U.S. Escalation

Focus-What does “home-field advantage” mean? How might this expression apply to U.S. troops waging a war on foreign soil?

Decision to Escalate

    Containment-Johnson’s moderate speeches won him the ’64 election. LBJ opposed sending troops, but in March 1965, with the advice of Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk, LBJ sent tens of thousands of soldiers to Vietnam.

By the end of 1965-180k troops!

General William Westmoreland wanted even more(limited war)(reading) By the end of 1967-389k troops!!

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War in the Jungle…

Weaponry/technology of the U.S. vs. Vietcong and their “backward” way of fighting… …however, the Vietcong proved to be very elusive…how?

 Hit and run…(Art of War)       Ambush Knowledge of jungle(home field) General population-friend or foe?

Booby traps and land mines Own weapons against the U.S.

TUNNELS, TUNNELS, AND MORE TUNNELS!!(Book, diagram, reading)

War of attrition

   Gradual wearing down of the enemy by continuous harassment.

Body count…enemy will surrender as it rose.

No quitting!!!

 “You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours…but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.”Minh  McNamara and others never expected their resilience to be this high.

Cont…

  U.S. never lost a battle in Vietnam… Tactics of America lost the support of not only the rural Vietnamese in the South, but at home too.

    Napalm(used for tunnels)-gasoline-based bomb that set fire to the jungle Agent Orange-toxic chemical to devastate the landscape Search-and-destroy missions-uprooted villagers, killed their livestock, and burned their villages(Mi Lai massacre) Frustrations of war sank morale(drugs/alcohol)

At Home…

   Public support began to falter as the war continued.

Costly…Great Society?

First “living-room war”      Body count and victory Body bags/Americans 1965-67=16k dead Credibility gap was growing!!

“I want to get out, but I don’t want to give in.”