vietnam war protests and resistance
vietnamization & secret bombings
Nixon continued a gradual pullout of American troops and expressed faith in the ability of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to assume the burden of the war. He called his approach, Vietnamization – US forces would withdraw as ARVN troops assumed more combat duty. To reduce the flow of communist supplies to the Vietcong, Nixon ordered the secret bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. This was a controversial move because it undermined the neutral government in Cambodia and widened the scope of the war. In the end, neither Vietnamization nor the secret bombings helped the South Vietnamese win.
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Doubt grows on the homefront
American strategy by this point of the war yielded limited results. American troop commitments and casualties escalated quickly. By the end of 1965, there were 185,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam and only 700 Americans had died. Three years later, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam and the number of American dead had risen to 30,000. Most agreed that by 1967 the war was at a stalemate.
As the war lengthened, many Americans began to question U.S. involvement. The earliest soldiers in Vietnam had been volunteers, but by the end of 1965, most American soldiers in Vietnam were draftees. It seemed that Americans were fighting a war to defend a nation whose people were unwilling to defend themselves. To add to the frustration, one could defer their draft if they were college students or worked in certain professions. As a result, most of the 2.5 million men who served in Vietnam were from working-class or poor backgrounds. Additionally, the number of American troops fighting in Vietnam under Johnson’s presidency was disproportionately high. They were far more likely to serve in combat positions and far more likely to die. More and more Americans began to protest the war, especially on college campuses. This was also the first war to be televised at home, nightly, for the American public.
As the war lengthened, many Americans began to question U.S. involvement. The earliest soldiers in Vietnam had been volunteers, but by the end of 1965, most American soldiers in Vietnam were draftees. It seemed that Americans were fighting a war to defend a nation whose people were unwilling to defend themselves. To add to the frustration, one could defer their draft if they were college students or worked in certain professions. As a result, most of the 2.5 million men who served in Vietnam were from working-class or poor backgrounds. Additionally, the number of American troops fighting in Vietnam under Johnson’s presidency was disproportionately high. They were far more likely to serve in combat positions and far more likely to die. More and more Americans began to protest the war, especially on college campuses. This was also the first war to be televised at home, nightly, for the American public.
Document Analysis - War Madness
nixon expands the scope of the war
More than a year into office, Nixon had grown impatient with the snail’s pace of peace negotiations between the North and South Vietnamese. In 1970, he attempted to break the stalemate by ordering a ground attack on North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong bases in Cambodia. Nixon had also hoped to aid the pro-American Cambodian government in its fight against the Khmer Rouge, a communist movement in that country. On the evening of April 30, 1970, Nixon addressed the nation and informed them of his decision to expand the scope of the war into Cambodia.
Kent state Massacre
The Cambodian incursion had a profound impact on the peace movement at home. It stirred anti-war activists and college campuses erupted in protest. Several of these protests prompted the police and National Guard to step in and preserve order. Four days after Nixon’s speech, protestors at Kent State University in Ohio threw rocks and bottles at the National Guard. When one guardsman thought he heard a sniper’s shot, he fired is rifle. This prompted the other National Guardsmen to discharge their guns. Four college students were killed.
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Document Analysis
my lai massacre
In 1971, two events triggered the pressure on Nixon to pull U.S. troops out of Vietnam. The first event had roots in a U.S. action in South Vietnam three years earlier. On March 16, 1968, American forces searching for enemy troops in an area with a strong Vietcong presence came upon the village of My Lai. By this point in the war, many Americans had been injured and killed by Vietcong soldiers posing as civilians. It was a recipe for disaster where Lieutenant William Calley’s unit began shooting and killing hundreds of unarmed civilians. During the assault, U.S. soldiers killed between four and five hundred innocent Vietnamese, with only Calley being convicted of a crime. News of a poorly conducted military investigation and cover-up only fueled anti-war sentiment.
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the pentagon papers & New york times v. united states
On the heels of My Lai came the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times. The term referred to a classified government history of American’s involvement in Vietnam. The study was leaked to the Times by one of its coauthors, Daniel Ellsberg. Nixon tried to block the full publication, but in the Supreme Court case, New York Times v. United States, the court ruled in favor of the press. The study revealed that American leaders involved the United States in Vietnam without fully informing the American people and occasionally lied to Congress.
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