The war divides America

Chapter 20
Section 3

How did the American war effort in

Vietnam lead to rising protests and social
divisions back home?

President Johnson sent more

troops to Vietnam, and in the
United States more people
questioned the war.
The Vietnam War divided
Americans more deeply than any
conflict since the Civil War.

As more troops died and no clear victory emerged,

increasing numbers of Americans opposed the Vietnam
War.

Many people opposed the policies of the draft.

More than 1.5 million young men were

drafted during the Vietnam War.

Many argued the draft unfairly gave

deferments to students.

Most of the draftees came from a poor or

working-class background.

The number of African Americans fighting in

Vietnam was disproportionately high.

African Americans
were less likely than
whites to become
commissioned
officers.
They were more likely
to serve, and die, in
combat positions.

Inequalities in
the draft led
to widespread
resistance
against
the war.
In 1969, the
draft was
restructured
to introduce a
lottery
system.

Students opposition to the war grew.

Colleges and universities became centers of

antiwar activism.

Most upper middle-class students opposed

the war; working-class students generally
supported the war.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

campaigned to end the war in Vietnam.

Students at Forefront of Antiwar

Movement
University

enrollment swelled with

students who experimented with new
ideas, before getting a job

Generation

gap widened as young

Americans expressed dissatisfaction
with conservative values

Civil

Rights activists helped organize

SDS, a major force in the New Left

Students at Forefront of Antiwar

Movement
Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS) - 1960
create a social system based
on love, reason, and
creativity rather than
possession or privilege
New

Left political
movement whose members

Various Techniques of Student

Protesters
Free speech movement

used confrontation with

police & university
administrators
Teach-in

movement
provided a forum for

Free Speech Moveme

Teach In

Various Techniques of Student

Protesters
Students

avoided the draft

by becoming
conscientious objectors
one who opposed fighting
in a war on moral grounds.
held demonstrations and
strikes

Weathermen

Beyond
college
campuses,
more
and more
Americans
also
opposed
the war.
Images on TV began to
make Americans
question our
involvement in Vietnam

TV news showed the

wars horrors.
The difference
between government
reports and news
stories created a
credibility gap.

In November 1967,
General Westmoreland
addressed the nations
concerns about the
war.

He claimed the
Vietcong had
weakened and could
no longer mount a
major attack.

In early 1968, the Vietcong

and North Vietnamese
launched the Tet Offensive.

The Tet Offensive was

when the NVA
attacked major cities
and bases in South
Vietnam, including the
U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
The fighting was fierce,
but American and South
Vietnamese forces
eventually
drove back the
offensive.

In this June 8, 1972 file photo, crying children,

including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, centre, run down a
road near Trang Bang, Vietnam after an aerial

March 1964. A Vietnamese man with a the body of his

dead child asks for help from rather disinterested
South Vietnamese soldiers

January 1, 1966 Women and children hide in a ditch to save

themselves from the intense bombardment by the Viet Cong, at
Bao Trai, about 20 miles west of Saigon. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)

Jan. 23, 1967 A terrified VC prisoner awaiting interrogation unit of

special forces A-109 Thuong Duc, 25 kilometers west from Da
Nang, Vietnam. (AFP PHOTO/National Archives)

A BOMB BLAST: March 30, 1965. The scene immediately

after a bomb attack on the American embassy in Saigon.
Many Vietnamese and two Americans died.

After the Tet

Offensive,
U.S. military
leaders
became less
certain that
the war
could end
quickly.

The new
Secretary of
Defense, Clark
Clifford,
recommended
that President
Johnson pursue
peace, rather
than victory,
in Vietnam.

Johnson announced he would not run for

another term as president.

Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy,

who opposed the war, made a strong
showing in the New Hampshire primary.
Robert Kennedy, a Democratic Senator
from New York, also announced his
candidacy.

In 1968 violence stunned the

nation.

In April, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was

assassinated in Memphis.

Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated in

June, just after hed won the California
Democratic primary.

Police used rough tactics to break up student

protests outside the Democratic Convention in
Chicago.

Eugene McCarthy
Peace

candidate

Had

run through all of the

primaries (unlike Humphrey, who
had not run in any of the primaries

Had

support of anti-establishment
Democrats

Many

felt he deserved the

nomination

Richard Daley
Mayor

of Chicago

Place

barbed wire around

the convention hall.

Orders

police to use
force on protestors as
convention is ready to

Eventually the
Democrats
chose Hubert
Humphrey,
Johnsons
Vice President
as their
presidential
candidate.

Republicans
held a more
peaceful
convention,
choosing
Richard M.
Nixon as
their
presidential
candidate.

Hubert Humphrey Democratic

Candidate

Vice

President of LBJ

Strong

advocate of civil
rights and social justice.

Hurt

by his support of
Vietnam

Nixon won the 1968 election.

He called for peace with

honor in Vietnam.

He appealed to the silent

majority people who
were not protesting.

He benefited because
Democrats were split
between Humphrey and
George Wallace, a thirdparty candidate from the
South.