Download The US and Vietnam (cont.)

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New Directions
• President Kennedy continued the antiCommunist policies of his predecessors,
but with a few changes. 
• Kennedy increased spending on nuclear
arms, while attempting to get the Soviets
to agree to a ban on nuclear testing. 
• He also decided to counter Sovietsponsored guerrilla forces fighting in
various places around the world with
American special forces (Green Berets),
which were also trained in guerrilla
warfare.
(pages 866–867)
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New Directions (cont.)
• Kennedy believed that American foreign
aid to poor countries around the world
would make the promises of communism
seem less attractive to poor nations. 
• The Peace Corps (Americans
volunteering to work as teachers, health
workers, and agricultural advisers in other
nations) and the Alliance for Progress (a
development plan for Latin America) were
parts of this initiative.
(pages 866–867)
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Cold War Confrontations
• Soon after taking office, President
Kennedy faced serious foreign policy
crises. 
• One involved Cuba, where Fidel Castro
had seized power in 1959. 
• When Cuba formed an alliance with the
Soviet Union, the American CIA formed
a plan to overthrow Castro.
(pages 867–869)
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Cold War Confrontations (cont.)
• The plan, created during the Eisenhower
administration, called for Cuban refugees
living in the United States to return to
Cuba, spark an uprising, and overthrow
the Communist government. 
• Kennedy had doubts about the plan, but
he allowed it to go forward. 
• In April 1961, 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban
exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in
southern Cuba.
(pages 867–869)
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Cold War Confrontations (cont.)
• Cuban forces crushed the invasion and
captured the insurgents. 
• Kennedy took the blame and was
embarrassed by the failure. 
• The Bay of Pigs failure had three
consequences for Kennedy: 
- He lost faith in military and intelligence advice. 
- Latin American nations lost faith in Kennedy. 
- Soviet leader Khrushchev concluded that
Kennedy was weak and could be bullied.
(pages 867–869)
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Cold War Confrontations (cont.)
• The status of Germany had not been
completely settled since World War II. 
• The Soviet Union still controlled East
Germany. Berlin, surrounded by
Communist East Germany, was split. 
• West Berlin was a non-Communist area
protected in part by American, British, and
French troops.
(pages 867–869)
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Cold War Confrontations (cont.)
• After a large number of East Germans fled
to West Germany through West Berlin in
the summer of 1961, the East German
government, with the backing of the Soviet
Union, erected the Berlin Wall. 
• The wall cut communications between
East Germany and West Germany. The
United States and its allies protested the
building of the wall, but could do nothing
to stop it.
(pages 867–869)
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The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The most dangerous dispute between the
United States and the Soviet Union was
the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. 
- In October photos from an American spy
plane flying over Cuba revealed that the
Soviet Union was building nuclear-missile
launch sites on the island. 
- Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba until
the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles. 
- He promised to destroy any Soviet ship that
tried to break through the blockade.
(pages 869–870)
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The Cuban Missile Crisis (cont.)
- Kennedy also stated that any nuclear missile
launched from Cuba would be considered an
attack on the United States by the Soviet
Union and would be met with a nuclear attack
on the Soviet Union. 
- After a few tense days, Soviet ships
approaching Cuba turned back rather than
trying to break the blockade. 
- Soviet leaders also agreed to withdraw their
missiles from Cuba.
(pages 869–870)
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The Cuban Missile Crisis (cont.)
• Having come close to nuclear war, the
United States and the Soviet Union started
working to establish a better relationship. 
• In 1963 a hot line between Washington
and Moscow was established to allow
American and Soviet leaders to
communicate instantly during times
of crisis. 
• That same year, the two nations signed a
treaty banning nuclear tests aboveground
or underwater.
(pages 869–870)
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The Cuban Missile Crisis (cont.)
• The United States and the Soviet Union
continued to compete in the space race
during the Kennedy administration. 
- The space race began with the 1957 launch of
the Soviet Union’s Sputnik, the world’s first
satellite. 
- Then Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became
the first person to orbit Earth. 
- One month later, Alan Shepard, Jr., became the
first American to make a space flight.
- John Glenn orbited the Earth in February 1962
and became the first American to do so.
(pages 869–870)
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The Cuban Missile Crisis (cont.)
• The United States was not satisfied to be
second to the Soviet Union in space
exploration. 

• Funding for NASA was expanded, as were
its facilities in Florida and Texas. 
• The challenge was met when, in July 1969,
American astronaut Neil Armstrong took the
first human steps on the moon with the
Apollo Project.
(pages 869–870)
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Guide to Reading
Main Idea
U.S. military involvement in Vietnam increased
steadily throughout the 1960s. 
Key Terms
• Vietcong 
• escalate 
• coup 
• search-anddestroy mission
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Soldier’s boots, Vietnam War
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The U.S. and Vietnam
• Vietnam was a French colony that had
been captured by Japan during World
War II. 
• When the war was over and Japan was
defeated, the Vietnamese looked forward
to independence. 
• But the French were not prepared to give
up the colony. 
• Vietnamese forces, led by Communist Ho
Chi Minh fought against the French for
Vietnam’s independence.
(pages 871–874)
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The U.S. and Vietnam (cont.)
• Ho Chi Minh’s forces finally defeated the
French in 1954. 
• A peace agreement temporarily divided
Vietnam. 
• Communist nationalists would control the
north, while non-Communists, supported
by the United States, would control the
south. 
• The country was to be unified in 1956,
after national elections were held. 
• The elections were never held.
(pages 871–874)
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The U.S. and Vietnam (cont.)
• In 1955 Ngo Dinh Diem gained control of
the government of South Vietnam and,
with American support, refused to hold
elections in 1956. 
• Many Communists in the South opposed
Diem’s power grab and his brutal policies
against those who opposed him. 
• When Diem tried to destroy the forces
working against him, they organized
themselves into the National Liberation
Front, or the Vietcong.
(pages 871–874)
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The U.S. and Vietnam (cont.)
• In 1959 the Vietcong started a war to
defeat the Diem regime. 
• The United States began to support South
Vietnam because of the domino theory–
the idea that if Communists took over one
country in Southeast Asia, the other
countries in that area would also fall to the
Communists like a row of dominoes. 
• Eisenhower sent South Vietnam billions of
dollars in aid and several hundred soldiers
as military advisers.
(pages 871–874)
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The U.S. and Vietnam (cont.)
• Kennedy was also interested in keeping
Vietnam out of Communist control. 
• He sent more military advisers and
pressured the Diem government to
undertake reforms that would eliminate
conditions that had spurred the growth of
the Communist opposition–poverty,
landlessness, lack of education, and poor
health care. 
• But Diem refused. As opposition to his
regime grew, more aid flowed from North
Vietnam to the South to fuel the guerrilla
(pages 871–874)
war against the Diem regime.
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The U.S. and Vietnam (cont.)
• As Diem became more autocratic and
internal opposition against him grew, the
Kennedy administration found it difficult to
continue to support him. 
• In November of 1963, the South
Vietnamese military overthrew Diem and
assassinated him. 
• Kennedy supported the coup, but not the
assassination.
(pages 871–874)
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The Conflict Deepens
• After President Kennedy’s death, the
problem of what to do in Vietnam fell to
President Johnson. 
• He did not think Vietnam was worth heavy
military involvement, but the United States
continued to get drawn into the conflict
there to stop the attempted Communist
takeover by the North. 
• Johnson wanted congressional support
for expanding United States involvement
in Vietnam.
(pages 874–876)
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The Conflict Deepens (cont.)
• In 1964, when North Vietnamese naval
forces allegedly attacked American
destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 
• The resolution allowed the president to
take “all necessary measures” to repel
any armed attack against American
forces. 
• Johnson used the resolution to escalate,
or gradually increase, United States
involvement in Vietnam.
(pages 874–876)
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The Conflict Deepens (cont.)
• By late 1967, roughly 500,000 American
soldiers were in Vietnam. 
• The American military also began an
intense bombing campaign against the
North Vietnamese in the mid-1960s. 
• One target of the bombing was the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, a network of roads, paths, and
bridges connecting North and South
Vietnam.
(pages 874–876)
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The Conflict Deepens (cont.)
• The trail was bombed because North
Vietnamese troops used it to bring
equipment south. 
• Bridges, docks, factories, and military
bases in the North were also bombed.

• The American forces found fighting the war
in Vietnam difficult for many reasons. 
- Dense jungles, muddy trails, and swampy areas
made troop movements difficult. 
- Because the Vietcong guerrillas blended in with
the rest of the Vietnamese population, it was
hard to tell friends and enemies apart. (pages 874–876)
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The Conflict Deepens (cont.)
- America’s allies in the army of South Vietnam
often did not fight effectively. 
• Lethal weapons were used in the war. 
• Aside from conventional bombs, planes
also dropped napalm, an explosive that
burned intensely. 
• A toxic herbicide called Agent Orange was
used to destroy the jungle vegetation that
the enemy used for cover. 
• Agent Orange contaminated many
American and Vietnamese soldiers,
causing them severe health problems.
(pages 874–876)
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The Conflict Deepens (cont.)
• American war tactics caused enormous
Vietcong losses but an increasing number
of people in the Johnson administration
began to believe that the ground battles
and the air attacks still could not win the
war. 
• Also, the American public’s opposition to
the war began to grow.
(pages 874–876)
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Guide to Reading
Main Idea
Many Americans opposed the nation’s
involvement in Vietnam. Many others believed
that U.S. leaders were not doing enough to win
the war. 
Key Terms
• counterculture 
• hawk 
• deferment 
• credibility gap 
• dove 
• silent majority
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Demonstration at the
Pentagon
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The Youth Protest
• As the war dragged on, protests in the
United States pitted supporters of the war
(hawks) against those who thought the
United States should get out of Vietnam
(doves). 
• People who opposed the war were part of
the counterculture
•
Many student protests focused on opposition to the draft. 
•
The draft supplied soldiers for the war. 
•
All men were required to register for the draft when they reached
age 18.
(pages 877–878)
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The Youth Protest (cont.)
• There were several reasons people
protested the draft. 
- Some people who opposed the war believed
that ending the draft would stop the supply of
soldiers, thereby ending the war. 
- Many draft opponents protested that the
majority of soldiers came from poor or workingclass backgrounds. 
- Full-time college students, who were mostly
from the middle class, got deferments that
excused them from the draft.
(pages 877–878)
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The Youth Protest (cont.)
- Some draft opponents became conscientious
objectors, or people who claimed their
religions or moral beliefs did not allow them to
fight in any war. 
• Americans had many reasons for
opposing the war. 
• Some thought the United States should
not be in Vietnam under any
circumstances. 
• Others did not like the way the war was
being fought.
(pages 877–878)
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The Youth Protest (cont.)
• Many hawks and doves criticized
President Johnson for his handling of the
war, and the president’s approval rating fell
dramatically. 
• As opposition to the war mounted,
protesters planned larger and larger
demonstrations. 
• In October 1967, 50,000 people marched
to the Pentagon to protest the war.
• To show their opposition to the war, young
people chose to burn their draft cards in
defiance.
(pages 877–878)
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Violence Erupts (cont.)
• The presidential race also heated up, with
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey joining
Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy in
seeking the Democratic presidential
nomination. 
• As 1968 continued, McCarthy and
Kennedy faced each other in several
primaries. 
• After Robert Kennedy won the California
primary in early June, he was shot and
killed by an assassin.
(pages 880–881)
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Election of 1968
• The Republican Party nominated Richard
M. Nixon. 
• Sensing the public’s resentment and
weariness regarding the antiwar violence
and protests of the Johnson era, Nixon
promised a return to “law and order” and
vowed to represent what he called the
“silent majority” of Americans who did
not shout and protest. 
• Nixon was vague about his stand on
Vietnam, only promising that he would
achieve “peace with honor.”
(page 882)
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Guide to Reading
Main Idea
President Nixon put a plan in place to train and
equip South Vietnamese soldiers to take the
place of American troops. 
Key Terms
• Vietnamization 
• martial law 
• MIAs
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Nixon inaugural button
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A New Strategy
• Newly elected President Nixon now had
the task of dealing with the Vietnam War. 
• He wanted to pull American troops out of
Vietnam, but he did not want it to be done
in a way that would look like defeat. 
• President Nixon’s strategy of peace with
honor had three parts: 
- The military began drafting fewer men for
service in the war, and Nixon promised to
eliminate the draft totally in the future.
(pages 884–885)
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A New Strategy (cont.)
- Nixon began to withdraw troops slowly from
Vietnam, while turning more and more
responsibility for fighting the war over to South
Vietnamese forces. This was called
Vietnamization. 
- Nixon authorized an expansion of the bombing
campaign to help the South Vietnamese troops
by destroying enemy supply routes and
hideouts in neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
This part of the plan was kept secret.
(pages 884–885)
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Renewed Opposition at Home (cont.)
• The invasion of Cambodia sparked a
series of protests on college campuses
across the country. 
• Most went on peacefully, but two ended in
tragedy. 
• On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University
in Ohio, a clash between student
protesters and members of the National
Guard ended in tragedy when four
students were killed and 13 others were
wounded.
(pages 885–887)
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Renewed Opposition at Home (cont.)
• On May 14, at Jackson State College in
Mississippi, two students were shot and
killed after a night of campus violence. 
• President Nixon’s reaction was to take a
hard line and blame the protesters for the
violence. 
• A commission found that the shootings at
Kent State were unjustified. 
• But a majority of Americans seemed to
side with President Nixon.
(pages 885–887)
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“Peace Is at Hand” (cont.)
• The United States also put pressure on
South Vietnam to accept the terms of the
peace treaty. 
• As a result, the peace agreement was
signed in January 1973. 
• The United States agreed to pull all of its
remaining troops out of Vietnam, and the
North Vietnamese agreed to return all
American prisoners of war. 
• The Paris Peace Accords ended American
involvement in Vietnam, but the conflict
there continued.
(pages 888–889)
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“Peace Is at Hand” (cont.)
• The North Vietnamese did not abandon
their goal of unifying Vietnam under their
control. 
• In early 1975, they launched a major
offensive against the South. 
• The weakened South Vietnamese army
collapsed. 
• Within a few days, North Vietnamese
tanks were on the outskirts of Saigon.
(pages 888–889)
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“Peace Is at Hand” (cont.)
• The last Americans fled the city, along with
many Vietnamese who had supported or
worked for them. 
• Many of the Vietnamese people who
escaped with the Americans ended up in
the United States, but many others were
left behind. 
• In April 1975, Saigon fell to the
Communists, and South Vietnam
surrendered soon after. This ended the
Vietnam War.
(pages 888–889)
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Legacy of the War
• The Vietnam War took a staggering toll of
life. About 1.4 million Vietnamese–civilian
and military–died. The country also lay in
ruins. 
• More than 58,000 Americans died as well. 
• About 300,000 others were wounded,
many permanently disabled. 
• The United States spent about $150 billion
on the war.
(page 889)
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Legacy of the War (cont.)
• The soldiers who returned from Vietnam
did not receive the hero’s welcome that
many returning soldiers from past wars
had received. 
• Many Americans had not supported the
war and wanted to forget about it. 
• As a result, the soldiers who returned
from Vietnam were largely ignored.
(page 889)
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Legacy of the War (cont.)
• There were many American soldiers who
were classified as missing in action, or
MIA. 
• Their relatives and friends demanded that
the United States government pressure
the Vietnamese for information on the
MIAs. 
• Several American groups were allowed to
do searches in Vietnam, but with no
success. 
• Most MIAs have remained missing.
(page 889)
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