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PRESIDENTS

TRUMAN:

- unconditional surrender: realpolitik form of gov: idealism vs morality

- Truman doctrine: committed the United States to a policy of supporting foes of Communism everywhere in the world.

- Failed to lead US into victory of the Korean war

EISENHOWER:

- forceful anticommunist gov

- negotiated end to korean war

- committed US into interventions against soviet-friendly govs (like Iran and Guatemala)

- left office warning US citz about the dangers of a strong military-industrial complex growing to powerful in american life

- domino theory: he likened the countries on the brink of communism to a row of dominos waiting to fall one after another

JFK

- negotiation

- flexible response

- cuban missle crisis, bay of pigs

LYNDON B JOHNSON:

- initiated peace negotiations

- latin american policy: interventionist

- goal was to win the war

RICHARD NIXON

- improve relations with soviet union, ease cold war tensions

- detente

- establish relations with People's Republic of China

VIETNAM WAR

- american involvement started during french indochina war

- France's effort to regain its rule over Vietnam after ww2

- seeking to strengthen ties with france to help fight the spread of communism, the US provided the french with massive economic and military support

- opposition towards france: vietnamese revolutionaries fled to china were they were ruled by Ho Chi Minh: indochinese communist ruler in China

- Vietminh: organization whose goal was to gain vietnemese independence from foreign rule (Ho Chi Minh helped create)

- Ho Chi minh declares Vietnam an independent country

- French, upset with this, sent troops into the Vietnam to win it back. France ended up gaining control over the southern half, and Ho chi Minh continued to rule the northern half

- despite the immense amount of aide given to the french from america, the french could not retake vietnam. French troops came to the north and were attacked by vietminh, forcing them to surrender in a battle called Dien Bien Phu

- geneva accords officially separated the communist north vietnam and anticommunist south vietnam along the 17th parallel

- the US begins to aid the anticommunist south

- Ngo Dinh Diem becomes leader of south vietnam

- Vietcong is formed: communist organization in the south

- vietcong begins attacks on Diem gov

- Ho Chi Minh supports Vietcong, and in order to supply aid to the southern Vietcong from the north, Minh creates the Ho Chi Minh trails: a network of paths that transported arms from the north to the south

- Vietcong steps up their surprise attacks (guerrilla tactics) south vietnam becomes unstable

- Kennedy steps up support in the south for Diem's gov after being called soft. sends millions of dollars in aid and thousands of troops and trainers for the south vietnam troops

- Diem began moving villagers out of their homes, intensified attacks on buddhism (imprisoned and killed hundreds of monks, burned temples), in revolt monks publicly burned themselves to death

- american gov horrified, urges diem to stop, he doesnt. after diem's death america pulls troops from south vietnam (kennedy decides to become uninvolved in helping s viet. claiming it is their war, LBJ- once he becomes president- excelerates involvement in war and creates what is now known as the longest war)

- Tonkin Gulf Resolution: n. vietnam patrol boat fired a tropedo at US boat the Maddox, torpedo missed target but maddox fired back inflicting heavy damage

- LBJ was granted military power in vietnam

- LBJ releases a bomb in n. vietnam (operation rolling thunder), american troops arrive in s. vietnam, 50,000 US and south vietnam soldiers fighting against vietcong: vietnam war: americanized

- William westmoreland american troop leader in s. vietnam

- westmoreland tactics: continuous harassment and wearing down of vietcong.

- vietcong tactics: guerrilla

- US created napalm and agent orange: deadly chemicals

- search and destroy missions: uprooting civilians with suspected ties to vietcong and killing them: vietnamese citizens seeked refuge in the south

- living room war: images on TV of american and vietnamese soldiers who died in war. the images contradicted LBJ. by 1967 americans were split over supporting and opposing the war (main opposers: youth)

- most american soldiers fighting in vietnam were called into combat under the selective service system/ the draft

- as war opposition grew more men wanted to exempt themselves from the draft.

- to include more african americans, the draft was changed into a lottery system

- the growing youth movement became known as the New Left

- voicing the demands of the youth was the Students for a Democratic Society

- SDS helps organize a march on washington, openly counseled students to flee to canada or sweden (to avoid being drafted)

- antiwar begins to intensify beyond college campuses

- many refused to go to war and nixon sent them to jail, many fled to canada

- war divides the nation: doves: opposed war hawks: believed america should release as much military power needed to win war

- Tet offensive:

- tet: lunar new year holiday for vietnam

- along with celebration, it was also to honor the dead soldiers, so there were coffins and funerals held

- in the coffins, hid vietcong soldiers and weapons

- that night, the vietcong launched an attack on 100 cities in south vietnam which lasted a month until they gained control over the cities

- from a military standpoint, vietcong lost: 32,000 soldiers vs a little more than 3,000 US soldiers

- from a physiological standpoint, LBJ was in the loss. american public was lead to believe by the president that the enemy was almost defeated, but when seeing the tragedy all over the news, LBJ's credibility gap widened and never seemed to recover

- before the tet offensive, america was highly pro war, but after, the split between doves and hawks were about 50:50

NEW FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS:

- LBJ runs for a second term but changes his view on foreign policy being his current one was failing: the US would seek negotiations to end the vietnam war, in the meantime US escalation would end, and bombing would cease. at the end of his speech he shockingly says he will not continue as president and is dropping out of the race

- after LBJ dropping out, Robert Kennedy was in the lead for president. after winning the california primaries, RK was assassinated

- With two strong democratic leaders gone, the democratic party was looking weak. along with an automatic disadvantage, media leaked out on television of democratic delegates yelling at Mayor Daley who was present as a delegate himself. American citizens began associating democrats with disfunction

- Nixon, a republican became the lead man in the presidential race. he promised to: restore law and order, end war in vietnam

- Nixon wins presidency 1969

- Nixon immediately pulls troops out of out of Vietnam, but continues the war against north vietnam

- Vietnamization: plan by nixon and henry kissinger to end US involvement in war

- the gradual withdrawal of US troops in order for the south vietnamese to become more involved in the war

- nixon ordered for secret bomb attacks on supply channels in north vietnam and on neighboring countries like Laos and Cambodia which held a number of vietcong sanctuaries

- My Lai Massacre:

- americans shocked when ny times releases the news about Lai

- under the command of lieutenant William Calley, troops came into northern south vietnam and massacred innocent civilians

- upon hearing of the Cambodia and My Lai attacks thousands of college students stood in protest

- Nixon lost political support. he sent troops to attack cambodia without permission from congress

- congress repeals tonkin gulf resolution which gave the president independence in conducting policy in vietnam

- 1971 Pentagon Paper released which exposed the true intentions of american involvement in the war

- The papers confirmed there was never a plan to end the war as long north vietnam persisted

- North vietnam launched there largest attack on south vietname since tet

- in response nixon ordered bombs on north vietnams largest harbor. this halted north vietnamese attack, but the stalemate continued

- president nixon won reelection

- nixon orders bombing on hanoi and haiphong the two largest cities in north vietnam

- Finally nixon signs an "agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in vietnam"

- the cold war ends

NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC AND IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVES

- war powers act: a president must inform congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war

- counterculture: mostly white college youths who turned their backs on traditional america and tried to establish a society based on peace and love

- stagflation: inflation problems due to LBJ's policy to fund the war and social programs through deficit spending , international trade competition, baby booms, and a flood of new workers

- america had a high dependency on oil, US received much of its petroleum from countries in the middle east. many of these countries belonged to a cartel called OPEC

- during the 1960's OPEC started raising oil prices.

- when war broke out between Israel against egypt and syria ( Yom Kippur war) the US sent massive aid to isreal. arab OPEC nations responded by cutting off all oil sales to the US

- when OPEC resumed selling oil to the US sale prices had quadrupled

- Nixon wants to reduce the amount of federal involvement

- Nixon creates new federalism: distributed a portion of federal power to state and local governments

- revenue sharing: state and local govs could spend federal money for whatever they seemed fit within a few limitations

- in an effort t reduce the amount of federal programs, Nixon practiced impoundment: withholding necessary funds for federal programs. Nixon impounded $15 bil affecting more than 100 federal programs

- Nixon pushed to fulfill his promises as president to end the war and make negotiations with north vietnam. he sometimes did this through illegal acts

- southern strategy: nixon tried to attract southern conservative democrats by appealing to their unhappiness with federal desegregation policies

- south becomes more and more conservative

- tried to appeal to white southern voters by reversing the civil rights movement: "There are those who want instant integration, and those who want segregation forever. I believe we need to have a middle course between these two extremes

- Henry Kissinger, nixon's national security advisor pushed for a realpolitik government: foreign policy should be based on consideration of power

- nixon and kiss. made their own policy which was a slightly more flexible realpolitik; detente: a policy aimed at easing cold war tensions

- nixon visits china to officially recognize them as a country. he was taking advantage of the ties broken between the soviet union and china

- The two nations agreed neither would dominate the Pacific and they would settle disputes peacefully

- nixon then visits moscow, the first president to visit the soviet capital

- SALT1 treaty: five year agreement limited the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles

- the foreign policy triumphs with china and the soviet union with peace at hand in vietnam helped reelect nixon as president

- watergate: members of the CRP (committee to reelect the president) were involved in a burglary in watergate headquarters. Nixon stopped any of the stories from being released, workers shred incriminating evidence, the white house urged the FBI to stop any investigation

- after many trials and the refusal of releasing the unedited tapes, it was evident nixon was guilty. before he could be fired or impeached, nixon resigned as president

- Gerald Ford elected president

- tried to get rid of inflation by cutting government spending: triggered the worst economic recession in 40 years

- continued nixon's policy of negotiating with china and the soviet union. he traveled yo helsinki finland where 35 nations including the soviet union signed the helsinki accords: series of agreements that promised greater cooperation between east and west europe

- trouble in southeast asia: cease fire in vietnam ended: south vietnam surrenders to north vietnam

- jimmy carter elected president

- carter considered the energy crisis as the most important issue

- went to congress with more than 100 energy conservation proposals: most of them resisted

- all measures still failed. OPEC raised prices. inflation rised from 7.6 percent to 11.3 percent

- inflation keeps climbing

- reduced # of manufacturing jobs, increased service sector

- competition over seas leads to primary industries getting cut off

- with all his attention on economic woes and energy crisis, carter did not pay attention to civil rights

- no realpolitik, carter strived for a foreign policy based on human rights

- SALT 2: provided limits on the number of strategic weapons and nuclear missile launchers that each side could produce

- critics of salt 2 said it would limit US military power. evidently the soviets invaded afghanistan. angered by the invasion, carter refused to fight for the salt 2 treaty

- camp david accords:

- carter wanted to forge peace between israel and egypt

- israel agreed to withdraw from the sanai peninsula which it had seized from egypt

- egypt agreed to recognize Israel’s right to exist

-The shah of iran, an ally of the US was resented by iranians

- the muslim religious leader, ayatollah ruhollah khomeini led the rebels to overthrowing the shah

- carter supported the shah till the end: he allowed the shah into the US for cancer treatment: this angered revolutionaries in iran: students seized the US embassy in iran and held americans hostage: they would release hostages if carter sent shah back to iran: carter refuses

- US secretly tried to release the hostages and finally they were released

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