CHAPTER 4: THE VIETNAM WAR!!

(1960-1975) MAN, THAT’S A LONG TIME(THE 10,000 DAY WAR!!!!!!!)

Here is the only question u have to answer: “Was the Vietnam War right or wrong or somewhere in between?”

1) You can look at it through the lens of American casualties: 58,000 dead 156,000 severely wounded 5000 Missing in Action (many taken as prisoner and tortured like Senator

John McCain from Arizona) Average age of American soldier killed : 23.1 years old 25,000: severely disabled (A great movie about this is “Born on the 4th of July” with Tom Cruise 5,300 lost a limb-------1,081 lost 2 or more limbs! 2/3 of all the soldiers who served in Vietnam now need psychological counseling 25% of ALL homeless people are veterans, mostly Vietnam Vets!

Other nasty details of Vietnam:- Home to 37 different venomous snakes (good eatin!)- 3 different kinds of malaria--- 5 different mosquitoes- Jungle rot: when your feet get too wet and humid, various molds and fungi start to

live inside your toes (8th hour)

2) You can look at it through the lens of money: $960,000,000,000.00 (that’s with a ‘B’ nerds) Iraq War: 2-6 TRILLION DOLLARS! (good luck children) Afghan War- 3-6 TRILLION DOLLARS

3) You can look at it through the lens of civilians killed: Vietnamese civilians killed: 500,000 Vietnamese civilians wounded: 900,000,

4) OR u can look at it through the lens of the DOMINO THEORY: the idea that, after the Korean War and China becoming communist, if we don’t stop communism in Vietnam then ALL OF ASIA will be red. DON’T 4GET that 1949 was a VERY important year: Russia gets ze Bomb and China becomes RED!!

5) You can also look at it through the lens of communism and Stalinism: was communism the same thing as Stalinism and thus worthy of being stopped at all costs? Mao Zedong was pretty bad and so was Fidel Castro. So, is winning the Cold War so important that anything goes? This is the great moral question and the one any of your essays should ultimately respond to even if left unanswered.

What u CANNOT forget is this:1) In 1949 1,000,000,000 Chinese people became communist.

- Then, Mao Zedong killed 40,000,000 people through the Great Leap Forward and another 5 million through the Cultural Revolution

2) In 1949 the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear weapon (test run)- Stalin was a maniac

3) In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea- Kim Il Sung was a maniac

4) In 1959, Cuba became commonest- Castro started acting like a maniac

What was America to think? To them the matter was VERY black and white, and the Vietnam War was a no-brainer. They say hindsight is 20-20 and that it is easy for us in 2017 to criticize JFK, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon, but to be in the heart of it, that is something else. The Cold War was a war against good and evil, not a philosophical game.

Failure to provide historical AND philosophical context, now, in college, and in your adult lives, means your understanding is limited. The same goes for economic factors. Make your understanding infinite.

PART A: HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDIf the Korean War was the last good guy vs. bad guy war, then Vietnam was anything but!? DON’T 4GET that Vietnam can be asked about on Paper #3 in terms of the Cold War, and on Paper #2 in terms of a regular war, a PROXY WAR or even a CIVIL WAR (North vs. South). It’s also an example of China and Russia getting a little involved, but not too much.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES KOREA VS. VIETNAMVietnam, like Afghanistan, is one of those countries that has been fighting for 2000 years. To them, America was just another imperial power. As one North Vietnamese General said: “You guys think in terms of 10 years, 20 years or 30 years. We here in Vietnam think in terms of 1000 years. We will NEVER quit!”

Just like Korea, Vietnam has been the target of Chinese occupation since before Christ. First the Han Dynasty tried to take them over, then came the Tang and Song, and even the Mongols got in on the fun. Vietnam has always been known as a fierce and proud opponent, fighting until the very end. And just like Korea, Vietnam was taken over by

Japan during WWII. Also just like in Korea, the anti-Japanese resistant fighters, this time led by Ho Chi Minh, were communist. And, just like in Korea, the anti-communist guy we chose was an a$%hole (see below). Of course, the BIGGEST SIMILARITY is that BOTH Korea and Vietnam are linked by the DOMINO THEORY

Just as importantly, Vietnam has also been plagued by poverty, inequality and corruption for their entire history. (Remember 1%/99%). The idea of socialism or communism appealed to the people and up to 80& of the population wanted to vote for it. After World War 2 they were ready to do just that.

Finally, after Japan lost WWII and was forced out of Vietnam the United Nations ALSO decided to split the country up into 2, just like with Korea, this time at the 17TH PARALLEL. The communists would control the North while we would control the South.

Then, by 1956 we all agreed that the Vietnamese people would finally have elections, for the first time in 2500 years!!!!

Except this time it will be the AMERICANS who cancel elections because we know everyone’s gonna vote for HO CHI MINH!!!!! In Korea it was Kim Il Sung and the Communists who cancelled elections In Vietnam it was us!!! Can we really say we are the good guys if we are the ones who cancelled elections?!

THE ONE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE between Korea and Vietnam is ……………A lot of people don’t know this but Vietnam was actually taken over by the French in the 1800’s. It was part of an area known as French Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. But not Thailand.

FRENCH INDOCHINA

France took over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia way back in 1887. They did this for the same reasons that ALL European countries got in on the colonization; natural resources and cheap labor.

But after WWII, when Hitler really wrecked France and Vietnam FINALLY won its independence, France told the world they wanted Vietnam BACK!!! Vietnam was like ‘What??!!!! No, were gonna vote goddammit!!”

And the United States actually said to France “Yes, we support U!!!” This is because President Dwight D. Eisenhower would rather have a European colonial power in charge instead of the Vietnamese, who might…..go……communist.

And in 1954 when the French attacked it was with American guns and money. This was known as the French-Indochina War #2, and the Vietnamese ….would….not….quit. It seems that fighting for one’s freedom is a really good motivator. Something the United States should have understood after that little skirmish known as the American Revolution. Anyway, the Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, felt that this was their ONE CHANCE AT FREEDOM and no one was gonna stand in their way. And naturally, when they defeated the French, they wanted to vote for Ho Chi Minh and become communist.

We didn’t give France any guns or troops, but we funded 80% of their war for them. Why would we support a colonial power instead of a democracy?

Because we knew that the people of South Vietnam would vote for Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader in the North. We knew that about 80% of the people in South Vietnam would have voted for him so…….

HO CHI MINH**HANOI may be the capital of Vietnam, but Ho Chi Minh City is its most famous city. It

used to be called ‘Saigon’ but that’s before a little country in SE Asia defeated the mightiest power this world has ever known. The last American troop left Saigon on

April 30, 1975.

Ho Chi Minh is either a killer, if you ask the Americans, or an absolute hero, if you ask the Vietnamese. Who is right?

First of all, just like Kim Il Sung in North Korea, Ho Chi Minh was a JAPANESE-KILLER. That is, he was a war hero fighting against the brutal Japanese. So of course the Vietnamese peasants LOVEDD him. Plus, he was a peasant himself, and he did not want the RICH/POOR divide of capitalism to plague his people. And he understood their culture. Now, he is a war hero against the French as well, and soon will become a war hero against the US shortly.

But let’s learn a little about who Ho Chi Minh really was. Who Ho?Actually lived in NYC (Harlem) when he worked as a cook’s helper on

a ship and then as a baker (Ho-Chi-Cheesecake) BEGGED the world to get rid of French Indochina going way……… back to WWI. He was a fan of DEMOCRACY from the very beginning. Became Prime Minister of Vietnam in 1945 as soon as the Japanese were kicked out. Defeated the French in 1954 even without Eisenhower’s help. We SUPPORTED him when he was fighting the Japanese, and shooting at him when he was fighting the French!! Anything to avoid the DOMINO THEORY and another country in Asia becoming Communist.

HO CHI MINH DEFEATS THE FRENCH- The French learned that you cannot fight a conventional war in the jungle. Your tanks and planes will be useless because the enemy will use ‘guerrilla warfare’ against you. They will use the 1) jungle for cover, and 2) they will have the support of the peasants, who want to become Communist!- After WWII, Ho Chi Minh was sure that the United States would finally support their independence. After all, didn’t the world just stop one of the worst imperialists in history, Adolf Hitler?! And didn’t we just kick out Japan after five years. And didn’t the United States fight their own little revolution against the British (1776)?

- But no, Dwight D. Eisenhower was a lot more concerned with Communism spreading in Asia after the Korean War. He felt that France could stabilize Southeast Asia, and so he chose “the lesser of 2 evils”.

- What’s interesting about Ho Chi Minh is that we supported him when he was fighting against Japan in WWII and now we were sending guys to kill him.

“ The enemy of my enemy is my friend” Chandragupta 6th century India

PAPER #2: GUERRILLA WARFARE I LOVEEEEEEEEE teaching about guerrilla warfare because it is the ONLY type of warfare that can defeat a conventional army. Although Vietnam may be on Paper #2 or Paper #3, you may get a question ONLY on Guerrilla Warfare on Paper #2. You can use Vietnam, Cuba, or Afghanistan. DON’T 4GET that Paper #2 is only about wars themselves (weapons, soldiers, tactics, treaties, etc.)

The thing about fighting a country that is utilizing guerrilla warfare, or “hit and run” tactics, is that you’ll never win. You’ll never lose either. It’s just that you’ll be fighting for the rest of your life. The Vietnamese have been fighting for 2000 years. U think they’re gonna stop now?! They think in different timelines than Americans. We think of next week or next year. They don’t. The worst thing that you can do is invade a country that doesn’t want you there. If you don’t have the support of the peasantry, the people, how can you ever win?!

Look at the American Revolution for example:1. The British had more guns and more money////////We knew the land2. The British had to hire soldiers and German mercenaries////We were fighting for our freedom3. The British could take our land (S. Carolina and Georgia)///They couldn’t HOLD it.4. The British had way more troops/////we would hide in the forests and use “hit and run” techniques.

All of this is true about Vietnam and is true about Afghanistan as well. History repeats itself ladies and gentlemen because ignorant people don’t take HL History!

Read what MAO ZEDONG writes about the POWER of Guerilla WarfareMAO’S RULES FOR GUERRILLA WARFARE

1. “If the enemy advances- we retreat!The enemy halts- we harass

The enemy tires- we attackThe enemy retreats- we pursue!”

2. Allow the enemy to enter Communist territory-lure them in

-watch them break into small groups-kill the small groups!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE HO CHI MINH TRAILThe Ho Chi Minh Trail was a series of roads and underground tunnels 8000 miles long that the North Vietnamese built all the way down Vietnam and Cambodia. It had underground bedrooms, underground hospitals, thousands of miles of tunnels with tracks and electricity, and it was IMPOSSIBLE to destroy.

- 13,000 kilometers of roads (8000 miles, or from here to Los Angeles and back to Miami twice!)- 7000 feet high sometimes in the mountains- 50 feet down into the dirt- 100,000 boys, girls, grandmothers and grandfathers would repair it …….EVERY……SINGLE…….NIGHT!!

** If you have even the women and children helping in the war movement, while the other side has to DRAFT people to go and fight, you will wear out your enemy. And don’t forget that half the country here at home was against the Vietnam War.

Also, the one endearing quality of communism was that it was in favor of equal rights for women and girls. From Lenin, to Mao to Stalin to Ho Chi Minh, they gave way more freedom to the opposite sex than their home countries ever did.

WE TRIED…AND FAILED TO DESTROY IT- 900 hundred air attacks per day!!!!!- B-52 bombers could drop 100 75-pound bombs in 30 sec- In WWII we dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Hitler. In the Vietnam War, we dropped 2.5 million JUST IN LAOS!!!!!!!

- We lost 1000 planes and 800 pilots over 5 years - We only killed 1 guy for every 300 bombs (weighing 100 tons)—cos us $140,000

This brings up the question of COST VS. BENEFIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- 350,000 bombing missions- 665,000 tons of bombs dropped (that’s 1,300,000,000 pounds)- 182,000 civilians killed (1000 civilians a week)** How do you think that played out on TV?!!

By the way, this is why many Generals don’t want war on TV, and why George W. Bush wouldn’t allow photos of Iraq war caskets in the US with the flag draped on.

STUPID STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH THE HO CHI MINH TRAIL We tried using “pigeon bombs” who would accidentally blow themselves up. We tried using pill bombs attached to thousands of little sensors hanging in the trees. The North Vietnamese would just send out animals to create “false alerts” We tried the “LAVA PLAN” which means turning dirt into grease!!! Nice!

MAIN IDEA: U cannot defeat guerrilla warfare with airplanes and bombs. And if the WHOLE VILLAGE is against u, you will either lose or be fighting 4ever, and it will BANKRUPT you.

SO……WE STARTED USING AGENT ORANGESince we couldn’t find the bad guys hiding in the jungle our solution was……..to actually try to kill all the trees!!! Can u believe it? Vietnam is 85% jungle, and ur military strategy is to kill the trees. Go 4 it!

Agent ‘Orange’ is a chemical spray filled with a deadly toxin called dioxin which acts as an organic pollutant. That is, it kills plants and trees. We would spray it from our airplanes with the hope of ……killing all the trees in Vietnam so we could find and then

shoot the bad guys! You see, the United States couldn’t find the Vietcong in the trees and the jungle so………….their strategy was literally to kill all the plants. Brilliant!

And then we were surprised when we found that that same spray actually killed humans and animals as well?! And who it didn’t kill it deformed forever. And of course, those people foolish enough to have children found their offspring mutated and deformed too.

They say that we killed 400,000 civilians using Agent Orange and caused over 500,000 birth defects. It also fell on our own people.

** I dare you to go online and see what JFK and Agent Orange did to the people of Vietnam.

Warning: These images ARE graphic but they are TRUE! Have fun!

WHO XACTLY R WE FIGHTINGThe North Vietnamese Army: Also called the “People’s Army of Vietnam”This is HO CHI MINH’S army in the North. They were strong, they were loyal, they were hungry, and they knew the land.

The Vietcong:The Vietcong was the SOUTHERN Communist group that sprang up in 1956 after Eisenhower cancelled the elections. That is, they were a RESISTANCE GROUP, A REBEL GROUP, A REVOLUTIONARY GROUP that fought with the NVA to bring Communism, and Ho Chi Minh, to ALL of Vietnam. Again, they had the total support of the peasants.

This is a very important point: In any war, he who controls the peasants controls the countryside.

The Northern Communists (NVA) and the Southern Communists (The Vietcong) worked together and were essentially both under Ho Chi Minh’s leadership

The Vietnamese people fought the Chinese from 111 BCE to 959 CE. Here’s a great quote from a Vietnamese General:“All we know is struggle. We have been fighting for over 2000 years. What’s another 20?!”

Ho Chi Minh’s generals spent a COMBINED 222 years in prison. Think they’re gonna quit. They’ll bankrupt you first! When Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, 100,000 people wept in 107 degree heat for 24 hours. That is love the draft cannot replicate!

PAPER #2: BATTLES AND MASSACRES

1. The Ma Lai massacre: Perhaps the worst massacre of the war in Vietnam. Our soldiers were just young kids, 18, 19 and 20 years old. We sent them to the snake infested jungles of Vietnam 10,000 miles away; 10,000 miles from Ohio, Oklahoma or California. They lost it. They would kill civilians. They would murder women and children.

One of the problems was the North Vietnamese (the NVA) would just hide in South Vietnamese villages. Don’t 4get, many South Vietnamese loved Ho Chi Minh and wanted to be communist. We couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys, just like in Iraq and Afghanistan today. They weren’t wearing uniforms like the Nazis or the redcoats and blended right into the population.

Well, these American soldiers had no experience with such things, the heat, the death, everything, and every once in a while they would wind up burning an entire village or killing everyone around. The MY Lai Massacre is one of the most famous examples of this. The My Lai Massacre: We killed 22 innocent villagers, women and children included. No one really ever went to prison for it. Remind me to show you a disturbing video clip.

2. THE TET OFFENSIVE ‘Tet’ is the Vietnamese word for the Lunar New Year, or spring. Normally, both sides stop fighting to celebrate the coming of the bees, the flowers and the honey. Not today! On Tet of 1968 the NVA (the North Vietnamese Army) launched the largest attack in Vietnamese history.

- It involved 80,000 North Vietnamese troops- They attacked 100 different cities as well as the southern capital, Saigon- Used the Ho Chi Minh trail to smuggle men and weapons to the South

Vietnamese border. They hid guns and bullets in rice just like the cafeteria workers in A Lunch.

(In Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, as well as in much of Asia, people eat chocolate covered crickets, barbecued scorpions, burgers made out of worms etc. In fact, 80% of the planet gets their protein from bugs because eating meat is very bad for the planet: It takes 1000 gallons of water to get 1 pound of beef! (Remind me to show u a video of the future: eating bugs!)

-The TET Offensive failed but it showed Americans, who watched it on TV, that the Vietnamese were not going away, and if u wanna fight them, get ready for a long, bloody and expensive war. The hallmark of endless guerrilla combat.

The TET Offensive was important for 3 reasons:

1. It showed the world that the North Vietnamese were serious and that they could get troops and supplies into South Vietnam without us knowing about it.

2. It showed Americans that even though we won, it costs us a lot of troops, a lot of ammunition and a lot of lives. It begged the question: ‘was this worth it and how far were we willing to go?’

3. Finally, the TET Offensive was totally on television, in living color for all the mommies and daddies that had sons over there fighting. They saw what war was like for the very first time and for WWII veterans, the parents, it showed them that Vietnam and WWII were completely different.

- 80% of Americans had TV’s (31% in Russia)- Most were in color (color TV’s inverted in 1953)

By early February 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of LB Johnson’s handling of the war. There develops what is known as a “CREDIBILITY GAP” between what LBJ is saying, and what Americans are seeing.

In fact, the TET Offensive was so bad that Robert McNamara, LBJ’s Secretary of Defense, actually quit! The next day LBJ announces to the world that he will NOT seek re-election in 1968. Richard Nixon promises to “get us out of Vietnam” and become Preisdent, but he, um, lied!

CBS, NBC and ABC: Also, don’t 4get that Vietnam was the first time that journalists from all over were ‘embedded’ with the troops. This happens now all the time (ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan), but back then it was a new thing. By 1966, there were 400 journalists in Vietnam and not all were American (67 were South Vietnamese, 26 Japanese, 24 British, 13 Korean, 11 French, and seven German). Actually, 66 lost their lives.

In 2002, a Wall Street Journal correspondent named Daniel Pearl covering the war in Afghanistan was beheaded by militants in Pakistan. Actually, in 2007 one of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay said that he was the one that held the knife (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed). He was supposed to get the Death Penalty but since we got information out of him using torture, the Supreme Court ruled that is not allowed. The CIA water-boarded him 184 times but he will probably never leave prison. He is considered “the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks”.

What was happening was that the United States government was painting one picture and the newsmen (TV, radio, newspapers, TIME Magazine) were painting another. In 1968 Walter Cronkite, the CBS guy who was considered the “most trusted man in America” got back from a one week stay and said “We are in a stalemate!!!!” He actually said that we should “negotiate” and quit!

By 1965, 2/3 of American said Vietnam will NEVER be like America

80% said the Vietnamese were winning! 50% said we should fight communists wherever, whenever! In 2010, 69% said Vietnam was a mistake 29% of Americans aged 18-29 (ya know, the scholars) actually believe we fought

WITH the North Vietnamese 90% of people today can’t find Afghanistan on a map and we’ve been at war there

since 2001!!!!

**We will watch a video on Tet so don’t 4get to take notes! The Tet Offensive may have been a military defeat, but was a psychological victory!

3. The Gulf of Tonkin: Vietnam and the Spanish-American War were similar in one way: we needed an excuse to get into both, and in Vietnam LBJ gave us one.

He said that a North Vietnamese ship fired on one of our ships, the USS Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin, near the Northern part of Vietnam. Of course, there is NO evidence that this ever happened. Just like when we needed the Spanish-American War to happen and someone in Cuba “mysteriously” blew up the USS Maine. The Gulf of Tonkin was on every TV. America had its war.

PAPER #3: VIETNAM AND THE HIPPIES

This is also one my FAVORITEEEEEEE parts of teaching the Vietnam War cuz so many of the kids in 7th and 8th hour are little hippies, right?! The War in Vietnam split this country in 2. I really consider it America’s 2nd Civil War.

Actually, you may get a question about this on PAPER #3 that looks like this:“Youth culture and protests of the 1960s and 1970s: characteristics and manifestation of a counterculture”

On the one hand you had people who felt that the war in Vietnam was a good idea, that communism was so evil, that we should do “whatever necessary” to stop it. This is the camp my father its squarely into—having lived inside the Soviet Union for so long, he had no illusions about communism. This is the “Ends Justify the Means” argument. And

this extends to choosing evil anti-Communists to support, picking Kings in Greece, or even killing peasants.

On the other side you had people who felt that not only did the United States not understand Vietnamese Communism, but that it was violently and illegally getting involved in another country’s affairs. In addition, these people felt that with the Draft we were sending America’s teenagers half way around the world to fight a guerrilla war in the jungle

DRAFT STATISTICS 648,000 boys total

That’s 10% of the ENTIRE GENERATION!!!! 61% of those killed were younger than 21 yrs. old! (West Virginia had the highest

mortality rate-84%) 17,000 were married 300,000 wounded

(23,000 completely disabled---5,300 lost a limb-------1,081 lost 2 or more limbs!)1

LAST MAN DRAFTED: JUNE 30TH, 1973. Imagine being that guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!As Secretary of State (under Obama), and a Vietnam Vet, Senator John Kerry asked Congress, “Who wants to be the last man to die in Vietnam?”

WAYS TO GET OUT OF THE DRAFT IN ‘68- Say that ur gay

- Shoot yourself in the knee- Lower your IQ to that of a High-School Senior

- Pretend like ur nuts and start dancing around like Kayla Wheatley at a Pink Floyd concert

- Go to Canada- Or…..u go to JAIL for 5 years

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) refuses to go to Vietnam because he has become a Muslim. The case goes to the Supreme Court and…..they let him off because of a technicality. He famously says “I aint got no problem with no Vietcong!” He also mentions that we here in the United States are still practicing segregation, so why would he fight for this country?

1 VIETNAM WAR STATISTICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2017.

MLK goes public with his opposition. He says “How can we send black boys to Vietnam when we treat them worse than the Vietcong in the South?”

 . . CRITICIZED THE PENTAGON BUDGET“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death”

. . . SAID U.S. IS "GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.

Philosophical Question : Vietnam was a de-segregated war, but Muhammad Ali did not want to fight because of the Civil-Rights struggle back at home. We were segregating people here in the United States while fighting Communism overseas after all. Remember, the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 but MLK was assassinated in 1968 (Mississippi)

Would you have fought for the United States (in WWI, WWII or Vietnam) if the United States was still practicing segregation back at home?___________________________________________________________________

BURN, BABY BURN………….UR DRAFT CARDS

1964 -12 kids are the 1st to burn their draft cards- Later 46 then get arrested.

- Supreme Court rules burning a draft card is NOT protected by the 1st Amendment (you MUST report for duty, after all!)

1967- 1400 burned them anyway- another 500 did so too- 30,000 went to Canada- 150,000 avoided in “other” ways…mostly hiding

Donald Trump gets out of Vietnam because of a “heel” disorder. 4 times!! George W. Bush gets out by joining the National Guard (no combat) Don’t 4get this saying: Old men MAKE wars and young men FIGHT them. And BEWARE a politician who is QUICK to send others to fight in a war when he has had NO experience himself.

Prez with experience in war:Trump- NoObama- No

Bush- NoClinton- No

George H.W Bush- Yes, WWII fighter pilotReagan- NO Ford- NO Nixon- No

JFK- YES, WWII accidentIKE-ABSOLUTELY---WWII Allied Commander

PROTESTS GET SERIOUS………………………………..

o 100,000 show up to protest at the Washington Monumento 30,000 more marched around the 5 sides of the Pentagono 800 Vietnam veterans THROW AWAY THEIR MEDALS!!!!

THE KENT STATE MASSACRE Kent State is a college in Northern Ohio.

On May 4th, 1970 many of the college students started a protest. The police, who were unable to disperse the students, called out the National Guard. 25 of the National Guard members inexplicably, and against orders, started shooting.

In 13 seconds 67 bullets are discharged. 4 college students are dead and 9 more are wounded (1 was paralyzed permanently). The newspaper and television footage shocks the nation. These are our sons and daughters, after all. They may be protestors, hippies and traitors to their detractors, but in America WE…..DO…..NOT……SHOOT…PROTESTORS. The last time we did that was the Boston Massacre and we all know how that turned out!

WOODSTOCK (1969)

400,000 people three days on a dairy farm in New York state from August, 1969

Did u know it wasn’t even in Woodstock, it was in a town nearby named Bethel. I was there last winter for New Years and didn’t even visit…...the

Woodstock Museum

PERFORMERS Richie Havens

Joe Cocker band (A Lil Help From My Friends) Santana

Grateful Dead Janis Joplin

Sthrakhman and the Starlights Credence Clearwater band

Jefferson Airplane Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

And………………………..Jimi Hendrix!!!!! (His rendition of the Star Spangled Banner using nothing but an electric guitar upset many people, and

became a symbol of the anti-Americanism that many people associated with the protestors.)

2 people died (one from heroine and one from a tractor running over his sleeping bag) 5” of rain in 3 hours (mud everywhere) America wouldn’t let John Lennon out of Canada to perform Bob Dylan never made it (He also refuses to attend his Nobel Prize ceremony) Martin Scorsese videotaped the whole thing wearing a full suit and tie. 8 women had a miscarriage People burned down a hamburger stand for raising prices (price gouging during an emergency is illegal!) A Jewish group handed out sandwiches, pickles and guilt 33 drug arrests out of 400,000 people In 2019 were gonna have the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. See ya there! I’ll be the guy on stage warning about overpopulation, economic inequality, and Climate Change

TERRORISTS: THE WEATHER UNDERGROUNDExtremely radical left-wing organization founded at the University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor (beautiful campus). Committed Major acts of violence

Haymarket Police Memorial bombing- Explosion in Chicago in 1969

Days of Rage- Looted the expensive Gold Coast area of Chicago

New York City arson attacks (1970_- Threw Molotov Cocktails (exploding bottles named after a Russian bomb maker)

at:1. Home of a NY Supreme Court Judge

2. Colombia University3. Brooklyn College

OUR VETERANS

VIETNAM VETS AS HOMELESS- About 15% of homeless persons are veterans/ 10% are female- About 50% of those are from the Vietnam War- Heroine, alcohol and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) are all to blame

DRUG ADDICTS (HEROIN IN VIETNAM)- It has been noted that up to 15% of US military personnel tried or were addicted to heroin while in Vietnam. (A great movie about this: An American Gangster starring Denzel and Russell Crowe)- You were supposed to get court martialed but…. when they got back to the States

after 1975 the real problems began because they simply couldn’t assimilate to real life.

VETERANS AFFAIRSMost people don’t know this but when computing the cost of a war, a large percentage of the money is for Long-Term care for Veterans. The federal organization responsible for this is the US Dept. of Veteran Affairs, and their system of hospitals is known as the VA Hospitals

US VA BUDGET: $182,000,000,000 PER YEAR (Apparently, it’s not enough)It went up 4.9% from 2016. Why?- Many have to wait months to see a doctor- Many veterans DIED waiting for an appointment, especially from 2003-2016. Why? Cuz of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan- Every President campaigns on ‘helping the veterans’. Perhaps the biggest help is……NOT SENDING TROOPS INTO HARM’S WAY UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!!

PAPER #2 & #3: THE DOMINO THEORY

1949: China becomes RED 1950-53: North Korea invades the South 1954-1975: VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Were afraid that of Vietnam falls, so will Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. Then maybe Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. To us, it was not about Korea or Vietnam, it was a bout all of Asia!

NEXT: ANTI-COMMUNIST AS%^&L& NGO DINH DIEM (pronounced No Din Diem)

Once again we put a guy into office that we let do whatever he wants as long as he’s anti-Communist ally. The problem is that he is alienating the very people we want on our side. It does not help our cause when our officials are demons too. Just as Synghman Rhee was a brutal anti-Communist in Korea, so too was Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam

1. First of all, he was Catholic in a predominantly Buddhist country. His wife even made divorce illegal. Divorce is essentially outlawed in the Catholic faith and Pope Francis made headlines recently when he allowed divorced women to enter the Vatican. Sill, Buddhism does not have any rules regarding marriage and divorce other than “Be a good person!” We chose Catholic people to rule a Buddhist. Country Then, he and his wife also made Buddhist holidays illegal. Stupid! The peasants already want Ho and they hate America for supporting the French in the French IndoChina War. Now, America pus someone into office who essentially takes away the Freedom of Religion. Whatthe$%^&!!

2. Thirdly, when Buddhist monks started protesting and LIGHTING THEMSELVES ON FIRE, Ngo Dinh Diem’s idiot wife infamously said “LET THEM BURN!” She’s almost as bad as Marie Antoinette who famously said: “Let them eat cake” before the French Revolution (That’s a myth by the way!)

3. Diem also killed 12,000 of his opponents and put 40,000 of them in jail (He’s not as bad as Synghman Rhee who killed 60,000 and burned down 15,000 houses but still……). He of course did this in the name of stopping communist but there was no trial or anything. This is kind of like vigilant justice and not the type of thing America stands for….UNLESS you feel ending the Cold War justifies whatever you do. Then, the ends always justify the means.

We knew that Ngo was a jerk but we couldn’t get rid of him. I mean, he was anti-Communist and that’s all we cared about. Eventually, by the time JFK was President, we allowed rebels to assassinate him. Actually we let the assassin kill his brother too!

***Fidel Castro says that people have tried to assassinate him 658 times, and that if surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic Sport he would “win a gold medal.”

WHO PRESIDENTS? WHICH PRESIDENTS?

1. Eisenhower is President: (1952-1960)1954: Supports the French in Indochina (80% of their money but no troops)1956: Supports the lack of “free elections” in South Vietnam.

4. JFK become President in 1960 - The youngest President ever. (43 years, 236 days)- The only Catholic President ever-A total womanizer who cheated on his wife Jackie Kennedy with dozens of women in the White House- The Secret Service would help him get the women in through the door.- Finally let rebels assassinate Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963- 3 weeks later JFK was assassinated himself!

(P.S. His assassination is still a great mystery. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as the killer, but then someone killed him. We don’t know if the CIA killed him, if the Mafia killed him or what! But we do know that he brought us closer than ever to WWIII during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Chapter 6). Lee Harvey Oswald WAS a Communist sympathizer but he couldn’t pull it off himself from where he was sitting. (CONSPIRACY—ALIENS)

WHAT DOES JFK DO IN VIETNAM?1. Sends in 1000 soldiers (military advisors) in 1960 but does not yet go into Vietnam “full force”.** Remember, Vietnam is a “police action” not a war, just like the Korean War

2. Sends in 17,000 more soldiers in 1961 (Uh-oh, that’s a lot of ‘police officers’!

3. Starts the “Green Beret” program in Nam. They wear….green berets.

4. Starts using the very awful “Agent Orange”

3 rd President: Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1972) LBJ - JFK’s Vice=President

- Becomes President when JFK is assassinated

Fun Fact: His wife “Ladybird Johnson” gave the commencement speech when I graduated from Boston University……..in 1998!

Lyndon Baines Johnson wanted his Presidency to be the start of a GREAT SOCIETY, where poverty is eliminated. That’s why he was the 1st to start the Minimum Wage. And of course he signed JFK’s Civil Rights Act pf 1964. Yet, read what he wrote about Vietnam:

“If we get involved in that bitch of a war,my Great Society will be dead!”

It WAS dead. Spending 1 trillion dollars on a war 10,000 miles away and sending 250,000 young Americans to fight will do that to your plans.

LBJ REALLY ESCALATES THE WAR IN VIETNAM- By 1968 he sent 568,000 troops to Vietnam!!

- He’s the one who really accelerated the DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OPERATION “ROLLING THUNDER”From 1965-1968 we bombed Vietnam 25,000 times! That’s 1 air attack every 90 seconds for 1500 days. Shooting people hiding in trees with bombs is like shooting at ants with a shotgun!

We also loved using NAPALM which would just set the trees on fire

Napalm was as much part of our strategy as Agent Orange. We couldn’t fight the guys in the jungle so we wanted napalm to set the trees on fire. It’s actually a bomb mixed with gasoline and woe to the man who gets it on his face!

- Invented at Harvard in 1942- Originally used in flamethrowers- We dropped 388,000 TONS of it. (A tone = 2000 pounds so in all we

dropped _____________ pounds of gasoline bombs)

"Napalm is the most terrible pain you can imagine," said Kim Phúc, a napalm bombing survivor known from a famous Vietnam War photograph. "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius (212°F). Napalm generates temperatures of 800 to 1,200 degrees Celsius (1,500–2,200°F).”2

LBJ also- Let’s reporters go with troops to Vietnam- By 1968, 90% of American households have a TV and 50% of them are in color.- Americans see for the first time the horrible ravages of war and the country begins to turn.- This is very important: Vietnam was the first war that was COMPLETELY IN AMERICANS’ LIVING ROOMS.

2 Omara-Otunnu, Elizabeth (November 8, 2004). Napalm Survivor Tells of Healing After Vietnam War. University of Connecticut Advance.

FOR EXAMPLE, LOOK AT THIS PICTURE FROM 1968:

IT IS A SOUTH VIETNAMESE SOLDIER ‘EXECUTING’ A POTENTIAL SPY. AMERICAN SAW THIS IN 100 MILLION HOMES AND IN 200 MILLION NEWSPAPERS. IT MADE US ASK, “WHO ARE THE BAD GUYS HERE?”

In fact, TV’s and the media became so influential during the Vietnam War that when President Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, he made it ILLEGAL to photograph military coffins.

Is that a violation of our 1st Amendment rights or is that a credible act in the name of National Security?________________________________________________________________________

President Richard Nixon “Dick” (1968-1972/1972- his resignation)

In 1968 LBJ no longer wanted to be President and Richard Nixon stepped in. Richard Nixon was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Vice President in the 1950’s and a super anti-communist. In fact, he was one of the Congressmen going after people during McCarthyism. In 1960 he lost to JFK in the 1st televised presidential debate (he famously couldn’t stop sweating from the lights). Now, in 1968, it was his turn.

He actually campaigned on a promise to “get us out of Vietnam”, but that was a lie. He never really had any intention of pulling out and actually really stepped up the war effort. He was also the one who started bombing Laos and Cambodia to get to the Ho Chi Minh trail while at the same time going on television and lying that he would never

do that. That’s why he was called “Tricky Dick”. ‘Dick’ is shorthand for Richard just like ‘Billy’ is shorthand for William.

Plus he had Watergate. Watergate was a scandal in which it was proven he knew that some of his guys broke into the Democratic Headquarters in Washington, D.C. at the Watergate Building. He quit before he could be impeached (Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson are the only 2 Presidents to be impeached). Then, his Vice-President Gerald Ford famously pardoned him. Ford was Prez from 73’ to 76’, then Jimmy Caret from 76’-80’ and then Reagan (1980-1988). Bush’s dada came next (88’-92’) and then Clinton and Bush.

Actually, Nixon cared more about “saving face” in the war against Communism than either winning or losing in Vietnam. In Nixon’s eyes it wasn’t about life and death but about the Cold War being a black and white issue. The world has a lot of grey in it, we will learn!

CASUALTIES UNDER NIXON’S “WITHDRAWL” 20,000 more American boys get dead! 250,000 Vietnamese (north and south) meet their maker. We spend ANOTHER 60-70 BILLION DOLLARS!!

Nixon finally gives up and institutes “The Nixon Doctrine”“Sorry Asia, you’re on your own. We’re leaving!!!” It has 3 parts:

1) We don’t care about Asia, we don’t care about Containment, we don’t care about stupid little dominoes! We outta here Yo!

2) This is an amazing departure from the Truman Doctrine, the Korean War, the policy of Containment, the Domino Theory etc.

3) By 1975 the last Americans leave Saigon . The war is over and we sign the Treaty of Paris.

Below is a photograph on the last Americans being evacuated from Saigon, the capital of Vietnam, by helicopter in 1976, the year before I was born and the world finally

became balanced!

PAPER #2: Vietnam as a Police Action

Theoretically one of the reasons why Congress didn’t declare war on North Vietnam was that it would bring NATO, and then the Warsaw Pact, in. It wouldn’t exactly be that we were attacked per se, but if the UN gave the United States some kind of political jurisdiction over South Vietnam, or South Korea, with the 17th or 38th parallel and then the North invades, it could be seen as war, and an invasion on the United States as well.

Casualties:American troops:- 50,000 dead

- 150,000 wounded- 5000 MIA!!!!!

OTHER CASUALTIES OF THE VIETNAM WARAgent Orange: 400,000 deaths….500,000 deformities

Cambodia: 200,000-300,000 Laos: 20,000-200,000 (who knows)

PAPER #2: RUSSIAN AND CHINESE INVOLVEMENT(VIETNAM AS A PROXY WAR)

China and Russia helped North Vietnam during the war but only kinda

Radios, telephones, electricity………………….Jeeps, gasoline, tires…………Bridges, railroad tracks, airports

- Tanks, shells, guns and bullets…… Between 1965 and 1971 more than 320,000 Chinese troops were deployed in North Vietnam but they didn’t really fight; they just provided logistical and engineering support (How many of you want to study engineering-we can send you into war zones )

What do u need when you’re fighting a war….ENGINEERS!!!!

- In 1965 Beijing sent several thousand engineering troops across the border. They helped in building and repairing roads, railways, airstrips and critical defense infrastructure. After all, where are you gonna land airplanes? How are you gonna use trains if there are no railroad tracks?!

USSRAfter the Sino-Soviet split in 1968, and the ALMOST WAR between the 2 in ‘69, Vietnam had to choose who to go with; Russia or China. They chose Russia!!!!!!!!!! Because of the Shtrakhman family

****The true extent of this support has never been fully disclosed, though it was certainly substantial. By the spring of 1967, TIME Magazine was reporting that a “river of aid” was flowing from Russia into North Vietnam.

The USSR trained Vietnamese pilots on how to fly at night Also, about 3,000 Russkies served in North Vietnam in 1964-65 and were responsible for shooting down US planes. They were also giving North Vietnam about $1,000,000,000 per year.

HINT:Although Chinese and Soviet participation in Vietnam is important, especially as it concerns looking at Vietnam as a PROXY WAR, you might not want to go into it depending upon the particular question IB gives you.

For example: If the question is “Was America JUSTIFIED with the Vietnam War”, you can mention the proxy war, but to what extent is up to you.”

If you are asked about the Korean or Vietnam Wars in terms of the Cold War, then the degree to which you integrate this information is up to you. But on Paper #2, if they ask you about these wars JUST AS WARS in and of themselves, then you probably SHOULD go into foreign involvement. I am giving you more info than you know what to do with. Learning HOW to use it is the next step, as will ALL things. Good luck!

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTSI break Vietnam into 3 parts:

PAPER #3: The Cold War PAPER #2: Guerrilla Warfare

PAPER #3: Hippies and Protests

I consider all of these very ‘deep’ thinking questions. I dare you to impress me!

PAPER #3: THE COLD WAR 1. BEST QUESTION EVER: We cancelled elections cuz we knew the people in Vietnam

would vote for Ho Chi Minh. If the people of Afghanistan wanted to vote for Osama Bin Laden or another terrorist, should we let them?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PAPER #3: SOCIAL PROTESTS1. How and why did Vietnam lead to so many social protests and create an entire

counterculture?

a) One of the ways you can get out of going to Vietnam is if you go to college. That means that non-college students were worth less than college students in the 60’s. Is this unfair or does a country have a right to keep its most intelligent out of harm’s way? (Not 7th or 8th hour of course)

________________________________________________________________________

b) What was MLK’s MAIN criticism of the Vietnam War? Hint: It wasn’t the war itself.

c) OPINION QUESTION: What would YOU do if you got drafted into the Army in 1968 and were being sent to Vietnam?

________________________________________________________________________

d) In 1996 Bill Clinton cheated on his wife, just like JFK. Should this matter in the Presidency? Should it matter that Trump has been married three times?

THE DRAFT: Many say that we should bring the Draft back. This is because if everyone had to send their sons and daughters overseas then we wouldn’t be so quick to go to war. Now it’s someone else’s kid so who cares? I mean, we don’t even know where Iraq, North Kore or Afghanistan are! So what?! What do u think?

PAPER #2: GUERRILLA WARFAREA) Vietnam was a new kind of war, for many reasons. Explain why the United States

had so many problems in such a small and underdeveloped nation.

B) What was our military strategy in Vietnam and why did it ultimately fail? How did the Ho Chi Minh Trail embody this problem?

C) How was Agent Orange a perfect example of our misunderstanding?

D) Explain the following statement: The Tet Offensive may have been a military defeat, but was a psychological victory for the North Vietnamese!

PAPER #2: BATTLES (Please define) Gulf of Tonkin

My Lai Massacre Tet Offensive

Operation Rolling Thunder Napalm

PAPER #3: COLD WAR1. How would compare Korea and Vietnam? Same, different, kind of, what?

- Could you characterize Vietnam as a “proxy war”?- Why do you think both Korea and Vietnam were just “POLICE ACTIONS”?

2. Eisenhower actually helped the French try to take back Vietnam in 1954. Then, every single president escalated the fight (JFK, LBJ, Nixon). Why was Vietnam so important to them? Were they right or wrong? (Hint: 1949 and the Korean War MUST be part of ur equation)

3. How would you characterize Russian and Chinese involvement in Vietnam?

4. For each President explain how they contributed to the War in Vietnam

1. JFK

2. LBJ

3. ‘Dick’

4. Nixon

When U R finished please move on toChapter 5: Afghanistan

Chapter 6: CubaChapter 7: The End of the Cold War