The 1968 Election• Lyndon Johnson did not run for

re-election.• Democratic Party split. Robert

Kennedy assassinated. Hubert Humphrey nominated.

• Nixon vowed to restore law and order, and to end the war in Vietnam

“Vietnamization” of the War

• Nixon’s plan for “peace with honor.”• Let South Vietnam do most of the actual

fighting.• Reduced U.S. troops steadily from 1969 –

1973.

Continued U.S. Involvement

• Nixon ordered invasion of Cambodia in 1970.

• Continued bombing of North Vietnam (the “mad bomber”). Hope to bring them to the negotiations table.

Problems and Protest Back Home

• The My Lai Massacre: A company of American soldiers brutally killed the majority of the population of the South Vietnamese village of My Lai in March 1968.

• In 1970, a U.S. Army board charged 14 officers of crimes related to the events at My Lai; only one was convicted.

• Led to further opposition to the war and greater division at home.

The My Lai Massacre

Kent State

• In response to the invasion of Cambodia, colleges burst out in protests, 1.5 million students closed more than 1,200 campuses

• On May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University, the National Guard opened fire on protestors after the ROTC building was burned down and rocks were thrown at the National Guard.

• 4 were killed, nine wounded.

Kent State University

U.S. Pulls out of the War –March of 1973

• All U.S. troops left Vietnam.• The war between the North and South

continued for two more years.• Threat of renewed U.S. bombing kept

North Vietnam from conquering South Vietnam.

• Nixon resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.

North Vietnam captures Saigon – August 1975.

• South Vietnam surrendered.• Vietnam united under Communist Rule.

The Fall of Saigon

1982: The Wall• The Vietnam Veterans’

Memorial unveiled in Washington, DC