Aim # 79: Why did Vietnam have such a large impact upon US ......1 May 11, 2016 Aim # 79: Why did...

Aim # 79 Vietnam2.notebook

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Aim # 79: Why did Vietnam have such a large impact upon US society?

US Involvement• Aid to Ho Chi Minh/Communists in 1941 • 1945 Japan leaves• 1946 France reoccupies• Who will Truman support? Why?


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Aim: Why did Vietnam have such a large impact upon US society?

Vietnam divided• 1954 Dien Bien Phu• Geneva Accords• General election planned for 1956• In 1956 Diem refuses• What will Ike do?


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Ike and JFKHo Chi Minh develops Vietcong and guerilla tactics• Send in military advisors • Why?• Diem becomes unpopular• JFK administration conspires to execute him


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"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." Aug 6th, 1964

Military buildup• 300k troops by 1966

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution


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Incrementalism• Ho Chi Minh Trail• Use of Napalm (Agent Orange)• Avoided attacking North Vietnam• Why?


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Credibility Gap• LBJ's administration's assessments did not match TV reports coming from Vietnam• Growing Antiwar movement

AntiWar Movement


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January 30 31, 1968

On the Tet holiday, Vietcong units surge into action over the length and breadth of South Vietnam. In more than 100 cities and towns, shock attacks by Vietcong sappercommandos are followed by wave after wave of supporting troops. By the end of the city battles, 37,000 Vietcong troops deployed for Tet have been killed. Many more had been wounded or captured, and the fighting had created more than a half million civilian refugees. Casualties included most of the Vietcong's best fighters, political officers and secret organizers; for the guerillas, Tet is nothing less than a catastrophe. But for the Americans, who lost 2,500 men, it is a serious blow to public support.

It was a military turning point in the war, but it was far more than that in its painful demonstration of the limits of American power in Asia and in the psychological impact it was to have on Americans at home.

The daring of the Tet attackers extended into the heart of Saigon and, most startling, into the very confines of the American Embassy. A handful of Vietcong, wearing South Vietnamese uniforms, held parts of the embassy for the first six hours of the offensive. Martial Law Declared

Hanoi radio said the aim of the offensive was to overthrow the South Vietnamese Government of President Nguyen Van Thieu. The next day, President Thieu declared martial law throughout South Vietnam.


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Tet Offensive• Begins Jan. 31st 196880,000 NLF troops striking more than 100 towns and cities• 36 of 44 provincial capitals, five of the six autonomous cities, 72 of 245 district towns, and the national capital


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Nixon (Jan 1969 August 1974)• Plan to end war 'with honor'• Kissinger• Vietnamization• Expanded bombing of Laos/Cambodia


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Turning Tide• My Lai Massacre• March 16, 1968• 350500 dead• Torture and abuse• Kent State 'Massacre'• May 4th, 1970• 4 killed, 9 injured• Some hurt were not protesters

· 1971 Pentagon Papers• 7000 page Gov't report released to NYT by Daniel Ellsberg• Nixon asks for 'prior restraint'• Supreme Court rules that the information is about the past, thus not dangerous to national security· 1973 Paris Peace Accords• Signed Jan. 27th, 1973

New York Times v. US


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"Round everybody up" Lt. Willilam Calley (before ordering the killing the civilians in My Lai)

"We huddled them up. We made them squat down.I poured about four clips (about 68 shots) into thegroup...The mothers kept hugging their children...Well, we kept right on firing...I stilldream about it.About the women and children in my sleep...Somenights, I can't even sleep. I just lay there thinkingabout it. (described by Private Paul Meadlo)


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Abu Ghraib


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Results:• Spring, 1975 Reunification• 58k US dead• 1m + Vietnamese dead• Feeling of defeat• 1973 War Powers Act: 48 hours to inform congress, 6090 days to gain congressional approval


(Response to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution)


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Aim # 79: Why did Vietnam have such a large impact upon US society?

Come you masters of warYou that build the big gunsYou that build the death planesYou that build all the bombsYou that hide behind wallsYou that hide behind desksI just want you to knowI can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'But build to destroyYou play with my worldLike it's your little toyYou put a gun in my handAnd you hide from my eyesAnd you turn and run fartherWhen the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of oldYou lie and deceiveA world war can be wonYou want me to believeBut I see through your eyesAnd I see through your brainLike I see through the waterThat runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggersFor the others to fireThen you set back and watchWhile the death count gets higherThen you hide in your mansionWhile the young people's bloodFlows out of their bodiesAnd is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fearThat can ever be hurledFear to bring childrenInto the worldFor threatening my babyUnborn and unnamedYou ain't worth the bloodThat runs in your veins

How much do I knowTo talk out of turnYou might say that I'm youngYou might say I'm unlearnedBut there's one thing I knowThough I'm younger than youEven Jesus would neverForgive what you do

Let me ask you one questionIs your money that goodWill it buy you forgivenessDo you think that it couldI think you will findWhen your death takes its tollAll the money you madeWill never buy back your soul

And I hope that you dieAnd your death'll come soonI will follow your casketIn the pale afternoonAnd I'll watch while you're loweredDown to your deathbedAnd I'll stand o'er your grave'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Bob DylanMasters of War

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/mastersofwar

http://www.timsah.com/BobDylanMastersofWar/pdPMd02Aapv

http://www.timsah.com/Bob-Dylan-Masters-of-War/pdPMd02Aapv


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Aim # 79: Why did Vietnam have such a large impact upon US ......1 May 11, 2016 Aim # 79: Why did...

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