Vietnam War Lecture Notes

Aftermath of Tet Offensive (March 1968)

  • Lyndon Johnson's decision not to seek reelection:
    • Shocked the Democratic Party and his supporters.
    • The war profoundly impacted Johnson; he was aware of misleading the public.
    • The strain of the war contributed to his death shortly after leaving office.
    • It became impossible to maintain the facade that the war was progressing well.
    • The Democratic Party splintered, further exacerbated by Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968.
  • Richard Nixon's election:
    • First Republican in the Oval Office in eight years.
    • Nixon was previously Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower and a visible anti-communist.
    • A very gifted politician who understood the public's dwindling support for the war.
    • Nixon knew that the American public's appetite for the war was diminishing but still had
      some mandate to continue the war.
    • Promised "peace with honor," aiming to win without further American casualties.

Nixon's Strategy: Vietnamization

  • A multi-year process of withdrawing American soldiers and transferring the war to South Vietnamese forces.
  • Realization that South Vietnam couldn't survive without substantial American support.
  • Nixon's Escalation:
    • Similar to Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Johnson, Nixon chose to escalate rather than de-escalate.
    • Primarily through expanded bombing campaigns (most bombs dropped between 1968 and 1973).
    • Authorized the invasion of Cambodia in spring 1970, displacing hundreds of thousands.
    • The invasion of Cambodia pushed North Vietnamese elements into Cambodia, leading to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
    • Khmer Rouge presided over one of the worst ethnic cleansings in the 20th century, known as the "killing fields."
    • Later authorized the invasion of Laos in 1971.

Nixon's Diplomacy and Détente

  • Reshaping US role in global geopolitics:
    • Nixon and Henry Kissinger viewed the bipolar world (US vs. Soviet Union) as obsolete.
    • Embraced multipolarity: negotiating with Europe, China, Japan, and the Soviet Union for a new balance of power.
    • The US would refrain from direct involvement in regional conflicts, expecting allies to defend themselves.
  • Strategy of détente:
    • Using diplomacy, economic, and cultural means to improve US relations with China and the Soviet Union.
    • Independent negotiations with China and the Soviet Union to strengthen ties and deepen distrust between them.
  • Consequences:
    • Americans questioned the military involvement in Vietnam if containment could be achieved through diplomacy.
    • Led to significant anti-war protests in 1970 and 1971, especially on college campuses.

My Lai Massacre (March 1968, revealed in 1970)

  • Background:
    • Occurred during the Tet Offensive during search and destroy missions.
    • American soldiers massacred hundreds of unarmed civilians.
    • Fueled the domestic debate over the American mission in Vietnam.
  • Events:
    • Lieutenant William Calley led two platoons into the village of My Lai.
    • Soldiers were in an "ugly mood" after battling snipers and insects and expecting to encounter troops.
    • Found only unarmed women, children, and the elderly; Viet Cong had already left.
    • Engaged in acts of rape and murder, leaving over 500 villagers dead.
  • Revelation and Aftermath:
    • A sergeant who wasn't at My Lai heard about it and wrote to President Nixon and members of Congress.
    • Media attention and publication of photos in Life magazine in 1969.
    • William Calley court-martialed in 1970-1971, exposing conflicting views on the meaning of My Lai.
  • Competing Views:
    • Some saw it as a unique episode.
    • Others considered it representative of broader American conduct in Vietnam.
    • David Hackworth: Vietnam was an atrocity from the start, with many "My Lais."
    • Lawrence Lacroix: Soldiers didn't have a choice; disobeying orders could lead to being shot.

Anti-War Sentiment and Division

  • Factors contributing to anti-war sentiment:
    • Tet Offensive
    • My Lai massacre
    • Expansion of the war into Laos and Cambodia
  • Dividing Lines:
    • Primarily along age, not race or class.
    • Older Americans (50+) generally supported the war, viewing communism as a major threat.
    • Younger Americans opposed the war, viewing American capitalism and anti-communism more negatively.
    • Younger Americans were the ones being drafted.
  • Anti-War Protests:
    • Spearheaded by college students, many of whom were involved in civil rights and leftist causes.
    • African Americans saw the war as an extension of Jim Crow.
  • Government Response:
    • Violence against protesters at home.
    • Kent State shootings (Ohio, 1970): National Guard opened fire on protesters, killing four students (two not involved) and wounding eighteen others.
    • Jackson State College shootings (Mississippi) primarily involved black students protesting the war and discrimination.
  • Soldier Resistance:
    • "Fragging" (attacking officers)
    • Deliberate self-injury to get sent home
    • Drug use (opium, heroin) to cope with feelings about the war
  • Unpopularity of protest movement:
    • Nixon castigated anti-war protesters as communist sympathizers and subversive elements.
    • Nixon's "silent majority" seemed to agree with him.

Kent State Shootings

  • Aftermath of the decision to invade Cambodia, protests erupted on college campuses, including Kent State in Ohio.
  • The Ohio National Guard was called in to police one of these student protests on the Kent State campus.
  • Someone is that the National Guard ended up opening fire on a crowd of protesters, ended up killing four students, two of whom were not even involved in the protests on campus that day, and wounded eighteen others.
  • Neil Young wrote the song "Ohio" in response to the shootings, the war, and the Nixon administration.
  • The shootings exposed the divisiveness of the war and the peace movement.
  • Some Americans supported the National Guard's actions, while others were horrified.

Criticisms of the War

  • Moral arguments:
    • Use of napalm and search and destroy missions hurt Vietnamese more than communism would.
  • Futility of fighting an unwinnable war.
  • Extension of oppression at home.
  • Destruction of American democracy:
    • Going to war without congressional declaration.
    • Presidential secrets and lies.
    • FBI surveillance of peace protesters.
    • Unjust draft deferments for middle and upper-class men.

Media Coverage of the War

  • Vietnam was the first major media-covered war.
  • Press coverage changed after the Tet Offensive.
  • Early coverage (before 1963) was limited.
  • Increased combat deaths and Operation Rolling Thunder led to more questioning of the government's information.
  • Coverage increased as more soldiers were deployed.
  • Coverage between 1964-1968 was mostly pro-war, but editorials started questioning the government's policy after Tet.
  • After Tet, imagery was more negative, and journalists felt licensed to editorialize more negatively.
  • The press started to question the accuracy of government reports and showed more scenes of casualties and urban destruction.
  • Three events emblematic of post-Tet media coverage:
    • Photo of South Vietnamese colonel executing a Viet Cong soldier:
      • Taken by Eddie Adams, who won a Pulitzer Prize.
      • Caused national outrage, suggesting the US had failed to establish the rule of law in South Vietnam.
    • Walter Cronkite's report on the Tet Offensive:
      • Cronkite declared the US was in a stalemate and the government was lying.
    • Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run for reelection:
      • Made people insecure about the military and the military's spin on the war, feeding the anti-war movement.
  • After Tet, the media portrayed the war as a stalemate and personalized the deaths of soldiers.
  • The media also covered anti-war protests negatively, portraying protesters as irrational and non-ideological.

Music and the Vietnam War

  • Music became a vernacular history of the Vietnam War as experienced by young Americans.
  • Songs like Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" spoke to the disproportionate impact on the working class.
  • Rolling Stone's "Paint It Black" became a statement on the war for Vietnam veterans.
  • Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" criticized the American government and capitalists for profiting off the war.

US Withdrawal and Aftermath

  • The US withdrew from Vietnam completely in 1973.
  • South Vietnam was expected to remain in South Vietnamese hands.
  • The North Vietnamese restarted their campaigns, and the South Vietnamese military was unable to stop them.
  • In 1975, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, similar to the collapse of Kabul in Afghanistan.

Consequences of the Vietnam War

  • Shattered Americans' faith in the military, government, and the moral project of American democracy.
  • The US became more reticent to engage in foreign affairs until the Reagan years.
  • Congress passed the War Powers Act to prevent presidents from involving the country in military conflicts without congressional authorization.
  • Shattered the liberal coalition of the New Deal era.
  • Labor unions and white Southerners left the Democratic Party.
  • The South became a Republican conservative stronghold after 1968.
  • Changed the contours of the two parties.
  • Hollywood was largely silent about the war until "Green Berets" in 1968, followed by other films like "Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now."
  • Films of the 1980s, like "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket," explored the relationship between men and war.
  • "Rambo" reflected the hypermasculine anti-communism of the mid-1980s.
  • The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was constructed in 1982 and was explicitly about introspection and remembrance.
  • Veterans faced challenges, including drug addiction, suicide, PTSD, and health issues from Agent Orange.
  • Two million Vietnamese died in the war, compared to 47,000 American casualties, highlighting the tremendous costs for the countries and peoples themselves.