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America in Vietnam. Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Aug 1964: NVA boat fires on USS Maddox Not hit Maddox reports more gunfire Later said they saw nothing LBJ orders bombing strikes on N. Vietnam Asks Congress for military authority. Robert McNamara: Sec of Defense. Dean Rusk: Sec of State.
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Tonkin Gulf Resolution • Aug 1964: NVA boat fires on USS Maddox • Not hit • Maddox reports more gunfire • Later said they saw nothing • LBJ orders bombing strikes on N. Vietnam • Asks Congress for military authority
US Escalation • 1965: 180,000 US soldiers in Vietnam • Gen. Westmoreland calls for more troops • Says ARVN can’t fight very well • 500,000 troops by 1967
Jungle Fighting • Hit and run guerilla warfare • Hiding in cities, spies everywhere • Tunnels throughout the country • Booby traps all over the jungle
American tactics • Use of napalm to firebomb the jungles • Agent Orange: Leaf killing toxin • Cancer-causing agent • Search and destroy missions • Destroy villages with suspected NVA spies
War becomes unpopular • Protest movements sprout up • College youth and left-leaning Americans • Protests became resistance
LBJ doesn’t run in ‘68 • He is unpopular, war is unpopular • Robert Kennedy runs for president • Going to win Democratic nomination • Assassinated in Los Angeles • Nixon defeats VP Humphrey
“Peace with honor” • Slow pull out of Vietnam • 1968: 500,000 troops • 1972: 25,000 troops • USA pulls out of the war, 1973 • South falls to the communists, 1975