The Assassination of JFK, LBJ Administration & U.S. Involvement in Vietnam

1. Semester 2 Week 11 The Assassination of JFK, LBJ Administration & U.S. Involvement in Vietnam

2. JFK Shot • 11/23/1963, Kennedy & his wife traveled to TX with VP Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) for a series of political appearances • As the presidential motorcade rode slowly through the crowded streets of Dallas, gunfire rang out • Someone had shot the president twice, once in the throat & once in the head • Horrified gov’t officials sped JFK to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead moments later

3. Let the Conspiracies Begin • Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of killing JFK, appeared to be a confused & embittered Marxist who had spent time in the USSR • He himself was shot to death while in police custody 2 days after the assassination • The bizarre situation led some to speculate that the 2nd gunman, local nightclub owner Jack Ruby, killed Oswald to protect others involved in the crime

4. Warren Commission • 1964, a national commission headed by Chief Justice Warren concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin • The report of Warren Commission left some questions unanswered, and theories about a conspiracy to kill the president have persisted, though none has gained wide acceptance

5. LBJ takes over • Immediately after JFK was pronounced dead, officials whisked LBJ to the airport • At 2:38 PM on 11/22, he stood in the cabin of Air Force One, LBJ took the oath of office • LBJ knew that he had to assure a stunned public that he could hold the nation together • A day after the assassination, LBJ appeared before Congress & urged the nation to move on, “The ideas and ideas which [Kennedy] so nobly represented must and will be translated into effective action,” he stated. “John Kennedy’s death commands what his life conveyed- that America must move forward.”

6. Election of 1964 • LBJ’s Republican opponent in the 1964 presidential election was Sen. Barry Goldwater (AZ) known for his outspoken conservatism • Few Americans were ready to embrace Goldwater’s message, which was too aggressive for a nation nervous about nuclear war • On Election Day, LBJ won in a landslide, winning all but 5 S'rn states & AZ • After his election, LBJ began working with • Major goals of civil rights movements were achieved with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which barred discrimination of many kinds, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ensured African American’s right to vote

8. Great Society • Great Society was LBJ’s vision of the more perfect & equitable society the U.S. could & should become • LBJ’s goals were consistent w/ the times for several reasons • The civil rights movement had brought the grievance of Afr. Amer. to the forefront, reminding many that greater equality of opportunity had yet to be realized • Economics also supported LBJ’s goal • The economy was strong, and many believed it would remain so indefinitely • From 1965-1968, more than 60 programs were passed, among the most significant programs were Medicare and Medicaid • Medicare had especially strong support since it was directed at the entire elderly population • in 1965, around half of those over the age of 65 had no health insurance

9. Education in the Great Society • Great Society programs also strongly supported education • The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 granted millions of dollars to public and private schools for textbooks, library materials, and special education programs • Efforts to improve education also extended to preschoolers, where Project Head Start • It was directed at disadvantage children who had “never looked at a picture book or scribbled with a crayon” • Another program, Upward Bound, was designed to provide college preparation for low-income teenagers

10. Legacy of the Great Society • The Great Society programs touched nearly every aspect of American life & improved thousands if not millions of lives • In the years since LBJ left office, however, debate had continued over whether or not the Great Society was truly a success • The impact of the Great Society was limited. • In his rush to get as much done as he could, LBJ did not calculate exactly how his programs might work. • As a result, some of them didn’t work as well as people hoped • the programs grew so quickly they were often unmanageable and difficult to evaluate. • A lack of funds also hurt the effectiveness of Great Society programs. The programs themselves were expensive enough. When Johnson attempted to fund both his grand domestic agenda and the increasingly costly war in Vietnam, the Great society eventually suffered

11. PREPARE FOR QUIZ • TAKE OUT A SHEET OF PAPER • NUMBER 1-5

12. QUIZ • In what city was JFK assassinated? • Who was accused of assassinating JFK? • What claimed that the JFK assassination was done by a single shooter? • Who took over as president after JFK was assassinated? • From 1965-1968, how many programs were passed from the Great Society?

13. Vietnamese History When the Japanese seized power in Vietnam during WWII, it was one more example of foreigners ruling the Vietnamese people China had controlled the region off and on for hundreds of years From the late 1800s until WWII, France ruled Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia (a region known as French Indochina) One of the leaders of the nationalist movement was Nguyen Tat Thanh (AKA Ho Chi Minh)

14. Ho Chi Minh • Found the Indochinese Communist Party & worked to overthrow French rule • Ho Chi Minh’s activities made him a wanted man; fled Indochina & spent several years in exile in the USSR & China • 1941, he returned to Vietnam; By then Japan had seized control of the country • Ho Chi Minh organized a nationalist group called the Vietminh • united both Communists & non-Communists in the struggle to expel the Japanese forces • the U.S. began sending military aid to the Vietminh

15. Vietnam After WWII 8/1945, w/ the Allies’ victory over Japan the Japanese surrendered control of Indochina Ho Chi Minh & his forces quickly announced Vietnam independence France had no intention of seeing Vietnam become independent Seeking to regain their colonial empire in SE Asia, French troops returned to Vietnam in 1946 & drove the Vietminh forces into hiding in the countryside 1949, France set up a new gov’t in Vietnam

16. United States Opposes Colonialism • In Vietnam the independence movement had become entangled with the Communist movement • U.S. officials did not think France should control Vietnam, but they did not want Vietnam to be Communist either • 2 events convinced the Truman administration to help France: • the fall of China to communism • the outbreak of the Korean War • Korea convinced American officials that the USSR had begun a major push to impose communism on East Asia • Shortly after the Korean War began, Truman authorized a massive program of military aid to French forces fighting in Vietnam. • IKE defended U.S. policy in Vietnam by stressing what became known as the domino theory (the belief that if Vietnam fell to communism, so too would the other nations of SE Asia)

17. French Can’t Control the Vietminh The French struggled against the Vietminh, who consistently frustrated the French with hit-and-run & ambush tactics These are the tactics of guerrillas, irregular troops who usually blend into the civilian population and are often difficult for regular armies to fight 1954, the French commander ordered his forces to occupy Dien Bien Phu A huge Vietminh force surrounded Dien Bien Phu and began bombarding the town. 5/7/1954, the French forces at Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietminh The defeat convinced the French to make peace & w/draw from Indochina

18. Geneva Conference Negotiations to end the conflict were held in Geneva, Switzerland The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel Ho Chi Minh & the Vietminh controlled North Vietnam a pro-W’rn regime controlled the South 1956 elections were to be held to reunite the country under a single gov’t

19. U.S. Involvement in Vietnam After the Geneva Accords partitioned Vietnam, the French finally left The U.S. almost immediately stepped in & became the principal protector of the new gov’t in the South, led by a nationalist leader named Ngo Dinh Diem 1956, Diem refused to hold countrywide elections, as called for by the Geneva Accords He knew that the Communist-controlled north would not allow genuinely free elections, and that Ho Chi Minh would almost certainly have won as a result IKE supported Diem & increased U.S. military & economic aid to South Vietnam 1954, U.S. Joint Chief-of-Staff said Indochina had no strategic advantage to the United States. It was also believed that if the United States got absorbed into a land war in Indochina, the Soviets would make advancements in Europe

20. PREPARE FOR QUIZ TAKE OUT A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER NUMBER 1-5

21. QUIZ What countries make up French Indochina? (France is not one of the countries) Who organized a nationalist group called the Vietminh? What 2 events convinced the Truman administration to help France? The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the? Who was the leader in South Vietnam?