Lecture 15 - Vietnam War & 1960s U.S. Turmoil – Comprehensive Study Notes

Cold War Context & Initial U.S. Involvement ($1945$ – $1961$)

• Omnipresence of the Cold War
  • U.S. foreign‐policy lens from $1945$ into the early $1990\text{s}$ = containment of communism.
  • “Red Scare,” McCarthyism, and fear that any new nation might “go Red.”

• French Colonial Collapse
  • Vietnam = part of French Indochina.
  • French lose imperial war at Dien Bien Phu (May $1954$) ➔ Geneva Accords split Vietnam temporarily at $17^{\circ}$ N latitude:
  – North: Ho Chi Minh, communist.
  – South: Empowers Catholic, French-aligned elite (Ngo Dinh Diem).

• U.S. fills the French vacuum
  • $1955$: first U.S. military advisers deploy.
  • Goal = prop up anti-communist South; fear “domino theory.”
  • Early aid = advisers only, but deaths begin as they accompany ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) patrols.

Ngo Dinh Diem & South-Vietnamese Instability ($1955$ – $1963$)

• Profile
  • French-educated, devout Catholic (~$8–10\%$ of the population).
  • Rules via family patronage; excludes Buddhist $\approx$ $80\%$ majority ➔ deep resentment.

• Repression & Revolt
  • Buddhist Crisis ($1963$): Diem attempts to outlaw Buddhist flags; monks self-immolate; nationwide uprising.
  • U.S. tolerance wanes; CIA green-lights ARVN coup (Nov $1963$) ➔ Diem assassinated ➔ political vacuum (series of coups).

Kennedy Presidency & Global Distractions ($1961–1963$)

• Television revolution: youthful image helps JFK defeat Richard Nixon (Election of $1960$). First Catholic president.

• Space Race Shocks
  • $1957$: USSR launches Sputnik I ➔ U.S. public panics (mythical “space lasers”).
  • $1961$: Yuri Gagarin = first human in orbit.
  • JFK’s “moonshot” speech ($1962$) – vows to reach the Moon “because it is hard.”

• Three Foreign-Policy Crises

  1. Bay of Pigs (Apr $1961$) – failed CIA-backed exile invasion of Cuba; erodes JFK credibility.

  2. Berlin Wall (Aug $1961$) – Soviet tanks face U.S. armor, near-shooting war; eventual stalemate.

  3. Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct $1962$) – U.S. “quarantine,” Soviet freighters turn back, secret deal: USSR removes missiles, U.S. pulls Jupiter missiles from Turkey.

• Net effect: Public & policymakers fixated on Cuba/Berlin/space; Vietnam drifts to back pages.

Quiet Escalation Under JFK (to $16{,}000$ troops by late $1963$)

• Troop creep: advisers → bodyguards → base builders.

• By JFK’s assassination (Nov $22$, $1963$), U.S. presence $=16{,}000$ and many are already engaged in combat.

• Parallel assassinations (Nov $1963$): Diem and JFK – South Vietnam leaderless; U.S. strategy adrift.

Student Movements & Ideological Polarization (early $1960\text{s}$)

• Demographic foundation: GI Bill + Baby Boom = unprecedented campus populations.

• Conservative ➔ Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), “Sharon Statement” ($1960$):
  • Free-market capitalism = personal liberty.
  • Limited federal gov’t.
  • International communism must be destroyed.

• Liberal / New Left ➔ Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), “Port Huron Statement” ($1962$):
  • Participatory democracy, civil rights, social freedoms.
  • Anti-war ethos: foreign adventures drain moral & fiscal capital.

Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin & “Americanization” ($1964–1968$)

• Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Aug $2–4$, $1964$): U.S. destroyers report attacks by North-Vietnamese patrol boats (second attack later disputed).

• Tonkin Resolution (Aug $7$, $1964$): Congress grants LBJ a “blank check” – no formal war declaration but broad authority.

• Escalation data
  • $1963$: $16{,}000$ U.S. troops.
  • $1965$: $184{,}000$.
  • $1967$: >500{,}000.

• Selective Service (the Draft) reinstated (Aug $1964$):
  • Target age $18\text{–}25$.
  • Early deferments: college, marriage, medical, religious.
  • Economic/racial skew: pre-$1969$ draftees $\approx$ $25\%$ poor, $50\%$ lower-middle class; disproportionately Black, Latino, rural whites.
  • $\approx$ $35{,}000$ flee to Canada.

• Resistance tactics: draft-card burnings, conscientious objection, campus sit-ins, mass demonstrations.

The “End of Innocence” – Crisis Year $1968$

• Tet Offensive (Jan $31$ – Mar $1968$):
  • Coordinated North-Vietnamese & Viet Cong attacks on >100 cities/bases; images televised nightly.
  • Military setback for NVN but psychological victory; U.S. public realizes official optimism is false.

• Political Shockwaves
  • LBJ withdraws from re-election (Mar $31$, $1968$).
  • Operation Rolling Thunder escalates: >3 million tons of bombs; Agent Orange defoliation ➔ long-term carcinogenic effects on troops & civilians.

• Domestic Tragedies
  • MLK Jr. assassinated ($04/04/1968$) in Memphis while supporting sanitation strikers.
  • Robert F. Kennedy assassinated ($06/05/1968$) after California primary.
  • Chicago DNC (Aug $1968$): televised police/National Guard riots against anti-war demonstrators.

• Election $1968$: Richard Nixon campaigns on “law & order” and “silent majority”; wins presidency.

Continuing Unraveling ($1969–1972$)

• My Lai Massacre exposed (Nov $1969$): $\approx$ $500$ South-Vietnamese civilians slaughtered (Mar $1968$ event). Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson’s testimony ➔ courts-martial, global outrage, moral injury to U.S. image.

• Draft lottery reform (Dec $1969$): birthdays drawn at random; exemptions tightened – class bias diminishes but does not disappear.

• Campus Shootings
  • Kent State (May $04$, $1970$): Ohio National Guard fires $67$ rounds in $13$ s ➔ $4$ students dead, $9$ wounded.
  • Jackson State (May $15$, $1970$): police fire into dorm ➔ $2$ dead, $12$ injured.
  • $\approx$ $350$ universities strike; $21$ occupied by Guard.

Nixon’s Exit Strategy & Collapse of South Vietnam ($1973–1975$)

• Paris Peace Accords (Jan $27$, $1973$):
  • Cease-fire; U.S. withdraws combat troops; POW exchange.
  • North promises not to invade; South government remains.

• U.S. Troop Withdrawal complete by Mar $1973$.

• North-Vietnamese Offensive (Spring $1975$):
  • South ARVN crumbles; U.S. limited to airlift/evacuation.
  • Fall of Saigon (Apr $30$, $1975$): iconic rooftop-helicopter evacuations; embassy staff & at-risk South-Vietnamese evacuated.
  • Vietnam unified under Hanoi; war ends in communist victory.

• Duration comparison: U.S. entry $1955$ ➔ withdrawal $1973$ (military involvement $\approx$ $18$ yr); similar to Afghanistan ($2001–2021$).

Human, Ethical & Ecological Costs

• Casualties
  • U.S.: $\approx$ $58{,}220$ dead, $\approx$ $303{,}000$ wounded (DoD).
  • Vietnam (combined N & S, military + civilian): scholarly estimates $2$–$3$ million dead.

• Agent Orange
  • Chemical formula: $C<em>{12}H</em>{4}Cl<em>{4}O</em>{4}$ mixed with dioxin TCDD.
  • Long-term birth defects, cancers; >3 million Vietnamese & $\approx$ $300{,}000$ U.S. veterans affected.

• Domestic Implications
  • War Powers Resolution ($1973$) – congressional attempt to curb “imperial presidency.”
  • Public distrust of government accelerates (precursor to Watergate cynicism).
  • Veterans face PTSD, health issues, social stigma; delayed recognition until Vietnam Veterans Memorial (dedicated $11/13/1982$).

Conceptual & Philosophical Takeaways

• Limits of Containment: Vietnam shows geographical & cultural constraints on Cold-War doctrine.

• Media & War: First “living-room war”; nightly news footage shapes opinion, undermines official narratives.

• Inequality Spotlight: Draft inequities dovetail with civil-rights push ➔ broader critique of structural racism/classism.

• Youth Political Power: SDS, YAF, Kent State etc. prove campuses as crucibles for ideological formation & dissent.

• Executives vs. Legislature: Tonkin Resolution precedent prompts later War Powers checks.

Quick Chronology (anchor dates)

• $1954$ – French defeat & Geneva split.

• $1955$ – U.S. advisers arrive.

• $1961$ – Bay of Pigs; Berlin Wall; Gagarin in space.

• $1962$ – Cuban Missile Crisis.

• $1964$ – Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; draft restarted.

• $1965$ – Major U.S. combat units land (Da Nang).

• $1968$ – Tet, MLK, RFK, Chicago DNC; LBJ quits.

• $1969$ – My Lai revealed; draft lottery.

• $1970$ – Kent & Jackson State shootings.

• $1973$ – Paris Accords; U.S. withdrawal.

• $1975$ – Fall of Saigon; war ends.

Mnemonic for major crisis order under JFK:
“P-B-C” ➔ Pigs (Bay), Berlin, Cuba (missiles).