The Vietnam Era

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The Vietnam Era

• 8th Grade United States History

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Kennedys Foreign Policy

• Essential Question
• What were the key foreign policy challenges the
  United States faced during the Kennedy
  administration?

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Kennedys Foreign Policy

• 1961 Cold War continued to deepen
• President Kennedy continues anti-communist
  campaign
• Throughout the world, communist groups fought to
  take control of national government
• Kennedy introduced a plan
• called flexible response in
• response to guerilla warfare
• Green Berets

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Strength Through Aid

• Communist promises of economic equality was
  attractive
• Latin America, Asia, Africa
• Kennedy provided aid to those countries to weaken
  the appeal of communism
• Executive order created the Peace Corps to aid
  countries in need
• Volunteers worked as teachers and health workers
• Advisers for government, farming and industry

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Cuba

• 1959 Fidel Castro seizes power and sets up a
  Communist dictatorship
• Ally of the Soviet Union
• CIA plans to overthrow Castro by recruiting Cuban
  refugees in USA to spark uprising in Cuba
• Bay of Pigs
• Many mistakes made in the beginning of invasion
• Kennedy refused air support
• Kennedy took blame for the failure

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Effects of the Bay of Pigs

• Kennedy never completely trusted military and
  intelligence advice
• Nations in Latin America lost trust in Kennedy
• Soviet leader Khrushchev saw Kennedy as a weak
  leader

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The Berlin Wall

• Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall in 1961
• Keep western troops out of East Berlin following
  WWII
• Prevent refugees seeking freedom from East Berlin
  from entering West Berlin
• Cut communications between the two parts of the
  city
• Wall came to symbolize Communist repression

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Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1962 American spy plane took photographs
  revealing Soviets building launching sites for
  nuclear weapons in Cuba
• Could reach U.S. in minutes
• Kennedy ordered blockade of Cuba until missiles
  were removed
• Kennedy warned that a nuclear attack from the
  Soviets would result in a nuclear attack by the
  U.S.
• After 5 days, Soviets removed missiles
• Two nations started to work together to avoid
  nuclear war

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Rivalry in Space

• 1961 Kennedy commits U.S. to landing on the
  moon by the end of the decade
• NASA expands
• July 20, 1969 The Eagle lands on the surface of
  the moon
• Neil Armstrong
• Thats one small step for a man, one giant leap
  for mankind.

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Making Connections

• What motivated the Soviet Union to build the
  Berlin Wall?
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• How did the United States attempt to contain
  communism during the Kennedy administration?
• Answer the Essential Question What were the key
  foreign policy challenges the United States faced
  during the Kennedy administration?

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War in Vietnam

• Essential Question
• How and why did American involve itself in the
  war in Vietnam?

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Vietnam
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Origins of the War

• After WWII, Vietnamese Communist leader, Ho Chi
  Minh, declared independence from the French
• French were unwilling to give up their Indochina
  colony
• Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam
• Rice, rubber and tin
• Ho Chi Minh defeated French forces in 1954

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The Geneva Accords

• 1954 U.S., France, Great Britain, Soviet Union,
  China and Vietnam meet in Geneva, Switzerland
• Decided Vietnam would be temporarily divided
• Ho Chi Minh Communist North Vietnam
• United States would support non-Communist South
  Vietnam
• United States emphasized that it would act if the
  Communist North moved against the South

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The Geneva Accords

• South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem refused to
  hold elections and cracked down on Communism in
  the South
• Communists set up the Vietcong (National
  Liberation Front) in response
• Began a war against Diem regime

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A Growing American Role

• Eisenhower and Kennedy supported South Vietnam in
  the form of economic aid and training of troops
• Diem was urged to made reforms that would weaken
  the appeal of Communism but few reforms were made
• Took rights away from Buddhist population
• South Vietnamese overthrew Diem with support of
  the United States

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The Conflict Deepens

• 16,000 American troops were in Vietnam at the
  time of Kennedys assassination
• Vietcong attacks caused Americans to get more
  involved
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
• North Vietnamese patrol boats allegedly attacked
  American destroyers near Gulf of Tonkin
• Congress gave President Johnson the ability to
  take all necessary measures to repel any armed
  attack against the forces of the United States
• 1965 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
• 1965-1968 - U.S. Bombing campaign

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Fighting the War

• Fighting a ground war was difficult
• Dense jungles
• Muddy trails
• Swampy rice paddies
• Guerilla warfare
• Search and destroy missions
• Planes bombed areas of South Vietnam to drive
  guerillas out of the jungle
• Napalm
• Agent Orange

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Frustration Grows

• No matter how many Vietcong and North Vietnamese
  troops were destroyed, they were always replaced
• Soldiers became frustrated
• Opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam began
  to grow at home

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Making Connections

• What was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and why
  was it important?
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• Why was it difficult for U.S. soldiers to fight
  in Vietnam?
• Answer the Essential Question How and why did
  American involve itself in the war in Vietnam?

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The Vietnam Years at Home

• Essential Question
• How did the Vietnam War affect the political and
  social climate in the United States?

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Protest

• The war divided the nation
• Generation gap
• Doves and hawks

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Increased Opposition to War in Vietnam

• Some considered it a Civil War between the
  Vietnamese
• Believed the cost of war was hurting domestic
  programs
• Viewed South Vietnam as a corrupt dictatorship
  that was not worth assisting
• Loss of countryside
• Loss of Lives

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Counterculture

• Challenge to traditional middle class values
• Challenge to customary social roles of work and
  family
• Reject competition for material goods and
  personal success

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Counterculture
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Opposition to the Draft

• Student protests targeted the selective service
  system
• Sought to halt the supply of soldiers needed to
  fight the war
• Argued that deferments discriminated against poor
  and working class families
• Conscientious Objectors

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The Tet Offensive

• January 31, 1968 North Vietnamese and Vietcong
  launched attacks
• Military bases
• South Vietnams cities
• United States embassy in Saigon
• U.S. pushed back all communist forces
• Many Americans began to turn against the war and
  President Johnson
• Concerned that an enemy they were assured was so
  close to defeat could launch such a large attack
• People began to distrust the Johnson
  administration

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The President Responds

• American commander in Vietnam requested more
  troops
• Johnson ordered a reevaluation of the war
• 1968 Johnson stated that no more bombs would be
  dropped on N. Vietnamese cities
• Asked for peace talks
• Informed the nation that he would not seek a
  second term

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Violence Erupts

• April 4, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is
  assassinated
• Riots erupt all over the country
• June 1968 Robert Kennedy is assassinated

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Violence Erupts

• Protestors flocked to Chicago to protest the
  presidential nomination of Democratic Senator
  Hubert Humphrey
• Humphrey favored Johnsons Vietnam policy
• Protestors threw bottles and sticks at police
• Police threw tear gas, beat protesters with night
  sticks and arrested many
• Republican Richard Nixon wins the election of
  1968

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Making Connections

• What were draft deferments and who benefited from
  them?
• What was the Tet Offensive and why was it
  significant to the course of the war?
• Answer the Essential Question How did the
  Vietnam War affect the political and social
  climate of the United States?