HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 29 Outline of Last Lecture I Vietnam war 1954 1973 II US involvement in south Vietnam III Johnson takes over the war IV The war escalates V Tet Offensive January 30 1968 Outline of Current Lecture I Opposition to the war II 1968 Presidential Election III Nixon Escalates the war IV End of Vietnam War V Nixon at home VI Nixon goes down Current Lecture Opposition to the war o Opposition to the draf 20 of the soldiers in the war are drafees and a lot of the opposition to the draf comes from college campuses even though they really were not the target The draf for Vietnam was really unfair because there were a ton of deferments that were given including being a full time student If you were poor the chance of you getting drafed was very high o 1968 Democratic national convention People are getting really mad at Johnson because he expanded the war and he is seeing that he is getting really unpopular His secret service will not allow him to make speeches at college campuses or at the 1968 Democratic convection because the threat of assassination is too high Johnson says he will no longer be running for office in the next election round Robert Kennedy will be a really good front runner for this next election round but is assassinated Martin Luther King is also assassinated this year The mayor of Chicago at the time will hear about the amounts of protest that will go on and calls upon the Chicago police The protest is violently put down and since this was caught on TV this will have the support for the democratic decline dramatically There will be a lot more anti protest things going on until 1973 when the US exits from the war o Kent state shootings May4 1970 In the days prior to the shooting students had burned down the ROTC building as they saw this as a military doing like the Vietnam war The protest becomes violent as the students pelt rocks at the national guard and police and cut the lines of the fire hoses so the fire could not be put out In the midst of the confusion one of the commanders said something close to fire and some of the soldiers hear the command for fire and open fire on the student protestors and kill 4 people 1968 Presidential Election o A year of violence and Turmoil Marshall law was declared on Washington and there were army personnel sitting at the capitol building There are a ton of protests and riots at government events and a lot of government officials getting assasinated o Robert Kennedy o MLK Jr o Richard Nixon Platform of stability and security His campaign was ending the war in Vietnam with peace and honor Basically was a shoe in for the presidential seat because the democratic party was down the drain George Wallace This is one of the times that a third party candidate will make a big impact on the election He was a racist governor who opposed integration and gets 49 electoral votes o This is the end of the New Deal coalition that had kept democratic presidents in office and southern support for democrats now declined Nixon Escalates the war o Cambodia and Laos invaded in 1970 Nixon will focus his attention on the Ho Chi Minh trail and he will publicly authorize the invasion of Cambodia and Laos to bring down the Ho Chi Minh Trial Operation Menu goes into Cambodia and Laos expands the war and the people at home are confused because of what Nixon said peace with honor o By this point 42 of the army in Vietnam is drafees and make up 58 of the casualties as well You have a disproportionate number of people from lower socioeconomic dying from being in combat o Pentagon papers 1971 Secret pentagon documents that were leaked in 1971 and mostly dealt with in house pentagon history that they had drawn up about previous administration These papers told the lies about what Johnson was saying about the war really had nothing to do with Nixon Nixon tried to help it from getting published and released so the support for him and the war does not decrease o Vietnamazation Replacing US troops and US lead operation with South Vietnamese troops and South Vietnamese lead operations This is an attempt to slowly withdraw from Vietnam o Paris peace accords 1973 Will call for a cessation of hostilities between the north and the south and the US troops will withdraw The north Vietnamese were not required to withdraw their troops from the south and their regular army troops will be allowed to stay in south Vietnam The US will offer some help to the South Vietnamese but if things get really bad the US will come and intervene and help the South Vietnamese End of Vietnam War o We promised to help When the south Vietnamese needed our help we refused and why they did not succeed When Saigon fell the US attempted to get most Americans out but lef many south Vietnamese in Saigon o Fall of Saigon April 1975 The north Vietnamese will launch a conventional invasion of south Vietnam something the US really wanted for years The south Vietnamese will not be able to defend themselves and Saigon falls within days Nixon at home o Ok with great society o Environmental protection agency 1970 Clean air act 1970 This will be the first time the US government will try to monitor pollution in a large scale way o Revised Philadelphia plan when Nixon orders federal authorities in Philadelphia to hire minority workers because minorities were not represented in the federal workforce to make the federal workforce more representative of the population Affirmative action o Nixon shock Closed the gold window Dec 1971 Nixon will put an end to the Bretton woods system as the US dollar will no longer be pegged to gold it will depend on the other currencies Stagflation inflation unemployment slow growth This will increase inflation slightly and will slow growth because other countries will not see the dollar in a good light The 1970s is going to be a really bad time for the US and will be mainly due to Nixon s impact on the economy Nixon goes down o OPESS crisis There will be another Arab Israeli conflict and we will support them and help them win the war by shipping them ammunition and large scale weapons The Arab countries are not going to be happy about this and decide to no longer export oil to the US countries does more to economic instability and slow growth o Vietnam He will put conscription on hold and will stop the draf temporarily even though its still there o Watergate scandal Committee to re elect the president CREEP Watergate tapes Became a source of great controversy
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