Unit 9.2—Vietnam and Counterculture Chapters 16 – 17CSS 11.10, 11.11

Part TwoThe Homefront 11.9.3, 11.9.4

EQ #3: How did the American war effort in Vietnam lead to rising protests and social divisions back home?

The Homefront

• Selective Service• most of the 2.5 million who

served were poor working class

• disproportionate rate of AA casualties

• 15 million men received deferments

• college students and certain jobs• many left for Canada

• changed to lottery system in 1969

• widespread resistance to the draft

• draft cards burned

The Homefront

• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)• students at the U of

Michigan organized against the war in ‘64

• UC Berkeley students were forbidden to organize on campus

• started the Free Speech Movement

The Homefront

• Credibility Gap • LBJ’s optimism did not

match what people saw on TV

• people began to distrust the government• Vietnam Veterans Against

the War grew from 6 to 40,000 members

•Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?•Eighteen today, dead tomorrow!•Make love, not war!•Hell no, we won’t go!•Trust no one over thirty!

The Homefront

• Tet Offensive, 1968 • 70,000 Vietcong caught

U.S. by surprise on Vietnamese New Year

• attacked all across S. Vietnam

• military win for US but publicity victory for Vietcong

• 2000 US dead• 50,000 Vietcong dead

• severe blow to US confidence in the war

The Homefront

• Election of 1968• LBJ refused to run

for re-election• RFK was killed• major riots broke out in

Chicago at the Democratic Convention

• Nixon promised “peace with honor”

• the “Silent Majority”

1968

R Richard M. Nixon 31,785,480 301

D Hubert Humphrey 31,275,166 191

AI George Wallace 9,906,473 46

Part TwoVietnamization 11.9.3, 11.9.4, 11.8.5

EQ #4: How did the Vietnam War end, and what were its lasting effects?

Vietnamization

• Vietnamization • Nixon promised to reduce

U.S. involvement• peace talks stalled

• US wanted communists out of South Vietnam and POWs returned

• Ho Chi Minh wanted US out of South Vietnam immediately

• Nixon sent troops into Cambodia to seize Vietcong supplies in 1970

• in 1971, 2/3 of Americans wanted troops out of Vietnam even if it went communist as a result

Vietnamization

• My Lai Massacre, 1968• U.S. troops led by Lt.

William Calley massacred 400-500 unarmed villagers

• Calley convicted in 1971• court-martialed and

sentenced to life in prison but released in 1974

• added to anti-war movement

Vietnamization

• Pentagon Papers, 1972• The New York Times

published a classified history of the war

• it covered policy under Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson

• LBJ wrote the Tonkin Gulf Resolution before the attack

• Daniel Ellsberg, a Vietnam vet, leaked it

• Nixon tried to block it• The Supreme Court ruled

free speech

Vietnamization

• Kent State, 1970• Students protestors

threw rocks at the National Guard

• the guardsmen fired on antiwar protestors• 4 killed and 8 wounded

• college campuses across the nation closed down• President Nixon “...when

dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy”

Vietnamization

• Paris Peace Talks, 1973• Nixon won re-election

in 1972 with peace approaching

• Nixon renewed bombing North Vietnam when talks stalled

• US troops pulled out in 1973

Vietnamization

• Saigon Falls, 1975• communist forces

restarted hostility • Saigon fell and was

renamed Ho Chi Minh City

• US embassy workers were evacuated to ships off the coast• the US reopened

diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995

Vietnamization

• Cost of the Vietnam War• Aug. 1964-May 7, 1975• 3,403,100 served in the

Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)• 58,202 died• 300,000 wounded• POWs: 766• MIA: 2,338• 240 won Medal of Honor

• represented 9.7% of their generation

Vietnamization

• War Powers Act, 1973• limited presidential

authority to make war• President must inform Congress

within 48 hours of sending in troops

• President may only commit troops up to 60 days in field

• congressional authority always higher than president

• passed over Nixon’s veto

Part TwoNixon and the Cold War 11.9.3

EQ #5: How did Richard Nixon change Cold War diplomacy during his presidency?

“Peace with Honor”

• Henry Kissinger• Sec. of State under

Nixon• key in ending

Vietnam• under “realpolitick”

the US opened talks with China and the USSR

“Peace with Honor”

• Zhou En-lai• Nixon went to China

to meet communist leader Zhou En-Lai in 1972

• put pressure on North Vietnam to end the war

• it spooked the USSR

“Peace with Honor”

• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)• Nixon and Brezhnev

agreed to freeze number of long-range nuclear missiles (ICBMs) in 1972

• it didn’t end the Cold War but it reduced tension (détente) between the US and the USSR