LBJ escalation

By nellaijaja

  • McNamara & Rusk push for escalation

    200 US soldiers pass away

  • GULF OF TONKIN

    NV attack US Maddox and Turner Joy

  • Attack of American camp near Pleiku

    8 US personnel pass away Leads to ^ bombing raids on NV

  • Working Group

    US defence department and State department and CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff to suggest options concerning Vietnam =
    -Escalation necessary due to weak Saigon gov
    -An anti-comm, independent SV was crucial to USA

  • Gov of SV fail to stop VC attacks

    The suggests 75% of countryside is controlled buy VC

  • LBJ dispatches ground troops around 1965

    By request of Westmoreland END OF 1968 there's 535,000 US troops

  • Poll > 80% Americans support sending troops

    To support SV

  • Tet Offensive - Jan 31 1968

    VC+PAVN attack US military outposts during the annual Test holiday which usually acknowledged a ceasefire = 3 weeks for US troops and ARVN to remove Comm forces from Saigon Impacts:
    - credibility gap due to media coverage
    -US confidence shaken
    - Walter Cronkite military Journalist suggests STALEMATE
    - Apparent reassessment of American policy e.g. LBJ refuses to send Westmoreland 200,000 extra troops
    -Damaged Nixon's approval rating i.e. doesn't run
    -TP