente” to deal with Soviets

SALT I—no new antiballistic systems

and limits on deployed missiles

Nixon announcing the invasion of

Cambodia on national television.

Henry Kissinger

The New Identity Politics Separate Identities vs. assimilation—African Americans,

Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, feminists, gays

Puerto Ricans and Cubans—alienated island people

Cesar Chavez and the UFW—nonviolence, marches, consumer boycotts

Chicano activists—Latino militants: culture

dismissed, labor exploited, advancement denied

La Raza Unida—paramilitary “Brown Berets”

demanding concessions from government

Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, mustering support for a

boycott of table grapes.

Termination—push Native Americans

off tribal lands

American Indian Movement—like other groups, Native Americans

turned to social activism; Alcatraz

Wounded Knee—lack of unity and

support led to abandonment of takeover

Russell Means and Dennis Banks,

leaders of AIM, the American

Indian Movement; Banks talks to

reporters.

Stonewall incident—Homosexuals fight back; American

Psychiatric Association revision in ’74

The Feminine Mystique—“problem that has no name”: lack of

growth and fulfillment

NOW—“systemic

discrimination”

makes “sexism”

rank with racism

Women divided—ERA

and abortion

A NOW logo; and Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms.

magazine.

Betty Friedan, author of the The

Feminine Mystique.

The End of an Era Paris peace treaty—“Peace with honor”: provide aid to

North Vietnamese, send soldiers back (secret pledge) if needed

Vietnam and the cold war—realization: limits to what U.S. could do both at home and abroad