In 1961, Kennedy pledged US support to South Vietnam in its fight against North Vietnam, a communist nation. Initially, the US sent only military aid and advisors to the country. As the conflict continued to escalate, Kennedy was finally forced to send troops to Vietnam to assist in the fight.
In 1964, North Vietnamese forces in the Tonkin Gulf attacked two US destroyers. Using this as an excuse to become more active in the Vietnam conflict, Johnson was granted the right to “take all necessary measures… to prevent further aggression” (it would later be discovered that the US had provoked the attack by entering North Vietnamese waters, and that Johnson greatly exaggerated the attack, as neither of the ships sustained any damage). This resolution allowed Johnson to send troops to Vietnam without a Congressional declaration of war. By 1968, there were some 543,000 troops in Vietnam. These soldiers fought both on the ground and in the air with continuous bombings on North Vietnam Resentment for the war was headed first by young college students who protested the escalation of troops, which included a draft on students. Television brought the bloody conflict into the living rooms of all Americans and soon resentment spread to the political floor. By 1966, a majority of Democrats disliked the war, especially Robert Kennedy. In contrast to the optimistic predictions of Johnson, the war against the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese forces) was stretching on without end. The discrepancies between Johnson’s view of the war and the reality of it displayed on television caused many citizens to question the president, and the so called “credibility gap” severely damaged public opinion on the war. When Viet Cong forces attacked areas of South Vietnam that were assumed to be secure, such as the US embassy in Saigon, public support for the war continued to drop. Although the Tet Offensive did not result in any military victories for the Viet Cong, it did succeed in further disillusioning the public. Already fed up with the war that did not seem to directly involve them, people were extremely upset by the lack of apparent military control the US held in the region, even after years of fighting. Near the end of Johnson’s term, he began to reduce the bombings on North Vietnam. After announcing his decision to not run for reelection, Johnson ceased all bombings and began peace talks with the Viet Cong, although these did not make much progress. Even as the sixties drew to a close, the Vietnam War continued into the Nixon administration, where protest become more common. |
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