Vietnam Anticipation Questions

1. Vietnam Anticipation Questions • T/F Everyone has the same chance of success in the U.S.A. • T/F When you judge someone it is important that you know their whole story. • T/F War often forces people to reconsider their traditional ideals of right and wrong • T/F War brings out the extremes in people;courage, loyalty but also brutality and abuse • If you were going to fight in Vietnam what would be the one personal possession you would carry?

2. Vietnam – For Your Consideration 1. Why did the U.S. fight in Vietnam? 2. What was the war like before the U.S. entered it? How did we change it? 3. How did the war change the U.S.? 4. Why did an antiwar mov’t become so strong in the U.S.? What were its criticisms of the war in Vietnam? Were they right? 5. Why did the U.S. lose the war? 6. What lessons should we take from the experience?

3. Situation in Vietnam during the 1950s and early 1960s: The United States had become involved in the civil war • Communist guerillas had organized the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) which had ties to the Communist gov’t of the North • South Vietnam leader Ngo Dinh Diem asked for U.S. assistance and military aid • Between 1955 and 1961, 650 military advisers were sent to South Vietnam • Kennedy increased such military assistance, and 15,500 military personnel were sent to South Vietnam • The U.S. instigated a coup whereby military leaders took over the gov’t • Diem and his associates were killed

4. Johnson’s Vietnam policy after Kennedy’s assassination: Influenced by his foreign policy advisers, Johnson believed that the U.S. had an obligation to resist communism in Vietnam, and therefore escalated involvement in the war. Initially he sent 5,000 military advisers. • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964): Passed by Congress, it became the legal means for escalation of the conflict, allowing the president to “take all necessary measures” to protect American forces and “prevent further aggression” in South Asia • The resolution was a response to an unprovoked attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin • Doubts were later raised as to whether this act of aggression had actually taken place

5. Bombing of North Vietnam (1965): After Communist forces attacked an American base at Pleiku and seven marines died, Johnson ordered bombing of the North • Such bombing raids continued until 1972 • They had little effect, however, in limiting North Vietnamese assistance to the NLF

6. # 1 Quang Duc, first Buddhist monk to set himself on fire to protest the policies of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime that the U.S. supported in South Vietnam.

7. #2 This little girl, Kim Phuc, ran screaming down Highway I, fleeing from an accidental napalm attack on her village by South Vietnamese airplanes.

8. # 3 Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the national police chief of South Vietnam, casually shot this terrified man, suspected fo being a Viet Cong sympathizer, on a street in Saigon as an American photographer and television crew looked on.

9. Leading up to 1968 … • No clear cut winner in the war • Increase in American forces in SE Asia • Viet cong proved to be the guiding force in South Vietnam • US tries to “pacify” South Vietnam • Optimistic reports are sent back • McNamara sees “a light at the end of the tunnel" • Overall, the general public still supported America in Vietnam

10. Hell no we won’t go! Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today? • The purpose/goal of the anti-war protests was not only to get the US out of what they believe to be an “unjust” war, but also to keep young American men from dying - to protect their interests, to support them. However, demostrations and protests had just the opposite effect on the young men who were serving the war. Returning Vets felt disgraced, reviled, unappreciated. They had served their country honorably, sacrificing life and limb in the war, only to return to a country which did not recognize or appreciate their sacrifices.

11. Tet offensive (1968): An attack on U.S. strongholds throughout South Vietnam by the Viet Cong • This episode eventually developed into a military victory for the U.S. • Media coverage of it, however, stirred significant U.S. antiwar sentiment and tarnished Johnson’s popularity

12. 1968 Election MLK on the Vietnam War: “We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village” Muhammed Ali on the Vietnam War: “No Viet Cong ever called me a ‘nigger’”

13. #4 In the My Lai massacre of March 1968 American combat troops murdered women, old men, and children

14. #5 The fall of Saigon or the Liberation of the South - 1975. “How do you ask the last man to die for a mistake?” Senator John Kerry

15. Vietnam – For Your Consideration 1. Why did the U.S. fight in Vietnam? 2. What was the war like before the U.S. entered it? How did we change it? 3. How did the war change the U.S.? 4. Why did an antiwar mov’t become so strong in the U.S.? What were its criticisms of the war in Vietnam? Were they right? 5. Why did the U.S. lose the war? 6. What lessons should we take from the experience? Controversial Responses 1. U.S. entered the war to secure valuable natural resources in Vietnam 2. To bring democracy to the Vietnamese people 3. Internal politics of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson (we “lost” China under Truman, can’t afford to “lose” Vietnam; domino theory) 4. American prestige; Pax Americana 5. Big business fomented the war to save U.S. economy 6. Repeat of American cultural pattern of racism and imperialism 7. Blundered into the war; no clear cause or purpose; because no administration had the courage to undo our mistake in opposing the popular independence mov’t of 1946

16. Vietnam Anticipation Questions • T/F Everyone has the same chance of success in the U.S.A. • T/F When you judge someone it is important that you know their whole story. • T/F War often forces people to reconsider their traditional ideals of right and wrong • T/F War brings out the extremes in people;courage, loyalty but also brutality and abuse • If you were going to fight in Vietnam what would be the one personal possession you would carry?

17. Letters From Vietnam • Greetings: James H Autrey • You are hereby ordered for induction in to the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report for forwarding to an Armed Forces Induction Station • Signed • President Lyndon Baines Johnson • Greetings: Peter M Bentson • You are hereby ordered for induction in to the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report for forwarding to an Armed Forces Induction Station • Signed • President Lyndon Baines Johnson • Greetings: Gary l. Caldwell • You are hereby ordered for induction in to the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report for forwarding to an Armed Forces Induction Station • Signed • President Lyndon Baines Johnson • Greetings: James A. Dailey • You are hereby ordered for induction in to the Armed Forces of the United States, and to report for forwarding to an Armed Forces Induction Station • Signed • President Lyndon Baines Johnson