HIST 2112 Lecture 19 Outline of Last Lecture I The Early 1960s A Looking ahead B Two liberal icons II Camelot The Kennedy Years 1960 1963 A Kennedy as myth legend martyr B Kennedy and Liberal Anticommunism a Berlin 1961 b Cuba 1960 1962 1 Late 1950s Cuba Goes Communist i Fidel Castro 2 CIA assassination attempts 3 The Bay of Pigs invasion 1961 4 Cuba Missile crisis October 1962 c Kennedy s Domestic Liberalism 1 Minimum Wage Bill 2 Social Security Increase 3 Housing Act of 1961 4 Education Funding 5 Tax Cuts III The Lyndon Johnson Years 1964 1968 A Race a Punishing Democrats to embrace Civil Rights b Civil Rights Act of 1964 c Voting Rights Act of 1965 d Executive Order 11246 B The Great Society a A New Deal for the 1960s b Major Programs 1 Medicare Medicaid 2 The War on Poverty i Head Start ii Upward Bound iii iv v IV Job Corps VISTA Community Action Programs Mid 1960s Outline of Current Lecture I Vietnam a short history A A scrappy little country B The French and the landochina colony C The Viet Minh a Nationalists b Very Popular progressive policies II Enter the US A Vietnam containment and monolithic communism a The Domino Theory b Funding the French Indochina War c Geneva Settlement 1 Divides Vietnam north and south 2 No elections war erupts III Entering the Quagmire B Support for Diem and the ARVN C JFK and military advisors D LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 E Direct US involvement begins IV Fighting the War A The ineffectiveness of air power B The ineffectiveness of the ground war a search and destroy and body counts b Frustration My Lai massacre V Tet Offensive January 1968 A Where d all these VC come from B The credibility gap and growing antiwar sentiment at home C The pullout begins VI Reaction A Vietnam the end of liberal dominance and the rise of conservatism Current Lecture Hearts and Minds America and Vietnam I Vietnam a short history II A A scrappy little country People underestimate the Vietnamese Southern China left of the Philippians Been invaded 9 times by outsiders and have defeated invaders every time 1979 Chinese invasion sucked for Chinese B The French and the landochina colony 1880s 1954 Era of Imperialism Vietnam was a French colony French are ruthless French are supplying most of the world with Rubber from here Tax policy regressive the most money you made the less they taxed mainly taxed the peasants to death Kicked people off their land take over farmland make a giant plantation you former land owner went to work on plantation as a laborer instead of the owner On into 1900s anti French rising of Vietnam people 1 Anti French Viet Minh C The Viet Minh a Nationalists i e not simply communists Gravitated to Marxism Their goal is to kick the French out and establish an independent Vietnam Don t want a world revolution just want to be left alone Won t take orders from Soviet Union or China b Very Popular progressive policies Viet Minh can be Ruthless too They re local French aren t Meet basic physical needs of poor gets people on their side Address issue of land land reform Take plantations and break them up and give them back to peasants Peasants see them as champions Viet Minh are peasantry anyways WWII happens Japan invades Vietnam get rid of French US gets rid of Japs Now Vietnam with no French or Japanese Power VacuumViet Minh declare themselves independent Ho Chi Min like president Big admirer of US Contact us to establish ties Enter the US A Vietnam containment and monolithic communism a The Domino Theory III There was a belief that if you didn t stop communists in Vietnam they would spread their revolution into Asia and even Peachtree Blvd This is why you have to contain b Funding the French Indochina War We can t support communists French say WWII is over 1947 taking our colony back We support French our Ally 1954 paying 80 of this war almost over Vietnam wins c Geneva Settlement 1954 1 Divides Vietnam north and south 2 No elections war erupts o 1956 he who wins the election gets to be president of the new Vietnam o Ho Chi Minh wins o We become the new French we publically say we don t endorse the election create a new country instead and we will support you o Guerilla Warfare begins by N Vietnamese on S Vietnamese Entering the Quagmire A Support for Diem and the ARVN Diem corrupt elite vain autocratic Opposed to French but was just like French catholic spoke French Hated Buddhists Not a paragon of Democracy he was incredibly anti communist He needed us for money and help but resented it 1962 made noise about how he might start siding with Minh we tell him we don t oppose bad things happening to him he eventually gets assassinated NOT US ARVN Army of Republic of Vietnam Money isn t enough VC might win panic in Americans B JFK and military advisors Maybe we should send military advisors to Vietnam to help train their military green barrettes to fight the VC Not supposed to be doing the fighting but end up being pulled in Still not enough C LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 LBJ Cold war containment guy IV V Feels like it s imperative we get into Vietnam more so than advisors American boots needed How can you justify getting troops on the ground o Gulf of Tonkin incident 1964 boats off of the coast of Vietnam supporting guerillas against N Vietnam confusion fact that a US ship has been fired on gives him a rational justification to invade Vietnam D Direct US involvement begins ROLLING THUNDER Marines at Da Nang etc Build bases in Southern Vietnam Marines security in 1965 patrols become wider wider and wider Early 1969 500 000 troops there We bomb the hell out of N Vietnam 4 x the ordinance dropped than in WWII worked in WWII should work here Fighting the War A The ineffectiveness of air power Inappropriate technology tactics Fighting WWII in Vietnam unconventional war tactics bombing Drowning your problems in ordinance is not always the solution B The ineffectiveness of the ground war a search and destroy and body counts Kill so many people so quickly that they couldn t be replaced eventually they would give up 200 000 men turn 18 in Vietnam every year You have too many people to kill Search Destroy headquarters pile into helicopter go where there is enemy activity you land somewhere in the jungle get out and you are left alone and walk around searching for enemy units try your best to annihilate them You can pull your men back you have a radio map call in an aircraft to drop napalm so you can kill people without getting your