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Gunfire all around, U.S. soldiers rush a wounded friend through aswamp in 1969. Thousands fought and died in the Vietnam War.

Looking at Key Terms.domino theory. Viet Cong .Vietnamization

.dove: an opponent of war

.amnesty: a pardon forpolitical offenses

Looking at Key Words.escalation: a slow but

steady increase in the levelof warfare

.hawk: a war supporter

Why did the United States go to war inVietnam and what was the result?

Smoke and fire came out of a U.S.Navy plane over the Gulf of Tonkin.Enemy fire had scored a hit. U.S. NavyCaptain Everett Alvarez, Jr. bailed out.He splashed into the water below.There, a Vietnamese fishing boat waswaiting. Men pointed rifles at Alvarezand took him prisoner.

It was August 5, 1964. U.S. planeswere making their first attack on NorthVietnam. Alvarez, a Mexican Americanfrom California, was the first Americantaken prisoner in the Vietnam War.

Eight and a half years later, Alvarezcame home. He was one of 591 U.S. pris-oners to be released from enemy pris-ons. Fifty-eight thousand Americans didnot come home at all. They were killedin the war.

had a Communist government. Its rulerwas Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnamremained under French influence. Itpromised to hold free elections, but thenrefused to do so.

Opponents of the South Vietnamesegovernment then launched a civil war.They formed groups of guerrillas. Theg~erillas were led by the Viet Cong,who were Communists.

South Vietnam asked the UnitedStates for help. President DwightEisenhower believed in the domino the-ory. He sent 1,000 military advisers totrain South Vietnam's army. But SouthVietnam still could not defeat the guer-rillas. The fighting spread.

North Vietnam sent help to the guer-rillas. The United States sent more helpto South Vietnam. By 1963, PresidentJohn Kennedy had increased the num-ber of U.S. advisers to 16,700.

President Lyndon Johnson tried toforce North Vietnam to stop helping theguerrillas. Undercover agents beganblowing up bridges and doing otherdamage to North Vietnam. TheAmerican people did not know aboutthis secret war in Southeast Asia.

The ~ol~ War lea~s the Unite~ ~tates into

War in Vietnam,Why did a war breakout in Vzetnam?

Until the 1960s, few Americans hadthought much about Vietnam. It was faraway in Southeast Asia. But Vietnamlies just south of China. WhenCommunists took control of China in1949, the Cold War was at its height.U.S. leaders feared that communismwould spread. They saw Southeast Asialike a string of dominoes. When onedomino falls, it knocks down its neigh-bors. If Vietnam "fell," its neighborswould topple too. For years this dominotheory shaped the policy of the UnitedStates. U.S. leaders tried to keep thefirst domino, Vietnam, from falling.

A wider war Then, in August1964, events plunged the United Statesinto a wider war. Off the coast of NorthVietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin, the U.S.warship Maddox was attacked by NorthVietnamese boats.

Johnson sent U.S. planes to bombbases and oil tanks in North Vietnam.He said the United States was respond-ing to attacks by North Vietnam.Congress quickly backed the President.

Escalation Step by step, theUnited States slipped into a full-scalewar in Vietnam. Guerrillas attacked abase and killed U.S. military advisers.In response, Johnson ordered bombingraids. He sent the first U.S. soldiers to

Two Vietnams Vietnam had beena colony of France. Mter World War II,the Vietnamese fought for indepen-dence. However, Vietnam became inde-pendent as two nations. North Vietnam

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Vietnamization Nixon too believedin the domino theory. He said theUnited States had to "stand up to theCommunists." At the same time, hewanted to end the war.

Nixnn's solution was to turn the fight-ing over to South Vietnam's army. Thispolicy was called Vietnamization. Itmeant that Nixon could begin bringingU.S. soldiers home. By late 1972, only50,000 U.S. soldiers remained inVietnam.

At the same time, Nixon stepped upair attacks. U.S. planes bombed supplyroutes that linked North Vietnam andSouth Vietnam.

fight on the ground. Then the guerrillaslaunched new attacks. So Johnsonsent more soldiers. This slow but steadyrise in the level of warfare was calledescalation.

By the end of 1965, 181,000 U.S. sol-diers were in Vietnam. Three yearslater the figure had reached 536,000.Each week, U.S. planes brought deadsoldiers home in "body bags." As thedeath toll rose, opposition to theVietnam War increased.

Johnson decided in 1968 that hemight not win re-election. He chose notto run at all. Richard Nixon accused theDemocrats of bungling the war. He wonelection as president in 1968.

Reading a Map. Where is the Gulf of Tonkinlocated? Through which countries does the HoChi Minh Trail pass?

Peace settlement Peace talks thatbegan in the 1960s finally succeeded inJanuary 1973. The United States signedagreements with North Vietnam andthe guerrillas. The last U.S. groundtroops came home.

However, the war continued withoutthe United States. It finally ended in1975. North Vietnam and the guerrillaswere the winners. South and Northbecame one nation, Vietnam. Vietnamhad a Communist government.

The Vietnam War sharply divided theU.S. public. Some Americans supportedthe war. Others criticized it. The warbecame the subject of bitter debate.

What form did opposition to the war take inthe United States?

1964U.S. planes make their first

attack on North Vietnam.

1970National Guard soldierskill four protestors atKent University.

II1973

Agreement is signed

between U.S. and North Vietnam.

1968Richard Nixon wins Presidential election.

1975Vietnam War ends.

Reading A Timeline When did U.S. planes first attack Vietnam?How many years passed between the event and the end of the Vietnam War?

there, a few people spoke out againstthe war. Some college students marchedin protest.

President Johnson tried not to alarmthe public. He avoided asking for newtaxes to pay for the rising costs of thewar. U.S. planners said that the warwould soon be over.

But news reports told a differentstory. The reports said that many SouthVietnamese hated the government thatthe United States was backing. Despitethe huge U.S. effort, victory wasnowhere in sight. Many Americansbegan to think the U.S. government waslying about the war.

Doves and hawks Critics and sup-porters of the war were given labels.Doves were against the war. Hawkswere for it.

Doves argued that the war in Vietnamwas a civil war. U.S. troops should notinterfere. They also said that the warwas hurting the United States. It waskilling thousands of young Americans.And the war was a waste of money.

Hawks said that the Communist gov-ernment of North Vietnam had startedthe war. The United States must haltthe spread of communism. Hawks alsosaid that U.S. presidents had promisedto defend South Vietnam. Americanshad to honor that promise. Otherwise,no one would ever trust the UnitedStates again.

The Tet offensive Enemy attacksat the start of 1968 increased thisdoubt. Tet is the Vietnamese new-yearholiday. On Tet, the Viet Cong attackedmany cities at once. They even struck

Rising opposition Most Ameri-cans backed the war at first. Here and

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Protests against the Vietnam War spread as the war dragged on. Thousands ofdemonstrators surrounded the U.S. Defense Department at the Pentagon. They wereheld back by armed military police.

South Vietnam's capital, Saigon. For ashort time, guerrillas occupied the U.S.embassy there. U.S. and allied forcesfinally put down the Tet offensive. Butit was now clear that the Viet Congcould strike anywhere. The U.S. com-mander asked for more soldiers.

enemy supply bases. At Kent StateUniversity in Ohio, National Guard sol-diers shot and killed four student pro-testers. Two more students died inMississippi. There, state police firedon demonstrators at Jackson StateCollege.

These tragedies shocked the nation.Hawks blamed the protesters. Dovesblamed the war. American society wassplit in two.

More protests N ow many moreAmericans protested against the war.Thousands marched in peacefulprotests. Other protests turned violent.Angry students trashed college build-ings. Young men burned their draftcards. Hundreds moved to Canada toavoid serving in the army.

Protests ended in bloodshed in May1970. President Nixon had just sentground troops into Cambodia to attack

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1. Who were hawks and doves?2. What events increased opposition

to the Vietnam War?

Americans Look Back on the Vietnam War.What were the long-term effects of the war?

diers fight "with their hands tied behindtheir backs."

The Vietnam War left a bad taste ineveryone's mouths. But people dis-agreed about what had gone wrong.They drew different lessons for thefuture.

War's toll The war took a terribletoll. Some 11,500 women and 8,700,000men served with U.S. forces in the warzone. More than 58,000 Americans diedin the fighting.

For every American killed in the war,3 South Vietnamese soldiers and 16enemy soldiers died. Some 415,000 civil-ians were among the 1.5 millionVietnamese who died.

Mter the war, many Vietnamese fledtheir country to escape harsh condi-tions. Thousands came to the UnitedStates. (See Chapter 33.)

Drawing lessons The VietnamWar raised questions about the uses ofpower. Doves said that the war showedthe limits of U.S. power. Despite all itsfirepower, the United States had notbeen able to win in Vietnam.

Hawks drew a different lesson. Theysaid that the United States could havewon if it had only tried harder. Theyaccused U.S. leaders of making U.S. sol-

Greater involvement for people ofcololr The Vietnam War was the first

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The Women's Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in 1993. Diane Carlson, thefounder of the memorial, hugged other women veterans at its dedication. It is locat-ed near the "Wall" in Washington, D.C.

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u.s. war in which people of color servedin large numbers in all ranks. Some ofthe top officers were Mrican Americansand Latinos.

African Americans made up 10 per-cent of the U.S. population. Yet 20 per-cent of the draftees who served inVietnam were African Americans. Alarger portion of Latinos served, too.This was because most draftees werepoor or working-class Americans.Middle-class youths could postponebeing drafted by going to college. Often,they escaped the draft altogether. Inaddition, a high percentage ofAmericans killed in battle were MricanAmericans and Latinos.

1974, President Ford granted a limitedamnesty to draft evaders. An amnesty isa pardon for political offenses.

Further healing came in 1982. OnVeterans Day, November 11, the govern-ment unveiled the Vietnam VeteransMemorial in Washington, D.C. It is along, dark granite wall. Engraved instone are the names of all 58,000Americans killed in the war.

In 1993, a separate memorial was putup nearby. It honored women whoserved in the war. One veteran whoattended the dedication wiped tearsfrom her eyes. "We were supposed to bethe brave ones," she said, "and not haveemotions." Now, two decades later, shecould cry.

Healing the wounds The VietnamWar left deep wounds on the Americansoul. Anger about the war died slowly.Few celebrations greeted returningVietnam veterans. Some Americanstreated them as war criminals, not warheroes.

Gradually, those who had left the coun-try to escape the draft came home. In