Tet OffensiveIn January of 1968, the Viet Cong surprise attacked United State troops. Over 80,000 Vietcong troops came from tunnels and attacked every major city in South Vietnam. One of the United State bases that was attacked was at Danang and the American embassy in Saigon was also attacked. It was a suppress because the United States thought that the North would be peaceful due to a Buddhist holiday.
In the weeks that followed the South and United States forces were able to take back the lost territory and inflicted twice as many casualties on to the Viet Cong. It turned into a United States victory but every soldier viewed the war very differently after this event. After Tet, General Westmoreland requested more troops to be sent to Vietnam to put more pressure on Viet Cong. Westmoreland was denied this by President Johnson because it would not be politically right to send in more troops when Johnson was trying to end the war as soon as possible. |
ProtestsProtests were very strong during the Vietnam war because United States citizens could see the action on the television. From this it was hard to Johnson to have the American people on his side to have the popular vote on the war. In the bringing the American people were on his side, to help protect the South from turning communist. As the war kept on becoming longer, many Americans were not wanting to send more troops over just to die. The anti-war movement turned into a nation wide force.
From this the Hippie Movement grew into full force. Were people believed that war was not the answer and that peace was. Also that people believed in not dropping bombs and chemicals in the war. The draft was a huge resentment for college students because the US government changed the draft age to 19. The reason why this was a protest was that a 19 year old would serve their country but could not drink or vote. On May 17 1968, nine men and women entered a Selective Service Office in Maryland and burned draft recorders. The nine people were then arrested and sent to two years in jail, the American people however viewed them as heroes. |