Facing Frustration in Vietnam

US Troops Face Difficult Conditions

Geographic Difficulties: hot, humid weather; insects and disease; tropical vegetation that hid Viet Cong. The US sprayed chemical Agent Orange, to defoliate the jungles.

August 19, 1966: Three US Air Force planes spray defoliant chemicals as they fly toward dense Vietnamese foliage.

US Troops Face Difficult Conditions

Fighting Difficulties: The Viet Cong and the NVA used guerrilla warfare, attacking US soldiers and then disappearing into the jungle. They built elaborate underground tunnels to hide in. Very hard to tell friend from foe, since the Vietnamese peasant by day might be a Viet Cong guerrilla by night.

US Troops Face Difficult Conditions

Strategic Difficulties: The US military had to eliminate insurgent forces faster than the communist could replace them, but some 200,000 North Vietnamese men reached draft age every year, far more than the number of Viet Cong and NVA troops killed per year.

The War Divides the People of South Vietnam

US Pacification Program: This program sought to bring economic development to rural South Vietnam. It supplied villages with food, goods, helped build schools, and used propaganda to win people over.

This picture is one that would reach potentially every father in the world. It was used as the cover of a pamphlet which describes the truth about the cause of the subversive insurgency in Vietnam. Such dramatic pictorial appeals draw sympathy from the reader before a word is read, thus making the remainder of the story also more sympathetic to the audience. (1966)

The War Divides the People of South Vietnam

Viet Cong Maintain Popular Support: The US used search and destroy missions and air strikes destroyed South Vietnamese villages, turning millions of peasants into refugees. Napalm, a jellied gas used to burn forests and enemy installations, burned everything and everyone it touched. The Viet Cong used kidnapping, assassinations and other brutal means to eliminate voices of opposition

Kim Phuk was the little girl running away, naked and badly burned after her village was attacked. She was a resident in the village of Trang Bang, where on 8 June1972, South Vietnamese planes, in coordination with the American military, dropped a napalm bomb on the area which was under attack from and occupied by North Vietnamese Army [NVA] forces.

Growing Opposition to the War

Television: At the start of the war TV reports told upbeat stories of US soldiers’ courage and skill. As the war continued, stories were more about the scenes of suffering, violence, destruction, and graphic images of combat and body bags.

Growing Opposition to the War

Statistics: In 1968 the number of American troops rose to over 500,000 and the number of American soldiers killed exceeded 1200 per month. Government spending rose to $30 billion a year, leading to inflation and higher taxes.

Growing Opposition to the War

Americans at Home Protest: Faculty member at universities held teach-ins, nightlong events aimed at teaching students about the war and debating policy. Students held sit-ins to protest the war or companies that supplied weapons for the war. Young men burned their draft cards – many protested it was unfair to be drafted to fight a war they did not have the right to votes against. (Congress passed the 26th Amendment)

1968: A Year of Crisis

Write one paragraph in response to this question: Historian and author Charles Kaiser writes that 1968 was the “most turbulent 12 months of the postwar period and one of the most disturbing intervals we have lived through since the Civil War.” What made 1968 such an important year in American history?