19.2: Vietnam Divides 19.2: Vietnam Divides the Nationthe Nation

A. An Antiwar Movement Emerges

1. Support for containment:

1965

a. 66% in favor

b. 24% opposed2. Educational hearings –

informing the Senate on military strategy.

3. General Westmoreland:“enemy’s hopes are bankrupt”

a. Wanted large # of troops

b. by 1967 >500,000

c. Living room war: Media and credibility gap effect Americans

d. George Kennan – American diplomat: Vietnam not strategically important to US

4. “Teach-ins”

a. Students and teachers skipped class

b. Gather to discuss the wrongs of the wari. Civil war

ii. Supporting a dictatorship

5. Vietnam Soldiers & the Draft

a. Draft implemented; most in combat units

b. avg. age 19; 21-26 WWII

c. Disproportionately AA, Latino, and poor

d. MLK criticizes high # of AA (13%, 10%, 20%)

e. “White man’s war”

f. Returning soldiers protest

5. Vietnam Soldiers & the Draft

g. Burn draft cards

h. Leave country

i. Serve jail time

j. 26th Amendment – voting rights for 18 y/o.

6. Doves vs. Hawks

a. Opposed war & wanted troops to withdraw from Vietnam

b. Should continue & increase force in Vietnam

B. 1968: B. 1968: The Pivotal YearThe Pivotal Year

The worst year of the 1960s!

The Tet Offensive

1. The Tet Offensivea. Vietnam’s New Years

b. Week-long peace agreement

c. Funerals being held during this time = easy attack

d. Deaths due to attacks:

i. Vietcong - 32,000

ii. US - 3,000

e. Victory? For who? How?

f. Americans realize war is a unwinnable

Walter Cronkite

2. Public Opinion on Wara. Before Tet Offensive

i. 28% Doves

ii. 56% Hawks

b. After Tet Offensive

i. 40% Doves

ii. 40% Hawks

c. 60 % war mishandled

d. 50% mistake to go in

3. A Season of Violence (1968)

a. March: Johnson announces he will not seek a second term

b. April: MLK assassinated;

AA communities responded with riots; 46 dead

c. June: Robert Kennedy assassinated

d. August: Democratic National Convention; Chicago; Mayor Daley

Mayor Richard J. Daley

Presidential Election 1968

Hubert Humphrey (D) Richard M. Nixon (R)