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Introduction The war in Vietnam divided American families, communities, and ultimately the nation. It killed Lyndon Johnson's domestic agenda and destroyed his presidency. It ended the economic prosperity that had reigned in the U.S. since the end of World War II. It killed the optimism of American liberalism. Why did the United States become involved in a conflict so far away from home? Who was a friend and who was the enemy? As the United States slowly escalated its commitment to South Vietnam, television brought images of carnage and destruction to the American dinner table. Stories about the massacre at My Lai and the killings at Kent State coalesced with the political violence that led to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy to make many Americans feel the world was going crazy. Richard Nixon won the election of 1968 by appealing to the silent majority of Americans disturbed by both the war overseas and the unrest at home. While Nixon ended the war and achieved détente with China, he could not suppress the rise of the new identity politics in the aftermath of the civil rights movement. Even as the war ended in failure in 1975, Americans seemed more divided than at any other time in the twentieth century.
The Web activities and additional research links for this chapter explore the development of the divisions in American society over Vietnam as well as the consequences of those divisions. Web Activities 1. The Wars for Viet Nam: 1945 to 1975. Read the Overview of Vietnam on this site. What was the political situation in Vietnam when the French were forced out in 1945? Why was the nation partitioned? What kind of government did South Vietnam have under Ngo Dinh Diem? Did the U.S. support this government? What role did the National Liberation Front (NFL) play in the Vietnam conflict? How and why did the United States become involved in the internal politics of Vietnam? Now go to the Documents section and browse through these materials. How did the U.S respond to the Geneva Accords of 1954? How did Diem repress suspected Communists? What goals did the NLF pronounce in its 1961 program? Why did Rusk and McNamara advocate an increased American presence in Vietnam in 1961? How did Johnson and Nixon escalate the war? How did the war finally end? 2. Fiction can be a valuable historical resource, although the user must remain wary of the hazards of such sources. What dangers can you perceive in using fictional stories as an historical document? With these concerns in mind, read "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth" and "A Soldier's Diary" (scroll down). What do these stories tell you about the experiences of soldiers in Vietnam? How was this war different from World War II? 3. The Antiwar movement played a significant role in the domestic unrest of the 1960s, the downfall of President Johnson, and the policy decisions of the U.S. toward the Vietnam War. Read through the various sections of the Antiwar movement site. What caused the first protests against the war? From where did the leaders of the movement come? Why did college campuses become particularly explosive sites for the conflicts between hawks and doves? What was the movement's relationship with the counterculture? The civil rights movement? The identity politics movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s? 4. One commentator has called 1968 the Summer of Hate. During this year, the Tet offensive began in January, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis in April, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in June, and protestors and police clashed on television at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Read through these sites and consider how these events related to each other. What were the protestors in Chicago unhappy about? How did these events affect the election of 1968? Additional Research Links The Road to Vietnam
The Unraveling
Nixon's War
The New Identity Politics
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