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Vietnam The Consensus Unravels

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America’s Longest War? 1950 - 1975

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Why?

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Why? Despite the expenditure of more than $150 billion,

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Why?

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Why? Despite the application of its great technical expertise,

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Why?

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Why? Despite the employment of a huge military arsenal,

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Why?

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“Why did the world’s most powerful nation fail to achieve its objectives and suffer its first defeat in war, a humiliating and deeply frustrating experience for a people accustomed to success?”

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George C. Herring Author, America’s Longest War

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John Olson, ©1968 (Battle of Hue)

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~58,000 ~millions

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Ho Chi Minh

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Vietminh + OSS Office of Strategic Services

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1941-42

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1941-42

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“Your statesmen make eloquent speeches about helping those with self- determination. WE are self- determined.

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Why not help us? Am I any different from... even your George Washington?”

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September, 1945 INDEPENDENCE

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.”

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March, 1946

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“French…troops are making active preparations for a coup….I therefore most earnestly appeal to you… and to the American people to… support…our independence…” TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

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President Harry S Truman

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The United States could not “afford to assume that Ho is anything but Moscow-directed.” US State Department, 1947

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“Fall” of China 1949

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“domino theory”

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Bao Dai (SOUTH)

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$152 million > 1950-51 50

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$152 million > 1952

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“New Look”

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$385 million > 1953

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Dienbienphu 1954

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Dienbienphu 1954

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Dienbienphu 1954

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Dienbienphu 1954

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Dienbienphu 1954

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“No more Koreas!”

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Geneva Accords 1954

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“[The USA] has not been party to or is not bound by the decisions taken by the conference.”

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17th parallel

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Elections 1956

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CIA (formerly, OSS)

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Ngo Dinh Diem

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Ngo Dinh Diem 98%

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patronage

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abolished elections

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shut down

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dissenters

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A two-part Civil War

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Ho Diem vs.

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Ho Diem vs. NLF vs.

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NLF

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NLF: National Liberation Front > Vietcong (VC)

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Understanding Vietnam

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vs.

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Consensus Assumptions

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JFK

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“Project Beef-up”

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16,000 “Advisers” 489 killed

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Strategic Hamlet program

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Thich Quang Duc burns himself to death on a Saigon street.

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“I feel that we must bear a good deal of the responsibility for it…”

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“Why do the leaves fall?.... I was shocked by…”

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Dallas, TX: 11/22/63

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LBJ “I’m not going down in history as the first American President who lost a war.”

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Tonkin Gulf Resolution August 7, 1964

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Tonkin Gulf Resolution 416-0 (House) 88-2 (Senate) 1:48

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“take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Tonkin Gulf Resolution

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Tonkin Gulf Resolution 416-0 (House) 88-2 (Senate)

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On Kawara, Title ©1965

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Catherine Leroy, ©1968 (Battle of Hue)

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Tet Offensive January, 1968

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Tet Offensive January, 1968

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Tet Offensive Catherine Leroy, ©1968 (Battle of Hue)

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My Lai: March 16, 1968

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My Lai: March 16, 1968

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“We huddled them up. We made them squat down…I poured about 4 clips into the group….The mothers was hugging their children….Well, we kept right on firing. They was waving their arms and begging….I still dream about it.” Pvt. Paul Meadlo, father of two

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Above and Beyond © 2016

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“I feel like a hitchhiker caught in a hailstorm on a Texas highway. I can’t run, I can’t hide, and I can’t make it stop.”

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Nixon

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Kent State: May 4, 1970

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“Vietnamization”

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The Consensus Unravels

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“The United States’ involvement in Vietnam was not primarily the result of errors of judgment of the personality quirks of the policymakers, although these things existed in abundance.

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“It was the logical, if not inevitable, outgrowth of a world view and a policy; the policy of containment which Americans in and out of government accepted without serious question for more than two decades.”

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George C. Herring May, 1979

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We must act to stop Communism and we have the right to do this, everywhere.

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DEFEAT April 29, 1975

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We have faith in our leaders and our [superior] political institutions.

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End of the Great Society

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America can solve or is already solving all of its problems.

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Vietnamese “boat people”

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“The earliest architects of America’s containment doctrine…had always predicted a Soviet implosion. If we had believed our own rhetoric…we would not have thought it necessary to fight…every battle. [W]hich is why…those of us who make the annual pilgrimage are always reduced to tears.” — Joseph Ellis

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