Chapter 24, Section 4: The End of the War

1. Chapter 24, Section 4: The End of the War • 11/3/1969 Nixon gave the “Silent Majority” speech • The Silent Majority were the group of people in this country who were not voicing their opinions on the war and therefore not being heard • Nixon wanted to bring the troops home and asked the country how they thought he should do it

2. Nixon’s Vietnam Policy • The Paris Peace Talks were held in May of 1968; they were not successful • Nixon promised he had a secret plan to end the war and won the election of 1968 • Vietnamization: Nixon’s plan in 1969 to remove U.S. troops and replace with South Vietnamese troops • By 1972, American troops had declined to 24,000

3. Cambodia • President Nixon ordered bombing raids on major cities • Nixon ordered troops to Cambodia to clear out Communist Camps • He wanted to prevent the fall of Cambodia to communism and to weaken the Viet Cong

4. Nixon Calls For Law and Order • The Silent Majority was asked to stick up for their beliefs and speak out against violent protestors • Nixon said, “If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no future as a free society.”

5. Kent State and Jackson State • 1970 Kent State in Ohio: students protesting the invasion of Cambodia broke windows and the ROTC was called in • National Guardsmen were called in and they used tear gas on students who were throwing rocks at them • Something happened and the guardsmen fired on the students; 4 died and 9 were injured • A similar incident occurred at Jackson State in Mississippi (2 dead, 11 wounded)

6. Peace Agreement, January 1973 • U.S., Viet Cong, South Vietnam and North Vietnam met in Paris, France • Provisions: U.S. withdraw all troops in 60 days, All POW’s released, all parties would end military activity in Cambodia and Laos, 17 parallel would continue to divide Vietnam until the country could be reunited

7. Fall of South Vietnam • Spring of 1975 the North Vietnamese launched attacks against the South • April 29, 1975 the U.S. carried out more than 1,000 Americans and 6,000 Vietnamese from Saigon (helicopters to air craft carriers) • April 30, 1975 Vietnam is reunited under communism

8. Fall of Saigon/Operation Baby Lift • Presidents Nixon and Ford worked to get children out of South Vietnam • Over 2,700 babies were lifted to the U.S. and adopted by families in the U.S., Canada and Australia • One flight crashed and 154 of the 300 adults and children on the flight were killed

9. Fall of Saigon (Last Flight Out) • What is going on in this picture??

10. Southeast Asia After the War • Domino Theory (President Truman): Cambodia and Laos • 4/1975, Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot; these communists killed nearly ¼ of Cambodia’s population for being tainted by “western ways” • Southern Vietnamese civilians were sent to “re-education camps” to be trained to be communists

11. POW’s and MIA’s • 58,000 Americans dead and 300,000 wounded • More than 2,500 were listed as Prisoners of War or Missing in Action

12. Costs of Vietnam • The longest and least successful war in American history • U.S. spent at least $150 billion dollars • More bombs dropped in Vietnam than in all the Axis powers in WWII; the number of dead and wounded in Vietnam was in the millions • Economic hardships resulted in Vietnam due to a trade embargo placed on them by the U.S. until 1994

13. Vietnam Veterans Memorial • Vietnam Veteran Jan Scruggs started a fund for a memorial in 1979 • Scruggs committee held a contest to design the memorial • They chose the design of 21 year old Maya Ying Lin • She chose black granite so that visitors could see themselves in the memorial, she chose a long short wall on a slope so that visitors could have privacy, she placed the names in the order that people died so that the passing of each life could be emphasized, the wall was short so people could touch every name • Completed in 1982