HIST 1025 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Daniel Ellsberg, Lyndon B. Johnson, Tet Offensive
April 11
Song: Jimi Hendrix “Purple Haze”, but it wouldn’t play.
The Logic of the Vietnam War
2. The special difficulties of the Vietnam war
Review: Who’s the enemy? Blurriness led to atrocities…
How do you know if you’re winning? → usually reclaiming territory, but that was not the case in
Vietnam. Enemy had bases all over Vietnam. Under foot was tunnels built by NLF (large enough
to house hospitals and bomb factories).
Tet offensive- Vietnamese didn’t win logistically, but psychologically. Emblem of the ambiguities
of the war.
U.S.- win by keeping score: keep score by counting the number of Vietnamese killed. Body
counts were regularly inflated to look like more NLF were being killed.
Free-fire zone: Geographical area in which anyone who appeared was automatically the enemy-
bombed/shot and killed just by their presence in the zone.
How is it that the U.S. isn’t winning? The enemy’s army was made up of women, and they
transported their military supplies on bicycles. U.S. is superior→ technological arrogance.
Daniel Ellsberg- leaked Pentagon papers in 1970’s, defense analyst in the 60’s, goes to vietnam
and tries to tell the President’s advisor (Walt Rostow) how bad things are- Rostow says “the
charts say we’re going to win, they’re good!” Ellsberg is like, “dude, I was just there, it sucks and
we’re going to lose”.
Americans are horrified with what they see- Vietnam was first fully televised war- good quality,
color film. Americans are increasingly horrified with Lyndon Johnson, he liked to compare
himself to Lincoln. Johnson’s advisors even started turning against him. Johnson was
determined to prevent the war from becoming a political issue at home- no taxes raised until
1968 to support the war, didn’t want the war to jeopardize the betterment of the American
society and life at home. 1960’s were a prosperous time, but the spending caught up to the U.S.
in the 1970’s which led to inflation. More Americans became convinced that there was
something drastically wrong with the war. George Kennan, celebrities, soldiers, Black Power
Movement, and veterans became part of the anti-war movement. Veterans, students,
housewives, and others turn against the war. Johnson leaves office in 68 and Nixon takes
Johnson’s place. Nixon wanted to inform people that he had a secret plan to end the war in
Vietnam- expanded the war and changed the means- the “Vietnamization of the War”- decrease
the amount of U.S. troops involved in the war and increase Vietnamese soldiers involvement in
the war. Peace talks in Paris in 1973- didn’t really end the war, N. and S. Vietnamese violated
the ceasefire multiple times, and the war resumed. 1975- NLF ‘wins’.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Song: jimi hendrix purple haze , but it wouldn"t play. The logic of the vietnam war: the special difficulties of the vietnam war. Usually reclaiming territory, but that was not the case in. Under foot was tunnels built by nlf (large enough to house hospitals and bomb factories). Tet offensive- vietnamese didn"t win logistically, but psychologically. U. s. - win by keeping score: keep score by counting the number of vietnamese killed. Body counts were regularly inflated to look like more nlf were being killed. Free-fire zone: geographical area in which anyone who appeared was automatically the enemy- bombed/shot and killed just by their presence in the zone. The enemy"s army was made up of women, and they transported their military supplies on bicycles. Americans are horrified with what they see- vietnam was first fully televised war- good quality, color film. Americans are increasingly horrified with lyndon johnson, he liked to compare himself to lincoln.
