WHY VIETNAM? 1

Vietnam stands as dividing line in the period we study

Divides a period of intense fear of Soviet Union and Cold War rationale for government,

from skepticism about America’s role in the world

Divides trust in government from distrust in government

Divies strong presidency from weakened presidency

As you will read in my essay,

Vietnam itself did not cause all of these changes

          But it focused attention on them

As Schulzinger points out, War becomes an obsession

          Like the civil rights movement, it is a touchstone that Americans returned to again and again to judge other issues.

The student movement we dsicussed last ten days became absorbed in stopping the War

Vietnam became a metaphor for all that was wrong with America

Ultimately, it created a new metaphor.

Lesson of Munich: aggression unchallenged is aggression unleashed

Lesson of Vietnam – NO MORE VIETNAMS

No more intervening in the affairs of countries

By 1970, A majority of Americans ultimately questioned what for 20 years had been unquestionable

why are we extended half way around the world?

Might countries like Vietnam be responding to NATIONALIST impulses

Not just a choice between communisms and the U.S.?

VIETNAM HAS LEFT A LEGACY AS LONG AS THE AMERICAN INVOLVEME$NT ITSELF

The list of Vietnam legacies is formidable

death and human injury.

Vietnam shattered the myth of American invincibility. 

Vietnam tested the American will to reshape the world in its own image and the claim of its citizens to be a special people

Although we fought the war in large part to demonstrate our credibility as an ally, in the long run, the war estranged the United States from other nations

The one lesson in foreign policy that everybody seemed to learn form Vietnam was “No more Vietnams

Those who sought to retain America’s prerogative to intervene militarily were at pains to distinguish future military actions from Vietnam. 

The Vietnam War also bequeathed a powerful set of domestic legacies

Congress challenged the “imperial presidency”

Stopping an out-of-control presidency became as important as stopping the war.

Lies about America’s engagement in Vietnam produced a “credibility gap” by Lyndon Johnson’s second term in office

The distrust spread far beyond the presidency itself to virtually all agencies of the government and institutions in general

The War also divided the Democratic Party

The war played havoc with the economy.

Vietnam  demonstrated to broadcasters and viewers alike that the video image could be as powerful as the written word.

The Vietnam war disrupted our story. 

 

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To understand the situation in Vietnam by the 1960s, need to understand the HISTORY of Vietnam

Fateful decisions by U.S.  The fall of china in 1949 galvanized American attitudes:

“The falling domino”  which became known as the “Domino Theory”

Geneva Accords 1954; violated, 1956

Why did the U.S. support Diem?

*** Kennedy was uneasy about increasing America's commitment

BUT the domino theory overpowered these more subtle complaints

John Kenneth Galbraith's question: why real estate in space age?

 

WHY VIETNAM 2

The most direct answer to Galbraith's question — why are we in Vietnam? —  was offered by America's new president, Lyndon Johnson

Johnson's answer and America's policy -- from fifties through seventies –

Best captured in a speech in 1965

Johnson asked, why Vietnam?

- film Starts with shots of Munich:

- The South -- which is treated as an ind. country

-this is a new kind of war: enemy not visible but enemy is everywhere

This the Domino theory:  Must stop communist aggression here

VIETNAM IS ABOUT CREDIBILITY: need to demonstrate that we are trsutworthy allies

The United States faced many decision points vis a vis Vietnam

It might have treated Ho’s movement as a legitimate nationalist movement

It might have pulled the plug on support for Colonial France in 1954

Instead it doubled down

It might have actually honored the Geneva Agreement that called for a real election

But the U.S. did not honor this agreement and treated Diem’s S. Vietnam as a separate nation

Kennedy, might have stopped the flow of advisors, but he chose not to

And you heard LBJ’s reasons for turning Vietnam into an American war

          We were not fighting for grains of rice

But we WERE fighting because political leaders believed that the world was divided in two halves

And even if they did not fully believe that, they had watched what McCarthy did after China turned communist

And they were NOT going to take the risk of being tarred with the “Soft on Communism” charge

One of the greatest ironies of the U.S. Position in 1965 is that we really WERE fighting to show our allies we were a credible ally

And as the war raged on, and on, that fight demonstrated to many of our allies that we actually were a very dangerous ally

Dangerously committed to the domino theory, which every day, looked less convincing.

EVENTUALLY, Johnson's OWN credibility was challenged

The republican victor in 1968, Richard Nixon, had a unique opportunity to break with the past

Determined to win "peace with honor", Nixon widened the war at the same time that he withdrew American troops

in June 1973 with Watergate sapping Pres. political strength, Congress votes to require Pres to cease military action in Indochina

Congress also passed the War Powers Resolution

On April 30 1975, the war came to an end.

VIETNAM HAS LEFT A LEGACY AS LONG AS THE AMERICAN INVOLVEME$NT ITSELF

(Please see top of Why Vietnam? Lecture 1 for summary)

What does Vietnam mean for us today?

It means deciding where you stand on the question of limits