01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution, Operation Ranch Hand, The Credibility Gap
15 May 2018
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Chapter 29 - War Abroad, War at Home
Vietnam: America’s Longest War
Johnson’s War
• Kennedy had sent in many military advisors
• Lyndon B. Johnson makes the decision to engage in a major war
• Hoped to stay the course in Vietnam
• Realised that a loss or stalemate would cripple his re-election chances
• The Tonkin Gulf resolution passed to give Pres the authority to take “all
necessary measure” to defend US armed forces
• A “functional equivalent” to a declaration of war
• Johnson campaigns under a non-interference policy
• “Don’t send in US boys to do what Asian boys should be”
• govt in Saigon near collapse & Vietcong still pushing hard despite
bombing
Deeper into the Quagmire
• Feb 1965: Vietcong fire at a US base
• Johnson uses this to rationalize the war on North Vietnam
• Air strikes & Operation Rolling Thunder
• Up to 431,000 US troops in Vietnam at one time
War of attrition
• Bombing would destroy the Vietcong
• US troops destroy South Vietnam’s society
• Trying to root out Vietcong support
• Operation Ranch Hand
• 1965-1971
• 3.6 million acres of land sprayed with Agent Orange
The Credibility Gap
• Johnson’s popularity rises rapidly during Tonkin Gulf resolution
• Wanes as war drags on & body count told on every news show every
day
• Badgered at press conference in 1967 for creating the credibility gap
• News networks begin to show human suffering in Vietnam
• J. William Fullbright of Arkansas= most vocal congressional critic of the
war
• Arrogance of Power: proposes a negotiated withdrawal from a
neutralized Southeast Asia
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• Persuaded many congressman & 1967: Congress appeals to UN to try
to negotiate a war end
• War cost $21 billion per year
• 10% surcharge on taxes to cover this debt
• tapped the Social Security Fund
Generation in Conflict
• “The Times They Are A-Changin”
• First protest at U Cal Berkley for free speech in 1964
• Civil rights activists return from Mississippi Freedom Summer
• Picketed San Francisco stores that practiced discrimination in hiring
• Tried to recruit students & administration said no
• “Students from Goldwater” say that this restricts their free speech
• University breaks up protests and presses charges
• Sit in against charges and more arrests
• Free Speech movt spreads across college students
• Demand a curriculum restructuring & treat students as “adults not
children”
• “In loco parentis” rules allow for more student freedom
• 1967 “Summer of Love” brings 75,000 “hippies” form a ‘counterculture’
in San Francisco
• “Just be” there (ie: drugs, music & sex)
• Sexual revolution causes adult-hippie friction
• 1970: 75% of college seniors weren’t virgins
• The “pill” becomes widely available
• Sex more widely discussed
• “Sexual communities” created
• Share child care & sex partners
• Drugs play a large role in this counterculture
• Marijuana & rock become intertwined
• Bob Dylan: “Everybody must get Stoned”
Folk to rock
• Woodstock (August 1969)
• 400,000 people gather for 3 day rock concert
• sex & drugs run rampant while police stand by
• counterculture= “Woodstock Nation” (WN)
• From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization
• After Operation Rolling Thunder starts, students have a day long class
boycott
• War related research boycotted on campus
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find more resources at oneclass.com
