The 1960s and the Vietnam War: A Summary

The 1960s & Changes

Communism's Spread into Southeast Asia During the Cold War

  • France colonized Vietnam in 1887.
  • Vietnam gained independence from France in 1954 after nine years of revolutionary war.

Divided Vietnam (1954)

  • Vietnamese independence resulted in two separate nations:
    • North Vietnam: Communist government with 16 million citizens, led by Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969).
    • South Vietnam: Capitalist government with 20 million citizens, led by Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963).
  • Scheduled unification via a national election in 1956 between Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem.

U.S. Involvement

  • The U.S. became involved in the 1950s and 1960s, committing aid to South Vietnam.
  • President Diem, with U.S. urging from President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), canceled the 1956 election in South Vietnam.
  • Top 5 Rubber Producers:
    1. Thailand
    2. Indonesia
    3. Malaysia
    4. India
    5. Vietnam

Diem's Unpopularity

  • Diem issued suppression laws against Buddhists (the majority religion in Vietnam).
  • Diem was wealthy and educated in French schools.
  • He was pro-capitalist, while most South Vietnamese were peasant rice farmers.
  • Diem's government exported opium and heroin through the "Golden Triangle".

Diem's Overthrow and Assassination

  • Early November 1, 1963: South Vietnamese army staged a coup d'etat.
  • U.S. military advisors and the CIA supported the overthrow.
  • President John F. Kennedy was aware and reluctantly approved.
  • South Vietnamese army leaders organized Diem's assassination.
  • Kennedy was aware of the plot and condemned it but did not stop it.

National Security Action Memo: 263

  • October 5, 1963: President Kennedy approved military recommendations from Secretary McNamara and General Taylor’s report on South Vietnam.
  • Kennedy approved plans to withdraw 1,000 U.S. military personnel by the end of 1963 but wanted no formal announcement yet.
  • Instruction to Ambassador Lodge was set forth in State Department telegram No. 534 to Saigon.

Kennedy's Assassination

  • November 22, 1963: President John Kennedy assassinated by a "lone gunman" in Dallas, Texas.
  • Suspicions arose that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy involving members of the military, the CIA, and political officials due to his pacification efforts in Cuba and Vietnam.

Johnson Takes Over

  • Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson sworn in as President.

National Security Action Memo: 273

  • November 26, 1963: NSAM 273 issued to guide policy on South Vietnam.
  • The central objective of the U.S. was to assist South Vietnam in its contest against the Communist conspiracy.
  • The withdrawal of U.S. military personnel would proceed as stated on October 2, 1963.
  • The U.S. aimed to assist the provisional government of South Vietnam in consolidating itself and increasing public support.

Escalation of Conflict

  • Men had to go - reference to the Tet Offensive in Hue City, 1968.

War on Poverty

  • January 1964: President Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty in America" in his State of the Union Address.
  • President Johnson's "War on Poverty" aimed to address income inequality.
  • Percentages of people in the lowest income bracket categorized by race/ethnicity:
    • Black: 22.7%
    • Hispanic: 21.4%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander: 10.2%
    • Non-Hispanic White: 7.8%

The Great Society

  • President Johnson's "Great Society" was a series of progressive-reform programs.
    1. Medicare & Medicaid provided health care.
    2. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO):
      • Head Start: low-cost pre-school and healthcare aid to low-income parents.
      • Job Corps: low-cost vocational training.
  • By August 1964, Congress authorized 1 billion in new job and welfare programs.
    1. Federal education aid: In 1965, 1 billion in aid to impoverished districts.
    2. New civil rights/De-segregation laws
  • 1964-1967: Poverty reduced by 10 million people.

Civil Rights Movement

  • New Civil Rights Laws were needed to reverse old segregation laws.
  • February 1, 1960: Greensboro, NC, sit-in at a "whites-only" Woolworth's lunch counter, sparking sit-in protests in dozens of cities.
  • Walgreen's lunch-counter closes "in the interests of public safety."
  • Examples of segregated lunch counters and public spaces: Arlington, Virginia; Jacksonville, FL; Orangeburg, South Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; Farmville, Virginia.
  • Arrests for protesting segregation: Janice Jackson, Evelyn Pierce, and Ethel Sawyer arrested for reading in a "white only" library in Jackson, Mississippi (1961); John Lewis, O.D. Hunt, and Dennis Gregory Foote arrested at a "white only" lunch counter.

Desegregation Laws (1957-1965)

  • September 1957: Civil Rights Commission – Sen. Strom Thurmond filibustered for over 24 hours.
  • May 1960: Federal inspection of local registration polls – 18 Southern senators filibustered for 43 hours.
  • The Civil Rights Act: July 1964 prohibited public facility discrimination based on skin color, religion, and gender.
    • 1 Southeastern senator voted in favor, 21 voted against.
    • Southeastern House of Representatives voted 7 in favor, 97 against.

Selma to Montgomery March

  • Selma, Alabama: "WE SHALL OVERCOME"
  • Only 130 out of 15,000 eligible African Americans registered to vote.
  • March 7, 1965: 600 voting rights activists marched to Montgomery (50 miles away).
  • Marchers blocked by police at Edmund Pettus Bridge, pushed, hit, gassed, and arrested; the MEDIA was present.
  • March 15, 1965: President Johnson addressed the nation, calling for voting rights and an end to bigotry and injustice, stating, "And we shall overcome."
  • March 21: 8,000 people involved in another march from Selma.

Increasing Voter Rights

  • 24^{th} Amendment (1964): Abolished poll taxes.
  • Voting Rights Act (1965): Outlawed literacy tests and provided federal voting registrars.
  • By January 1966:
    • Alabama: 166,000 African Americans registered.
    • Mississippi: 400% increase in registration.
  • 1969: 50% increase in ex-Confederate states.

Racial Integrity Act

  • Racial Integrity Act of 1924 (Virginia): Criminalized marriage between “white-persons and non-white persons.” Similar laws practiced in highlighted states (mid-20th century).

President Johnson’s Burden

  • Civil rights & poverty reform needed most During 1960s in the southeastern states, where segregation was most severe.
  • Large numbers of Congressmen and local politicians from the southeastern states demanded the U.S. remain committed to aiding South Vietnam to contain communist spread in Southeast Asia.
  • Many of the same Congressmen, local politicians, and voters accused President Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King of being socialist and Communist sympathizers based on their efforts to reduce poverty and advocate higher taxes on the wealthy.
  • President Johnson needed to exemplify his anti-Communist stance and therefore remained committed to preventing Communism’s spread into South Vietnam, at the pleasure of wealthy investors in industries such as rubber and the military-industrial complex.

Start of the Vietnam War

  • August 2, 1964: The U.S. Navy vessel, U.S.S Maddox, was struck by North Vietnamese torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin; it was gathering intelligence on North Vietnamese road-bridges and how to destroy them.
  • August 7, 1964: President Lyndon Johnson ordered bombing raids on North Vietnamese targets.
  • Congress authorized the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing the U.S. President to deploy soldiers to South Vietnam to guard U.S. airbases.

Deploying Soldiers and Bombs

  • January 1965: LBJ’s approval rating was 72%, while his civil rights reforms were adopted at the displeasure of many southeastern politicians and voters.
  • March 1965: 1st set of ground troops deployed to South Vietnam.

Vietnam War Statistics

  • 1968: Almost 600,000 U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.
  • By Early 1968: 500 killed in action per week.
  • By 1973: 58,000 U.S. dead (Over 6,000/year).
  • 1964-1973: 3.4 million Vietnamese killed.

My Lai Massacre

  • March 16, 1968: 75 U.S. troops occupied a Vietnamese village where suspected Vietcong troops were located; only unarmed women, children, and older men were present.
  • Villagers were raped & tortured.
  • 500 villagers were murdered.
  • 1971: Commanding officer at My Lai, Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life in prison but was pardoned by President Richard Nixon after 5 months served.

Incident on Hill 182

  • November 1966: 5 U.S. soldiers kidnapped a 21-year-old woman, Phan Thi Mao, from the Vietnamese village, Cat Tuong.
  • 4 of them raped and killed her.
  • The other soldier reported the incident and the 4 men were convicted and jailed.

The Draft

  • 1964-1973: Over 3 million men served in the war (total).
  • Almost 2 million men were drafted.
  • 1968: 330,000 men drafted.
  • College students were exempt.
  • 30% of drafted were African American (13% of U.S. population).
  • 20% of combat-related deaths were African Americans (13% of U.S. population).
  • April 1967: Stokely Carmichael criticized the draft as exemplifying totalitarianism and racism, stating the President conducted war without consent.

Turning Point

  • President Lyndon Johnson Learns of Tet Offensive

Protests against the War

  • October 1967: 100,000 marchers protested near Washington D.C.
  • By now, 13,000 Americans had died in Vietnam. The draft had become a bone of contention between the generations, turning war protest into a mass effort known simply as the Movement.
  • "Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"
  • The crowd drawn to Washington for the March on the Pentagon and a rally at the Lincoln Memorial numbered more than 100,000. For the first time, there were significant numbers of hippies, with long hair and fanciful garb.

Stats & Facts From the October 1967 anti-war march on Washington D.C.

  • 681 arrested (disorderly conduct and breaking police lines).
  • Over 2,500 U.S. troops were on scene.
  • Protesters placed flowers in the barrels of soldiers' rifles.
  • Baltimore Quaker With Baby Sets Self Afire, Dies In War Protest At Pentagon

Johnson's Decision

  • Mid-1968: President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek another term as President in a speech focused on peace in Vietnam.

1968 Elections

  • Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY) declared running for President and declared he would withdraw the troops if elected.
  • June 6, 1968: Robert Kennedy won California's nomination and then was assassinated by another “lone gunman", Sirhan Sirhan.
  • November 1968: Former V.P. Richard Nixon (R-Cal.) elected president.
  • The war continued until 1973.