Chapter
Planning Guide
Key to Ability Levels
BL Below Level
AL Above Level
OL On Level
ELL English
Language Learners
Levels
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Resources
Key to Teaching Resources
Print Material
CD-ROM or DVD
Transparency
Chapter Section Section Section Chapter
Opener
1
2
3
Assess
FOCUS
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Daily Focus Transparencies
19-1
19-2
19-3
TEACH
BL
OL
ELL
OL
p. 85
Historical Analysis Skills Activity, URB
p. 86
ELL
Differentiated Instruction Activity, URB
p. 87
ELL
English Learner Activity, URB
BL
OL
BL
OL
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Content Vocabulary Activity, URB*
p. 91
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Academic Vocabulary Activity, URB
p. 93
OL
AL
Reinforcing Skills Activity, URB
OL
AL
Critical Thinking Skills Activity, URB
BL
AL
Reading Skills Activity, URB
OL
ELL
OL
Linking Past and Present Activity, URB
p. 98
AL
ELL
Primary Source Reading, URB
BL
OL
AL
ELL
American Art and Music Activity, URB
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Interpreting Political Cartoons Activity, URB
OL
BL
OL
BL
p. 96
p. 97
OL
BL
p. 95
Time Line Activity, URB
BL
AL
p. 89
p. 99
p. 101
p. 103
p. 105
Enrichment Activity, URB
p. 109
ELL
Guided Reading Activity, URB*
p. 112
p. 113
p. 114
AL
ELL
Reading Essentials and Note-Taking Guide*
p. 200
p. 203
p. 206
OL
AL
ELL
Differentiated Instruction for the American History
Classroom
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Unit Map Overlay Transparencies
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Unit Time Line Transparencies, Strategies, and Activities ✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Cause and Effect Transparencies, Strategies, and
Activities
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Why It Matters Chapter Transparencies, Strategies, and
Activities
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
American Biographies
Note: Please refer to the Unit 6 Resource Book for this chapter’s URB materials.
652A
✓
* Also available in Spanish
Planning Guide Chapter
Plus
•
•
•
•
All-In-One Planner and Resource Center
Levels
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Interactive Lesson Planner
Interactive Teacher Edition
Fully editable blackline masters
Section Spotlight Videos Launch
Resources
• Differentiated Lesson Plans
• Printable reports of daily
assignments
• Standards Tracking System
Chapter Section Section Section Chapter
Opener
1
2
3
Assess
TEACH (continued)
BL
OL
AL
BL
OL
AL
ELL
The Living Constitution
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
American Issues
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
OL
AL
ELL
American Art and Architecture Transparencies,
Strategies, and Activities
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
OL
AL
High School American History Literature Library
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
OL
AL
American History Primary Source Documents Library
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
American Music: Hits Through History CD
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
StudentWorks™ Plus
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
BL
OL
AL
ELL
The American Vision: Modern Times Video Program
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Reading Strategies and Activities for the Social Studies
Classroom
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Strategies for Success
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Presentation Plus! with MindJogger CheckPoint
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
p. 267
p. 268
p. 269
p. 271
BL
Supreme Court Case Studies
Teacher
Resources
p. 109
Success With English Learners
ASSESS
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Section Quizzes and Chapter Tests*
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Authentic Assessment With Rubrics
p. 43
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Standardized Test Practice Workbook
p. 45
BL
OL
AL
ELL
ExamView® Assessment Suite
19-1
19-2
19-3
Ch. 19
CLOSE
BL
BL
OL
BL
OL
AL
ELL
Reteaching Activity, URB
ELL
Reading and Study Skills Foldables™
ELL
American History in Graphic Novel
p. 107
p. 80
p. 65
✓ Chapter- or unit-based activities applicable to all sections in this chapter.
652B
Integrating Technology
Chapter
ter
Using Chap
Overviews
Teach With Technology
What is a Chapter Overview?
A Chapter Overview provides an online section-by-section summary of the content of each chapter. It can help
students review—or preview—chapter content to increase comprehension of main ideas.
How can a Chapter Overview help my students and me?
A Chapter Overview helps you and your students review the main points from each chapter section-by-section.
It can help:
• you devise discussion points
• students preview chapter content
• students focus on the main ideas
• you summarize the chapter for your students
• students review chapter content
• students practice reading and comprehension skills
Visit glencoe.com and enter a
™ code to go to Chapter Overview.
Visit glencoe.com and enter
™ code
TAVMT5154c19T for Chapter 19 resources.
You can easily launch a wide range of digital products
from your computer’s desktop with the McGraw-Hill
Social Studies widget.
Student
Media Library
• Section Audio
• Spanish Audio Summaries
• Section Spotlight Videos
The American Vision: Modern Times Online Learning Center (Web Site)
• StudentWorks™ Plus Online
Parent
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
• Multilingual Glossary
●
●
●
• Study-to-Go
●
●
●
• Chapter Overviews
●
●
●
• Self-Check Quizzes
●
●
●
• Student Web Activities
●
●
●
• ePuzzles and Games
●
●
●
• Vocabulary eFlashcards
●
●
●
• In Motion Animations
●
●
●
• Study Central™
●
●
●
• Web Activity Lesson Plans
• Vocabulary PuzzleMaker
●
●
• Historical Thinking Activities
• Beyond the Textbook
652C
Teacher
●
●
●
●
●
●
Additional Chapter Resources Chapter
®
• Timed Readings Plus in Social Studies helps stu-
dents increase their reading rate and fluency while
maintaining comprehension. The 400-word passages
are similar to those found on state and national
assessments.
• Reading in the Content Area: Social Studies
concentrates on six essential reading skills that help
students better comprehend what they read. The
book includes 75 high-interest nonfiction passages
written at increasing levels of difficulty.
• Reading Social Studies includes strategic reading
The following videotape programs are available from
Glencoe as supplements to this Modern Times chapter:
• Vietnam: A Soldier’s Diary (ISBN 0-76-700772-7)
• War Memorials - Great American Monuments
(ISBN 1-56-501643-2)
To order, call Glencoe at 1-800-334-7344. To find classroom
resources to accompany many of these videos, check the
following home pages:
A&E Television: www.aetv.com
The History Channel: www.historychannel.com
instruction and vocabulary support in Social Studies
content for both ELLs and native speakers of English.
www.jamestowneducation.com
Reading
List Generator
CD-ROM
Use this database to search more than 30,000 titles to create
a customized reading list for your students.
• Reading lists can be organized by students’ reading
level, author, genre, theme, or area of interest.
• The database provides Degrees of Reading Power™
(DRP) and Lexile™ readability scores for all selections.
• A brief summary of each selection is included.
Leveled reading suggestions for this chapter:
Index to National Geographic Magazine:
The following articles relate to this chapter:
• “Hanoi: Shedding the Ghosts of War,” by David Lamb,
May 2004.
• “Saigon: Fourteen Years After,” by Peter T. White,
November 1989.
Access National Geographic’s new, dynamic MapMachine
Web site and other geography resources at:
www.nationalgeographic.com
www.nationalgeographic.com/maps
For students at a Grade 8 reading level:
• Young Man in Vietnam, by Charles Coe
For students at a Grade 9 reading level:
• Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam,
by Bernard Edelman
For students at a Grade 10 reading level:
• Getting to Know the Two Vietnams, by Fred West
For students at a Grade 11 reading level:
• Voices from Vietnam, by Barry Denenberg
For students at a Grade 12 reading level:
• The Vietnam War, by Debbie Levy
652D
Introducing
Chapter
Focus
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Should Citizens Support
the Government During
Wartime?
Chapter
The Vietnam War
1954 –1975
SECTION 1 Going to War in Vietnam
SECTION 2 Vietnam Divides the Nation
SECTION 3 The War Winds Down
Invite a volunteer to read the
paragraph and questions presented. Use the questions provided to begin a discussion about
the Vietnam conflict. Have students write the two questions in
their notebooks, adding to their
answers as they read the chapter.
OL
Teach
The Big Ideas
As students study the chapter,
remind them to consider the
section-based Big Ideas included
in each section’s Guide to
Reading. The Essential Questions
in the activities below tie in to the
Big Ideas and help students think
about and understand important
chapter concepts. In addition, the
Hands-on Chapter Projects with
their culminating activities relate
the content from each section to
the Big Ideas. These activities
build on each other as students
progress through the chapter.
Section activities culminate in the
wrap-up activity on the Visual
Summary page.
American soldiers march up a hill in
Vietnam in 1968, as fires behind them
send smoke into the air.
1955
• U.S. military aid
and advisers
are sent to
South Vietnam
Eisenhower
1953–1961
Johnson
• Congress
1963–1969
passes Gulf
of Tonkin
Resolution
1965
• U.S. combat
troops arrive
in Vietnam
U.S. PRESIDENTS
U.S. EVENTS
WORLD EVENTS
1955
1954
• France leaves Indochina;
Geneva Accords divide
Vietnam in two
1960
1958
• U.S. troops land
in Lebanon
1965
1960
• U-2 spy plane
is shot down
652 Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Section 1
652
1964
Kennedy
1961–1963
Section 2
Going to War in Vietnam
Vietnam Divides the Nation
Essential Question: What created the conflict in Vietnam and how did America become
involved? (The desire for independence from
France fueled rebellion. The United States became
involved first by aiding the French and later by
committing military advisers and troops to prevent the fall of Vietnam to communism.) Tell students they will learn in this section how the
United States began fighting in Vietnam. OL
Essential Question: How did Americans protest against the war in Vietnam? (Teach-ins
were held at universities; some men burned draft
cards; people held protest marches.) Inform students that in this section they will read about
the protest movement, which helped to
change the culture of the United States and its
relationship to the federal government. OL
Chapter Audio
Introducing
Chapter
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Should Citizens Support the
Government During Wartime?
During the Cold War, the United States sent troops to Vietnam to stop
the spread of communism. Winning in Vietnam proved to be difficult
and, as the war dragged on, many Americans began to protest.
Eventually, the United States pulled out of Vietnam.
• Why do you think the United States sent troops to Vietnam?
• Why do you think Vietnam divided Americans?
More About the
Photo
Visual Literacy In 1969, the
year after this photo was taken,
the number of American troops
reached their peak of about
540,000. Many of the soldiers were
a year or two out of high school.
Both civilian and military photographers covered the war, enduring
the same hardships and risks as
soldiers with some losing their
lives. Thousands of the photographs taken by military photographers are housed at the National
Archives in Washington, D.C.
Dinah Zike’s
Foldables
Defining Vietnam Terminology
1968
• Tet Offensive
begins
• Anti-war protest
in Chicago
1970
• National Guard
troops kill student
protesters at
Kent State
Nixon
1969–1974
1973
• Last U.S. troops
leave Vietnam
1970
1970
• Nixon orders invasion
of Cambodia
1975
1975
• Saigon falls to North
Vietnamese invasion
Make a Vocabulary Book Foldable
to aid your review of the Vietnam
War. Select terms for a 10-tab
Vocabulary Book. Example
terms include: Ho Chi Minh,
Containment, and Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution. Define the
terms under the appropriate tab.
and enter
Chapter 19 resources.
Chapter 19
Section 3
The War Winds Down
Essential Question: How did the war end
and how did it affect Americans?
(Negotiations dragged on while the military
implemented Vietnamization. Ultimately,
American troops were withdrawn and South
Vietnam fell to communism. Americans
became cynical about the war and their government.) Tell students that this section will
describe the end of the war. OL
Ho Chi Minh
Containment
n
Gulf of Tonki
resolution
Dinah Zike’s Foldables
are three-dimensional, interactive graphic organizers that
help students practice basic
writing skills, review vocabulary terms, and identify main
ideas. Instructions for creating and using Foldables can
be found in the Appendix at
the end of this book and in
the Dinah Zike’s Reading and
Study Skills Foldables booklet.
Visit glencoe.com
code TAVMT5147c19 for
The Vietnam War
653
Visit glencoe.com and
enter
code
TAVMT5154c19T for Chapter 19
resources, including a Chapter
Overview, Study Central™,
Study-to-Go, Student Web
Activity, Self-Check Quiz, and
other materials.
653
Chapter 19 •
Section 1
Section 1
Focus
Section Audio
Going to War in Vietnam
Bellringer
Guide to Reading
Daily Focus Transparency 19-1
Big Ideas
Trade, War, and Migration American
involvement in the war in Vietnam was
the result of its Cold War strategy.
Content Vocabulary
• domino theory (p. 655)
• guerrilla (p. 655)
• napalm (p. 661)
• Agent Orange (p. 661)
Guide to Reading
To generate student interest and
provide a springboard for class
discussion, access the Chapter 19,
Section 1 video at glencoe.com or
on the video DVD.
HISTORY AND YOU Have you met anyone who was born in Vietnam? Do
you know why he or she left? Read to learn about Vietnam’s complicated and
tragic history.
Reading Strategy
Organizing Complete a graphic organizer similar to the one below by providing reasons why the United States
aided France in Vietnam.
Reasons for U.S.
Support of France
Resource Manager
Reading
Strategies
C
n the late 1940s and early 1950s, most Americans
knew little about Indochina, France’s colony in
Southeast Asia. During the Cold War, however,
American officials became concerned the region might
fall to communism. Eventually, American troops were
sent to fight in Vietnam.
MAIN Idea The Cold War policy of containment led the United States to
become increasingly involved in events in Vietnam.
People and Events to Identify
• Ho Chi Minh (p. 654)
• Dien Bien Phu (p. 656)
• Geneva Accords (p. 656)
• Ngo Dinh Diem (p. 656)
• Vietcong (p. 657)
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (p. 658)
• Ho Chi Minh trail (p. 661)
654
I
American Involvement in Vietnam
Academic Vocabulary
• strategic (p. 657)
• traditional (p. 657)
Answers: fall of China to
communism, the outbreak
of the Korean War
R
Spotlight Video
In 1940, the Japanese invaded Vietnam. The occupation was only
the latest example of foreigners ruling the Vietnamese people. The
Chinese Empire had controlled the region for hundreds of years.
Then, beginning in the late 1800s and lasting until World War II,
France ruled Vietnam as well as neighboring Laos and Cambodia—a
region known collectively as French Indochina.
The Growth of Vietnamese Nationalism
The Vietnamese did not want to be ruled by foreigners, and by the
early 1900s, nationalism had become a powerful force in the country.
The Vietnamese formed several political parties to push for independence or for reform of the French colonial government. One of the
leaders of the nationalist movement for almost 30 years was Nguyen
Tat Thanh—better known by his assumed name, Ho Chi Minh. At
the age of 21, Ho Chi Minh traveled to Europe where he lived in
London and then Paris. In 1919 he presented a petition for
Vietnamese independence at the Versailles Peace Conference, but the
peace treaty ignored the issue. Ho Chi Minh later visited the Soviet
Union where he became an advocate of communism. In 1930 he
returned to Southeast Asia, helped found the Indochinese
Communist Party, and worked to overthrow French rule.
Ho Chi Minh’s activities made him a wanted man. He fled
Indochina and spent several years in exile in the Soviet Union and
China. In 1941 he returned to Vietnam. By then, Japan had seized
control of the country. Ho Chi Minh organized a nationalist group
called the Vietminh. The group united both Communists and nonCommunists in the struggle to expel the Japanese forces. Soon afterward, the United States began sending aid to the Vietminh.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Critical
Thinking
D
Differentiated
Instruction
W
Writing
Support
S
Skill
Practice
Teacher Edition
Teacher Edition
Teacher Edition
Additional Resources
Teacher Edition
• Act. Prior Know., p. 655
• Making Connections,
p. 657
• Analyzing, p. 655
• Det. Cause and Effect,
p. 657
• Making Generalizations,
p. 658
• Contrasting, p. 660
• English Learners, p. 658
• Logical/Math., p. 660
• Naturalist, p. 661
• Content Vocab. Act.,
URB p. 91
• Academic Vocab. Act.,
URB p. 93
• Using Geo. Skills, p. 656
Additional Resources
• Prim. Source Read, URB
p. 99
• Guide Read Act., URB
p. 112
Additional Resources
• Crit. Think Skills, URB p. 96
• Quizzes and Tests, p. 267
• Interpret. Pol. Cartoons
Act., URB p. 105
Additional Resources
• Diff. Instruction Act.,
URB p. 87
• Foldables, p. 80
Additional Resources
• Read Essen., p. 200
• Hist. Analysis Skills Act.,
URB p. 86
• Time Line Act., URB
p. 97
Chapter 19 •
Why Did Vietnam Matter to the United States?
President Eisenhower
INDIAwarned that if
Vietnam fell to communism, the whole
Calcutta
region might fall,
like dominos. But why
would it matter if the region became
communist? This map shows why.
LAOS
M
Rangoon
Vientiane
0
400 kilometers
0
400 miles
Miller projection
Oil From Indonesia
Japan also depended on
imported oil. If Southeast Asia
fell to communism, oil supplies
might be cut off.
N
100°E
0°
D
O
N
20°N
C Critical Thinking
Analyzing Invite a volunteer to
10°N
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
Sarawak
Singapore EQUATOR
I
S
North
Borneo
Brunei
Kuala Lumpur
E
PAC IFIC
OC EAN
PHILIPPINES
South
C h in a
S ea
Saigon
Federation of
Malaya
INDIAN
OCEAN
90°E
Manila
SOUTH
CAMBODIA VIETNAM
Phnom Penh
Gulf of
Thailand
Strait of Malacca
Much of the world’s shipping
passes through this narrow strait.
If Vietnam became communist,
bombers would be in range to
threaten to block this strait.
80°E
Food for Japan
Japan was a key U.S. ally, helping
to contain communism in Asia.
Japan had to import food, and
South Vietnam was a major
supplier of rice for the region.
NORTH
VIETNAM
THAILAND
Bangkok
Malaysian Rubber and Tin
Malaysia produces large
amounts of tin and rubber
needed by Western industries.
If it fell to communism, the
supplies might be cut off.
W
Hong
Kong
g R.
on
ek
B a y of
B e ngal
FORMOSA
Hanoi
BURMA
Teach
N
CHINA
E
S
110°E
I
A
120°E
Section 1
1. Regions What two aspects of a
Communist Vietnam threatened the
economy of Japan?
2. Location What was the threat to
world shipping if Vietnam became a
Communist country?
read the quotation by Eisenhower.
Ask: What is the “flaw” in this
argument? (It is based on a
presupposition that nations act like
game pieces. Students should
question the validity of Eisenhower’s
reference to “the certainty that it
will go over very quickly.”) AL
R Reading Strategy
Activating Prior Knowledge
America Aids the French
When Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945,
it gave up control of Indochina. Ho Chi Minh
quickly declared Vietnam to be an independent
nation. France, however, had no intention of
allowing Vietnam to become independent.
Seeking to regain their colonial empire in
Southeast Asia, French troops returned to
Vietnam in 1946 and drove the Vietminh forces
into hiding in the countryside.
The Vietminh fought back against the Frenchdominated regime and slowly gained control of
large areas of the countryside. As the fighting
escalated, France appealed to the United States
for help. The request put American officials in a
difficult position. The United States opposed
colonialism. It had pressured the Dutch to give
up their empire in Indonesia and supported the
British decision to give India independence in
1947. In Vietnam, however, the independence
movement had become entangled with the
Communist movement. American officials did
not want France to control Vietnam, but they
also did not want Vietnam to be communist.
Two events convinced President Truman to
help France—the fall of China to communism
and the outbreak of the Korean War. The latter, in
particular, seemed to indicate that the Soviet
Union had begun a major push to impose communism on East Asia. Shortly after the Korean
War began, Truman authorized military aid to
French forces in Vietnam. President Eisenhower
continued Truman’s policy and defended his decision with what became known as the domino
theory—the idea that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow:
Ask: What previous experience
did Americans have with guerrilla warfare? (They had fought
Filipino guerillas.) OL
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCE
“You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock
over the first one, and what will happen to the last
one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly.
. . . Asia, after all, has already lost some 450 million
of its peoples to Communist dictatorship, and we
simply can’t afford greater losses.”
C
—President Eisenhower, quoted in America in Vietnam
Answers:
1. Japan depended on Vietnam
for food and a communist
Vietnam could threaten its oil
supply from Indonesia
2. Vietnam might control the
Straits of Malacca.
Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
Despite aid from the United States, the
French continued to struggle against the
Vietminh, who consistently frustrated the
French with hit-and-run and ambush tactics.
These are the tactics of guerrillas, irregular
troops who blend into the civilian population
and are difficult for regular armies to fight.
R
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 655
Hands-On
Chapter Project
Step 1
Create a Documentary of the
Vietnam War
Step 1: Determining the Theme
Essential question: What were the milestones in the Vietnam War?
Directions Write the essential question on
the board and explain to students that in
this first step, different groups will create
the basic storyline for a documentary of the
Vietnam War. For example, a documentary
could describe the battles of the war, the
U.S. presidents conducting the war, army
life, or life at home during the war.
Putting It Together Later, each group
should make a presentation to persuade
the others about the merits of their choice.
(Students could think about the arguments
and style a young filmmaker might use to
persuade potential backers about backing
his or her project.) OL
(Chapter Project continued on page 665)
655
Chapter 19 •
Section 1
Vietnam, 1959
S Skill Practice
CHINA
Dien
Bien Phu
Using Geography Skills Ask
NORTH
VIETNAM
Vientiane
Rangoon
N
S
Bangkok
▲ Mao Zedong, leader of
Communist China,
supported North Vietnam.
SOUTH
VIETNAM
South
China
Saigon
Sea
S
CAMBODIA
Gulf of Phnom
Penh
Thailand
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
10°N
1. Regions Why do you think Mao
supported North Vietnam?
2. Human-Environment
Interaction What difficulties
would North Vietnam face in sending
aid to the Vietcong?
0
400 kilometers
0
400 miles
Miller projection
100°E
110°E
The mounting casualties and the inability of
the French to defeat the Vietminh made the
war very unpopular in France. Finally, in 1954
the struggle reached a turning point when the
French commander ordered his forces to
occupy the mountain town of Dien Bien Phu.
Seizing the town would interfere with the
Vietminh’s supply lines and force them into
open battle. Soon afterward, a huge Vietminh
force surrounded Dien Bien Phu and began
bombarding the town. On May 7, 1954, the
French force at Dien Bien Phu fell to the
Vietminh. The defeat convinced the French to
make peace and withdraw from Indochina.
Answer: He sought independence for Vietnam.
Geneva Accords
Additional
Support
E
r
THAILAND
▲ Ho Chi Minh, Communist
leader of North Vietnam,
was determined to reunite
Vietnam and began arming
Vietcong guerrillas to seize
power in South Vietnam.
W
Rive
Answers:
1. For security reasons, it was
better for communist China
to have a communist
neighbor.
2. Shipping by sea would have
been difficult because of
American ships guarding the
South China Sea; shipping
overland through hundreds
of miles of jungle was timeconsuming and dangerous.
Hanoi
LAOS
g
on
ek
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
BURMA
20°N
M
students to calculate the distance
from Dien Bien Phu to Hanoi, the
North Vietnamese capital, and to
Saigon, which had been the
French capital. (about 200 miles to
Hanoi and 800 miles to Saigon) OL
Negotiations to end the conflict were held
in Geneva, Switzerland. The Geneva Accords
divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel, with
Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh in control of
North Vietnam and a pro-Western regime in
control of the South. In 1956 elections were to
be held to reunite the country under a single
government. The Geneva Accords also recog656
▲ Ngo Dinh Diem, South
Vietnam’s president,
accepted American aid
to fight the Vietcong.
nized Cambodia’s independence. Laos had
gained independence in the previous year.
Shortly after the Geneva Accords partitioned Vietnam, the French troops left. The
United States became the principal protector
of the new government in the South, led by a
nationalist leader named Ngo Dinh Diem
(NOH DIHN deh•EHM). Like Ho Chi Minh,
Diem had been educated abroad, but, unlike
the North Vietnamese leader, Diem was proWestern and fiercely anti-Communist. A
Catholic, he welcomed the roughly one million
North Vietnamese Catholics who migrated
south to escape Ho Chi Minh’s rule.
The elections mandated by the Geneva
Accords never took place. In a special referendum, Diem became president of the new
Republic of Vietnam in the South. He then
refused to permit the 1956 elections, fearing
Ho Chi Minh would win. Eisenhower approved
Diem’s actions and increased American aid to
South Vietnam.
Summarizing Why did Ho Chi
Minh lead a resistance movement against France?
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Extending the Content
Ngo Dinh Diem Diem’s ancestors had
converted to Catholicism. They were also a
noble family with connections to the imperial family. Frustrated at the French unwillingness to implement legislative reforms he
suggested, in 1933 Diem resigned his post
as Minister of the Interior.
In 1945 Diem was captured by forces of Ho
Chi Minh, who hoped he would join an
656
independent government in the north.
Diem refused, however, and lived outside
the country for most of the following
decade. He returned at the emperor’s
request to serve as prime minister in 1954;
the following year, after a governmentcontrolled referendum, Diem made himself
president and staffed his regime with family
members. Diem imprisoned and killed hun-
dreds of Buddhists, whom he accused of
aiding the Communists. This action in a land
primarily Buddhist cost him the support not
only of his own people but of the United
States.
America Becomes
Involved in Vietnam
MAIN Idea Political pressures in the United
States led the nation to become deeply involved in
the civil war in Vietnam.
HISTORY AND YOU Do you have a relative or family friend who fought in the Vietnam War? Read on
to find out why the United States got involved in
this complicated conflict.
After Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold national
elections and began to crack down on Communist groups in South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh
and the Communists began an armed struggle
to reunify the nation. They organized a new
guerrilla army of SouthVietnamese Communists,
which became known as the Vietcong. As
fighting began between the Vietcong and South
Vietnam’s forces, President Eisenhower sent
hundreds of military advisers to train South
Vietnam’s army.
Despite American assistance, the Vietcong
continued to grow more powerful because
many Vietnamese opposed Diem’s government. The Vietcong’s use of terror was also
effective. By 1961, the Vietcong had assassinated thousands of government officials and
established control over much of the countryside. In response Diem looked increasingly to
the United States for help.
Kennedy Takes Over
C
On taking office in 1961, President Kennedy
continued the nation’s policy of support for
South Vietnam. Like Presidents Truman and
Eisenhower before him, Kennedy saw the
Southeast Asian country as vitally important in
the battle against communism.
In political terms, Kennedy needed to
appear tough on communism, since Republicans often accused Democrats of having lost
China to communism during the Truman
administration. From 1961 to late 1963, the
number of American military personnel in
South Vietnam jumped from about 2,000 to
around 15,000.
American officials believed that the Vietcong
continued to grow because Diem’s government was unpopular and corrupt. They urged
him to create a more democratic government
and to introduce reforms to help Vietnam’s
peasants. Diem introduced some limited
reforms, but they had little effect.
One program Diem introduced, at the urging of American advisers, made the situation
worse. The South Vietnamese created special
fortified villages known as strategic hamlets.
These villages were protected by machine
guns, bunkers, trenches, and barbed wire.
Vietnamese officials then moved villagers to
the strategic hamlets. The program proved to
be extremely unpopular. Many peasants
resented being uprooted from their villages,
where they had worked to build farms and
where many of their ancestors lay buried.
Chapter 19 •
C Critical Thinking
C
The Overthrow of Diem
Diem made himself even more unpopular
by discriminating against Buddhism, one of
the country’s most widely practiced religions.
In the spring of 1963, Diem, a Catholic, banned
the traditional religious flags for Buddha’s
birthday. When Buddhists took to the streets
in protest, Diem’s police killed 9 people and
injured 14 others. In the demonstrations that
followed, a Buddhist monk poured gasoline
over his robes and set himself on fire, the first
of several Buddhists to do so. Images of their
self-destruction horrified Americans as they
watched the footage on television news reports.
These extreme acts of protest were a disturbing sign of the opposition to the Diem
regime.
In August 1963 American ambassador
Henry Cabot Lodge arrived in Vietnam. He
quickly learned that Diem’s unpopularity had
so alarmed several Vietnamese generals that
they were plotting to overthrow him. When
Lodge expressed American sympathy for their
cause, the generals launched a military coup.
They seized power on November 1, 1963, and
executed Diem shortly afterward.
Diem’s overthrow only made matters worse.
Despite his unpopularity with some Vietnamese, Diem had been a respected nationalist and a capable administrator. After his death,
South Vietnam’s government grew increasingly weak and unstable. The United States
became even more deeply involved in order to
prop it up. Coincidentally, three weeks after
Diem’s death, President Kennedy was assassinated. The presidency, as well as the growing
problem of Vietnam, now belonged to
Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
Section 1
R
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 657
Determining Cause and
Effect Invite students to create
graphic organizers showing the
cause-and-effect relationships in
the segment “Kennedy Takes
Over.” (Possible answers include:
Cause: Kennedy does not want to
appear soft on communism. Effect:
number of military personnel in
South Vietnam increases. Cause:
American officials believe the corruption and unpopularity of Diem’s
government increased Vietcong
growth. Effect: They were sympathetic to his overthrow. Cause:
Diem created strategic hamlets.
Effect: Program was unpopular
among the people.) OL
R Reading Strategy
Making Connections Remind
students that in the early 2000s
some nations, such as France,
banned young female Muslims
from wearing their traditional
head scarves to schools. In the
Netherlands, the government proposed banning female Muslims
from wearing a burka, a garment
that covers both the head and
body. Lead a discussion about the
rights of religious minorities and
majorities. OL
Additional
Support
Activity: Collaborative Learning
Model a Diplomatic Mission Divide the
class into small groups. Ask students to imagine
they are the diplomatic team given the task
of planning what ought to be done in South
Vietnam in 1961 to prevent the nation from
collapsing. Have students present their ideas
in panel discussion form or as a dialogue
between American and South Vietnamese
diplomats. OL
657
Chapter 19 •
Section 1
Johnson and Vietnam
D Differentiated
Instruction
D
English Learners Point out the
expression “the battle . . . must be
joined” in the quotation by
President Johnson. Explain to
students that in this case the term
joined does not refer to a putting
together of different parts. Rather,
it means that the battle must
begin. Remind students that every
language has its own idioms that
must simply be learned and not to
be discouraged by the oddities of
English. Encourage students to
share an example of an idiom in
their own language. ELL
For the text
of the Gulf
of Tonkin
Resolution see R57
in Documents in
American History.
C
C Critical Thinking
Making Generalizations
Point out the reference to
Johnson’s sensitivity to accusations of being soft on communism
and to Kennedy’s equal sensitivity,
discussed on page 657. Remind
students that these sensitivities
were related to earlier accusations
against Truman and to the
McCarthy era. Lead a discussion
on the question of how much the
decisions or mistakes of previous
administrations influence current
foreign or domestic policies. OL
Additional
Support
658
The United States Sends in Troops
Initially, President Johnson exercised caution and restraint regarding the conflict in
Vietnam. “We seek no wider war,” he repeatedly promised. At the same time, Johnson was
determined to prevent South Vietnam from
becoming communist.“The battle against communism,” he declared shortly before becoming
president, “must be joined . . . with strength
and determination.”
Politics also played a role in Johnson’s
Vietnam policy. Like Kennedy, Johnson
remembered that many Republicans blamed
the Truman administration for the fall of China
to communism in 1949. Should the Democrats
also “lose” Vietnam, Johnson feared, it might
cause a “mean and destructive debate that
would shatter my Presidency, kill my administration, and damage our democracy.”
Shortly after Congress passed the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, the Vietcong began to
attack bases where American advisers were
stationed in South Vietnam. The attacks began
in the fall of 1964 and continued to escalate.
After a Vietcong attack on a base at Pleiku in
February 1965 left eight Americans dead and
more than 100 wounded, President Johnson
decided to respond. Less than 14 hours after
the attack, American aircraft bombed North
Vietnam.
After the air strikes, one poll showed that
Johnson’s approval rating on his handling of
Vietnam jumped from 41 percent to 60 percent. Further, nearly 80 percent of Americans
agreed that without American assistance,
Southeast Asia would fall to the Communists.
An equivalent number believed that the United
States should send combat troops to Vietnam
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution On
August 2, 1964, President Johnson announced
that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired
on two American destroyers in the Gulf of
Tonkin. Two days later, the president reported
that another similar attack had taken place.
Johnson was campaigning for the presidency
and was very sensitive to accusations of being
soft on communism. He insisted that North
Vietnam’s attacks were unprovoked and immediately ordered American aircraft to attack
North Vietnamese ships and naval facilities.
Johnson did not reveal that the American warships had been helping the South Vietnamese
conduct electronic spying and commando raids
against North Vietnam.
Johnson then asked Congress for the
authority to defend American forces and
American allies in Southeast Asia. Congress
agreed to Johnson’s request with little debate.
Most members of Congress agreed with
Republican representative Ross Adair of
Indiana, who defiantly declared, “The American
flag has been fired upon. We will not and cannot tolerate such things.”
On August 7, 1964, the Senate and House
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,
authorizing the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against
the forces of the United States and to prevent
further aggression.” With only two dissenting
votes, Congress had, in effect, handed its war
powers over to the president.
Should America
Fight in Vietnam?
As the war in Vietnam dragged on,
Americans became increasingly divided
about the nation’s role in the conflict.
In January 1966, George W. Ball, undersecretary of state to President Johnson,
delivered an address to indicate “how
we got [into Vietnam] and why we
must stay.” George Kennan, a former
ambassador to the Soviet Union, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee in that same year, arguing
that American involvement in Vietnam
was “something we would not choose
deliberately if the choice were ours to
make all over again today.”
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Activity: Interdisciplinary Connection
Civics Invite students to find out who voted
against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and why
they voted against it. Students may decide to
extend their research to find out who were the
other members of Congress who voted against
going to war in previous and subsequent
658
clashes. Ask them to see if there is a common
thread among these dissenting voters. Suggest
they present their findings as a skit or news
interview with one of the dissenters. OL
to prevent that from happening. The president’s actions also met with strong approval
from his closest advisers, including Secretary
of Defense Robert McNamara and National
Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy.
Some officials disagreed, chief among them
Undersecretary of State George Ball, who initially supported involvement in Vietnam but
later turned against it. He warned that if the
United States got too involved, it would be difficult to get out. “Once on the tiger’s back,” he
warned, “we cannot be sure of picking the
place to dismount.”
Most of the advisers who surrounded
Johnson, however, firmly believed the nation
had a duty to halt communism in Vietnam,
both to maintain stability in Southeast Asia
and to ensure the United States’s continuing
power and prestige in the world. In a memo to
the president, Bundy argued:
Chapter 19 •
PRIMARY SOURCE
Section 1
“The stakes in Vietnam are extremely high. The
American investment is very large, and American
responsibility is a fact of life which is palpable in the
atmosphere of Asia, and even elsewhere. The international prestige of the U.S. and a substantial part of our
influence are directly at risk in Vietnam.”
—quoted in The Best and the Brightest
In March 1965, President Johnson expanded
American involvement by beginning a sustained bombing campaign against North
Vietnam code-named Operation Rolling
Thunder. That same month, the president also
ordered the first combat troops into Vietnam.
American soldiers would now fight alongside
South Vietnamese troops against the Vietcong.
Describing How did politics play
a role in President Johnson’s Vietnam policy?
YES
NO
George W. Ball
George F. Kennan
Undersecretary of State
Former Diplomat
PRIMARY SOURCE
PRIMARY SOURCE
“[T]he conflict in Viet-Nam is
a product of the great shifts
and changes triggered by the
Second World War. . . . [T]he
Soviet Union under Stalin exploited the confusion to push
out the perimeter of its power and influence in an effort to
extend the outer limits of Communist domination by force
or the threat of force. . . .
The bloody encounters in [Vietnam] . . . are thus in a
real sense battles and skirmishes in a continuing war to
prevent one Communist power after another from violating
internationally recognized boundary lines fixing the outer
limits of Communist dominion. . . .
In the long run our hopes for the people of South
Vietnam reflect our hopes for people everywhere. What we
seek is a world living in peace and freedom.”
“Vietnam is not a region of
major military-industrial
importance. . . . Even a situation in which South Vietnam
was controlled exclusively by the Vietcong, . . . would not
present in my opinion, dangers great enough to justify our
direct military intervention.
And to attempt to crush North Vietnamese strength to a
point where Hanoi could no longer give any support to
Vietcong political activity in the South would. . . have the
effect of bringing in Chinese forces at some point. . . .
Our motives are widely misinterpreted; and the spectacle
of Americans inflicting grievous injury on the lives of a poor
and helpless people. . . produces reactions among millions
of people throughout the world profoundly detrimental to
the image we would like them to hold of this country.”
—Speech delivered January 30, 1966
—Testimony before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, February 10, 1966
1. Summarizing Why does Ball believe that the United
States is justified in fighting in Vietnam?
2. Explaining What are the three main points of Kennan’s
argument?
3. Contrasting What is the fundamental difference between
the views of Ball and Kennan?
4. Evaluating With which position do you agree? Write a
paragraph to explain your choice.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 659
Answers:
1. Ball argues that the United
States wants to protect the
Vietnamese from communism. He also sees Vietnam as
part of the larger Cold War.
2. Vietnam is unimportant; if the
U.S. tried to crush North
Vietnam, the Chinese would
enter the conflict; the war is
giving the world a negative
view of the U.S.
3. Ball: Vietnam is strategically
important in the Cold War, it
is the duty of the U.S. to help
maintain its freedom; Kennan:
Vietnam is not important and
that the U.S. is losing good
will around the world over it.
4. Students’ paragraphs will vary.
Answer: Johnson thought his
presidency would be ruined and
democracy damaged if the
Democrats lost Vietnam.
Additional
Support
Extending the Content
The War in Vietnam One of the contentions of those who did not support the war
was that it was a civil war in which the
United States had no business intervening.
Others thought the conflict was one nation,
North Vietnam, conducting a war of aggression against another nation, South Vietnam.
In a White Paper issued in February 1965,
the State Department argued that Vietnam
was a new type of war, a covert war of
aggression intended to bring about a communist regime. It described the people of
South Vietnam as having courageously
resisted these efforts for years, which violated the Geneva Accords, the United
Nations Charter, and other international
agreements. Many felt that in coming to the
aid of South Vietnam, without a desire for
military bases or territory there, the United
States was acting as a friend to the people
of that nation.
659
Chapter 19 •
Section 1
A Bloody Stalemate
MAIN Idea The failure of United States forces to
defeat the Vietcong and the deaths of thousands of
American soldiers led many Americans to question
the nation’s involvement in Vietnam.
D Differentiated
Instruction
HISTORY AND YOU Have you ever heard people
Logical/Mathematical Ask
compare a contemporary military conflict to the
Vietnam War? Read on to find out why some people
fear becoming involved in a similar conflict today.
students to use the data on this
page and on page 657 to graph
the increase of American troops in
Vietnam from 1961 to 1966. Tell
them to use a bar graph or line
graph to chart their findings. BL
D
C Critical Thinking
Contrasting Invite a volunteer
to read the quotation by Linda
Martin. Ask: In what earlier wars
might American soldiers have
felt they were more certain and
safe? Why? (Students may say that
in previous wars the enemy was
readily recognizable and that conventional warfare felt safer than
guerrilla attacks.) OL
“Three quarters of the way through the tangle,
a trooper brushed against a two-inch vine, and a
grenade slung at chest high went off, shattering
the right side of his head and body. . . . Nearby
troopers took hold of the unconscious soldier and,
half carrying, half dragging him, pulled him the rest
of the way through the tangle.”
—quoted in Vietnam, A History
The Vietcong also frustrated American troops
by blending in with the general population and
then quickly vanishing. “It was a sheer physical
impossibility to keep the enemy from slipping
away whenever he wished,” explained one
American general. Journalist Linda Martin noted,
“It’s a war where nothing is ever quite certain
and nowhere is ever quite safe.”
CHINA
200 kilometers
0
Dien
Bien Phu
200 miles
Hanoi
Gulf of
Tonkin
Miller projection
20°N
N
Answers:
1. Laos, Cambodia
2. South Vietnam had a long
border with Cambodia and
Laos that passed through
jungle regions.
W
NORTH
VIETNAM
LAOS
E
Vientiane
Me
k
o
Con Thien
1967
Khe Sanh
1968
Hue 1968
ng
S
R.
February 8–March, 1971:
Invasion of Laos
HO
CAMBODIA
100°E
Major U.S. and
South Vietnamese
troop movement
Major North
Vietnamese
supply line
Major battle
Phnom
Penh
South
China
Sea
Vinh Huy 1967
IL
I MINH T RA
CH
THAILAND
May 1–June 29, 1970:
Invasion of Cambodia
Additional
Support
PRIMARY SOURCE
The Vietnam War, 1965–1973
0
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
By the end of 1965, more than 180,000
American combat troops were fighting in
Vietnam. In 1966 that number doubled. Since
the American military was extremely strong, it
marched into Vietnam with great confidence.
“America seemed omnipotent then,” wrote
Philip Caputo, one of the first marines to arrive.
“We saw ourselves as the champions of a
‘cause that was destined to triumph.’”
Lacking the firepower of the Americans, the
Vietcong used ambushes, booby traps, and
other guerrilla tactics. Ronald J. Glasser, an
American army doctor, described the devastating effects of one booby trap:
Dak To 1967
Cu Nghi
1966
Ia Drang
1965
SOUTH
VIETNAM
Saigon
▲ Although helicopters
helped American troops
cope with Vietnam’s jungles
and mountains, napalm
bombs (right) were also used
to counter the thick foliage.
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
1. Places What countries were
invaded during the Vietnam War?
2. Movement Why was it difficult to
seal South Vietnam’s border?
10°N
110°E
660
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Extending the Content
Robert McNamara Robert McNamara’s
training was in business, with an interest in efficiency. He further developed that interest during World War II, serving in the Air Force’s
Statistical Control Office, and at the Ford Motor
Company, where he became the first nonfamily
member to rise to the presidency of the company. Tapped as Secretary of Defense by John
Kennedy, McNamara wanted to streamline both
the Defense Department’s bureaucracy and its
660
defense force. An architect of military strategy,
he became disillusioned with the progress of
the war and resigned in 1968, going on to
become president of the World Bank. A 1996
memoir reveals the mistakes McNamara perceives were made in Vietnam.
C
“Search and Destroy”
D
To counter the Vietcong’s tactics, American troops went on
“search and destroy” missions. They tried to find enemy troops,
bomb their positions, destroy their supply lines, and force them
out into the open for combat.
The Vietcong evaded American forces by hiding out in the thick
jungle or escaping through tunnels dug in the earth. To take away
the Vietcong’s ability to hide, American forces literally destroyed
the landscape. American planes dropped napalm, a jellied gasoline that explodes on contact. They also used Agent Orange, a
chemical that strips leaves from trees and shrubs, turning farmland and forest into wasteland. For those South Vietnamese still
living in the countryside, danger lay on all sides.
United States military leaders underestimated the Vietcong’s
strength. They also misjudged the enemy’s stamina and the support they had among the South Vietnamese. American generals
believed that continuously bombing and killing large numbers of
Vietcong would destroy the enemy’s morale and force them to give
up. The guerrillas, however, had no intention of surrendering, and
they were willing to accept huge losses to achieve their goals.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
In the Vietcong’s war effort, North Vietnamese support was a
major factor. Although the Vietcong forces were made up of
many South Vietnamese, North Vietnam provided arms, advisers, and leadership. As Vietcong casualties mounted, North
Vietnam began sending North Vietnamese Army units to fight.
North Vietnam sent arms and supplies south by way of a network
of jungle paths known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. The trail wound
through the countries of Cambodia and Laos, bypassing the border
between North and South Vietnam. Because the trail passed through
countries not directly involved in the war, President Johnson refused
to allow a full-scale attack on the trail to shut it down.
North Vietnam itself received military weapons and other support
from the Soviet Union and China. One of the main reasons President
Johnson refused to order a full-scale invasion of North Vietnam was
his fear that such an attack would bring China into the war, as had
happened in Korea. By placing limits on the war, however, Johnson
made it very difficult to win. Instead of conquering enemy territory,
American troops were forced to fight a war of attrition—a strategy of
defeating the enemy forces by wearing them down. This strategy led
troops to conduct grisly body counts after battles to determine how
many enemy soldiers had been killed. The U.S. military began measuring “progress” in the war by the number of enemy dead.
Bombing from American planes killed as many as 220,000
Vietnamese between 1965 and 1967. By the end of 1966, more
than 6,700 American soldiers had been killed. The notion of a
quick and decisive victory grew increasingly remote. As a result,
many citizens back home began to question the nation’s involvement in the war.
Describing What tactics did the United States adopt
to fight the Vietcong?
Section 1 REVIEW
Vocabulary
1. Explain the significance of: Ho Chi Minh,
domino theory, guerrilla, Dien Bien Phu,
Geneva Accords, Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietcong,
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, napalm, Agent
Orange, Ho Chi Minh trail.
Main Ideas
2. Explaining What convinced the French
to pull out of Vietnam?
3. Determining Cause and Effect What
was the result of the overthrow of Diem in
Vietnam?
Chapter 19 •
Section 1
D Differentiated
Instruction
Naturalist Invite interested
students to find out more about
the effects of napalm and Agent
Orange on both Vietnam and
American soldiers. Have them
present their findings to the class
using visual aids. AL
Assess
4. Analyzing Why did fighting in Vietnam
turn into a stalemate by the mid-1960s?
Critical Thinking
5. Big Ideas How did American Cold War
politics lead to the United States fighting
a war in Vietnam?
6. Sequencing Use a graphic organizer
similar to the one below to sequence
events that led to U.S. involvement in
Vietnam.
August 1963
August 7, 1964
November 1,
1963
August 2, 1964
February
1965
March 1965
Study Central™ provides summaries, interactive games, and
online graphic organizers to help
students review content.
Close
Summarizing Ask: How did
7. Analyzing Visuals Study the map on
page 655. Why is China’s location significant in relation to the Cold War struggles
in Southeast Asia?
Writing About History
8. Persuasive Writing Suppose you are a
member of Congress in August 1964.
Write a statement supporting or opposing
the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Study Central™ To review this section, go
to glencoe.com and click on Study Central.
America become involved in
Vietnam? (Presidents committed
advisers and troops gradually, hoping to prevent the spread of
communism.) OL
Answer: search and destroy
missions, bombing, the use of
napalm and Agent Orange
Section 1
REVIEW
661
Answers
1. All definitions can be found in the section
and the Glossary.
2. The French troops were unable to defeat
the Vietminh guerrillas, and casualties made
the war increasingly unpopular with the
French people. When the French lost Dien
Bien Phu to the Vietminh, they decided to
make peace and withdraw from Indochina.
3. Diem’s overthrow made the situation in
South Vietnam more unstable. The U. S.
then had to use more resources to keep the
government in power.
4. The Vietcong showed no signs of surrendering, and Johnson refused to order a fullscale invasion for fear of involving China in
the conflict.
5. As Democrats, both Kennedy and Johnson
were concerned about being accused by
Republicans of losing Vietnam to
Communists. This made them express their
clear belief in the Cold War domino theory,
and to dedicate more and more forces to
efforts against the Vietnamese Communists.
6. August 1963: Henry Cabot Lodge arrives in
Vietnam; November 1, 1963: Diem is overthrown; August 2, 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident; August 7, 1964: Gulf of Tonkin
resolution; February 1965: attack on Pleiku
base; March 1965: Johnson expands bombing campaign
7. China borders North Vietnam, Laos, and
Burma, which all seemed vulnerable to
Communist influence.
8. Students’ statements should express a clear
and reasoned point of view.
661
Focus
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
Making Inferences Ask: What
advantages did the North
Vietnamese have in following
the natural physical features of
the trail? (They didn’t have to build
bridges or roads; the tunnels and forest cover helped to hide them.) OL
20°N
Me
ko
South
China
Sea
AIL
INH TR
IM
CH
C Critical Thinking
Vientiane
How Did Geography Influence
the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
C
CHINA
LAOS
HO
Teach
Gulf of
Tonkin
R.
North and South Vietnam were long narrow
countries. As a result, the border between them
was very narrow and easy to defend. In order to
send supplies and troops to the south, the North
Vietnamese had to find a way around the border. They achieved this by crossing (illegally) into
Laos and Cambodia, two neutral nations to the
west, then heading south bypassing South
Vietnam’s northern border. The mountains and
rain forests of the region provided cover for people using the trails and roads that ran south. The
Americans referred to the elaborate network of
roads, trails, forest paths, bridges, tunnels, and
shelters as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Hanoi
NORTH
VIETNAM
ng
Explain that American pilots could
see war supplies, military equipment, and weapons being moved
on railroad trains in North
Vietnam. For fear of escalating the
war, however, Navy and Air Force
strikes were rare in North Vietnam.
Only after the shipments were
divided into small loads moving
south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
were bombers allowed to strike.
THAILAND
15°N
CAMBODIA
SOUTH
VIETNAM
N
W
E
The Ho Chi Minh Trail followed the topograS
phy—or natural physical features—of the
region. When viewed from aircraft, the trail
Gulf of
often disappeared and blended into the surThailand
rounding countryside, making it very difficult to
attack. Furthermore, it provided access to multiple points along South Vietnam’s long western
border, which was much harder for American
and South Vietnamese troops to defend. By
1967, an estimated 20,000 Vietnamese soldiers traveled
the route each month. The American military tried to disrupt the flow of people and goods, but this proved very
difficult to do. By the end of the war, the Ho Chi Minh Trail
stretched some 12,000 miles (19,312 km) through the
canopied rain forests.
Phnom
Penh
Saigon
10°N
0
200 kilometers
0
105°E
Miller projection
200 miles
110°E
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
1. Movement What diplomatic and international
problems were caused by the route of the Ho Chi
Minh Trail?
2. Human-Environment Interaction What kinds of
challenges did the geography of Southeast Asia pose
for fighting a war?
Additional
Support
662 Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
photo credit
Extending the Content
The Ho Chi Minh Trail The route that
Americans dubbed the Ho Chi Minh Trail was an
elaborate patchwork of jungle paths, bridges,
and shelters which began in North Vietnam and
extended through southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia into South Vietnam. Much of this
“trail” existed long before the Vietnam War. Over
centuries, the people who lived in this jungle
region had carved out the paths as they hunted
tigers, elephants, and other prey. In addition the
662
paths had long been used by caravans of traders
who traveled through Southeast Asia.
During the Vietnam War, this web of paths carried soldiers and military supplies from North
Vietnam into South Vietnam. In following the
trail as it snaked through the rain forests of
Southeast Asia, travelers endured leeches, mosquitoes, and attacks by wild animals (in addition
to the dangers posed by human enemies).
C Critical Thinking
Predicting Consequences
Ask students to predict what the
effect of napalm and Agent
Orange would be on the landscape and economy of Vietnam.
(Students may say that the land
would be spoiled through the fires
and chemicals used, and would
probably not be able to be cultivated for some time.) OL
▲ In an effort to close the trail and ambush
enemy troops using it, American troops set up
“firebases” on hilltops overlooking part of the
trail. Helicopters helped American troops
overcome the region’s difficult terrain. They
could quickly move men and supplies over the
rain forest.
Assess/Close
American aircraft tried to
destroy troops and vehicles on
the trail by dropping bombs,
including napalm—a jellied
gasoline that would catch fire
and burn a wide area.
▲ The Vietnamese moved goods along the trail
in many ways. Most porters carried goods on
U08-04P
T.K goods to bicycles.
their back; others
strapped
Trucks carried supplies and people on wider parts
of the trail.
Analyzing GEOGRAPHY
Answers:
1. The Ho Chi Minh Trail went
through countries that were
supposed to be neutral.
2. Vietnam was a land of mountains and of dense rain forests, which were difficult to
penetrate and to see into.
To deprive the enemy of cover,
American aircraft sprayed areas
near the trail with defoliants that
killed all plant life, leaving a barren area. The most famous chemical used was Agent Orange.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
663
Additional
Support
Activity: Economics Connection
Defending the Border The United States
shares a border with Mexico to the south.
Because this border stretches for 1,900 miles, it
is difficult to prevent people and goods from
coming illegally into the United States. This flow
of people and goods has an enormous effect on
the American economy, both in Mexico and in
the United States. Have students use library or
Internet resources to investigate both the cost
of defending the border and the contributions
made by people coming from Mexico to work in
the United States. Hold a panel discussion focusing on the economic effects of this exchange.
OL
663
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
Section 2
Focus
Guide to Reading
Daily Focus Transparency 19-2
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
UNIT
6
DAILY FOCUS SKILLS
TRANSPARENCY 19-2
ANSWER: H
Teacher Tip: Remind students to compare the
percentages given in the diagram.
Comparing and Contrasting
GOVERNMENT’S CREDIBILITY GAP
PUBLIC SUPPORT
OF THE WAR
PRESIDENTIAL
APPROVAL RATINGS
Directions: Answer the following
question based on the diagram.
What happened to public
support of the Vietnam War
and approval ratings of
President Johnson between
1965 and 1968?
F Both public support and the
G Public support of the war
1965
60%
Approval
decreased, but the president’s
approval ratings increased.
H Both public support and the
president’s approval ratings
decreased sharply.
1968
26%
Approved
1968
35%
Approval
Big Ideas
Group Action Many Americans
protested to end their country’s
involvement in the Vietnam War.
Content Vocabulary
• credibility gap (p. 664)
• teach-in (p. 665)
• dove (p. 667)
• hawk (p. 667)
president’s approval ratings
increased sharply.
1965
66%
Approved
J Public support of the war
increased, but the president’s
approval ratings decreased.
Guide to Reading
Answers: credibility gap, unfair
draft system, immorality of
defending a corrupt dictatorship
in South Vietnam, belief that it
was a civil war that was not the
business of the United States
HISTORY AND YOU Do you know people who did not support the war
Reading Strategy
Organizing Complete a graphic
organizer similar to the one below to
list the reasons for opposition to the
Vietnam War.
Reasons for
Opposition to
Vietnam War
Resource Manager
Reading
Strategies
C
s casualties mounted in Vietnam, many Americans
began to protest against the war. Discouraged by
domestic conflict over the war, rising violence, and the
apparent lack of progress in Vietnam, President Johnson
announced he would not seek another term as president.
MAIN Idea The Vietnam War produced sharp divisions between
Americans who supported the war and those who did not, and the resulting
political turmoil led President Johnson to decide not to run again for
president.
People and Events to Identify
• William Westmoreland (p. 664)
• Tet Offensive (p. 667)
664
A
An Antiwar Movement Emerges
Academic Vocabulary
• media (p. 664)
• disproportionate (p. 665)
To generate student interest and
provide a springboard for class
discussion, access the Chapter 19,
Section 2 video at glencoe.com or
on the video DVD.
R
Spotlight Video
Vietnam Divides the Nation
Bellringer
Chapter 19
Section Audio
in Iraq and those who did? Read on to find out how differences over the
Vietnam War began to divide the country.
When American troops first entered the Vietnam War in the
spring of 1965, many Americans supported the military effort. A
Gallup poll published soon afterward showed that 66 percent of
Americans approved of the policy in Vietnam. As the war dragged
on, however, public support began to drop. Suspicion of the government’s truthfulness about the war was a significant reason. Throughout the early years of the war, the American commander in South
Vietnam, General William Westmoreland, reported that the enemy
was on the brink of defeat. In 1967 he confidently declared that the
“enemy’s hopes are bankrupt” and added, “we have reached an
important point where the end begins to come into view.”
Contradicting such reports were less optimistic media accounts,
especially on television. Vietnam was the first “television war,” with
footage of combat appearing nightly on the evening news. Day after
day, millions of people saw images of wounded and dead Americans
and began to doubt government reports. In the opinion of many
people, a credibility gap had developed, meaning it was hard to
believe what the Johnson administration said about the war.
Congress, which had given the president a nearly free hand in
Vietnam, soon grew uncertain about the war. Beginning in February
1966 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held “educational”
hearings on Vietnam, calling in Secretary of State Dean Rusk and
other policy makers to explain the administration’s military strategy.
The committee also listened to critics, such as American diplomat
George Kennan. Although Kennan had helped to create the policy
of containment, he argued that Vietnam was not strategically important to the United States.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Critical
Thinking
D
Differentiated
Instruction
W
Writing
Support
S
Skill
Practice
Teacher Edition
Additional Resources
Teacher Edition
Teacher Edition
Additional Resources
• Using Word Parts,
p. 665
• Read. Prim. Sources,
p. 666
• Making Connections,
p. 666
• Quizzes and Tests,
p. 268
• Verbal/Ling., p. 667
• Adv. Learners, p. 669
• Expository Writing,
p. 667
• Read Skills Act., URB
p. 85
• Read. Essen., p. 203
Additional Resources
• Guide Read Act., URB
p. 113
Additional Resources
• Inter. Pol. Cartoons, URB
pp. 105–106
• Eng. Learner Act., URB
p. 89
• Am. Art and Music Act.,
URB p. 103
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
Teach
R Reading Strategy
▲
(l)Library of Congress/Tom Francis Darcy, Newsday/Reprinted with permission from LA Times Reprints; (r)Atlanta Constitution, Oct 18, 1965, Clifford H. “Baldy” Baldowski Editorial Cartoons. Courtesy of the Richard B. Russell Library for
Should America Stay in Vietnam?
Ho Chi Minh
sends a telegram
praising antiwar
protesters.
Analyzing VISUALS
1. Finding the Main Idea What is the main message of the cartoon on the left?
2. Making Inferences The cartoon on the right was
drawn before the one on the left. Do you think that
differences between the two indicate a change in
attitude toward antiwar protests? Explain.
▲ An axe labeled “Vietnam Issue” splits the
nation in two.
Teach-ins Begin
In March 1965, a group of faculty members
and students at the University of Michigan
joined together in a teach-in. They discussed
the issues surrounding the war and reaffirmed
their reasons for opposing it. In May 1965, 122
colleges held a “National Teach-In” by radio for
more than 100,000 antiwar demonstrators.
People who opposed the war did so for different reasons. Some saw the conflict as a civil
war in which the United States had no business interfering. Others viewed South Vietnam
as a corrupt dictatorship and believed that
defending it was immoral and unjust.
Anger at the Draft
Young protesters especially focused on what
they saw as an unfair draft system. Until 1969,
a college student was often able to defer military service until after graduation. By contrast,
young people from working-class families were
more likely to be drafted and sent to Vietnam
because they were unable to afford college.
Draftees in the military were most likely to be
assigned to dangerous combat units. In 1969
draftees made up 62 percent of battle deaths.
The majority of soldiers who served in Vietnam, however, were volunteer enlistees. Holding out the military as an avenue to vocational
training and upward social mobility, military
recruiters encouraged youth in poor and
working-class communities to enlist. Thus, a
disproportionate number of working-class
youths, many of them minorities, were among
the volunteers who served in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War coincided with the high
tide of the civil rights movement, so the treatment of African American soldiers came under
scrutiny. Between 1961 and 1966, African Americans constituted about 10 percent of military
personnel while African Americans comprised
about 13 percent of the total population of the
United States. Because African Americans were
more likely to be assigned to combat units,
however, they accounted for almost 20 percent
of combat-related deaths.
This unequal death rate angered African
American leaders. In April 1967 Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. publicly condemned the
conflict:
Using Word Parts Tell students
that taking apart a long word,
such as disproportionate, may help
them reach the word’s meaning.
By removing the prefix and suffix,
they can see the word proportion.
Recalling that dis- means “not” will
help them define the word. BL
Analyzing VISUALS
Answers:
1. the differing opinions on
Vietnam issues threatens to
split the nation
2. The cartoon on the right is
openly critical of draft card
burners, while the one on the
left sees the war as dividing
all Americans.
R
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 665
Hands-On
Chapter Project
Step 2
Create a Documentary of the
Vietnam War
Step 2: Planning the Video Essential
question: What were the key developments in the chosen story and what were
the historical results?
Directions Students should use their textbook and other research to outline the basic
issue and the chronology. A second team
could concentrate on thinking visually. This
team would have to collaborate closely with
the first and research photos in magazines
and newspapers or video clips of the
period.
Putting It Together When the teams
meet, they can decide on the “storyboards”
for the video—sketches representing each
shot in the 10 scenes (or whatever number
seems appropriate) so that the topic is covered from beginning to end. OL
(Chapter Project continued on page 671)
665
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
PRIMARY SOURCE
“I speak for the poor of America who are paying
the double price of smashed hopes at home and
R1 death and corruption in Vietnam. . . . The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop
it must be ours.”
R1 Reading Strategies
Reading Primary Sources
—quoted in A Testament of Hope
Invite a volunteer to read Dr.
King’s words. Ask: According to
Dr. King, who is really paying the
cost of the war in Vietnam? (the
poor of both the United States and
Vietnam) BL
In response, military officials tried to lower
the number of African American casualties. At
war’s end, African Americans made up about
12 percent of America’s dead, roughly the same
as their national population percentage.
As the war escalated, an increased draft call
put many college students at risk. An estimated
500,000 draftees refused to go. Some burned
R2 their draft cards, or did not show up for induction, or fled the country. Between 1965 and
1968, officials prosecuted over 3,300 Americans
who refused to serve in a war they opposed. In
1969 the government introduced a lottery
system in which only those with low lottery
numbers were subject to the draft.
Anger against the war was not confined to
college campuses. Demonstrators held large
R2 Reading Strategies
Making Connections Military
recruiters are occasionally visitors
to high school campuses. Discuss
with students their perceptions of
whether this practice should be
allowed and whether reinstating
the draft would be a good
idea. OL
and small protests against the war in towns
across the country. In April 1965 Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS), a left-wing student
organization, organized a march on Washington, D.C., that drew over 20,000 people. Two
years later, in October 1967, a rally at the
Lincoln Memorial drew tens of thousands of
protesters as well. When a group of Iowa
public school students protested the war by
wearing black armbands to school, school
district administrators suspended them to
maintain “the disciplined atmosphere of the
classroom.” The Supreme Court decision for
the case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), supported the
students’ actions, saying that the armbands
were a form of symbolic speech, and therefore
protected by the First Amendment.
Anger over the draft also fueled discussions
about the voting age. Many draftees argued
that if they were old enough to fight, they were
old enough to vote. In 1971 the Twenty-sixth
Amendment to the Constitution was ratified,
giving all citizens age 18 and older the right to
vote in all state and federal elections.
A Divided Nation
▲
▲ The war split the nation.
Above, construction workers
march in New York City in
support of the war effort.
Antiwar demonstrators
burn their draft cards in front
of the Pentagon in 1972.
▲ An antiwar protest in
New York City in 1969
Additional
Support
666
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Activity: Collaborative Learning
Investigate Younger Voters Divide the
class into small groups. Ask each group to conduct interviews with at least six people between
the ages of 18 and 25, three who voted in the
last presidential election and three who did not.
Have students summarize the participants’
answers to questions about why they did or did
666
not vote. Have them also look at and evaluate
the work of organizations such as Rock the Vote
that attempt to make voting popular among
younger people. Have them present their findings to the class as a panel discussion about the
question “Have young people effectively used
the right to vote?” OL
Hawks and Doves
1968: The Pivotal Year
In the face of growing opposition to the war,
President Johnson remained determined to
continue fighting. He assailed his critics in
Congress as “selfish men who want to advance
their own interests.” He dismissed the college
protesters as too naive to appreciate the importance of resisting communism.
The president was not alone in his views.
In a poll taken in early 1968, 53 percent of
the respondents favored stronger military
action in Vietnam, compared to 24 percent who
wanted an end to the war. Of those Americans
who supported the policy in Vietnam, many
openly criticized the protesters for a lack of
patriotism.
By 1968 the nation seemed to be divided
into two camps. Those who wanted the United
States to withdraw from Vietnam were known
as doves. Those who insisted that the country
stay and fight came to be known as hawks. As
the two groups debated, the war appeared to
take a dramatic turn for the worse, and the
nation endured a year of shock and crisis.
Explaining What led to the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment?
70
First
U.S. troops
in Vietnam
60
50
Tet
offensive
Ceasefire signed
40
First
withdrawal
of U.S. troops
30
20
6
7
19
68
19
69
19
70
19
71
19
72
19
73
19
6
19
6
5
10
19
6
Percentage of People
Against U.S. Involvement
Opposition to the Vietnam War
Year
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Analyzing VISUALS
1. Interpreting During which two years was
opposition to the war lowest? What event
occurred around that time?
2. Synthesizing In what year did opposition
to the war peak? How was this sentiment
logically related to the withdrawal of
American troops?
MAIN Idea The Tet Offensive increased doubt
that the United States could win in Vietnam.
HISTORY AND YOU Have you ever participated in
a public-opinion poll? Read how Johnson’s plummeting approval rating made him decide not to run
for re-election in 1968.
The most turbulent year of the chaotic 1960s
was 1968. The year saw a shocking political
announcement, two traumatic assassinations,
and a political convention held amid strident
anti-war demonstrations. First, however, the
nation endured a surprise attack in Vietnam.
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
D Differentiated
Instruction
Verbal/Linguistic Invite students to hold a debate on the role
of protest in a democratic society.
Ask them to consider the question
of whether the answer changes if
that nation is at war. OL
The Tet Offensive
W Writing Support
On January 30, 1968, during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, the Vietcong and North
Vietnamese launched a massive surprise attack.
In this Tet Offensive, guerrilla fighters
D
attacked most American airbases in South
Vietnam and most of the South’s major cities.
Vietcong even blasted their way into the American embassy in Saigon.
Militarily, Tet was a disaster for the Vietcong.
After about a month of fighting, the American
and South Vietnamese soldiers repelled the
enemy troops, inflicting heavy losses on them.
President Johnson triumphantly noted that the
enemy’s effort had ended in “complete failure.”
Later, historians confirmed that Tet nearly
destroyed the Vietcong.
The North Vietnamese, however, had scored
a major political victory. The American people
were shocked that an enemy supposedly on
the verge of defeat could launch such a largescale attack. When General Westmoreland
requested 209,000 troops in addition to the
500,000 already in Vietnam, he seemed to be
admitting the United States could not win.
To make matters worse, the media, which
had tried to remain balanced in their war
coverage, now openly criticized the effort.
“The American people should be getting ready
to accept, if they haven’t already, the prospect
that the whole Vietnam effort may be doomed,” W
declared the Wall Street Journal. Television
newscaster Walter Cronkite announced that it
seemed “more certain than ever that the
bloody experience in Vietnam is to end in a
stalemate.”
Expository Writing Ask students to write brief essays explaining the role of the media in telling
unpleasant truths. Have them cite
specific examples to support their
views. OL
Answer: Protests concerning
the draft led to discussion about
the fact that draft-age citizens
did not at that time have the
right to vote.
Analyzing VISUALS
Answers:
1. 1965, 1966; first U.S. troops
arrive
2. 1971; the government did not
believe the war could be won.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 667
Extending the Content
Walter Cronkite By the time of the
Vietnam War, veteran journalist Walter
Cronkite had plenty of experience with war.
He had gone ashore with the troops on DDay and covered the Nuremberg trials as a
United Press reporter. In 1950 he joined
CBS, becoming news anchor in 1962 and
retiring from that position in 1981.
Initially Cronkite was a hawk, and he went
to Vietnam after the Tet Offensive. After that
trip, he addressed his audience with a
changed attitude about the war. In his television broadcast, Cronkite said, “It seems
now more certain than ever that the bloody
experience of Vietnam is a stalemate.”
President Lyndon Johnson listened to
Cronkite’s verdict as did the rest of the
nation. According to one of Johnson’s aides,
the president said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve
lost Middle America.”
As media analysts have observed, Cronkite’s
influence was substantial for two reasons.
First, most Americans believed that he was
objective, trustworthy, and patriotic.
Second, Cronkite worked during an era
when the vast majority of Americans regularly tuned in to one of the three major
networks.
667
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
1968: A Year of Turmoil
In 1972 during his second
run for the presidency, this
time as a Democratic Party
candidate, Governor Wallace
was the victim of an assassination attempt. Although he
survived the attack, Wallace
was paralyzed in both legs.
He stopped his campaign
for the presidency but continued to govern Alabama
until 1979 and again was
elected governor from 1983
until 1987.
Analyzing
Presidential
Election of 1968
The election year 1968 was tumultuous. The country was divided
over Vietnam. President Johnson chose not to run again. Protesters
fought with police at the Democratic National Convention. Race
riots erupted in several American cities and both Martin Luther
King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy were killed.
Nixon
WA
9
OR
6
ID
4
NV
3
CA
40
UT
4
NH
VT 4 ME
4
3
MA
MN
14
10
NY
WI
SD
43
RI
12
4
MI
4
21
PA
IA
NJ CT
NE
29
9
8
17
OH
5
26
IL IN
DE
WV VA
26 13
MD 3
7 12
KS
10
MO
KY
7
12
9
DC
NC
3
TN
13
OK
11
AR
SC
8
6
8
GA
MS AL
12
12
7
TX
LA
25
10
FL
14
ND
4
WY
3
AZ
5
CO
6
NM
4
AK
3
HI
4
Presidential
Candidate
Popular
Votes
31,710,470
Nixon
Humphrey 30,898,055
9,906,473
Wallace
% of
Popular
Vote
Electoral
Votes
43.60%
42.48%
13.62%
301
191
46
Analyzing VISUALS
VISUALS
▲ Robert Kennedy campaigns for the Democratic nomination (top left) in January 1968.
Soon afterward, George Wallace (left)
entered the race as an independent. Above,
police confront protestors at the Democratic
National Convention in August 1968.
Answers:
1. the South
2. Students may say that voters
who would have supported
Wallace would be unlikely to
vote for Humphrey, thus
giving Nixon an even bigger
victory.
1. Regions In what area of the country did George
Wallace receive the most votes?
2. Regions Do you think Richard Nixon would have
won if Wallace had not been in the race?
Public opinion no longer favored the president. In the weeks following the Tet Offensive,
the president’s approval rating plummeted to a
dismal 35 percent, while support for his handling of the war fell even lower, to 26 percent.
The administration’s credibility gap now
seemed too wide to repair.
Johnson Leaves the Race
Additional
Support
MT
4
Humphrey
With the war growing increasingly unpopular and Johnson’s credibility all but gone, some
Democrats began looking for an alternative
candidate to nominate for president in 1968. In
November 1967, even before the Tet disaster, a
little-known liberal senator from Minnesota,
Eugene McCarthy, became the first dove to
declare he would challenge Johnson for the
668
Democratic presidential nomination. In March
1968 McCarthy stunned the nation by winning
more than 40 percent of the votes in the New
Hampshire primary. Realizing that Johnson
was vulnerable, Senator Robert Kennedy, who
also opposed the war, quickly entered the race
for the Democratic nomination.
With both the country and his own party
deeply divided, Johnson addressed the public
on television on March 31, 1968. He stunned
viewers by announcing,“I have concluded that
I should not permit the presidency to become
involved in the partisan divisions that are
developing in this political year. Accordingly, I
shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your
President.”
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Activity: Economics Connection
The Cost of War Lyndon Johnson challenged
Congress to fund both “guns and butter” programs, but Congress refused, rendering some of
Johnson’s Great Society programs all but useless. Have students use the Internet to find out
what modern wars cost per day and on what
668
items the money is spent. Suggest that they do
a comparative study of the costs of the wars in
Vietnam and in Iraq. OL
A Season of Violence
Following Johnson’s announcement, the nation endured even
more shocking events. In April, James Earl Ray was arrested for
killing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Just two months later, another
assassination rocked the country—that of Robert Kennedy. Kennedy, who appeared to be on his way to winning the Democratic
nomination, was gunned down on June 5. The assassin was
Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab nationalist angry over the candidate’s
pro-Israeli remarks a few nights before.
The violence that seemed to plague the country in 1968 culminated with a chaotic and well-publicized clash between antiwar
protesters and police at the Democratic National Convention in
Chicago. Thousands of protesters surrounded the convention center, demanding that the Democrats adopt an antiwar platform.
Despite the protests, the delegates chose Hubert Humphrey,
President Johnson’s vice president, as their presidential nominee.
Meanwhile, in a park not far from the convention hall, the protesters and police began fighting. As officers tried to disperse
demonstrators with tear gas and billy clubs, demonstrators
taunted the authorities with the chant, “The whole world is
watching!” A subsequent federal investigation of the incident
described the event as a “police riot.”
Nixon Wins the Presidency
D
The violence and chaos now associated with the Democratic
Party benefited the 1968 Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon. Although defeated by John Kennedy in the 1960 election, Nixon had remained active in national politics. A third
candidate, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, decided to run
in 1968 as an independent. Wallace, an outspoken segregationist,
sought to attract Americans who felt threatened by the civil rights
movement and urban social unrest.
Public opinion polls gave Nixon a wide lead over Humphrey
and Wallace. Nixon’s campaign promise to unify the nation and
restore law and order appealed to Americans who feared their
country was spinning out of control. Nixon also declared that he
had a plan for ending the war in Vietnam.
At first Humphrey’s support of President Johnson’s Vietnam
policies hurt his campaign. After Humphrey broke with the president and called for a complete end to the bombing of North Vietnam, he began to move up in the polls. A week before the election,
President Johnson helped Humphrey by announcing that the
bombing had halted and that a cease-fire would follow.
Johnson’s announcement had come too late, however. In the
end, Nixon’s promises to end the war and restore order at home
were enough to sway the American people. On Election Day, Nixon
defeated Humphrey by more than 100 electoral votes, although he
won the popular vote by a slim margin of 43 percent to 42 percent.
Wallace partially accounted for the razor-thin margin by winning
46 electoral votes and more than 13 percent of the popular vote.
Explaining Why did President Johnson say he would
not run for reelection in 1968?
Section 2 REVIEW
Vocabulary
1. Explain the significance of: William
Westmoreland, credibility gap, teach-in,
dove, hawk, Tet Offensive.
Main Ideas
2. Explaining Why did some people view
the draft as unfair?
3. Summarizing What are three important
events that made 1968 such a violent year
in the United States?
Critical Thinking
4. Big Ideas Why did support of the war
dwindle by the late 1960s?
5. Organizing Use a graphic organizer similar to the one below to list the effects of
the Tet Offensive.
Effects of
Tet Offensive
Chapter 19 •
Section 2
D Differentiated
Instruction
Advanced Learners Invite
students to find out how third
party candidates have fared in
presidential elections since 1900.
Ask them to present their findings
to the class using visual aids such
as graphs or charts. AL
Assess
Study Central™ provides summaries, interactive games, and
online graphic organizers to help
students review content.
Close
6. Analyzing Visuals Study the cartoon on
the right on page 665. What is the message of the telegram beyond its literal
meaning?
Writing About History
7. Expository Writing Suppose that you
are living in 1968. Write a letter to the
editor of a local newspaper in which you
explain your reasons for either supporting
or opposing the Vietnam War.
Summarizing Ask: What
event eroded public confidence
in America’s role in Vietnam?
(failure to win the war, especially
after the Tet Offensive) OL
Answer: He did not want the
presidency to become involved
in partisan division.
Study Central™ To review this section, go
to glencoe.com and click on Study Central.
Section 2
REVIEW
669
Answers
1. All definitions can be found in the section
and the Glossary.
2. Poor men, including a high proportion of
minorities, who were unable to afford college, were more likely to be drafted than
those who could afford college and thus
get deferments.
3. the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and
the riots at the Democratic National
Convention
4. Media coverage of the mounting casualties
fueled anger and distrust of government officials’ reports on the progress of the war, and
many were angry over the unfair draft system.
5. support for the war dropped, the media
became critical of the war effort, the president’s approval rating plummeted
6. Students may say that the message is that
draft card burners were unpatriotic or
Communist sympathizers.
7. Students’ letters should express a clear and
reasoned argument for supporting or
opposing the war.
669
Chapter 19 •
Section 3
Section 3
Focus
Guide to Reading
Daily Focus Transparency 19-3
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
UNIT
6
DAILY FOCUS SKILLS
TRANSPARENCY 19-3
ANSWER: C
Teacher Tip: Remind students to read the information
given with the diagram.
Drawing Conclusions
KISSINGER’S LINKAGE POLICY
TH VIETNAM
NOR
Directions: Answer the following
question based on the diagram.
Which three countries did
Kissinger believe needed to
cooperate in order to end
the war in Vietnam?
A China, Soviet Union, and
North Vietnam
B United States, China, and
North Vietnam
SO
CHINA
Spotlight Video
The War Winds Down
Bellringer
Chapter 19
Section Audio
NION
TU
VIE
C United States, Soviet Union,
and China
Big Ideas
Trade, War, and Migration
The Vietnam War changed the way
Americans viewed the government and
the military, and led them to question
how the armed forces were deployed.
S
hortly after taking office, President Nixon moved
to end the nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
The final years of the conflict, however, yielded more
bloodshed and turmoil, as well as a growing cynicism
in the minds of Americans about the honesty and effectiveness of the United States government.
D United States, Soviet Union,
and North Vietnam
U NI
Content Vocabulary
• linkage (p. 670)
• Vietnamization (p. 670)
TED STATE S
President Nixon gave Henry Kissinger, his special assistant for
national security, the authority to use diplomacy to end the Vietnam conflict.
Kissinger called his policy linkage.
Guide to Reading
Answers may include: Kissinger
appointment, linkage policy,
Vietnamization, bombing
campaign, Cambodian invasion
To generate student interest and
provide a springboard for class
discussion, access the Chapter 19,
Section 3 video at glencoe.com or
on the video DVD.
Nixon Moves to End the War
MAIN Idea While unrest and suspicion of the government grew, the
United States finally withdrew its troops from Vietnam.
Academic Vocabulary
• generation (p. 671)
• unresolved (p. 675)
HISTORY AND YOU Have you ever protested against something you felt
was wrong? Read on to find out how college students reacted to what they
viewed as a widening of the Vietnam War.
People and Events to Identify
• Henry Kissinger (p. 670)
• Pentagon Papers (p. 672)
• War Powers Act (p. 675)
Reading Strategy
Organizing Complete a graphic organizer similar to the one below by listing
the steps that President Nixon took to
end American involvement in Vietnam.
Steps Nixon Took
As a first step to fulfilling his campaign promise to end the war,
Nixon appointed Harvard professor Henry Kissinger as special
assistant for national security affairs and gave him wide authority to
use diplomacy to end the conflict. Kissinger embarked upon a policy
he called linkage, which meant improving relations with the Soviet
Union and China—suppliers of aid to North Vietnam—so that he
could persuade them to cut back on their aid.
Kissinger also rekindled peace talks with the North Vietnamese.
In August 1969 Kissinger entered into secret negotiations with North
Vietnam’s negotiator, Le Duc Tho. In their talks, which dragged on
for four years, Kissinger and Le Duc Tho argued over a possible
cease-fire, the return of American prisoners of war, and the ultimate
fate of South Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Nixon reduced the number of American troops in
Vietnam. Known as Vietnamization, this process involved the gradual
withdrawal of U.S. troops while the South Vietnamese assumed more
of the fighting. On June 8, 1969, Nixon announced the withdrawal of
25,000 soldiers, but he was determined to keep a strong American presence in Vietnam to ensure bargaining power during peace negotiations.
In support of that goal, the president increased air strikes against
North Vietnam and—without informing Congress or the public—
began secretly bombing Vietcong sanctuaries in neighboring Cambodia.
Turmoil at Home Continues
Even though the United States had begun scaling back its involvement in Vietnam, the American home front remained divided and
volatile, as Nixon’s war policies stirred up new waves of protest.
Resource Manager
670
R
Reading
Strategies
C
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Critical
Thinking
D
Differentiated
Instruction
W
Writing
Support
S
Skill
Practice
Teacher Edition
Teacher Edition
Teacher Edition
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
• Act. Prior Know., p. 671
• Making Inferences,
p. 672
• Read. Prim. Sources,
p. 675
• Analyzing Prim.
Sources, p. 671
• Visual/Spatial, p. 672
• Linking Past/Present,
URB p. 98
• Read Essen., p. 206
• Reinforcing Skills, URB
p. 95
• Time Line Act., URB
p. 97
Additional Resources
• Guide Read Act., URB
p. 114
• Am. History in Graphic
Novel, p. 65
• Prim. Source Read., URB
p. 101
Additional Resources
• Linking Past and
Present Act., URB p. 98
• Authentic Assess, p. 43
• Quizzes and Tests,
p. 269
• Supreme Court Case
Studies, p. 109
Additional Resources
• Enrich. Act., URB p. 109
Chapter 19 •
Protests and Peace Talks
Section 3
Teach
C Critical Thinking
Analyzing Primary Sources
▲ President Nixon (above)
describes the invasion of
Cambodia in 1970. Two years
later, Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger met for
peace talks with North
Vietnam’s representative
Le Duc Tho (right).
▲ To convince North Vietnam to settle for a negotiated
peace, Nixon ordered troops into Cambodia to destroy
North Vietnamese bases there. The invasion led to mass
protests in the United States and to the tragic shooting
of four students by National Guard troops at Kent State
University (above).
U.S. Troops in Vietnam, 1964–1974
Number of Troops
(thousands)
600
Analyzing VISUALS
1. Determining Cause and Effect How
did the invasion of Cambodia lead to the
shootings at Kent State?
2. Specifying In what year did the troop
level in Vietnam reach its peak?
Massacre at My Lai In late 1969 Americans learned that, in the spring of 1968, an
American platoon under the command of
Lieutenant William Calley had massacred
unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the
hamlet of My Lai. Most of the victims were old
men, women, and children. Calley eventually
went to prison for his role in the killings.
Most American soldiers acted responsibly
and honorably during the war. The actions of a
small group, however, convinced many people
that the war was brutal and senseless. Jan Barry,
a founder of the Vietnam Veterans Against the
War, viewed My Lai as a symbol of the dilemma
his generation faced in the conflict:
PRIMARY SOURCE
C
“To kill on military orders and be a criminal, or to
refuse to kill and be a criminal is the moral agony
of America’s Vietnam war generation. It is what has
Read the quotation aloud. Ask:
What were the two results of the
difficult choices young American
men faced? (about 60,000 went to
Canada and another 100,000
deserted the military) BL
R Reading Strategy
500
400
Activating Prior Knowledge
300
200
100
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
Year
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States.
forced upward of sixty thousand young Americans,
draft resisters and deserters to Canada, and created
one hundred thousand military deserters a year. . . .”
Analyzing VISUALS
C
—quoted in Who Spoke Up?
The Invasion of Cambodia Sparks
Protest Americans heard more startling news
when Nixon announced in April 1970 that
American troops had invaded Cambodia. The
troops were ordered to destroy Vietcong military
bases there.
Many viewed the Cambodian invasion as a
widening of the war, and it set off many protests. At Kent State University on May 4, 1970,
Ohio National Guard soldiers, armed with tear
gas and rifles, fired on demonstrators without
an order to do so. The soldiers killed four students. Ten days later, police killed two African
American students during a demonstration at
Jackson State College in Mississippi.
Ask students why Nixon’s
announcement of the invasion of
Cambodia was so startling to
many. (The U.S. had invaded a neutral country without a declaration
of war.) OL
R
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 671
Answers:
1. The protests at Kent State
were among many that
resulted from the invasion
of Cambodia.
2. 1968
Hands-On
Chapter Project
Step 3
Create a Documentary of the
Vietnam War
Step 3: Creating the Script or
Voiceover Essential question: What is
the core of the message and how shall it
be conveyed with the images?
Directions Students may need to re-assess
their storyboards and edit them as they go
through them to write the script or
“voiceover” for the video or as they create
the visuals. The writing will need to be con-
cise and focus on the essential point of what
is happening in each scene. Students can
divide up in teams to write the voiceover for
two or more storyboards.
Putting It Together The teams can meet
to review and edit their final script. OL
(Chapter Project continued on Visual Summary
page)
671
Chapter 19 •
Section 3
In addition to sparking violence on campuses, the invasion of Cambodia cost Nixon
significant congressional support. Numerous
legislators expressed outrage over the president’s failure to notify them of the action. In
December 1970 an angry Congress repealed
the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which had given
the president nearly complete power in directing the war in Vietnam.
R Reading Strategy
Making Inferences Have
students read the first paragraph
under the heading “The United
States Pulls Out.” Ask: What can
you infer about the timing of
Kissinger’s announcement? (it
was timed to influence the outcome
of the presidential election) OL
The Pentagon Papers Support for the war
weakened further in 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg, a disillusioned former Defense Department worker, leaked what became known as
the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.
The documents revealed that many government officials during the Johnson administration privately questioned the war while publicly
defending it.
The documents contained details of decisions that were made by the presidents and
their advisers to expand the war without the
consent of Congress. They also showed how
the various administrations had tried to convince Congress, the press, and the public that
the situation in Vietnam was better than it
really was. The Pentagon Papers confirmed
what many Americans had long believed: the
government had not been honest with them.
D Differentiated
Instruction
Visual/Spatial Invite students
to make a timeline of the war,
showing major events. BL
Answer: that the government
had not been honest with them
South Vietnam Falls
Two years after the United States pulled its
troops out of Vietnam, the peace agreement
collapsed. In March 1975 the North Vietnamese army launched a full-scale invasion of the
South. Thieu desperately appealed to Washington, D.C., for help.
President Nixon had assured Thieu during
the peace negotiations that the United States
“[would] respond with full force should the
settlement be violated by North Vietnam.”
Nixon, however, had resigned under pressure
following Watergate, a scandal that broke as
the war was winding down. The new president, Gerald Ford, asked for funds to aid the
South Vietnamese, but Congress refused.
Without American assistance, the South
Vietnamese Army was unable to stop the invasion. On April 30, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, South Vietnam’s capital, and
united Vietnam under Communist rule. They
then renamed the city Ho Chi Minh City.
The United States Pulls Out
R
Differentiated
Instruction
troops in the South. Henry Kissinger tried to
win additional concessions from the Communists, but talks broke off on December 16,
1972.
The next day, to force North Vietnam to
resume negotiations, the Nixon administration
began the most destructive air raids of the
entire war. In what became known as the
“Christmas bombings,” American B-52s
dropped thousands of tons of bombs on North
Vietnamese targets for 11 straight days, pausing only on Christmas Day.
In the wake of the bombing campaign, the
United States and North Vietnam returned to
the bargaining table. Thieu finally gave in to
American pressure and allowed North Vietnamese troops to remain in the South. On
January 27, 1973, the warring sides signed an
agreement “ending the war and restoring the
peace in Vietnam.”
The United States promised to withdraw its
troops, and both sides agreed to exchange
prisoners of war. The parties did not resolve
the issue of South Vietnam’s future, however.
After almost eight years of war—the longest
war in American history—the nation ended its
direct involvement in Vietnam.
672
By 1971, polls showed that nearly two-thirds
of Americans wanted to end the Vietnam War
as quickly as possible. In April 1972 President
Nixon dropped his longtime insistence that
North Vietnamese troops had to withdraw
from South Vietnam before any peace treaty
could be signed. In October, less than a month
before the presidential election, Kissinger
emerged from his secret talks with Le Duc Tho
to announce that “peace is at hand.”
A month later, Americans went to the polls
to decide on a president. Senator George
McGovern, the Democratic candidate, was an
outspoken critic of the war. He did not appeal
to many middle-class Americans, however,
who were tired of antiwar protesters. Nixon
was reelected in a landslide, winning 60.7 percent of the popular vote.
Just weeks after the presidential election,
the peace negotiations broke down. South
Vietnam’s president, NguyenVan Thieu, refused
to agree to any plan that left North Vietnamese
Evaluating What did the
Pentagon Papers confirm for many Americans?
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Leveled Activities
LEARNING THE SKILL
★
0
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the map
200 miles
Bangkok
CAMBODIA
1954
Phnom
Penh
Gulf of
Thailand
SOUTH
VIETNAM
1954
Saigon
10 N
South
China Sea
100 E
DIRECTIONS: Research the changes
that took place in the region covered by this map during the
Vietnam conflict using your textbook and library or Internet sources. Use a blank outline map to show the borders of
the region after North and South Vietnam were unified. Include the location of any
places that you think someone trying to understand the war would need to know.
Exchange maps with a classmate and discuss your decisions of what to include. Use
your map for reference during your study of the Vietnam conflict.
86
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
THAILAND
Never a European
colony
• Use sources to support or disprove the statement(s).
four inconsistencies between the first and second accounts. Identify them below.
Account B
APPLYING THE SKILL
On the night of August 2, 1964, according to several reports, the U.S. destroyer Maddox was
about 10 miles—perhaps as close as 4 miles—from the North Vietnamese coastline. The Maddox
was providing cover for South Vietnamese gunboats that were attacking North Vietnamese targets
in the Gulf of Tonkin. Former CIA station chief John Stockwell has claimed that these gunboats were
“manned with CIA crew” and had been attacking North Vietnam for weeks. The Maddox’s log indicated that the Maddox fired first while North Vietnamese boats were approximately 6 miles away.
Eyewitness Navy pilot Jim Stockdale has written about the events of August 4. He stated that the
American destroyers were “firing at—nothing. . . . Not one American out there ever saw a PT boat.
There was absolutely no gunfire except our own. . . .”
DIRECTIONS: Work in teams to record interviews with older citizens within your community.
Select one aspect of community life to focus the interview on such as work or education.
Contact the person to schedule the interview, gather background information, prepare questions, conduct the interview, and prepare a final transcript. Be sure to evaluate the interview.
Combine the transcripts of your group interviews with illustrations to create a documentary
record of your community.
95
4. Supporters of the war sometimes criticized the patriotism of
who wanted an end to the war.
Account A
4. Use the notes from your interview to prepare a complete transcript. Analyze the interview for reliability by comparing it with other evidence from your research.
1.
3.
2.
4.
96
napalm
hawks
3. Strong supporters of military action in Vietnam became known as
.
DIRECTIONS: Read the following accounts of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Then find at least
3. Conduct the interview.
Agent Orange
doves
2. In the late 1960s, many Americans no longer believed what the U.S. government told
them about the Vietnam war, a situation referred to as a
.
• Double-check your work for accuracy.
2. Use your research to develop a list of questions for your interview. Be sure to use openended questions that require your interviewee to give more than yes or no answers.
guerrillas
teach-ins
1. In order to destroy the landscape in which Vietcong forces hid, American planes
dropped
, a chemical that strips the leaves from trees and shrubs.
• Decide if the statement has a mistake or contains out-of-date information.
According to U.S. government reports, three North Vietnamese PT boats, unprovoked and without warning, opened fire on the U.S. destroyer Maddox. This attack took place on the evening of
August 2, 1964. The Maddox was on routine patrol in international waters about 30 miles off the
coast of North Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Maddox and support aircraft fired back and
drove away the North Vietnamese vessels. Two nights later, on August 4, North Vietnamese PT
boats attacked the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy while they patrolled approximately
65 miles off the coast of North Vietnam. U.S. forces counterattacked and sank two of the North
Vietnamese craft in three hours of fierce fighting.
domino theory
credibility gap
Vietnamization
• Decide if the statement not in agreement is wrong, biased, or contains
propaganda.
1. Find at least three sources of information (in addition to your textbook) about the aspect
of the war the person you plan to interview experienced. Take careful notes.
★
each sentence. Write the correct term in the space provided. Then answer the question at the
bottom of the page.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Rangoon
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
17 N
DIRECTIONS: Choose the content vocabulary word or term to identify that best completes
PRACTICING THE SKILL
era and experienced either the war or the domestic homefront. Prepare a series of questions
to interview this person.
Gulf of
Tonkin
Class
The Vietnam War, 1954–1975
Use the following guidelines to help you compare accounts:
PRACTICING THE SKILL
Date
★ Content Vocabulary Activity 19
• Look for statements that do not agree.
19
19
APPLYING THE SKILL
★
Name
When doing research, a critical thinker makes comparisons between historical
documents and looks for inconsistencies, or things that do not agree. If there are
inconsistencies, one of the sources of the information may be wrong or have a biased
point of view, or the author may be trying to persuade you by using propaganda.
Simple mistakes and out-of-date information also cause
inconsistencies.
DIRECTIONS: Select an older citizen from your community who lived during the Vietnam
Vientiane
5. What body of water is
located near Hanoi?
★
E
Class
Detecting Bias
LEARNING THE SKILL
LEARNING THE SKILL
S
20 N
LAOS
1954
4. Why do you think that the
spread of communism does
not provoke the same fear
in Kennan that it does in
some others?
672
N
W
NORTH
VIETNAM
1954 Hanoi
BURMA
1948
2. Which parallel of latitude
divides South Vietnam from
North Vietnam?
3. Which three countries border
Vietnam? How might this
affect the civil war taking
place there?
C H I N A
0
200 kilometers
Miller Cylindrical projection
and then answer the questions
below on a separate sheet of
paper.
Date
Critical Thinking Skills Activity 19
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
PRACTICING THE SKILL
1. What does this map show?
Name
An interview can provide firsthand and personal information you may not be able to
find in a book or magazine. Interviews provide historians with valuable new sources of
information about the past. For example, interviews with political leaders may provide
new insights into the decision-making process. Interviews may also focus on the personal memories of people who experienced firsthand an event such as a war or a natural disaster.
To begin the interview process, first contact the person you want to interview. Let
them know about the purpose of the interview, and make arrangements for your meeting. Before you meet, find out as much as you can about the interviewee and about the
topics you plan to discuss. Also prepare and organize your questions. As you begin
your interview, introduce yourself. Listen carefully, ask additional questions for detail,
and record responses. After the interview, convert your notes into a transcript.
Maps contain a variety of symbols that can help you interpret the information you
see. The map key helps you understand the colors (or shades), borders, or any special symbols on the map. The compass shows the directions of north, south, east, and
west on the map. The map scale represents size and distance and is usually shown
on a scale bar. Lines of latitude and longitude are part of the coordinate system used
to determine location on Earth.
★
Class
Analyzing Primary Sources
Reading a Map
★
Date
★ Reinforcing Skills Activity 19
Activity, URB p. 91
19
Name
Class
★ Historical Analysis Skills Activity 19
ELL Content Vocabulary
Critical Thinking Skills
Activity, URB p. 96
,
5. Nixon supported a policy of
, in which American forces would
gradually withdraw while South Vietnamese forces took on more of the fighting.
6. Faculty and students at universities who opposed the war staged
in which they discussed their thoughts on the war.
,
7. The
was the idea that if South Vietnam became Communist,
the rest of Southeast Asia would follow.
8. The Vietminh often used
civilian population and use ambush tactics.
, irregular troops who blend into the
9. The use of
, a jellied gasoline that explodes on contact, helped
destroy parts of the Vietnamese landscape.
10. Explain Henry Kissinger's policy of linkage.
91
CHAPTER
Date
AL
URB p. 95
19
Name
OL Reinforcing Skills Activity,
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Historical Analysis Skills
Activity, URB p. 86
CHAPTER
BL
D
Analyzing Supreme
Supreme
Court Cases
Court Cases
Can the Government Put Limits on the Press?
More About the Case
★ New York Times v. United States, 1971
Background to the Case
Daniel Ellsberg, a former bureaucrat working in national security,
was unhappy with the course of
the war. His leak of the Pentagon
Papers did not at first trouble officials in the Nixon administration.
Nixon, however, feared that if he
did not have control over classified documents, he would later be
embarrassed. For his role in the
case, Ellsberg was indicted and
tried for the leak.
In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified documents,
known as the Pentagon Papers, to the New York Times and
the Washington Post. When the newspapers attempted to
publish these documents, the Nixon administration argued
that publication would threaten national security. The case
centered on the First Amendment guarantee of a free press.
How the Court Ruled
In a 6-to-3 per curiam opinion—per curiam meaning that
the decision was issued by the whole Court and not specific
justices—the Court found that the Nixon administration had
failed to prove that publication of the Pentagon Papers would
imperil the nation in any way. The New York Times and the
Washington Post could publish the Pentagon Papers.
▲ Daniel Ellsberg (above, left) leaked the classified
documents known as the Pentagon Papers.
PRIMARY SOURCE
Concurring View
“The Government’s power to censor the press [via the First
Amendment] was abolished so that the press would remain
forever free to censure the Government. . . . And paramount
among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people
and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers
and foreign shot and shell. In my view, far from deserving
condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York
Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers should be
commended for serving the purpose that the Founding
Fathers saw so clearly. In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers
did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted
they would do.”
—Justice Hugo Black in New York Times v. United States
PRIMARY SOURCE
Dissenting View
The First Amendment, after all, is only one part of an entire
Constitution. Article II of the great document vests in the
Executive Branch primary power over the conduct of foreign
affairs and places in that branch the responsibility for the
Nation’s safety. . . . What is needed here is a weighing, upon
properly developed standards, of the broad right of the press
to print and of the very narrow right of the Government to
prevent. Such standards are not yet developed. The parties
here are in disagreement as to what those standards should
be. But even the newspapers concede that there are situations where restraint is in order and is constitutional.”
—Justice Harry Blackmun, dissenting in
New York Times v. United States
Answers:
1. He feels that the First
Amendment guarantees
a free press to keep the
government from oppressing
the people. He implies that
the government lied by
sending troops off to die
for dishonest reasons.
2. He felt the executive
branch would know best
about issues of national
security and thus should
be able to restrain the
media if necessary.
3. Students’ answers will vary.
1. Explaining Why did Justice Black agree with the Court’s decision? What did he imply about the
government’s actions?
2. Contrasting Why did Justice Blackmun disagree with the Court’s decision?
3. Assessing Do you think the government can ever justify media censorship, even based on
national security concerns? Explain.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 673
Differentiated
Instruction
(c)The Granger Collection, New York
Name oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Date oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Class ooooooooooooooooo
Supreme Court Case Study 55
Analyzing a Supreme Court Decision
Censorship Prior to Publication
New York Times v. United States, 1971
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Background of the Case
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
During the turbulent years when the United States was engaged in the Vietnam War,
protests against the war increased as the United States’s role escalated.
One opponent of the Vietnam War , Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department official,
secured lengthy classified documents related to the war, including a “History of United States
Decision-Making Process of Viet Nam [sic] Policy” and another document relating to the Gulf
of Tonkin incident, which the government used to justify expanding its role in the war. These
documents came to be known as the “Pentagon Papers.” The government maintained that
making the Pentagon Papers public might impose grave danger to the security of the United
States.
Objective: Learn how the Supreme Court determined
Ellsberg turned the documents over to the New York Times, which planned to begin publishing them on July 13, 1971. The federal government sought to block publication and secured a
temporary order from the Supreme Court which barred publication until the Court could hear
and decide the case. The case was heard on June 26, 1971. On June 30, the Court lifted the stay
and allowed the paper to go to press.
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Constitutional Issue
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The First Amendment, as applied to the states through the due process clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment, guarantees the freedoms of speech and the press. The question in
this case was whether the government could prevent the publication of materials on the
grounds that the national security was endangered.
As had happened before, the right to criticize the government in wartime became an
issue. The Supreme Court had to decide whether the government had the right to prevent
publication of material that the government regarded as harmful.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The Supreme Court’s Decision ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Court ruled in favor of the Times, maintaining that the government had not met the
“heavy burden of justification” for a prior restraint. The decision was issued only four days
after the Court heard oral arguments. The justice writing the decision is not identified. All nine
justices wrote opinions; 6 justices concurred with the Court’s ruling, while 3 dissented.
In his concurring opinion, Justice Hugo L. Black wrote that the Court should not even have
heard oral arguments in the case, and the government’s injunction should have been automatically denied. “In my view, it is unfortunate that some of my Brethren are willing to hold that
the publication of news may sometimes be enjoined. Such a holding would make a shambles of
the First Amendment.” To Black, by the First Amendment, “the press was protected so that it
could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” In his view, the newspapers that
(continued)
Supreme Court Case Studies
109
Case Study 55: New York
Times v. United States,
p. 109
Focus:
Teach:
Assess:
Close:
whether the government could prevent the
publication of materials on the grounds that
national security was endangered.
Identify the central issue of the case.
Discuss the Court’s opinion.
Explain the importance of the case (interpretation of the First Amendment).
Write a paragraph summarizing the case.
Differentiated Instruction Strategies
BL
Explain the role the Vietnam War
played in the case.
AL Paraphrase the Court’s decision. Read
your version to the class.
ELL Explain the First Amendment in your
own words.
673
Chapter 19 •
Section 3
The Legacy of Vietnam
MAIN Idea The Vietnam War made a negative
impact on the way in which Americans viewed international conflicts, as well as their own government.
Analyzing VISUALS
HISTORY AND YOU Do you think that leaders at
Answers:
1. It required the president to
consult with Congress before
making troop commitments
and to inform Congress of any
troops committed abroad
within 48 hours. Also, unless
Congress approved the commitment, troops had to be
withdrawn in 60 to 90 days.
2. Students’ responses will vary
but should be supported by
reasons.
Student Web
Activity Visit
glencoe.com and
complete the activity on the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial.
the highest levels of the federal government are
trustworthy? Read on to find out how the Vietnam
War and other events led Americans to lose some
trust in their leaders.
“The lessons of the past in Vietnam,” President Ford declared in 1975, “have already
been learned—learned by Presidents, learned
by Congress, learned by the American
people—and we should have our focus on
the future.” Vietnam had a deep and lasting
impact on American society.
The War’s Human Toll
The United States paid a heavy price for its
involvement in Vietnam. The war had cost the
nation over $170 billion in direct costs and
much more in indirect economic expenses. It
had also resulted in the deaths of approximately 58,000 young Americans and the injury
of more than 300,000. In Vietnam, around one
million North and South Vietnamese soldiers
died in the conflict, as did countless civilians.
The Legacy of Vietnam
The War Powers Act
• Requires the president in all cases to
consult with Congress before making
any troop commitments
• Requires the president to inform Congress of any commitment of troops
abroad within 48 hours
• Requires the president to withdraw
troops in 60 to 90 days, unless Congress explicitly approves the troop
commitment
▲ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is inscribed with the
names of the 58,249 people killed or missing in Vietnam.
Analyzing VISUALS
Additional
Support
1. Explaining How did the War Powers Act seek to
curb the power of the president?
2. Assessing Do you think that the legacy of
Vietnam has been a lasting one? Why or why not?
674
▲ Along with returning troops, many freed prisoners
of war, or POWs, such as Lt. Colonel Robert Stirm, were
joyfully greeted by their families. Sadly, some did not
come home and were labeled as MIAs, or “missing in
action,” and remain so to this day.
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Extending the Content
The Vietnam Memorial The names of
eight women nurses who died in Vietnam
are inscribed on The Wall of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial. Many more women
served; a former army nurse began working
for a monument to highlight the contributions of women in the war. A sculpture of
three women with a soldier, designed by
Glenna Goodacre, was dedicated in 1993.
No specific records on women in the mili-
674
tary were kept during the war, but it is estimated that as many as 8,000 may have
served in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was itself
controversial. In the fall of 1980, the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Fund sponsored a
national competition for the design, to be
judged by a panel whose members would
not know the creators of the more than
1400 designs submitted. When 21-year-old
Maya Lin, still a student at Yale University,
won the competition, many people were
dismayed by Lin’s youth, gender, and ethnicity, as well as by the design itself, a “black
gash of shame,” as some called it. The Wall
was dedicated in 1982, becoming one of the
nation’s most-visited public monuments.
Even after they returned home from fighting as in other wars,
soldiers found it hard to escape the war’s psychological impact.
Army Specialist Doug Johnson recalled the problems he faced:
Section 3 REVIEW
R
—quoted in Touched by the Dragon
One reason why it may have been harder for some Vietnam veterans to readjust to civilian life was that many considered the war a
defeat. Many Americans wanted to forget the war. Thus, the sacrifices of many veterans often went unrecognized. There were relatively few welcome-home parades and celebrations after the war.
The war also remained unresolved for the American families
whose relatives and friends were classified as prisoners of war
(POWs) or missing in action (MIA). Despite many official investigations, these families were not convinced that the government
had told the truth about POW/MIA policies.
The nation finally began to come to terms with the war almost
a decade later. In 1982 the nation dedicated the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington, D.C., a large black granite wall inscribed
with the names of those killed and missing in action in the war.
“It’s a first step to remind America of what we did,” veteran Larry
Cox of Virginia said at the dedication of the monument.
The War’s Impact on the Nation
Describing How did the Vietnam War affect
Americans’ attitudes toward international conflicts?
Vocabulary
1. Explain the significance of: Henry
Kissinger, linkage, Vietnamization,
Pentagon Papers, War Powers Act.
Reading Primary Sources
Main Ideas
2. Explaining Why was the United States
unable to help South Vietnam following
the full-scale invasion by North Vietnam
in 1975?
3. Describing How was the aftermath of
the Vietnam War different for its veterans
than postwar periods had been for veterans of earlier U.S. wars?
Critical Thinking
4. Big Ideas Why did Congress pass the
War Powers Act? How did it reflect distrust of the executive branch of
government?
5. Organizing Use a graphic organizer similar to the one below to list the effects of
the Vietnam War on the nation.
Invite a volunteer to read aloud
the quotation by Doug Johnson.
Ask: What event triggered
Johnson’s realization that the
war was affecting him emotionally? (crying uncontrollably at a
movie being shown on post) BL
Assess
Study Central™ provides summaries, interactive games, and
online graphic organizers to help
students review content.
Close
Summarizing Ask: What
Effects of Vietnam War
The war also left its mark on the nation as a whole. In 1973
Congress passed the War Powers Act as a way to reestablish
some limits on executive power. The act required the president to
inform Congress of any commitment of troops abroad within 48
hours, and to withdraw them in 60 to 90 days, unless Congress
explicitly approved the troop commitment. No president has recognized this limitation, and the courts have tended to avoid the
issue as a strictly political question. Nonetheless, every president
since the law’s passage has asked Congress to authorize the use
of military force before committing ground troops to combat. In
general, the war shook the nation’s confidence and led some to
embrace isolationism, while others began to question the policy
of containing communism and instead urged more negotiation
with the Soviet Union.
On the domestic front, the Vietnam War increased Americans’
cynicism about their government. Many felt the nation’s leaders
had misled them. Together with Watergate, Vietnam made Americans more wary of their leaders.
Section 3
R Reading Strategy
PRIMARY SOURCE
“It took a while for me to recognize that I did suffer some psychological
problems in trying to deal with my experience in Vietnam. The first recollection I have of the effect took place shortly after I arrived back in the
States. One evening . . . I went to see a movie on post. I don’t recall the
name of the movie or what it was about, but I remember there was a
sad part, and that I started crying uncontrollably. It hadn’t dawned on
me before this episode that I had. . . succeeded in burying my emotions.”
Chapter 19 •
6. Analyzing Visuals Study the left photo
on page 674. Why do you think it is
important for society to have war
memorials?
Writing About History
7. Descriptive Writing Suppose
you are a college student in 1970. Write
a journal entry expressing your feelings
about the events at Kent State University
and Jackson State College.
Study Central™ To review this section, go
to glencoe.com and click on Study Central.
events led to America pulling
out of Vietnam? (protests over
Cambodia, leaking of Pentagon
Papers) OL
Answer: They became more
reluctant to intervene in other
nations’ affairs.
Section 3
REVIEW
675
Answers
1. All definitions can be found in the section
and the Glossary.
2. Nixon, who had promised to help, had
resigned due to Watergate, and Congress
refused to give President Ford the funds.
3. Unlike the periods following other wars,
many Americans just wanted to forget the
Vietnam War. There was also no sense of
having won the conflict, and so there were
few welcome-home parades or other celebrations for the returning troops.
4. It wanted to limit executive power. There
was a general sense that the presidents had
misused the power granted to them in the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and
it had been found through the Pentagon
Papers and other sources that presidents
had lied to the American public about the
course of the war in Vietnam.
5. Answers may include the following:
American cynicism toward government,
war dead and casualties, cost, and War
Powers Act.
6. Students’ responses will vary but may
suggest it is important to recall the human
costs of war.
7. Students’ journal entries should focus on
feelings about the events and include
descriptive language.
675
Chapter 19 • Visual
Summary
Chapter
VISUAL SUMMARY
Expository Writing Ask students to select one cause or one
effect and write a paragraph further explaining the event in its
historical context. OL
Visual/Spatial Ask students
why so many photographs capture people touching the names
on the wall. (Students may say that
it is a concrete way to connect with
the person whose name is written
there.) BL
You can study anywhere, anytime by
downloading quizzes and flashcards
to your PDA from glencoe.com.
Causes of the Vietnam War
• During World War II, the United States helps the people of
Indochina fight the Japanese, who had invaded the region.
• After World War II, France refuses to give independence to
the people of Indochina and sends troops to reestablish
control.
• Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Vietminh fight the French. Ho Chi
Minh wants Vietnam to be independent but also wants to
build a Communist society in Vietnam.
• Concerned about the spread of communism, President
Eisenhower sends aid to help the French retain control
in Vietnam.
• After losing the battle of Dien Bien Phu, France pulls out of
Vietnam. The Geneva Accords create North and South Vietnam.
▲
• Ho Chi Minh becomes the leader of North Vietnam and makes
it a Communist nation allied with the USSR and China. North
Vietnam begins arming guerrillas to fight the South Vietnamese government.
• American leaders become worried that a “domino effect”
might cause all of Southeast Asia to fall to communism if
South Vietnam falls.
• President Kennedy sharply increases military aid to South
Vietnam.
• President Johnson escalates U.S. involvement and gains war
powers after the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
U.S. troops arrive
in Vietnam in 1965
(above). Fighting
communist guerrillas
proved difficult in the
dense jungle terrain
(right).
Effects of the Vietnam War
• Americans applaud President Johnson’s response to a Vietcong attack with aggressive air strikes.
• The United States commits over 380,000 ground troops to
fighting in Vietnam by the end of 1966.
• American people question the government’s honesty about
the war, creating the so-called “credibility gap.”
• The war casualties and the unfair draft system cause civil
unrest.
• The wartime economy hurts domestic spending for programs
such as the Great Society.
• President Nixon is elected largely on promises to end the
war and unite a divided country.
• Congress passes the War Powers Act to limit the power of
the president during wartime.
Hands-On
Chapter Project
▲ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, D.C., is a stark reminder of the
costs of the Vietnam War.
676 Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
Step 4
Create a Documentary of the
Vietnam War
Step 4: Presenting the Documentaries Ask: What is the message of the
documentary?
Directions Allow class time to view the
completed documentaries. After each
showing, engage the class by asking them
to answer the following questions during a
class discussion:
676
• What was the
documentary?
message
of
the
• How was the message conveyed? Was it
clear?
• What information was “left out” of the
documentary?
• What were the best parts of the documentary? Why?
• How could the documentary be
improved?
Putting It Together The class should
determine as a whole if the documentaries
reflected information from the textbook,
and if the information was portrayed
accurately. OL
Chapter 19 • Assessment
Chapter
ASSESSMENT
Answers and Analyses
Reviewing Vocabulary
Reviewing Vocabulary
Reviewing Main Ideas
Directions: Choose the word or words that best complete the sentence.
Directions: Choose the best answer for each of the following questions.
1. Eisenhower cited the _______ as the reason why the United
States had to support South Vietnam.
Section 1 (pp. 654–661)
6. Who was the leader of the North Vietnamese?
A credibility gap
A Mao Zedong
B self-determination theory
B Ho Chi Minh
C domino theory
C Dien Bien Phu
D Communist way
D Ngo Dinh Diem
2. A person who supported the war effort in Vietnam might be
called a
7. One reason why President Johnson did not order a full-scale
attack on North Vietnam was because
A hawk.
A he did not think that the United States could win.
B dove.
B the military lacked the manpower to launch an assault.
C guerrilla.
C he did not want to bring China into the war.
D linkage.
D he did not want to lose the 1968 election.
3. As the war in Vietnam escalated, a _______ developed as
Americans began to find it hard to believe what the Johnson
administration said about the conflict.
8. Which of the following temporarily established North and
South Vietnam and recognized Cambodia’s independence?
A the Treaty of Paris
A linkage
B Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
B credibility gap
C the Truman Doctrine
C domino theory
D the Geneva Accords
D teach-in
Section 2 (pp. 664–669)
4. The Vietcong were Communist ________ located in South
Vietnam.
9. Many Americans objected to the draft because they believed it
A elected officials
A forced young men to flee to Canada.
B generals
B unfairly targeted the poor and minorities.
C diplomats
C did not include women.
D guerrillas
D did not raise the necessary number of troops.
5. President Nixon’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops and replace
them with South Vietnamese troops was known as
TEST-TAKING TIP
A linkage.
Do not spend too much time trying to figure out the right
answer to a question. Move on, and then come back to that
question when you have answered all the questions you do
know. If you still do not know the answer, select the one
that you think is the most logical.
B the Tet Offensive.
C the domino theory.
D Vietnamization.
Need Extra Help?
If You Missed Questions . . .
Go to Page . . .
1
665
2
667
3
664
4
657
5
670
6
664
7
658
8
656
9
665
GO ON
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 677
7. C Knowing that Johnson decided not to run
in 1968 will allow students to ignore answer D.
Options A and B are also easy to discard as
options, since the United States was used to
winning wars and the military was at the ready.
8. D Students can eliminate C because it is a
doctrine and does not sound like a peace
treaty. They need to recall that the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution granted Johnson the power
to wage the war. They might also connect the
ideas of accord and peace to arrive at the correct answer.
9. B Students can eliminate A, which was an
unintended effect of the draft. Not including
women would not raise an objection, especially in the 1960s. Students should recall that
many thousands of military personnel served
in the war. They may also recall the objections
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and so choose the
correct answer.
1. C Students may note that two
answers are labeled theories, giving a clue that one of those two
answers must be correct. By
observing that self-determination
does not describe the idea of supporting, they can select the domino theory.
2. A Option D is easily eliminated,
because it is not a term that
applies to a person. Because dove
and hawk are contrasting terms,
students can also eliminate C.
Considering the different natures
of doves and hawks, students can
select the correct answer.
3. B Students with a firm grasp of
vocabulary will quickly see that
believe and credible are related
words, thus eliminating all false
choices.
4. D This question requires simple memorization and identification. There are no real clues in the
possible answers themselves,
since any of the options could
describe Communists.
5. D Nixon announced the withdrawal of 25,000 soldiers in June
1969. He did not, however, wish to
completely remove U.S. troops
because he wanted to maintain
negotiating power at the peace
talks.
Reviewing Main ideas
6. B Students should be able to
ignore the distraction of Mao
Zedong, recalling that he is
Chinese. They will have to resort
to basic recall, knowing that Dien
Bien Phu is a place and that Ngo
Dinh Diem was the leader of
South Vietnam.
677
Chapter 19 • Assessment
Chapter
10. D The question asks for a
turning point against the war.
Only A and D are directly related
to the war. None of the other
options, although they affected
some Americans, influenced public opinion about the war to a
great extent. While teach-ins were
important in the antiwar movement, they did not turn the majority of public opinion against the
war. The Tet Offensive was a major
political victory for the North
Vietnamese. It led many to believe
the war could not be won and
widened the credibility gap.
10. Which of the following events was significant in turning
American public opinion against the war in Vietnam?
Critical Thinking
Directions: Choose the best answers to the following questions.
A the National Teach-in
14. Why is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution important?
B the 1968 Democratic National Convention
C the assassination of President Kennedy
A It authorized the use of force in Vietnam.
D the Tet Offensive
B It ordered U.S. forces to withdraw from Vietnam.
C It divided Vietnam into two countries.
Section 3 (pp. 670–675)
D It required the president to consult Congress before
committing troops.
11. The gradual removal of U.S. troops from Vietnam was
known as
Base your answer to question 15 on the map below and on your
knowledge of Chapter 19.
A Agent Orange.
B containment.
C linkage.
The Vietnam War
D Vietnamization.
Dien
Bien Phu
12. Which of the following was part of the legacy of the
Vietnam War?
Gulf of
Tonkin
N
LAOS
A Americans’ increased cynicism about their government
W
B Americans’ belief that the policy of containment worked
E
THAILAND
D Americans’ paranoia about the intentions of the North
Vietnamese government
Critical Thinking
14. A The resolution gave
President Johnson the authority
to use force in Vietnam.
15. D If students look carefully at
the map, they will see that D is the
only possible answer.
678
H TRAIL
I M IN
CH
Major U.S. and
South Vietnamese
troop movement
Major North
Vietnamese
supply line
HO
13. B The incorrect options all
extend the president’s power.
Only B limits executive power, so
it is most likely to be correct.
M ek
NORTH
VIETNAM
R.
S
C Americans’ confidence that the United States would win
the Cold War
Vientiane
My Lai Massacre
March 16, 1968
SOUTH
VIETNAM
CAMBODIA
13. The purpose of the War Powers Act was to ensure that the
president would
Phnom
Penh
A have greater authority over the military.
12. A After abandoning the stalemated war, Americans did not
have greater belief in containment
as effective nor confidence in their
ultimate victory in the Cold War.
Within two years the North
Vietnamese conquered the South
Vietnamese, so there was no need
for paranoia about their intentions.
Hanoi
g
on
11. D Students should be able to
omit Agent Orange, recalling that
it was used to deforest Vietnam.
Although this leaves three
options, they should recall that
the suffix -tion refers to a process,
which aligns it to the idea of a
gradual removal.
ASSESSMENT
B consult Congress before committing troops in extended
conflicts.
Saigon
0
200 kilometers
0
200 miles
Miller projection
C have the authority to sign treaties without Senate
approval.
15. The Ho Chi Minh trail ran through which two nations?
A Laos and Japan
D have a freer hand in fighting the spread of communism.
B Laos and Thailand
C Laos and China
D Laos and Cambodia
Need Extra Help?
If You Missed Questions . . .
Go to Page . . .
10
667–668
678 Chapter 19 The Vietnam War
11
670
12
674–675
13
675
14
668
15
R15
GO ON
Chapter 19 • Assessment
Chapter
16. On which idea is the Twenty-sixth Amendment based?
ASSESSMENT
Document-Based Questions
A Women should be allowed to serve in the armed forces.
Directions: Analyze the document and answer the short-answer
questions that follow the document.
B The president, not Congress, should decide where and
when troops will fight.
In the 1960s many young Americans enlisted or were drafted
for military service. Some believed that they had a duty to serve
their country. Many had no clear idea of what they were doing
or why. In the following excerpt, a young man expresses his
thoughts about going to war:
C A person who is old enough to fight is old enough to vote.
D A draft is an old-fashioned and unworkable system for
selecting soldiers.
Analyze the cartoon and answer the questions that follow. Base your
answers on the cartoon and on your knowledge of Chapter 19.
“I read a lot of pacifist literature to determine whether
or not I was a conscientious objector. I finally concluded
that I wasn’t. . . .
The one clear decision I made in 1968 about me and the
war was that if I was going to get out of it, I was going to get
out in a legal way. I was not going to defraud the system in
order to beat the system. I wasn’t going to leave the country,
because the odds of coming back looked real slim. . . .
With all my terror of going into the Army . . . there was
something seductive about it, too. I was seduced by World
War II and John Wayne movies. . . . I had been, as we all
were, victimized by a romantic, truly uninformed view of war.”
—quoted in Nam
20. No; the young man realized
that the view of war he had from
World War II and the movies was
romanticized and not at all like
what real war would be like.
Extended Response
21. Students’ essays will vary but
should clearly and logically
express the changing effects of
television on Americans’ perceptions of the Vietnam war and war
in general.
19. What options did the young man have regarding the war?
20. Do you think World War II movies gave him a realistic view
of what fighting in Vietnam would be like?
17. This cartoon depicts what aspect of the Vietnam War’s effect
on the United States?
A disagreements in Congress between hawks and doves
B disagreements among military leaders about war strategy
C disagreements between pro-war and antiwar groups
among civilians
D disagreements on Nixon’s plan to pull out of Vietnam
Extended Response
21. The conflict in Vietnam has been called the first “television
war.” Americans could watch scenes of death and destruction unfold in front of them from their living rooms. Write
an expository essay about how television changed the way
Americans view war in general and how it contributed to
the unpopularity of the Vietnam War specifically. Your essay
should include an introduction and at least three paragraphs that explore this issue.
18. The cartoonist is expressing the opinion that
STOP
A the war was dividing the country.
B President Johnson should ask the country to remain
patient during the war.
C Vietnam is a conflict with an easy solution.
D President Johnson is a great leader with a solution to the
problems in Vietnam.
Need Extra Help?
If You Missed Questions . . .
Go to Page . . .
16
666–667
17
R18
18
R18
19
679
For additional test practice, use Self-Check Quizzes—
Chapter 19 at glencoe.com.
20
679
21
664–672
Chapter 19 The Vietnam War 679
Photo Credit: The Granger Collection, New York
16. C Students familiar with the type of content in constitutional amendments will readily
eliminate the false possibilities, even if they
cannot recall the subject of the Twenty-Sixth
Amendment. Other students may remember
that protest of the draft also raised questions
about the voting age.
18. A The other options are clearly false. No
one is pulling on Johnson, who appears to be
feeling his way in the dark, thus indicating the
lack of easy solutions.
17. C The cartoon depicts pro-war and antiwar
groups that divided the home front during the
Vietnam War.
19. He could declare he was a conscientious
objector, avoid service in a legal way, leave the
country, or become part of the military.
Have students visit the Web site
at glencoe.com to review
Chapter 19 and take the SelfCheck Quiz.
Document-Based Questions
Need Extra Help?
Have students refer to the
pages listed if they miss any of
the questions.
679