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They are where many ways people protested the draft. Some eligible draft members avoided the draft by leaving the country for Canada, Sweden, or a number of other countries. Other men protested by publicly burning their draft cards. 171 about 1,000 Vietnam veterans camped in Washington, D.C., to lobby for an immediate end to the war.
Lyndon B. Johnson won the presidential election on November 1st 164. Despite the tension between the Doves and the Hawks president Lyndon B. Johnson kept his policy of slow escalation. As he began his term in office in 165 he was confident that his “society programs” would be established despite “that nagging little war in Vietnam” (p. 58 A Nation Divided) as News Week reported it. The South Vietnamese government had not grown any stronger over the previous few months and losing substantial ground to the increasingly powerful Vietcong. The Vietcong where mainly gaining influence by infiltrating the countryside.
Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to ignore how the war was going despite the fact that fifty percent of the American public disliked the way he was handling the situation. Robert MacNamara, Johnson’s defense secretary, advised that “The American policy in Vietnam would only lend in disastrous defeat, and that the time had come for harder choices.” (p. 58 A Nation Divided) Johnson’s only choices for the war were escalation or withdrawal. His decision came when Vietcong mortar units attacked the central highlands, and killed 7 people and wounded 100. Johnson reaction was unwavering
“We have kept our gun over the mantel and our shell in the cupboards for a long time know; And what was the result? They are killing our men while they sleep in the night.”
He ordered continuous air strikes on multiple targets in North Vietnam and sent combat troops to South Vietnam. With this decision came the end of Johnson’s “Great Society.”
Along with the United States involvement in Vietnam, protests against the war escalated. Protests have long been a way for people to show thier difference in opinion and gain support. One of the many protests against the war that had a powerful effect on public opinion took place on March 7, 165. 500 African Americans congregated along US Route 80 outside of Selma, Alabama. The group had been organized by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and had planned on walking from Selma to Montgomery to help conclude a registration drive. Before the group was able to walk more than a few hundred yards, they encountered 150 local police and state troopers, 15 of whom where on horses. The protest group was warned by the Dallas County Sheriff, James G. Clark, to turn around immediately. The protestors refused to move, and minutes later a wave of officers armed with tear gas, clubs, whips, and cattle prods began to drive the crowd back. By the time the charge had subsided, more than fifty marchers were seriously injured.
After the Selma incident, there was a major national uprising over the next two weeks. All over the nation, civil rights leaders, clergymen, and students focused on the injustices perpetrated in Selma, Alabama. Political analyst Walter Lippman said “Unless Selma is expunged by a mighty national act of repentance and reparation, how shall Americans look themselves in the face when they get up in the morning?” (p. 5-60 A Nation Divided) This view of national shame was felt through across the America. Violence surrounding the matter escalated and opposition towards George Wallace, the Alabama Governor and Sheriff James Clark. Selma related violence peaked on March th after a federal injunction caused one of King’s marches to be postponed and a white Unitarian minister was murdered. The minister was attacked outside a Selma Caf by fellow whites, who yelled “nigger lover” as they beat the man to death with steel bars.
This brutal attacked caused Lyndon B. Johnson to call Wallace to the white house and tell him that if he did not allow the marches to proceeds and the Nation Guard called into service, Federal Troops would be sent to assist the marchers. On March 15 the president appealed a voting right that would
Throughout then entire beginning of the War there where civil rights movements aimed towards the United States involvement in Vietnam. There were numerous accusations that African American soldiers where being discriminated against by it being, statistically, more likely for a black soldier to see combat on the front lines. Also there was a significantly larger amount of black youths than whites, who where early draftees. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the issue as “A white man’s war, a black man’s fight.” (p. America in the Vietnam War)
The United States Army saw the largest percentage of African American soldiers than in any other military conflict. During 165-66, blacks made up only eleven percent of America’s population, made up twelve percent of the soldiers in Vietnam. The majority of these soldiers were in the infantry and suffered a relatively high fatality rate of twenty percent of all fatalities during this time. On many ships and bases, there where race riots in response to interracial councils and the creation of race sensitive training. Despite the set backs in racial equality, the Vietnam War, was first major combat operations that involved an integrated army. This was also the first war that African Americans were encouraged to join.
A failed Great Society program, a series of reforms similar to FDR’s new deal to help strengthen America, “Project 100,000” was a system to encourage under privileged youth from the lower classes to easily join the army, and better there life, by lowering the entrance requirements. Although 50,000 young Americans enlisted, it was still considered a failure; forty one percent of the enlisted where African American and forty percent of those where assigned to combat. Another failure was that the casualty rates for the members of Project 100,000 were more than double that of regular enlistees.
After 166 there where numerous efforts made by many officials in the military to lower the amount of casualties suffered by African American. There where many steps made by civil rights groups to influence the decisions of policy makers, and by the end of the conflict, black casualties where down to a more proportionate number of twelve percent. By the end of the war there was only a slightly higher amount of African American casualties than Whites to efforts made by political groups.
“To introduce white forces- U.S forces- in large numbers there [Vietnam] today, while it might have an initial favorable military impact, it would almost certainly lead to adverse political and in the long run adverse military consequence.”
Robert S. McNamara, 16 (Revisiting Vietnam p.1)
Robert S. McNamara was the United States Secretary of Defense from 161-168. McNamara is responsible for rebuilding the pentagons operations, as well as having a major hand in the amount of U.S involvement in Vietnam. His original policy for Vietnam was to deepen the United States involvement. As late as 166 McNamara expressed positive views for the outcome of Vietnam. Though starting in 166 he began to question the integrity of having U.S troops in Vietnam, and then later called for a full investigation for the exact reason for military involvement. McNamara knew, by the end of the war, that he was wrong to ever think they should have occupied South Vietnam. The main fault of the United States was that it tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional weapons when the opponents were willing to take large casualties. McNamara also admitted to not being “level” with the public, and that there were many instances were they should have considered surrendering.
McNamara was able to create a Middle War, were the U.S in involved, but not directly in the line of fighting. He was able to make it so that the United States was present in South Vietnam, but after aimed at targets that would cause the U.S to be sucked even deeper into Vietnamese affairs. This way, McNamara could essentially control policy makers by threatening attacks on various targets that have political significance. This method of running the war caused McNamara much pressure from both sides, the doves and the super hawks. McNamara was not actually a super hawk so could not completely side with them, but did not want to side with the doves, so he would constantly have both sides demanding actions.
“We were wrong, terribly wrong.” McNamara; 15 (Revisiting Vietnam p.1)
On May 1, 167, McNamara gave the president a dark view of the corruption and rotted ideals of South Vietnam. He argued with the president for further issues like limiting any major increases in the amount of troops in Vietnam and stopping commitment to government ties in Saigon if it could not fix itself.
“Today it is clear to me that memorandum pointed to the conclusion that, through either negotiations or direct action, we should have begun our withdrawal from South Vietnam. There was a high probability we could have done so terms no less advantageous than those accepted nearly six years later- without any greater danger to U.S national security and at much less human, political and social cost to America and Vietnam.” McNamara; May 167 (Revisiting Vietnam)
Late in November, Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Robert S. McNamara would be stepping down. McNamara had once been asked by Johnson to be his vice president, and now was being asked to leave the Defense Department; though he would only be moving to head of the World Bank.
There were many rumors about the sudden change in McNamara’s opinion about the war. The truth of the matte was, McNamara became disheartened by the events that happened in 166, and it caused him to realize that Vietnam was a lost cause. He became so upset with the path the war was heading he began to look more towards the CIA for independent judgments about the war.
A major turning point took place in August of 166, when the CIA gave McNamara a Vietcong document called “The Vietnamese Communists’ Will to Persist.” The document stated how the Vietcong were capable of enduring a prolonged U.S conflict, as well as showing proof that the U.S air strikes were doing little to stop Hanoi’s support of the Vietcong.
The Vietnam War was a conflict that the United States should not have been involved in because it was against an unknown enemy in an unknown territory. The consequences of the war far exceed the benefits. The war casued a severe decrease in the countries moral. Many people no longer trusted the government and grew extremely skeptical of its actions. The recession soon after the war did not help in boosting the spirit of the country. The Vietnam war also exposed many of the militaries weaknesses. It showed that military had poor planning, and was too self-assured. It also showed that it was possible to resist the United States. In the end the United States had devastating losses socially and economically.
Bibliography
Nhu Tang, Truong. 185. A Vietcong Memoir. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
Dougan C. Lipsman S. 184 The Vietnam Experience A Nation Divided. Boston Boston Publishing
McDougal Littell. 00 World History. United States of America
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/intro.html
http//www.colby.edu/education/activism/kent.shtml
http//search.eb.com/ebi/article?eu=877query=vietnam%0protestsct=
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