The Sixties – A Coming Apart

Tet to Watergate

1965-1975

REMEMBER THEM

If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and one backward glance when you are leaving, for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not always have. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.

©Copyright January 01, 1970 by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
Dak To, South Vietnam

This was last among the credits in the movie
"Hamburger Hill"

You have the right to remain silent...

The most active impulse for social change in the early 1960's came from the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren.  In addition to ruling against segregation in 1954 and 1955, the court made several landmark decisions designed to protect the rights of the accused. 

·        Defendants gained the right to a lawyer even if they could not afford one (Gideon v. Wainwright. 1963),

·        the right to have a lawyer present during questioning (Escobedo v. Illinois, 1964)

·        and must be read their right before questioning (Miranda v. Arizona, 1966.)

·        Evidence obtained illegally could not be used in trial (the exclusionary rule - Mapp v. Ohio, 1961)

·        In addition to rights of the accused, the concept of one person, one vote was established in order to created more equal representation of minority groups in Congress (Baker v. Carr, 1962). 

Where were you when?

          On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.  The nation was truly in shock, having lost a leader they had placed so much hope in so brutally.  The Warren Commission report identified Oswald as the lone gunman, but conspiracy theories have existed since.

The Great Society

          Lyndon Baines Johnson acted quickly to fill the void and actually was much more successful in passing legislation.  Early legislation was passed as a memorial to Kennedy (Civil Rights and Voting Rights) and later programs due to LBJ's long experience and connections in Congress.  After being elected in 1964 of his own accord, Johnson embarked on the most aggressive social reform program since the New Deal.  Michael Harrington's 1962 book, The Other America, had opened the public up to the growing problem of poverty in America, and the Great Society literally in the words of LBJ declared war on poverty.  The greatest gains took place in education with programs like Head Start, health care, with Medicare and Medicaid extending health care to the poor and the elderly.

I don’t even know where Vietnam is!

The origins of the Viet Nam conflict can be found in the invasion of Indochina by the Japanese in WW2.  The Communist leader of the Vietminh, Ho Chi Minh, was able to continue to fight the Japanese, while the French colonial government was not.  After the war, the French tried to re-exert their control and the Vietminh resisted.  In 1954, the Communists defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu.  The Geneva Accords divided Indochina into four countries - Communist North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.  With the withdrawal of the French from the region, the U.S. picked up the slack, trying to support the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem, and stop the spread of communism in the region (Domino effect)

They fired at us, honest!

While Eisenhower and Kennedy had limited American involvement to covert actions, aid and military advisors, Lyndon B. Johnson saw himself getting drawn deeper and deeper into the conflict.  Johnson increased the number of advisors from 16,000 (JFK) to 23,000 and committed an additional 50 million dollars in aid.  He also authorized covert activities in the form of amphibious raids of the north that led directly to the Gulf of Tonkin affair. In August of 1964, the Maddox (an American destroyer engaged in surveillance activities) was "attacked" by a North Vietnamese torpedo boat and Johnson was able to get Congress to pass a resolution (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) granting him sweeping powers to prevent further aggression.  In 1965, bombing of the North began and 50,000 troops were sent ((50,000 more soon.) 

 Pacification? Oh my…lai!

Over the next three years, the U.S. waged an intensive war in S. Vietnam and succeeded only in preventing a Communist victory.  The U.S. was unable to stop the flow of supplies and soldiers, who came from the North into the South under the protective cover of the Laotian and Cambodian jungles (Ho Chi Minh Trail).  The were also held back by the political decision to avoid extensive bombing of the north and mining of Haiphong Harbor, where most of the supplies from China and the Soviet Union came into the north.  The search and destroy nature of the American committment (pacification policy - eliminating the Viet Cong from the countryside) eventually led to continual escalation (500,000 by 1968 and the killing of innocent South Vietnamese citizens (Lieutenant William Calley and the My Lai incident where over 200 innocent villagers were killed).

I thought you said we were winning?

In January of 1968, the VC used the traditional lull in the fighting for the lunar new year to stage a coordinated attack on the Americans in 36 of the 44 provincial capitals(Tet Offensive).  Though the attacks were eventually repulsed with heavy causalities on the side of the VC, the people in the United States saw that Johnson and General Westmoreland had been misleading them when they said we were winning the war. LBJ responded by sending an additional 200,000 troops and halting the bombing of the north in hopes of opening up peace negotiations with the north.  In addition, he announced he would not seek reelection.

It seemed to come all unglued in 1968 with the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. 

Chicago, Chicago – My Kind of Town?

In 1968, the presidential election brought the issue of Vietnam front and center in American politics.  With LBJ not running, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey declared his candidacy, with strong support of the party regulars and organized labor.  Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy had been challenging LBJ in the early primaries as anti-war candidates, but Kennedy was struck down by an assassin's bullet (Sirhan B. Sirhan) after winning the California primary.  Humphrey was able to take a status quo position on the war into the Chicago convention, which erupted in days of bitter anti-war protest and severe police crackdowns ordered by Mayor Richard Daley.  Televised coverage of the convention, from both inside and outside the convention hall seriously hurt the Democrats and Humphrey.  Hounded by anti-war protesters throughout the fall campaign, Humphrey was hurt by being part of the Johnson administration, and only made a run of the race when he publicly broke with LBJ in September by calling for a stoppage of the bombing of the north. 

Chicago - David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash)

So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing
In a land that's known as freedom how can such a thing be fair
won't you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring

We can change the world rearrange the world
It's dying - to get better

 

Nixon and Kissinger

          With his election in 1968, Richard Nixon put in place a plan to end the war.  The plan involved training of the South Vietnamese troops so they could take over the war (Vietnamization), gradually reducing the number of Americans in the war (543,000 in 1969 to 30,000 by 1972), taking a hard line in negotiations with Hanoi (the North) and renewing bombing of the North.  In 1970, along with the increased bombing of the north, Nixon authorized the extension of the war into Cambodia and eventually Laos to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply routes.  Henry Kissinger, his National Security Advisor, was authorized to conduct secret negotiations with North Vietnam's foreign minister Le Duc Tho.  These negotiations hit several snags when the South balked before the 1972 election (they didn't want the U.S. to leave) and the North made last minute changes (they saw increasing protest in the U.S. as a sign that the Americans were wavering and Congress was ready to unilaterally withdraw).  Finally, late in 1972, after visiting both China and the Soviet Union to trade assurances that they would not join the conflict and the U.S. would not invade them, Nixon forced Hanoi to come to a truce by a series of savage bombings of Hanoi (Christmas bombings) and the truce was signed in January of 1973.  The U.S. agreed to remove their troops within 60 days in return for the release of American POW's.

Higher Education

          White, upper class college students found their cause in 1965 with the Vietnam War, with the first student "teach-ins" at Michigan.  It was a great irony of the war that these students were able to avoid the draft by enrolling in college, while the kids of the lower class was off fighting.  Protest intensified throughout 1966 and 67, and came to a climax in 1968 with the seizure of 5 buildings at Columbia University for eight days.  The brutal repression of the revolt by the New York City Police led to a quickening of revolts across the country.  In 1970, in response to the bombing of Cambodia, students at Kent State University in Ohio burnt the ROTC building and the National Guard was sent in.  Taunted by the crowd, the guard opened fire, killing four student bystanders.  A week later, two students were killed at Jackson State University.

TIN SOLDIERS AND NIXON'S BOMBING
WE'RE FINALLY ON OUR OWN
THIS SUMMER I HEAR THE DRUMMING
FOUR DEAD IN OHIO

    chorus;
GOTTA GET DOWN TO IT
SOLDIERS ARE GUNNING US DOWN
SHOULD OF BEEN DONE LONG AGO
WHAT IF YOU KNEW HER AND
FOUND HER DEAD ON THE GROUND
HOW CAN YOU RUN WHEN YOU KNOW

Miss Saigon

          In 1974, Congress cut back on military aid to South Vietnam and a North Vietnamese offensive entered Saigon.  The last American forces in Saigon concentrated on evacuating 150,000 loyal South Vietnamese by helicopter, an image that has come to symbolize our involvement in Vietnam.

Homework Assignment #44

1.  Discuss what the Geneva Accords accomplished in 1954.

2.  What role did the U.S. take on in 1954?

3.  Discuss the process of escalation from Eisenhower to Johnson.

4. Discuss the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

5.  Discuss the U.S. strategy of pacification.

6. Discuss the My Lai incident.

7.  Discuss the Tet Offensive and its impact on the U.S.

8.  Discuss the candidates for president in 1968.

9.  What happened in Chicago in 1968?

10.  Discuss the Nixon policy of Vietnamization.

11.   Why did the U.S. extend the war into Cambodia in 1970?

12.  What role did Henry Kissinger play in Viet Nam?

13.  What impact did the visits to China and the Soviet Union play in 1972?

14.  What effect did the Cambodia invasion have in the U.S.?

Dear America - Letters Home From Vietnam

1.  After the introduction, the video begins with the Huntley-Brinkley News Report. Do answer this question now!  After watching the whole video, why do you suppose the video centers around these developing news reports?

Music -            Under the Boardwalk - The Drifters

                        Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival

                        Eighteen - Alice Cooper

2.  Discuss the overall attitude of soldiers about the war and the goals of the war. (early)

Music -            Walk Like a Man - The Four Seasons

3.  Discuss the conditions faced in Vietnam, both physically and emotionally

4.  Discuss the letter concerning bravery and valor in battle.

.

Music -            The Beat Goes On - Sonny and Cher

"We own the day, the Charlie owns the night."

5.  Discuss the significance of the previous statement.

Music-             I Shall Be Released - The Band

6.  Discuss the significance of the letter stating the difficulty in telling the good guys from the bad guys.

Music-             Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

                        Are You Experienced - Jimmy Hendrix

                        Going to the Go-Go - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

                        Hard Rains Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan

Does the infantry think they are the only one's who exist?  Damn right!

7.  Discuss the significance of the passage and letter above.

Music -            Once I Was - Tim Buckley

8.  Describe the siege of Khe San.

9.  Describe Tet and discuss the result.

"It is a mistake to get attached to someone around here."

10.  Discuss the above statement.

11. Discuss the letter comparing the beauty of the plant, but the thorns on them.

Music -            Family Affair - Sly and the Family Stone

                        A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke

                        For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield

12.  Discuss the letter concerning Lt. Scott and his fighting for his countries freedom.  Is there significance to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King during the same period?

13. Throughout this video, we see songs that have dual meanings, concerned with the war as well as conditions back home.  After the end of the video, come back and several of those songs here.

Music -            Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

                        Silent Night

                        Back in the USA - Chuck Berry

                        What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

14.  Discuss the human damage caused by the war, the effect on the soldiers as the war deepens.

15. Discuss the experience of the nurses in the war.

Music -            Signed D.C. - Love

                        Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon

                        5 to 1 - The Doors

16.  Discuss the significance of the soldier being upset that America mourns the four kids killed at Kent State.

Music -            No Expectations - Rolling Stones

Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen

17.  Discuss how the homecoming for the soldiers was different than in pervious wars.

18.  Discuss the aspect of the mothers at the wall.

19.  Discuss the significance of the long period before the Vietnam Vets Parade.

20.  Discuss the misuse of the song, Born in the USA.

All the Presidents Men

          Nixon's administration also got involved in scandal, first with his vice-President Spiro T. Agnew being convicted of tax evasion and resigning.  Feeling the need to guarantee the Election of 1972 while he was busy with his foreign policy initiatives(China visit, Vietnam and Berlin negotiations) aides broke into the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel to look for information they could use.   They were caught and when Nixon acted to cover up the scandal, the country became enmeshed in Watergate.  Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward (All the President's Men) would continue to develop leads on the story until the scandal broke.   Congressional hearings on the subject would eventually show extensive operations by the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) to discredit his opponents.  When the Supreme Court ruled that tapes Nixon had of all of his Oval Office discussions (White House Tapes) were not protected by national security, he resigned in 1974.