-
Period: to
Nixon
Becasue it was a very unpopular war. People weren't signing up to go fight for there country like they were during WW2. There was no visible threat, it was just a political view the world of democracy was fighting. -
Period: to
Silent Majority Speech
The non-shouters and the non-demonstrators
Conservative middle class whites
Those who felt alienated by the counterculture -
Period: to
Mylai Massacre
Intensified discussion about the effects of war on individuals .
The cruelties perpetrated on the innocent and the hardening of soldiers who in the name of duty found themselves called upon to act in ways that in times of peace would label them criminal. Many Americans were so repelled by the war that they treated returning soldiers with disrespect and aversion, which embittered veterans and their families and further fragmented a divided society. -
Period: to
Vietnamization
fight the spread of communism -
Period: to
Withdrawal of troops begins
America's reaction to the war, was largely due to the draft, protests and riots. -
Period: to
Christmas Bombings
With the election of 1972 Nixon wanted a settlement of the war.
The settlement fell apart when Thieu had misgivings about the communists being allowed to remain in South Vietnam and refused to sign the treaty. In order to force the North Vietnamese to rescind their demand that their troops remain in the South, Nixon ordered the bombings of North Vietnam's major cities of Hanoi and Haiphong on December 18. -
Period: to
26 Amendment
Vietnam War as a low point in American history.
The experience of Vietnam fueled racial tensions because minorities were disproportionately represented among draftees. It also alienated the younger from the older generation and opened deep schisms within the Democratic Party. Yet America learned valuable lessons from Vietnam, among them that there are limits to power and that a nation should choose carefully where and when to take a stand.