HL SS U8 Vietnam War

Road to Cuban Revolution (1900 - 1953)

• 1900 Platt Amendment: US can intervene in Cuba for “maintenance of a government” and also foreign policy control

• 1952: Fulgencio Batista seized power in a coup, Pro-American and corruption

• 1953: Fidel Castro, Raul, 165 youths attacked Moncada army to obtain weapons to use in attempted coup

Road to Cuban Revolution (1953-)

• 26th July Movement: 1955 Castro is released from prison and started planning revolution in Mexico; Che Guevara joins

• 1956-59: Guerilla revolution in Cuba used propaganda to pull in support; aided by poor Cubans (Batista repression)

Cuban econ. dependency on US

• 90% of Cuba’s telephone, all of oil, most banks US owned

• US buys 50% of Cuba’s annual sugar production

• 75% of Cuba’s imports from US

May 1959 Agrarian Reform Act

limited sizes of farm and real estate and declared sugar plantations could not be held by foreigners

March 1960

Eisenhower backed plan for US backed exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro’s regime

Bay of Pigs

• solidifies socialist revolution and Cuba Soviet bond; Kennedy and US humiliated

  • Castro’s popularity secured; Kruschev sees US as not powerful in their own backyard

• Kennedy’s stakes higher in Cuban Missile Crisis

Kennedy’s Alliance For Progress

• est. 1961 to strengthen US relationship with Latin America and foster economic cooperation

• loaned > 20 bil. to LA to redistribute wealth, industrialization, etc.; does not meet goals

  • considered as American imperialism

  • not enough funds to change LA living standard

  • authoritarian states could not be forced for funds

Vietnam post WWII

• 1945: Ho Chi Minh declares independence of Vietnam following surrender of Japan

• 1946: France recognizes “free state”; negotiations btwn. French and Vietminh breakdown and full scale revolutionary war begins’

  • US sends > 2 bil. in military aid to France

1954 Vietnam

• Vietminh defeat French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu; Eisenhower outlines Domino theory

• Geneva conference convenes to end of hostilities in Indochina

• French and Vietminh sign agreement on Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam on 17th parallel

• Eisenhower rejects elections; US doesn’t accept agreement

Ngo Dinh Diem

• brutal ruler supported by US due to anti-communist; Catholic and discriminated against the Buddhist majority

  • 1963 assassinated (US supported), replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu

1964 Gulf of Tonkin

• July: US destroyer USS Maddox gathering intel in same vicinity

• August 2: USS Maddox rebuffs attack by NV; officers report that attacks likely an error

• McNamara advices that likely an attack; LBJ announces retaliation on National TV

  • McNamara lies to press and senate committee; Congress passed legislations to measures necessary (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution)

The Draft

• people avoided the draft by:

  • medical deferments, college deferments, volunteering for Natl/Coast guard

  • almost 80% of soldiers from lower econ. levels

• 1967-68: burning draft cards, fleeing to Canada, refusing to show up for induction (20k accused by US of draft offenses, 4k served jail time)

  • Muhammad Ali drafted: Audience questions draft

1976 26th Amendment

• voting age lowered federally

• 1973 Nixon ends draft

• all volunteer draft forces

  • selective service: all males 18-25 must register

PTSD

• officially recognized as mental health disorder in 1980; existed long before officially recognized

  • Vietnam war veterans first to have term applied to them

Vietnam war continues

• August 1965: 60% supported war; 1968 turning point and 46% oppose war (majority)

• 1968 Tet Offensive (US psychological failure) and LBJ vows to deescalate conflict

• Feb 27th Walter Cronkite’s Closing: said US should negotiate as they tried the best they could

1968 Democratic National Convention

• Anti-war riots in Chicago

• Humphrey wins the democratic nomination and loses general election to Nixon

asymmetric warfare

type of war between belligerents whose relative military power, strategy, or tactics differ significantly

Vietnam war battle conditions

• temp rose above 90* Fahrenheit much of the year

• heavy monsoons from May to October

• topographical challenges: lowland rice paddies, swamps, heavily forested

Vietcong strategy

• guerilla warfare: minimal contact with the enemy

• tunnels: hide in elaborate underground tunnels

• booby traps: punji trap, land mines, trip wires

US Strategy

1. US Marines take key cities and other vital sites along the coast and transform into modern military bases

2. Search and destroy missions launched from bases (goal: attrition)

   1. free fire zones: large swaths of Vietnam meant all ppl. in one = enemies

3. carpet bombing used to try to stop supply lines (SV army only supporting role)

US strategy continued

• Napalm: incendiary designed to cause fire and use extensively in Vietnam

• Agent Orange: herbicide to kill plants

  • used extensively in Vietnam to destroy forest cover and crops of VC

  • dioxins (cancer causing): est. 400k death; US servicemen also impacted by use

US Strategy contd.: Pacification

designed to promote security and stability in SV

• undermine communist insurgency

  • ARVN to remove VC and sympathizers from villages

  • cut off flow of recruits to the enemy

• bring econ. development to rural SV

  • supplying villagers with food and other goods, build schools and bridges

  • spread propaganda

Over 2 mil. internal refugees; many moved to cities to avoid bombings

Vietnamization: Madman Theory

negotiating tactic to make NV think that Nixon can do anything and try to get an easier end to the war

Vietnamization: Nixon’s politics

pragmatist and politically motivated

• delay Paris peace negotiations in 1968 to benefit election campaign

• 1970 bombings in Cambodia to bring negotiations along

• Delay US withdrawals and negotiations in 1972 to benefit election campaign

• 1972 Christmas bombings to bring negotiation along

1973 War Powers Resolution

president must notify Congress of sending troops into military action with 48 hours; overriding Nixon’s veto

Khmer Rouge

US bombing of Ho Chi Minh Trail destabilizes Cambodia, leading to collapse of Constitutional monarchy

• 1970 - 1975 Civil war in Cambodia

• 1975 Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge

  • 2 million Cambodians murdered in Cambodian genocide: intellectuals, middle class, ethnic and religious minorities

• 1979 Pol Pot ousted by Vietnamese troops

• Khmer Rouge also critique against US withdrawal in Vietnam

War Refugees

• 1975 US Evacuation: 125k

• 1975-1995: “Boat People” (800k) leaving Vietnam → fleeing persecution in the form of “re-education" camps

• Ford signs Indo Migration and Refugee Assistance Act 1975: settlement of 130k Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees

Pentagon Papers

• Nixon had justice dept. sue NYT to stop publication

• NY Times v. US (1971): SCOTUS voted in favor for NYT, no justification for censorship

  • in part led to Watergate through Nixon’s creation of the plumbers (group created to stop leaks)

• one part of credibility gap and showed never any plan to end war as long as NV persisted

Mainstream American culture

• patriotism: America love it or leave it

• traditional family: fall in love, get married, etc.

• American dream: work hard and have a good life

• conformity: fashion, etc.

• don’t question authority (gov., church, parents, etc.)

Counterculture

• personal freedom (illicit drug use)

• alternative lifestyles (communes, drop out communes)

• against conformity and materialism

• activist (against racism, war, poverty), later mainstream culture

Tinker v. Des Moines

student right to protest in schools

“New Left”

broad term for youth movements demanding change in the 1960s

• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS): argued against coup and institutional America and for participatory democracy

  • instrumental in organizing the protests for Vietnam, founded 1959 and had Port Huron statement

  • attempted to create community of political and educational factions that brought together activists and students

  • factions compete for influence, 1968 led the largest student strike in historym joined the Worker Student Alliance

• Free Speech Movement: founded at UC Berkley and criticized powerful business and government institutions

  • began as small protest after 1964 UCB restriction on speech and political activity; later larger one led by Freedom Summer veteran and SNCC and SDS got involved

  • wanted SCOTUS 1st amendment to be only limit to speech on campus

Orthodox historiographic perspective

• Liberal Realists

• “Bad War”: US policymakers exaggerated Vietnam’s importance to US and greater CW

• tragedy which could have been avoided, US failed to recognize revolutionary spirit in Vietnam

Revisionist

• conservatives

• “noble war”: communism significant threat; SV benefitted from US participation

• rejects that Vietnam = unwinnable war; criticizes US civilian leaders, media, etc.

Neo Marxist

• “capitalism”: US quest for world dominance and conflict with revolutionary nationals

  • tendency to romanticize Ho Chi Minh and downplay brutality of Communist regimes

Focus of recent scholarship

• Vietnamese evidence

• international views of US

• USSR + China archives

Vietnam war college protests

• colleges began to do teach-ins to protest war

• Kent State Uni in Ohio → burning of Reserved Office Training Corps building after Nixon announced invasuon and bombings of Cambodia by US 1970

  • 1970 crowds fired at by National Guard and 4 ppl. killed, 2000 protestrs gathered and taunted guardsmen

  • 100000 protestors in WA, 900 uni campuses closed onn strike

  • NY mayor denounced Nixon, Nixon responded by defensive attitude and added fuel to gov criticsm

• Jackson State in Mississippi 2 more bystanders killed, and some people supported this

Americanization Advisory Phase (1945 - 1964)

• After WWII war in Indochina began; France wanted colonies back and fought w/ Britain

• Truman initially supportive of VM, 1949: US labeled VM as seeking orders from Moscow

• Truman concluded nowhere safe from Vietnam, $40 mil. to France

• 1954 Geneva Accords: created independent Laos and Cambodia, elections to be held in 1956 (cancelled 1955 by Diem)

• Operation Rolling Thunder: 1000s of tons of bombs dropped on NV (starting 1965)

  • April 1965 LBJ approved 60k more combat troops in Vietnam

  • LBJ passed authority on Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1968 Tet Offensive

• General Westmoreland told US public NV reduced

• LBJ’s popularity fragile and anti war protest growing

• 85k VC and NV infiltrated major SV cities, seized control of US embassy in Saigon

• ppl saw NV determination, Middle America now anti-war

• turning point for US public opinion, successful for US military and NV weakened but US public saw losses

• 1968 LBJ decided no re-election, failed to fight war on 2 fronts

Castro’s 1959 to 1962 leadership

• appointed commander-in-chief of armed forces

• established Office of the Revolutionary Plans and Coordination; held real power and oversaw radical agrarian reforms

• acted on his own decisions instead political consensus or debating through democracy

• social and econ policies more pro-nationalist, cuban, anti-imperalist

• est National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INRA), eventually became true leader of Cuba

Castro other policies

• political parties banned

• newspapers/radio stations censored; closed if angered gov.

• judicial appointees w/ Castro’s approval

• legis. + exec. power in cabinet’s hands

• no elections (CIA threat of coup and armed political gang members)

US econ. policies towards Cuba

• 1959 US banned all exports to Cuba

  • Kruschev agreed 1960 to buy Cuban sugar for weapons and oil

  • US corps taken over by Castro

• US increased embargo on Cuba and Castro improved nationalization process

Cuba 1960s Military problems

• Batista loyalists removed from army and other security services; Revolutionary trials and courts executed worst loyalists

• 1959 Mato’s “rebellion” used to create armed forces, military counter-intelligence section, policem abd secret police

• assistance to other revolutionary groups in Africa like popular movement for Liberation of Angola

Hawk Perspectives: Article by Ms. Bede

• majority of Vietnamese citizens supported to Ho Chi Minh but many had no idea of communism

• manu Vietnamese willing to die for democracry, SV represented freedom of the world

  • NV aggressors in both wars, US and SV tired to appease and could not in good conscience sit back

1959 Eisenhower address The Importance to the United States of the Security and Progress of Vietnam

• SV “free but poor”, could steal rice from ppl. like China or private grants and foreign loans

• alone Vietnam doesn’t have military, morale, pride, etc.

• 12 mil ppl. in freedom and 150 endangered

Dove POVS

• US should have never sent combat troops

  • undemocratic to suspend elections, US imperialistic, no authority to intereference; situation didn’t improve with 1961 Green Berets

  • no place to risk US lives when Vietnam didn’t want help

• Into the quagmire

  • policymaker’s blind devotion created V misfortune, misjudged communist led natl. mvmnt and failed to percieve realities accurately

  • thought US should control SV politics

My Lai Massacre

• 1968: American soldiers killed 500 women, children, and old men despite finding no VC

• 1970: only 14 charged and all except Calley acquitted, many saw him as scapegoat because My Lai was not isolated incident

Hue War Crimes

• Battle of Hue in 1968, death toll between 2800 to 6800 civilians of war

• 1968 VC installed revolutionary govs and rounded up ARVN soldiers, civil servants, foreigners, etc.

• 3 phases

  • 1. Kangaroo Court of ARVN found guilty

  • 2. Maoist social reconstruction where “imperialist lackeys” singled out

  • 3. anyone who could identify VC members killed

AA and women in Vietnam

• in the beginning more than 20% of combat deaths

• MLK angered, 1967 talked abt cruel irony of AA; racism lead to low troop morale in Vietnam

• 7500 women as army and navy nurses, many as American Red Cross and United States Organization

SDS role

• LBJ changed draft deferments

• Students had to be in good academic standing to avoid service, which triggered massive campus protests

• SDS called for civil disobedience on selective service centers

3 arguments against war

• Vietnam local conflict and the U.S. had no business intervening

• war draining U.S. resources needed in Europe and the Middle East.

• war morally unjust

• ppl. resented anti-war mvmnt because ppl. who participated in it of higher socio-econ. class

Canada’s opposition to VW

• Canada one of countries responsible for maintaing accords as part of International Commission for Supervision and Control of Vietnam

• Canadian public increasingly anti-war, 1965 prez. Pearson asked US to end bombing on NV

• 1969 Canada didnt ask men abt military status when they entered it, 40k men moved to Canada

• Napalm and Agent Orange tested in Canada and 30k volunteered for US army

• acceptance of boat ppl. after war

Latin American views of war

• Cuba supported NV

• authoritarian regimes anti-communist

• students in LA more supportive of NV like pro VC societies in Mexico

Henry Kissinger

• Nixon’s top negotiatior in Vietnam

• dropped insistence that all NV troops gone from SV before US removal; 1972 announced peace is at hand

End of V. War

• 1.5 mil. ppl left V, 50k boat ppl. died while escaping on South China Sea

• hawks blamed anti war mvmnt for destroying American morale, doves said continuing war would have resulted in stalemate

• Vietnam syndrome: Americans consider own interest risks before deciding to interfere in other nations

• cynicism in Americans abt gov

Counterculture contd.

• Haight Ashbury: inexpensive apartments and hospitable weather attracted thousands of hippies

  • singers and street corner philosophers, Psychedelic pop in LSD-influence

  • Diggers: goal to create city in which every service and need was free, ran medical clinic and communal kitchen

• municipal and state official unhappy with influx of young ppl living with their own rules

  • local police made arrests and cal. gov. Reagan spoke out against counterculture

  • People’s Park: thousands of protestros protested clearing the park and many National Guardsmen deployed, sprayed tear gas over Berkley campus neighborhoods

Canada Counterculture

• majority did not embrace counterculture

• Company of Young Canadians (CYC) sent young Canadians to work on social and public programs

• Canada influenced by american fashion, PM Trudeau emphasizd “Liberation” decade: individualism as youthful francophone from Montreak

  • made divorce easier and ended prosecution of homosexual acts

  • phenomenon called Trudeaumania, led to excessive divorce rate and other negative effecrs

• National Film Board of canada crated films portraying counterculture, many watched American TV and 1968 Canadian cotnent quotas imposed on media

Canada Youth Mvmnt

• evolved from 1960s youth movement, Pollution Probe: Canada’s first major environmental org est.

• 1967 Royal Commission on the Status Of Women In Canada made from protests for women’s rights and unlike ERA in US in Canada a verson adopted

• activists demandd Canadian companies be stopped from exporting war materials

• protests against Agent Orange and Napalm 1967 Uni of Toronto, campuses deeply affected by anti-war protests

Quebec Independence Mvmnt

• 1960: Quiet Revolution where French Canadians tried to mordernize Quebec in Quebecois way, 1968 League for Socialist Action made

  • many peaceful protest for Quebec independence

  • Front de liberation du Quebec was 1963 separatist military group

  • 1970 October Crisis: only purposefully violent political protest in Canada

Youth Culture and Mvmnts in LA

• hippie communes, US inspired fashion, etc.

• 1967 Cuba International Protest Song Encounter where singers protest social conditions

• Youth demonstrations against national conditions they thought unfair, sympathized with NY and Parisian students

• Tlatelolco Masssacre

  • 1968 Mexican students at Mexico National Autonomus Uni held demonstrations on eve of Olympics

  • protested single party state of PRI, workers, students, citizens, etc.

  • wanted right to strike, end to political prisoners, dismissal of chief of police

  • troops open fire and at least 100 students died

  • some students joned guerilla movements across LA, believed in responding to government with violence