1 / 5

Vietnam War: Escalation under LBJ

Vietnam War: Escalation under LBJ. How does the US escalate the War in Vietnam?. Aug. 1964: USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy are attacked in Tonkin Gulf. LBJ asks Congress to pass Tonkin Gulf Resolution – gives LBJ broad military powers.

lobo
Download Presentation

Vietnam War: Escalation under LBJ

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Vietnam War: Escalation under LBJ How does the US escalate the War in Vietnam?

  2. Aug. 1964: USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy are attacked in Tonkin Gulf • LBJ asks Congress to pass Tonkin Gulf Resolution – gives LBJ broad military powers • After JFK assassinated in Dallas, President Johnson will step up the military campaign • LBJ launches bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder in NV

  3. Search & Destroy (1965-1968) • Secy of State Dean Rusk and Secy of Defense Robert McNamara advise LBJ to send more troops into Vietnam • 1964: General Westmoreland takes command in Vietnam. Not impressed by S. Vietnamese Army (ARVN) – wants more US troops • March 1965: 180K US combat troops land in Da Nang, SV • Westmoreland strategy is to defeat VC’s morale (incl. body count) • US launches “search & destroy” missions to root out VC

  4. Fighting N. Vietnamese Army & Vietcong in the jungles is tough since VC had elaborate system of underground tunnels (pg 738) • To destroy VC tunnels US starts using Napalm & Agent Orange (Napalm burns trees, AO is chemical defoliant) • 300,000 troops in Vietnam by 1967, US troop morale is sinking b/c of repeated VC attacks in cities and military censorship • Horrors of war leads to an abuse of marijuana & alcohol by many soldiers • Televising the war was also hurting popular opinion of the war • LBJ & Westmoreland tell the public we are winning, war ending soon

More Related