Chapter Overview

The war abroad provoked a virtual war at home; Americans fought not only in Vietnamese jungles but also on American campuses. In a guerrilla war without battle lines and against an often unseen foe, they wondered who was the friend and who the enemy. Americans could ask the same question about themselves.

The Road to Vietnam

The struggle that wracked Vietnam was deeply rooted in history. Ho Chi Minh drew on the ancient traditions of his people as well as Marxist-Leninist ideology. Lyndon Johnson's predecessors had made decisions interlocking the respective crusades of America's containment strategy and Ho's revolution.

With the U.S. determined to preserve a pro-Western government in South Vietnam, Johnson in 1964 began retaliatory air strikes on the North, and Congress endorsed his action. The strategy of "escalating" the bombing until Ho Chi Minh was forced to stop fighting didn't work. Instead, American forces had to assume a major fighting role in the South.

Social Consequences of the War

Due to a draft system that made it easier for students and the more affluent to receive exemptions, the soldiers who served in Vietnam tended to be younger, poorer, and less well educated. Morale was high at first despite the rigors. However, even with the United States' soldiers and modern equipment, the Vietcong maintained control of much of the countryside. Advanced technologies of war too often destroyed the land, villages, and people that American policy makers were intending to help.

By 1967 thousands of U.S. protesters rallied to halt the bombing and end the war. Lack of progress led to defections even within Johnson's cabinet. And as the cost of the war rose, so did inflation.

The Unraveling

The debate over the war climaxed in 1968, after the shock of the Vietcong's Tet offensive. When antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy almost beat Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, the president proposed a peace initiative and announced he would not run for reelection.

Four days later an assassin gunned down Martin Luther King, sparking riots in the nation's major cities. Another bullet felled Robert Kennedy during his presidential campaign. Frustrated protesters confronted hostile police at the Democrats' Chicago convention. Former segregationist governor George Wallace of Alabama mounted a powerful independent campaign. Republican Richard Nixon, appealing to what he called the "silent majority," narrowly won in November.

The Nixon Era

Aware that the Vietnam War must end, Nixon escalated the bombing to force North Vietnamese concessions. Domestic protest mounted. Hoping to return the fighting to the South Vietnamese, Nixon began withdrawing American troops -- "Vietnamizing" the war. That reduced both American casualties and the morale of American troops.

Nixon saw Vietnam as part of a larger pattern of a decline in America's world power. In the Nixon Doctrine, he announced a shift of increased responsibility to allies. He also made a dramatic trip to China and initiated a policy of "détente" with the Soviet Union that included an agreement limiting some nuclear weapons.

"Silent" Majorities and Vocal Minorities

Meanwhile, minorities were becoming active. Hispanics insisted that they, like African-Americans, had been held back by discrimination and poverty. Various Hispanic groups campaigned for greater political and economic power. Native Americans sought to reclaim dignity and old tribal rights. Militant homosexual groups joined the chorus demanding respect and equal rights.

Feminists were somewhat more successful in initiating a sustained movement. They succeeded in inserting gender discrimination into the 1964 Civil Rights Act and federal affirmative action programs but were divided over the abortion issue and a Constitutional amendment on equal rights. In 1973 the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade struck down restrictive abortion rules; more conservative women reacted with a "right to life" campaign. And after initial progress toward ratification, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) bogged down in conservative state legislatures.

Social activists looked to the Supreme Court to redress their grievances. Even with Nixon appointee Warren Burger replacing the liberal Earl Warren, the Court upheld school busing as one way to redress segregation. Nixon increasingly resorted to harassment by federal agencies to crush groups he saw as enemies. When the Democrats in 1972 nominated George McGovern, an antiwar liberal, Nixon won a smashing victory.

The End of an Era

In 1973, the United States signed a treaty with North Vietnam. An intense bombing campaign in 1972 allowed negotiator Henry Kissinger to claim "peace with honor." In fact, however, the North Vietnamese would overrun the South within two years. Even Nixon, known as an arch-cold warrior, recognized there were limits to what the United States could do to contain Communism.