Nixon • Republican president elected in 1968 and 1972; resigned from office in 1974 due to Watergate scandal • Promised he would reduce U.S. troop levels in Vietnam, but force levels remained high and Nixon actually expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia • Pursued a plan he called “Vietnamization” to push the South Vietnamese army to shoulder the bulk of the fighting • In the first months of his second term, the last U.S. combat soldiers left Vietnam EVENTS 1963 Buddhist Protests • Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in protest against South Vietnamese government policies, including religious intolerance • Other Buddhists followed his example in the following months • His suicide shocked and confused many Americans and created doubt in their minds about U.S. support for the South Vietnamese government 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution • Gave President Johnson the power to take any military action he deemed necessary to defend South Vietnam against the Viet Cong • Passed in response to an unconfirmed attack on the USS Maddox off the coast of Vietnam 1968 Tet Offensive • Occurred on 31 January, beginning of Vietnamese Tet
These were army and police men and were sent to fight the IRA and reduce the chances of the civilians of Ireland retaliating. It was evident that he may have not made the right decision by sending in the Black and Tans as they were a brutal force who used severe violence against the people, ‘murder for murder’ was their policy. This overall shows an unsuccessful attempt from David Lloyd George and the British Government in dealing with the Irish question as it was later shown that the small war had left 750 dead and over 850 wounded. Despite this failure, David Lloyd George soon realised that the tactic of using violence was not bringing him success and he soon knew that his only choice was to enforce peace. Not only did the British people not want many thousands of men going to war with the Irish, the press and the USA were horrified by the situation and it was giving Britain and DLG a bad name.
One personal account by Ann Charters, depicts how they began as peaceful marches and later, either because of the size of the crowd or anger at the war, grew to be more violent. Her own husband attempted to charge the White House. The shootings at Kent State and Jackson State followed in the two years after. The National
Even scientists who worked on building the bomb were opposed to its use. Crimes of humanity are usually murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian. The dropping of the Atomic bomb killed thousands of people and scarred all the people who survived permanently. Seven scientist, who had helped build the bomb, submitted a report to the Interim Committee, which advised the President, saying “If the United Sates were to be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race for armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching and international agreement on the future control of such weapons” (John Toland, ibid, p. 762). The scientists are the ones that know best about the bomb, they were the ones that built and designed it.
Ngo Dinh Diem and his actions had more responsibility as to why there was a growing US involvement in South East Asia. Diem seized power in South Vietnam and declarded himself as president before ruling as a dictator. Diem was a catholic who ruled in a nation where the majority were buddhists. However, this did not stop him from favouring the minority catholics and from setting up harsh policies for the buddhists. Monks began self immolating as a protest of his policies.
The Vietnam War and the draft also sparked major protests around the United States specifically from college students who resented The System or The Man. 1968 was a turning point for the United States by the Vietnam War and Civil Rights. Nixon was a high card in Vietnam, his unusual tactics and highly conspicuousness caused much hysteria in the United States. Vietnam was a much highly debated and thought of issue, as Nixon learned that three hundred United States soldiers were dying in Vietnam per week, he started taking various actions. He acquired to try different things such as the secret Operation Menu and Linebacker II for inducing hostilities to Vietnam.
He did all this in order to persuade people to show charity and compassion to all religions. Diem, and his government’s reaction to this was to arrest thousands of Buddhist monks. Many monks disappeared and Diem’s government was blamed. For these, and many other reasons, “Kennedy became convinced that Diem could never unite South Vietnam against Communism and he agreed that the CIA should initiate a program to overthrow him. A CIA operative, Lucien Conein, provided some Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to overthrow Diem with the added guarantee that the United States would not protect the South Vietnamese leader.
He somehow managed the escape the crazed mob. He wasn’t even injured by the monks. One monk, his name was Peter, was arrested and put to trial. The court had him executed. This decision enraged the church leaders and increased the hatred between the Christians and pagans.
Vo Suu’s now iconic picture of the Chief of the South Vietnamese National Police shooting a Vietcong suspect in the head, is an example of this. • It was such images that caused widespread anti-war sentiment to grow in America and well as International criticism, with several university in the US protesting (including the Kent State University of Ohio, where 4 students were killed) • “The Tet Offensive was not intended to be a decisive operation, but one episode in a protracted war that might last “five, ten or twenty
Such an atrocity rattled the very core of the American people. This massacre took the whole world by surprise and drew massive media attention. This moved Henry Kissinger to attempt to organize another peace talk with the North Vietnamese but this too failed. The Vietnam War had produced many political, social and military disasters for America. Lyndon Johnson kept spending money on the war without adequate funds to pay for the expenses.