Immediate Post-WWII Era (1945-1955)

• The economy was really good in the post-WWII time period so people thought they would be able to afford kids better

  • The economy was good post-WWII because people had invested in bonds during the war (people had saved money) and the job market increased as well

    • Federal Highways Act → passed by Eisenhower and caused the economy to zing with more jobs

• Revenue increasing acts/laws/bills

  • The G.I. Bill → federal law that provided educational and housing benefits to veterans of the army

  • FHA → part of the National Housing Act of 1934, it insured loans from banks and private vendors made for home buying and building

  • NASA → a government agency created in response to sputnik (the first space satellite created by the Soviet Union) and specifically charged with fostering American space efforts

• Baby Boomers caused the baby industry to boom (Carter’s, Pampers, etc.)

  • Elementary schools used to have big huge chairs so that multiple kids could fit into one chair because no one expected that many kids would enroll and no one was prepared

• The suburban community grew because of the booming economy and the baby boomers

  • The housing industry boomed → single family homes increased

  • Levittowns → houses built using massive assembly lines basically (mass production leads to cookie-cutter houses)

    • Created by William Levitt

    • Overtime people renovated their homes so you can’t really see the copy-paste look anymore

• The economy, the baby boomer era, the suburban growth all created the American Dream

  • Nuclear Family → a couple and their dependent children (and a dog)

  • House (2 car garage, TV, the white picket fence)

  • 9-5 job

• Not everybody lived the American Dream, but it is what was sold to the people

• Today, retirement homes, funeral homes, pharmaceutical stores, and the political pathway are huge because of baby boomers that are now 80-90

Cold War

• Cold War (1946-1949)→ a high period of tension between the US and USSR (4+ years) marked by an arms race

  • After WWII, only the US and the USSR were the real remaining world powers

  • This led to another Red Scare

• Senator McCarthy was huge in amping up the suspicion of communists and anarchists during the Red Scare

• September 1949 → the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb

• Berlin Airlift

  • Stalin said that in 5 years communism would take over the world because people would realize it’s better than capitalism

  • Britain and America were supporting West Berlin by driving trucks of supplies there

    • Russia on the other hand took stuff from Berlin because they wanted to punish Germany

      • So they decided to start their spread of communism in the other half of Berlin

  • The Soviet Union blocked the roads and said it was for “construction” but both countries realized the real reason was to take over West Berlin

    • When the West Berliners would get desperate, and they would, they would have no choice but to accept the Soviet Union

      • This is how communism would take its roots

  • So someone had the idea to use planes to drop of supplies

    • Russians then said that planes could only fly in small strips of air space → otherwise they could be shot down

  • The Candy Bomber → Gail Halvorsen would drop little parachutes of candy for the kids

    • Kids would know it was his plane because he would wiggles his wings → Wiggly Wings

• Stalin died but Nikita Khrushchev took his place → he was also very harsh and denied peace negotiations

• Truman Doctrine of Containment → wanted to contain communism to where it was because it’s growth would be incomparably dangerous

• By 1950, China was a communist country and they exploded their first atomic bomb

  • How this quickly though? Because spies were leaking information (Ethel Rosenberg → VERY CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE)

• Because of the threat of a nuclear destruction, many people began to make bunkers in cases of fallout

  • This was by no means promoted by Eisenhower because that would

• Truman created NATO with Canada and Western Europe Countries → then West Germany joined NATO so in turn the Soviet Union created the WARSAW pact

Sputnik

• The US was always one step ahead of the Soviets until the launching of Sputnik

  • It scared people because they didn’t know if it could the rockets could hold a bomb instead of a satellite

  • It was the first time that humans had gotten something to exit the Earth’s atmosphere

• People looked at Eisenhower because with all other presidents, the US had been ahead of the Soviet Union until now…

• The Soviet Union secretly launched their satellite and announced the news only when it worked

  • A year later America announced to everyone to come watch the launch of THEIR satellite and it failed

    • The first successful launch was Explorer 1

• People wondered why the the Soviet Union was so ahead:

  • They realized that it was because of the rigorous education → also the USSR did not differentiate between girls and boys (both were equally capable as boys)

    • Very different from the US where girls rarely studied math and science

• So, the US made math and science mandatory for 3-4 years instead of 2

  • This started the beginning of the AP program

• The US also decided that college would be free for any student in the math and science fields

  • Changed many peoples lives

• It also led to increased sales in space toys → it was basically the space craze

  • Sci-Fi was everything, radio and TV shows all talked about space

Cuba became a Communist Country

• 1950 → When Fidel Castro took over Cuba, it became a communist country, and it was the first time that a communist country was past the Iron Curtain

• 1960 → pilot Gary Powers captured by the Russians

  • He was told to kill himself if he was captured but he did not

  • Was humiliating for Eisenhower to have been caught spying, especially in his last year of Presidency

• Batista was the leader of Cuba and the US liked him → they backed him

  • That is what Castro hated: the governments were making money because of their trades and alliances and yet the people were poor

    • He thought that Cuba would be better off without Americans

    • People say Cuba is like Mexico in that sense

• The US thought that Castro would be like Batista and establish a good relationship with the US, but after Castro came to America and saw how “greedy” people were, he declared Cuba a communist country

The Berlin Wall

• Created to seperate Eastern Europe and Western Europe (Communism and Democracy)

• Was not just a wall that you could climb and get over

• It was a sandwich of 2 walls with a zone in between

  • In the zone there were towers with guards and barbed wires

• “Democracy is not perfect. But we have never had to built a wall to keep people in.”

• The Berlin Wall officially came down during H.W. Bush’s Administration

Bay of Pigs Invasion

• A lot of Cubans were exiled into neighboring countries like the US

• 1955 → The CIA went to Eisenhower (president at the time) and asked to train the exiles so that when ready they could go to Cuba and overthrow the communist government

  • When the training was complete, the CIA went to the president, except by now the president was JFK

    • JFK did not like this plan but went with it anyways because Eisenhower okayed the plan without the use of American planes

      • Plus JFK did not want to prove the Democrats right that said he would go soft on communism

• The troops went to Cuba, but Castro was ready for the invasion and so he killed all of the exiles or took them prisoner

• Kennedy took full responsibility for the failure of the attack → nobody cared whether Eisenhower okayed the plan

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

• JFK was told that Cuba was hosting ICBMs of the USSR

  • Information gathered by the U2 spy planes

• The missiles were so powerful that effects could reach across the entire US

  • JFK’s GROWTH: When the military heard about this they wanted to bomb the silos and destroy the base, but JFK put his foot down and said “NO. That is a bad idea. What do you think the USSR will do in retaliation”

• 6 days in JFK tried to keep this under wraps → ordered a naval blockade (technically it’s a war measure but JFK said it was to quarantine Cuba)

  • The missiles were still missing the warheads which the USSR still needed to ship

• Day 7: JFK addressed the public about the crisis and the US entered DEFCON 3

• Day 9: the US went into DEFCON 2 because Soviet ships reached the US blockade

• Day 10: the US Ambassador confronted the USSR in the UN but the USSR denied everything until Adlai Stevenson pulled out proof

• Foreign policy: any missiles in the Western Hemisphere would be considered an attack on the US and the US would react to protect itself and the democracies

• To prevent another situation like this the MAD was created

• Day 12: Kruschev negotiated - he said that if the US promised to not invade Cuba again and keep the communist government, get rid of the US missiles in Turkey and Italy, the USSR would remove missiles from Cuba

  • The US never kept its promises → repeatedly tried to kill Castro

• This crisis led to a new found respect from the people for their new president

22nd Amendment

• After FDR, no person shall be elected to office for more than 2 elections

  • Why? Because FDR had a lot of power by the time of his death (13 years as President!!)

Possible DBQ Question:

• What were Cold War fears of the American people in the aftermath of WWII? How successfully did the administration of President Eisenhower address these fears?

  • Fears: spread of communism, the idea of nuclear war

  • Eisenhower’s responses: he created NASA (because of Sputnik), Eisenhower Doctrine,

Civil Rights

• “Separate but equal” is how Americans said they treated African Americans when in actuality everything African Americans had was of lower quality and was not upkept either

• Even 80 years after the Civil War lynching still occurred

  • Whites felt threatened when a Black decided to vote so they killed him

  • Or if he walked past a White women, he hurt her and deserves to die for that

• When African Americans tried to register to vote but failed because of illiteracy they were turned away → when a White person had the same failure, they were told to sign some papers and they were registered just like that

  • Occurred a lot in the South

• The Civil Rights Movement led to the Women’s Liberation Movement, LGBTQ+ Movement, and Disability Rights Movement

• 4 entities that create MAJOR change in the US

  • The President through executive orders

  • Congress can pass a law

  • Supreme Court can declare a law/bill unconstitutional

  • The people

• The first person to start the Civil Rights Movement was a racist president…Harry Truman

• Harry Truman grew up in a racist household (he was from Missouri) so he was accustomed to those views

  • But when he had to fight with the Harlem Hellfighters in WWI he realized there is no difference between him and me

• The WPA and CCC were segregated but they were still FOR the Black people

• Around WWII time African Americans and other minorities switched their allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats

  • When FDR died, Southerners were relieved that Truman would stop the whole Black equality thing because of his past → they were wrong

• There is this story of a soldier trying to get home, but getting stopped and being beat within an inch of his life by Whites

  • When Truman found out he went BALLISTIC → so he desegregated the military with an executive order

• Truman enforced fairness in federal hiring

  • FDR did this during the War, but Truman made it a solid thing

  • If Truman found out that a minority applied for a federal job, and didn’t get it, the employer would be fired

• Election of 1948 (Truman v Dewey v Thurmond)

  • Democrats did not want to nominate Truman again → Southerners split from the Democrats and created the Dixiecrats

  • People told Truman that he would lose for sure, but he didn’t give up and rallied support

    • In the end Truman won because of support from the West Coast

• The second person to get the ball rolling of Black equality and Civil Rights was Jackie Robinson, or more specifically, Branch Rickey

  • Branch Rickey was the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers

  • Baseball was the #1 sport and was also segregated

• Rickey saw 2 things:

  • He saw that there were so many minorities that could take his team to the next level

  • He also saw that baseball should NOT be segregated because it something for everyone

    • Maybe he was inspired by Truman

• Rickey decided to integrate baseball for the first time

  • He did not pick the best of the best → instead he picked Jackie Robinson

    • Why? Not only because he was a good baseball player but also because he could be trusted to CONTROL HIS TEMPER

      • “I want a player who’s got the guts not to fight back”

      • People would not be accepting of him so easily

• Robinson was a 4-letter college athlete, he was in the military (although he spent most of his time in court for disregarding segregation rules in the military), and then he joined a Negro League Baseball where Rickey found him

• Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, was one of the worst to Robinson

• Robinson was not the first black MLB player, but he was the first player to re-break the color barrier after WWII

• Later in the 1940s and 1950s, the NFL, NHL and NBA all integrated their respective sports as well

  • Some underperforming teams they could add talent to their team like the Dodgers

• The CRM is centered around African Americans but other minorities were involved as well

• The Emmett Till Murder and the Rosa Parks bus arrest are so vital in causing the CRM because they occurred so close to each other in time

• CORE

• SNCC

Brown v Board of Education

• W.E.B Dubois started the NAACP

  • They had some extremely good lawyers: Thurgood Marshall (later to become the first Black Supreme Court Justice)

• The point of the case: segregation hurts African Americans children's ability to grow and learn (it damages their minds)

• Harry Briggs was the first father who brought this change amid for his son in Claredance County

  • He even lost his job

• Since the NAACP had 4 cases going on the Supreme Court had to pick ONE which ended up being Topeka Kansas where there was a girl named Linda Brown

• John W. Davis was the other lawyer for the case

  • He was not a “bad guy” per say → he believed in truly equal things, but also keeping them separate

• Then when Brown was about the win the case 5:4, the Supreme Court Chief Justice died

  • Now, Eisenhower had promised this guy named Earl Warren a place in the Supreme Court so Eisenhower couldn’t go back on his promise

    • Warren was a lot more liberal and all for integration → he knew that a 5:4 decision could later be challenged in like 20-30 years

  • So Warren worked tirelessly to have the Supreme Court unanimously overturn the Board of Education

    • “Segregation is inherently unequal”

• To somehow still fight the ruling, in the deep South, Whites started using private schools more

• Brown v Board Case has never been challenged

• The Sparks of the Civil Rights Movement

  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott (influenced by Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus)

  • The Emmett Till Murder

    • Abducted, abused, and lynched for “allegedly” whilsting at a white lady in a grocery store

      • Her husband and son later admitted to killing Till but they were already acquitted of the case

The Little Rock 9

• The LR9 were a group of 9 African Americans kids who enrolled in a White high school (Little Rock Central High School) in 1957 because of the ruling in Brown v Board of Education

  • However, the Governor (Orval Fabous) resisted integration until forced to accept it

  • So Orval backed off, BUT only after calling the Arkansas National Guard to protect the others FROM the blacks

• When Eisenhower heard about this he put the Arkansas National Guard under federal control and sent a military unit of 1,000 men from the 101st Airborne Division to the town to make sure that Supreme Court’s decision was carried out

• Even with integration occurring, the White students still verbally and physically abused the African Americans

• Ernest Green, then a Senior, was the first African American to graduate from Little Rock

  • The KKK of the town made sure that no one clapped or applauded him at his graduation with threats of violence

• Some White kids started to go to private schools because of integration

• The same thing happened with Ruby Bridges

  • With her actually, Ruby was the only student in the room because all of the White students pulled out

    • She developed a great relationship with the teacher though

Rosa Parks

• Instead of standing a moving her seat for a white man to sit down, she scooted over

  • She was arrested and fined $14

  • She was a part of two organizations that helped her out, the NAACP (she was a former secretary), and her church (MLK was a minister at the time)

    • Together, they decided to boycott the busses — blacks took up 60-65% of the bus revenue

      • The boycott lasted 13 months

      • The boycott ended when the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled discrimination on public transportation illegal

The 1950s/1960s

• The Greensboro 4 were a group of 4 college kids that wanted to be treated equally in their local shops

  • They would buy something and then sit down for food → they would be denied, but the point was to show that they were paying customers

  • Led to a sit-in movement in the 60s

• The sit-ins then led to wade-ins

  • Wade-ins were like sit-ins but at pools or oceans (it was a flash mob basically)

• The police were good for the CRM because the police always had press following them

  • It was good PR for the movement because it impacts people on a huge scale

• There were also lie-ins (die-ins) where a person simulated being dead

  • This was big in the late-60s early-70s

  • Mostly performed by the disabled because it was a way for them to participate if they couldn’t in other ways

• Philo Farnsworth invented the television

  • Philo invented this before the 1950s but WWII and the Great Depression sidetracked this advancement

  • After WWII people had money, they were looking for entertainment, and were not working 24/7

• By 1960, 95% of households had a TV and would not trade it for anything

• TV focused a lot on the Old West in the 1950s and then it shifted towards space in the 1960s

  • Reflected in Toy Story (Andy loves Woody until Buzz Lightyear comes)

• The Lone Ranger and Tonto

  • A very racist show about a Western cowboy

• At first, shows were centered around male characters → Lucille Ball began to break that barrier with I Love Lucy

  • People were surprised that Lucille Ball would work in a comedy show (she was more of serious actress)

• Network television is a barometer for what is acceptable in American society

• The television GREATLY impacted the 1960 Election (JFK v Nixon)

                       PROS CONS Similarities Differences

TV                                                                                                                                               -helps to bring                families together

Smartphones                                                                                                                         -distances families more because everyone’s doing their own thing

Political                            Social                       Economic

Social                       Economic

• Elvis was from Memphis Tennessee

  • His music was the first time that music for teenagers was made by teenagers

    • Parents (White parents in the South) disliked Elvis Presley (danced suggestively, hung out with African Americans, and played some gospel music which Whites thought was supposed to be for African Americans only)

• Elvis was one of the early rock-and-roll star

• At first TV would not let Elvis on air

  • After a couple appearances on small shows, bigger channels started to call him on (Ed Sullivan)

    • Ed Sullivan was an old guard → parents trusted him to keep things PG so when Sullivan put Presley on his show and called him a good, decent young man, a lot of people changed their opinions about Elvis and rock and roll

  • Even then he was only videoed from the waist up because the TV measured what was acceptable in society

• Elvis Presley did not get mixed into drugs like cocaine or meth, but he did have to take drugs to fall asleep or to wake up because of his schedule

  • This made him dependent on them and this caused severe constipation → Elvis Presley died on the toilet when he strained his heart too much to have bowel movement

Election of 1960 → ==____JFK ==____v Richard Nixon

• Nixon was VP under Eisenhower and built his platform on the fact that he was more Cold War experienced (Bay of Pigs Invasion)

  • He said that JFK would hurt America

• JFK built his platform on the idea of Civil Rights changes because that is what Nixon was NOT selling

  • JFK was the first Irish and Catholic president (his father’s dream)

  • In reality, foreign policies were so overburdening that they pushed civil rights to the back burner in JFK’s president)

• Really the first time that there were TV debates over the future of America

  • Made JFK seem really polished and Nixon not that much

    • JFK looked the part and Nixon didn’t care that much for the looks which is why he looked unpolished on TV

• Behind the scenes, Kennedy worked hard to release MLK from a Georgia prison

• It was a really close election!! .20 percent difference to make a win…

Civil Rights during the JFK Administration

• Kennedy said he would be focused on domestic policy during his administration but foreign policy (Cuban Missile Crisis) caused him to divert his attention from civil rights

• Kennedy wanted to put the first man on the moon because the Soviet Union put the first man in space

  • He signed a lot more money into the space program (even more than Eisenhower)

  • Unfortunately, JFK did not get to see us land on the moon

• The Landing on the Moon

  • There were 2 guys on the moon but only the 1st one is really remembered: Neil Armstrong

    • Why Armstrong though? Because Nixon (president at the time) wanted the first person on the moon to be a civilian and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was a soldier because he had served in the navy so that ruled him out

  • Made Aldrin kind of sour because yeah it kind of war unfair but I can see Nixon’s POV as well

    • On the brightside, Aldrin got a space ranger toy named after him: Buzz Lightyear!!

• Martin Luther King’s Biggest Setback → Albany Movement

  • He was not able to accomplish his goal of desegregation in the Albany region

• Bobby (JFK’s brother and attorney general) was tone-deaf when he addressed African Americans

  • He said, “I know what discrimination is like. I’m an Irish Catholic.”

  • But, he was willing to learn and grow just like JFK and Lincoln

• Birmingham Campaign

  • MLK picked the absolutely worst city to end racial segregation

    • He led a march in Birmingham and was arrested for a PEACEFUL protest

      • The Whites said the the Blacks were arrested because they didn’t have a permit for a march, pickett, etc.

      • They didn’t have permits because Whites were always denying them

    • There were even young children that were marching who were ALSO arrested

  • A Black church was bombed by White supremacists and 4 little girls were killed

  • “Bull” Connor → Darth Vader x10

    • Absolutely horrible human being who used HIGH PRESSURE FIRE HOSES on Blacks

  • 8 Clergymen from Birmingham criticized MLK while he was in jail for like 5 things

    • One criticism said that, “Why are you here?”

      • And King responded by saying that he was there because he was invited by an organization

  • When Kennedy found out he berated the leaders of Birmingham for letting this happen

  • Then he addressed the public through a speech on TV to awake moral consciousness

    • JFK was good at using TV to steer public opinion

• African American leaders gained more confidence from JFK’s speech

  • MLK and A. Philip Randolph tell Kennedy that they will no longer wait on the March on Washington with or without his blessing

  • When JFK realized that he gave his support to make sure that all things went smoothly

• Planned for August 28, 1963

• The March on Washington, 1963 → HUGE SUCCESS

  • It was not only a march for blacks, it was for everyone: they had two Rabi speakers

  • John Lewis spoke as well

  • “I Have a Dream” speech was improv for the most part by MLK because he realized that people were losing interest

• Now the pressure was on Congress to pass an amendment

  • At first Southerners tried to stall this progression for as long as possible

• When JFK went to Texas to campaign for his re-election, he was assassinated

  • Lyndon B. Johnson took over power → he promised to continue JFK’s policies and he did: the Civil Rights Movement

• The Civil Rights Movement progressed greatly with Lyndon B. Johnson where they could not with JFK because Johnson had a LONG history with Congress

  • He used threats, the Johnson Treatment, and deals, but he got results

• In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed

  • Made Jim Crow legislation illegal

Speech Analyzation

1. What is his POV towards the clergyman’s criticisms? (POV)

   1. He is respectful because he believes that the clergymen’s criticism are valid and thinks that they deserve to be addressed, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered. He is angry that the rights African Americans deserve are not being delivered, and is anti-criticism of their thoughts for this reason. He says that violence had been used in the past, but now that they weren’t using violence it wasn’t making a difference either. African Americans were not even addressed properly

Election of 1964 → ^^Lyndon Johnson ^^v Barry Goldwater

• During the Election of 1964 the Democrats portrayed Goldwater as a Radical

• This is another election where you can see that Southern states switched to the Republican party

• Johnson was a more liberal democrat (some even saw him as a radical)

Cartoon Analysis:

• He is wearing a cowboy outfit because he is from Texas and lives on a ranch

• He has big ears and is portrayed as a BIG man

• The domestic policy gun is stronger than the foreign policy gun

  • His legacy will be tarnished because of the Vietnam War

Great Society (LBJ Domestic Policy)

• During LBJ’s presidency there was a lot of poverty

• LBJ promised that all people would be given the same opportunity regardless of background and culture

  • LBJ worked under the New Deal (FDR) and wanted to continue something like that

• Education programs

  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

  • Project Head Start

  • PBS

• Healthcare

  • Medicare

  • Medicaid

    • Both provide medical insurance to elderlies

  • Health and Food Act

• Public Housing

• Defend Civil Liberties

  • Voting Rights Act

  • Civil Rights Act

  • Equal Opportunity Act

• War on Poverty

  • The percentage of Americans below the poverty line decreased from 20% to 12%

• Why so popular with the people? Because people saw that the government was expanding budge to do something good for the people until…

• The Great Society stalled when the US entered Vietnam because budget had to be focused on the war - that meant many projects were never finished especially since LBJ did not run again for presidency because of the backlash from the Vietnam War (the next president, Nixon, did not continue the Great Society)

The Pentagon Papers and Watergate

• Someone leaked the information that disclosed that LBJ and the government were in deeper than the public knew in foreign policy

• Nixon should have been glad but he was more mad about the fact that someone snitched → he decided to tighten up security around the White House

  • Established “The Plumbers” to wire the White House to weed out moles

Rachel Carson: The Silent Spring (1962)

• A marine-biologist that wrote a book on DTD (a government promoted pesticide killer that had harmful effects on the environment)

• She battled in court against the people calling her a liar and she did this while she was fighting breast cancer

  • She died 2 years after the publishing of her book

  • This led to the creation of the EPA

Betty Friedan’s: The Feminine Mystique (1963)

• Criticizing the role of women that men wanted for women

• She said women were unfulfilled and that they should get jobs, form, careers, AND keep homes IF they want to

  • Night classes skyrocketed

• Caused the Women Liberation Movement in the 1960s

Vietnam War (1955-1975)

• FIRST BROADCASTED WAR ON TV

• Operation Rolling Thunder: biggest bombing in the Vietnam War

• Before WWII, Vietnam was a colony of France but when France fell to Hitler, Japan took over Vietnam

  • Vietnam had lots of vital resources (rubber)

• To fight the Japanese, there was a leader Ho Chi Min, that the Vietnamese rallied with

  • Ho Chi Min happened to be a communist leading to the popularity of communism

• So, once the Japan were defeated, the Vietnamese thought that they would be a new country, but the UN decided to let France back into Vietnam because French economy was suffering

  • The Vietnamese were pissed and they decided to fight

  • The US, opposing communism, sent aid to the French

• Eventually, 9 years later, the Vietnamese won and the French pulled out→ so Ho Chi Min wanted to unify Vietnam under communism

• But there were some people that disagreed that communism should rule → led to the creation of South Vietnam and North Vietnam (a Civil War)

  • The US following the policy of containment decided to intervene on behalf of the South Vietnam’s even though the government was corrupt

• The event that LBJ used as an excuse to deploy US ground troops: The Gulf of Tonkin

  • The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    • LBJ said that the US had to retaliate the bombing of an American ship (which never happened)

  • The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: Congress gave LBJ the power to take any military action without government approval

    • That is why the war was unjust: Congress never declared war

• When the people found out of the true brutalities of the war, they wanted the US to pull out

  • The government said that it was to protect democracy, but people began to wonder whether a good regime of communism is better than a corrupt one of democracy

• There was a draft during the Vietnam War:

  • Very controversial because is you were enrolled in college you were deferred

    • So the rich started to enroll in colleges, while the poor city kids had to be drafted

• A lot of people say that JFK was assassinated because he was about to pull out of the Vietnam War when it was still largely supported by the people

  • LBJ never curtailed people’s civil rights

  • Public support for the war especially went down after the Tet Offensive

    • Tet Offensive: North Vietnamese launched a coordinated attack on the South Vietnamese on a holiday

      • People realized that the government was lying → the US was not going to win the war just because they had a higher amount of casualties

      • The US was losing and people were dying for nothing → huge uproar by Americans

• People hated Hippies because parents said that they lessened support for their kids in the war

• Nixon won the presidential election by saying that he would pull the US out of the war

  • When he was president though, he escalated the war secretly

  • Later he then pulled US troops out → 2 years after the US left, the South collapsed because it was a weak, corrupt government

• Today Vietnam is a socialist country because communism does not have a good economy