Chapter 18 Notes

America, a super power, goes to war with Vietnam, a peasant country, and loses.
Vietnam belonged to France but rebelled to gain its independence.
We send aid to France
Vietnam follows a communist named Ho Chi Minh
We put Ngo Dinh Diem “in charge” of South Vietnam
Vietnam forms the NLF, National Liberation Front
Ho Chi Minh wrote eight letters to Truman. Truman never responded
Around 1958, guerrilla activities began
South Vietnamese oppose Diem, and with the help of some Americans, overthrow him
Domino Theory: If one country falls to communism, the next one will fall and so on and so forth
President John F. Kennedy continues the policies of Truman and Eisenhower
When Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Vice President, took his place
Generals that succeeded Diem failed to suppress the NLF
The Tonkin “attack” allowed a resolution to be passed in the House that allowed Johnson to take military action in Southeast Asia
Young men refused to register for the draft and had widely publicized the slogan “We Won’t Go” as early as May 1964. Some men who had already registered began to publicly burn their draft cards as a form of protest.
Some antiwar students formed the SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, around 1966
Black uprisings occurred in the U.S. in 1967
In October 1967, there were draft card “turn-ins” all over the country. In San Francisco alone, three hundred draft cards were returned to the government
In the fall of 1967, a Josephite priest and WWII veteran, Father Phillip Berrigan, along with artist Tom Lewis, with their friends David Eberhardt and James Mengel, went to a draft board in Baltimore, drenched the draft records in blood, and waited to be arrested. They served prison terms two to six years
By 1968, more than 500,000 American troops are in Southeast Asia
Large areas in South Vietnam were called “free-fire-zones”. This meant that anyone inside of these zones-men, women, children, and the elderly- were enemies and bombs could be dropped on these zones at will
Villages suspected of harboring Viet Cong were subject to “search and destroy” missions. This meant that all men of military age were killed and women, children, and the old were sent to refugee camps
It became illegal to protest the war or be involved with antiwar activities
Juries became more reluctant to sentence antiwar protestors. Also, logical judges were treating antiwar protestors differently
Muhammad Ali refused to serve in what he called a “white man’s war”. Because of this, the boxing committee took away his title and Ali was not allowed to box for some time
Martin Luther King Jr. was against the war in Vietnam
In London, two Americans crashed the American ambassador’s Fourth of July reception and made a toast “To all the dead and dying in Vietnam”
Daniel Ellsberg, a former marine officer, helped write the Department of Defense’s history of the war in Vietnam. Then, with the help of Anthony Russo, they began to copy the 7,000 page document, later known as the Pentagon Papers, and sent copies to some congressmen and the New York Times
Some priests and nuns of the Catholic church joined the antiwar movement
The troops began leaving Vietnam in 1973. When the troops got home, they were not greeted kindly by the public or the press
By the end of the war, 7 million tons of bombs had been dropped on Vietnam. Planes dropped poison gas on Vietnam to kill growth, however, the gas led to birth defects all over Vietnam