The Legacy of Civil Rights and Vietnam

1. The Legacy of Civil Rights and Vietnam Civil Rights and the Vietnam War Day 5 Notes

2. Different Ideas About Civil Rights • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3hT8f6Kkk • Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. • While watching the mini bio on Malcolm X, think how their messages were different.

3. Malcolm X’s Message • One of the most charismatic leaders of the Civil Rights Movement • Preached black power, and preached a message that blacks should not strive to be like the white man, because look at all the bad things that they have done. • Rejected the idea of cultural assimilation, or minorities giving in to the dominant race.

4. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speech • Preached a message of nonviolent protest. • Let them do their worst to you and hold strong with the message. • On August 28, 1963 he preaches his message to more than 200,000 protestors in Washington, D.C. • “I Have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…that all men are created equal.”

5. Which message would you have supported? • Malcolm X or MLK? • Why?

6. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Signed by Lyndon Johnson in July 1964. • The most comprehensive civil rights law Congress had ever passed. • Basically made racial segregation illegal in all public places, including restaurants, parks, libraries, etc. • Also prevented discrimination in the work place based on race, gender, etc.

7. Meanwhile, in Vietnam… • By 1969, reports of the My Lai Massacre sent the nation into a frenzy. • American platoon had massacred 200 unarmed men, women, and children in a South Vietnamese village. • In 1970, new President Richard Nixon sends troops into Cambodia to fight North Vietnamese. • Protests are in full force inside of the U.S.

8. Nixon and Vietnam • Protesting at home is at it’s highest ever. • Four students are shot to death while protesting at Kent State University in Ohio. • The Pentagon Papers, secret government documents detailing lies the government told during the war, are published in the New York Times. • With protesting at home, Nixon begins to follow through on his campaign promise of Vietnamization, or the gradual removal of troops from Vietnam.

9. Pulling Out of Vietnam • By January 1973, the U.S. and North Vietnam agreed to end the war. • U.S. promised to withdraw troops, but nothing was decided about South Vietnam’s fate. • In March 1975, with most U.S. troops out, the North launches a full out invasion of the South. • Nixon had always promised to go back in, but with other problems in his presidency by then it never happened. • The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in April 1975. The country was fully communist.

10. The Legacy of Vietnam • 150 billion dollars • 58,000 Americans dead • 300,000 injured • One million North and South Vietnamese dead • Psychological impact of the waron soldiers • 1973 War Powers Act limits the length of time that a President can send troops into war. • America’s first, and only, real loss in war.