Examine key events on the
Vietnam Conflict
Vietnam Test Monday
Vocab Quiz Friday
Agenda: End War
• America looked to Robert Kennedy, an antiwar
candidate in 1968 election. He won primary after
primary. LBJ announced that he would not run
again.
• June 6, 1968: Sirhan Sirhan, a young Palestinian
in Los Angeles, assassinated Kennedy.
Chicago: Democratic Convention shaken – named
Herbert Humphrey as new front-runner
candidate, but the democrats could not decide
on an antiwar plank. Problem was that
thousands of antiwar protestors were staging
demonstrations in downtown Chicago. The third
night of the Convention, protestors were injured
with tear gas and Billy clubs. The whole riot was
being televised with the crowd chanting, “The
whole world is watching!”
1968 Election
• Made many Americans turned away
from Democrats to the more
conservative Republicans.
• Richard Nixon won the election of
1968. He offered “peace with
honor” as his plan for Vietnam. It
was a tight race. Yet he found it
difficult to abandon the American
commitment.
Nixon’s special
assistant for
national
security, Henry
Kissinger, often
overshadowed
him.
Nixon Policy Continued
Kissinger’s main strategy was
“Vietnamization” – training and equipping
South Vietnamese soldiers to assume
burden of conflict instead of American
soldiers. In 1969, Nixon brings home
50,000 troops and continues gradual
removal of the rest. By 1972 there are
fewer than 60,000 troops left.
Nixon Policy Continued
• Problem: policy did not help the South gain an
advantage. The U.S. escalate activity – decide to
attack bases in Cambodia and Laos where they
think the North were launching many of their
attacks.
• Nixon kept these raids from the public and
Congress.
• Spring 1970 – a pro-American government took
control of Cambodia – gave approval to
Americans to come into Cambodia. Nixon
announced that he ordered American troops
across the border to clean out bases used by the
North.
More Problems for Nixon
My Lai Massacre
Lack of public support for the war intensified as evidence
of the full awfulness of the war effort mounted. In March of
1968 an American unit was patrolling the village of My Lai
in Central Vietnam. They had suffered recent losses, were
frustrated by their inability to find the enemy and anxious
for revenge. The U.S. Soldiers believing the village to be
controled by the Viet Cong had gone there on a search
and destroy mission. They only found women, children
and old men. They rounded up unarmed women,
children, and elderly civilians, raped the women, then
opened fire. The killed between 300-500 Vietnamese
civilians, mostly women and children.
My Lai Massacre in Pictures
• Result: huge inflammation of
antiwar activity at home. May 4,
1970 four students were killed and
nine others injured when National
Guard opened fire on antiwar
demonstrators at
Kent State
University in Ohio. This lead to
many college campuses closing.
• Nixon’s Vice President Spiro
Agnew insisted most Americans
still supported the war, and they
referred to their supporters as the
“silent majority”. Exchanges
between anti-war & supporters
sometimes became violent.
• 1972: Nixon went on another
major bombing raid of Hanoi and
other Northern targets.
• Finally, on January 27, 1973,
North Vietnam and U.S. signed
an “agreement on ending the war
and restoring peace in Vietnam”.
Nixon claimed this last bombing
helped bring on the cease-fire.
The U.S. Withdraws from
Vietnam
***Finally, in January 1973 a peace agreement was
reached.
The provisions of the peace agreement included:
1. U.S withdraw all forces in S. Vietnam in 60 days.
2. All prisoners of war needed to be released.
3. All military activities must end in Cambodia and
Laos.
4. The 17th parallel would continue to divide
Vietnam until the country could be reunited.
Legacy of the War
• In 1975, the South fell to the North at the fall
of Saigon and Vietnam was united as one,
Communist nation marking the end to the war
officially.
• More than 58,000 Americans died and over
300,000 were wounded.
• The Vietnam was the longest and least
successful war in American history.
• The U.S. spent at least $150 billion on the war
• Led to Congress passing the War Powers
Resolutions setting limits on Presidential
power in a conflict without a formal
declaration of war from Congress.
• The 26th Amendment was passed making the
voting age 18.
• The U.S. did not restore trade with Vietnam
until 1994.
Vietnam Test today
Study!
Spiral Check today if you
didn’t have it yesterday!
Vietnam Test
Words for Word Bank
• Eugenics
• Kentucky State
University
• Kent State University
• Medicaid
• Dallas, TX
• Civil Rights Movement
•
•
•
•
Henry Kissinger
Feminism
San Antonio, TX
Open Carry
Movement
• Spiro Agnew
• Medicare
Short Answer needs to be written in
the white space of your scantron!