10. AMERICA SHIFTS TO THE HUMANIST LEFT

THE PRESIDENT'S WORSENING WAR IN VIETNAM

Tragically, it seemed impossible for Americans (including the President – and even his generals) to understand the nature of the political crisis in Vietnam.  The Communist enemy wore no uniforms – and in fact was indistinguishable from the people America was trying to save for "democracy."  Most of the people America was trying to save were Buddhist, loving neither Communism nor the Western culture that Americans were trying to uphold in Vietnam.  Mostly they wanted to be left alone by everyone so that they could peacefully tend their rice fields. 

There were of course pro-American Vietnamese, located especially in Saigon and some of the other urban areas of the South.  And the montagnards, the mountain people who centuries ago had originally inhabited the area but had been driven by invading Vietnamese into the mountains for survival, were big supporters of the American presence. 

   

But mostly, the Vietnamese were simply proud nationalists who wanted non-Vietnamese (that would be the Americans), out of their country – along with the Communist guerrilla fighters – armed with guns and supplies coming from the North – who were helping to make life in the South miserable.  Saving Vietnam for democracy had little meaning to them.

Thus the goals of America's involvement in Vietnam remained unclear.  And the means by reaching these unclear goals were thus equally unclear – especially when it appeared that there were no front lines the soldiers could expand – as the enemy soon reappeared behind American lines once the Americans swept through an area. It was a frustrating war.

US helicopter and troops in Vietnam – 1965

America beginning to realize that the Vietnam War 
was not going to be easily winnable – 1966

A US Marine moving a Viet Cong suspect to the rear in an 
action near the Da Nang Air Base – August 1965

So, contrary to Johnson's original expectations, America's strong presence in their country did not bring forth exuberant Vietnamese praising and thanking the Americans for their liberation from Communism. Nor was it something that could be quickly resolved (as Johnson had originally expected).  Instead American soldiers found themselves encamped behind barbed wire enclosures, venturing out into the countryside in search of an enemy they could not distinguish from the general population, and getting shot at from behind as well as in front.  There were no visible lines of military progression that could be seen on a map – but merely an uneasy occupation of sections of territory here and there which changed hands constantly.

Checking a Vietnamese house in an anti-VC sweep
in October of 1966

Americans were getting killed without any visible signs of progress, except that Americans seemed to be killing more of them than they were killing of the occupying soldiers – though also there were a whole lot more of them than Americans to be killed.  "Them" was not a clear concept – and Americans soon found themselves killing anything that looked suspicious – even whole villages by aerial strafing and bombing.  It was an ugly sight – covered in gory detail by a watchful American press.

But watching all this very closely were the young Boomers – now old enough to be drafted into military service.

Dead Marines are stacked on a tank near Con Thien
after hand-to-hand combat with North Vietnamese regulars
July 1967

Operation Rolling Thunder ... an attempt to bomb North 
Vietnam into submission ... begun in March of 1965 and 
continued until just before the American presidential 
elections  in November of 1968

Aircraft spraying Agent Orange to defoliate the forests that
shelter the Viet Cong – used heavily in the period 1966 to
1969 (pure evil!)

The Effects of the defoliant Agent Orange

Also ... the effects on the next generation raised on food
grown in the ground attacked with Agent Orange

Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin confers with Johnson 
in Glassboro, New Jersey – June 1967

Official inspection tour of "progress" in the Vietnam war by 
US envoys – June 1967.  Seen here conferring are Ambassador 
Ellsworth Bunker (left), Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Clark Clifford, 
and Gen. William Westmoreland

Johnson confers with Gen. William Westmoreland and 
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara – July 1967

Nguyen Van Thieu sworn in as S. Vietnamese President;
Vice-President Nguyen Cao Ky behind him – October 1967

   
Go on to the next section:

Life Goes on Elsewhere

  Miles H. Hodges