AP US History

April 23 – 27 2018

Well, time for more meaningless testing (including a more meaningful one for this class later in the week)

We will also be on block schedule this week….again…….

Periods 4 and 6 will be a few days behind and will cover the Cold War 1950s-early 1960s (Eisenhower and LBJ)

There will be several review type assignments throughout this week

Next week either Monday or Tuesday (if we are still on block schedule). The format of the test will be MC and SA. We may use scantrons so bring a pencil

MONDAY(Periods 4,6 only)

Examine key foreign policy events of the Eisenhower and JFK 1953 – 1963 (POL-4,7)(WOR-7)

MaterialsStrategy/Format

PPT and video Vietnam protestLecture-discussionL.CCR.1-2

Student Activities

I. Chronological Reasoning (1,2, 3)

II. Comparison and Context (4, 5)

III. Crafting Historical Arguments/Evidence 6, 7)

IV. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis (8, 9)

The Berlin Crisis of 1961

  • When JFK first assumed the Presidency, he had to deal with a tragic escalation of Cold War tensions that he had inherited from Eisenhower. An international diplomatic crisis erupted in May 1960 the USSR shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers Confronted with the evidence of his nation’s espionage, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to admit to the Soviets that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been flying spy missions over the USSR for several years. The Soviets convicted Powers on espionage charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. However, after serving less than two years, he was released in exchange for a captured Soviet agent in the first-ever U.S.-USSR “spy swap.” The U-2 spy plane incident raised tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets during the Cold War (1945-91), the largely political clash between the two superpowers and their allies that emerged following World War II.
  • In early 1960 JFK meet with Soviet Premiere Khrushchev in Geneva early in his Presidency and it did not go well. We now know that that JFK was in terrible pain from a back problem and was on meds that kept him pretty messed up. The Soviet leader got the impression that he was a weak leader. This may have stimulated the Soviet decision to press the western powers on the issue of Berlin.
  • During the 1950s a steady outflow of refugees from the Soviet occupation zone to the West consisted primarily of young people of working age. By 1950 some 1.6 million had migrated to the western zones. Between 1950 and 1961, the refugee flow continued at a rate of 100,000 to 200,000 annually. Workers were attracted by the economic opportunities open to them in West Germany, and in the early 1950s, they and their families formed the majority of emigrants. By the late 1950s, a growing proportion of those leaving were professional people and students whose skills were sorely needed for internal development. In 1959 about 144,000 persons fled; in 1960, the figure rose to 199,000; and in the first seven months of 1961, about 207,000 left the country.
  • In November 1958, Soviet Premier Khrushchev issued an ultimatum giving the Western powers six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free, demilitarized city. At the end of that period, Khrushchev declared, the Soviet Union would turn over to East Germany complete control of all lines of communication with West Berlin; the western powers then would have access to West Berlin only by permission of the East German government. The United States, Great Britain, and France replied to this ultimatum by firmly asserting their determination to remain in West Berlin and to maintain their legal right of free access to that city.
  • In 1959 the Soviet Union withdrew its deadline and instead met with the Western powers in a Big Four foreign ministers' conference. Although the three-month-long sessions failed to reach any important agreements, they did open the door to further negotiations and led to Premier Khrushchev's visit to the United States in September of 1959. At the end of this visit, Khrushchev and President Eisenhower stated jointly that the most important issue in the world was general disarmament and that the problem of Berlin and "all outstanding international questions should be settled, not by the applicationof force, but by peaceful means through negotiations."
  • The communist Eastern German government pushed the Soviets to act. During the spring and early summer, the East German regime procured and stockpiled building materials for the erection of the Berlin Wall. Although this extensive activity was widely known, few outside the small circle of Soviet and East German planners believed that East Germany would be sealed off. Approximately 32,000 combat and engineer troops were used in building the Wall. Once their efforts were completed, the Border Police assumed the functions of manning and improving the barrier. The Soviet Army was present to discourage interference by the West and presumably to assist in the event of large-scale riots.
  • As the confrontation over Berlin escalated, on 25 July President Kennedy requested an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to approximately 1 million men, along with increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men in the active duty strength of the Navy and the Air Force. Additionally, he ordered that draft calls be doubled, and asked the Congress for authority to order to active duty certain ready reserve units and individual reservists. He also requested new funds to identify and mark space in existing structures that could be used for fall-out shelters in case of attack, to stockthose shelters with food, water, first-aid kits and other minimum essentials for survival, and to improve air-raid warning and fallout detection systems.
  • In the end however, JFK’s reaction did not stop the Berlin Wall from going up. Kennedy went to Berlin and made his famous speech (Eich bin ein Berliner). Though intending this final phrase to mean "I am a Berliner," in one of the memorably humorous footnotes to Cold War history, Kennedy's words would be more accurately translated as "I am a donut" since a "Berliner" is a popular German pastry. The U.S. did pledge once again to defend West Berlin and the West Germany as millions more in aid were allocated.

The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • As we saw with Eisenhower, there was a plan to overthrow Castro in Cuba developed by the CIA but Ike had never acted upon it. Now it was up to JFK who travelled to Miami and made a speech to thousands of anti-Castro dissidents there. This was the signal that the invasion, known as the Bay of Pigs was on.
  • The original invasion plan called for two air strikes against Cuban air bases. A 1,400-man invasion force would disembark under cover of darkness and launch a surprise attack. Paratroopers dropped in advance of the invasion would disrupt transportation and repel Cuban forces. Simultaneously, a smaller force would land on the east coast of Cuba to create confusion. The main force would advance across the island to Matanzas and set up a defensive position. The United Revolutionary Front would send leaders from South Florida and establish a provisional government. The success of the plan depended on the Cuban population joining the invaders.
  • The first mishap occurred on April 15, 1961, when eight bombers left Nicaragua to bomb Cuban airfields. The CIA had used obsolete World War II B-26 bombers, and painted them to look like Cuban air force planes. The bombers missed many of their targets and left most of Castro's air force intact. As news broke of the attack, photos of the repainted U.S. planes became public and revealed American support for the invasion. President Kennedy cancelled a second air strike. This was the death knell for any success that the raid havehope for. Most of the brigade were killed or captured along with some membersof the CIA.
  • The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make up for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose—a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy. The plan included the possibility of assassinating Castro. Almost 60 years later, relations between Castro's Cuba and the United States remain strained and tenuous.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

  • The Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal moment in the Cold War. Fifty years ago the United States and the Soviet Union stood closer to Armageddon than at any other moment in history. In October 1962 President John F. Kennedy was informed of a U-2 spy-plane’s discovery of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. The President resolved immediately that this could not stand. Over an intense 13 days, he and his Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev confronted each other “eyeball to eyeball,” each with the power of mutual destruction. A war would have meant the deaths of 100 million Americans and more than 100 million Russians.
  • President Kennedy and the group of advisors he had assembled (known as ExComm) evaluated a number of options. After a week of secret deliberations, he announced the discovery to the world and imposed a naval blockade on further shipments of armaments to Cuba. A tense second week followed, during which neither side backed down. Presented with the choice of attacking or accepting Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy rejected both options. Instead, he crafted an alternative with three components: a public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a private ultimatum threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer was rejected; and a secret sweetener that promised to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months
  • The Cuban missile crisis ended in 1962 mostly through back channel negotiations. The US agreed to remove missiles from Turkey and the Soviets missiles from Cuba. Interestingly the missiles in Turkey were already slated for removal as they were obsolete. The new submarine launched missiles were going to replace them anyway. There were also agreements about a hot-line to avoid accidental launches. For Khrushchev, the missile crisis was also the end of his premiership as he was forced from power and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964 until his death in 1982
  • young, tanned Massachusetts war hero was the winner. However, many who heard the debate on the radio believed JFK was bested by the more experienced Nixon. During the debate and the general campaign Kennedy accused the Republicans of allowing a “missile gap” to develop as the Soviets had developed Homework

MONDAY (Periods 3,5)

  • Examine the background causes of the Vietnam conflict (1955 – 1968) (POL-4,7) (WOR-7)
  • Explain the sources for protest at home against the war.

MaterialsStrategy/Format

PPT and video clip 1968Lecture-discussionL.CCR.1-2

Student Activities

I. Chronological Reasoning (1,2, 3)

II. Comparison and Context (4, 5)

III. Crafting Historical Arguments/Evidence 6, 7)

IV. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis (8, 9)

Introduction

The Early Years 1955 – 1964

  • The war in Vietnam was a reflection of the “domino theory” that being that if one nation falls to communism, then it will poison its neighbors. By 1949 China was communist and Taiwan (Nationalist China) was our ally but the situation presented a constant threat of a major war. In Korea, the North and South were still divided at the 38th parallel (as it is today). SEATO, a version of NATO was created to stop the spread but in reality this was never that strong.
  • In the 1940s Ho Chi Minh had espoused communism and sought, as Kim il-sung had attempted in Korea to unify the peninsula under Marxist principles. The U.S. has no strategic interests in Vietnam nor had their ever been much trade with Vietnam, a former French colony.
  • In the early 1950s the Viet Minh nationalists had expelled the French and the 1954 Geneva Accords had divided Vietnam (again similarly to Korea) at the 17th Parallel promising free elections in 1956 to decide the political status. With help from the United States, South Vietnam carried out the election only in South Vietnam rather than countrywide. States. Since Diem had alienated many South Vietnamese during his tenure, communist sympathizers in South Vietnam established the National Liberation Front (NLF), also known as the Viet Cong, in 1960 to use guerrilla warfare against the South Vietnamese. The leader of South Vietnam (The Republic of South Vietnam) Ngo Diem was supported by the U.S. with money and military equipment while the Chinese (and Soviets to a lesser degree) supported the North led by Ho Chi Minh. During the JFK years the U.S. continued to support Diem but doubts were creeping it. The picture below shows one form of protest against Diem. Buddhist monks sometimes would self-immolate. Clearly, when these images appeared on TV, people asked why were we supporting Diem? In 1963 with CIA support Diem’s body guard killed him. Thus, began a long chain of U.S. direct involvement. Did JFK order the hit?

Vietnam Escalation: the Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964

  • Of course, in 1963 JFK was himself assassinated. Now it was LBJ’s decision how to handle Vietnam. His decisions would have lasting implications. LBJ, typical to his style and rough-hewn nature once said in an interview that “bitch killed the woman that I truly loved.” This was his way of saying that Vietnam destroyed his legacy as a civil rights president. And it did. Most people know little about LBJ than his failures in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson was reluctant to commit the United States to fight in South Vietnam. "I just don't think it's worth fighting for," he told McGeorge Bundy, his national security adviser. The president feared looking like a weakling, and he was convinced that his dream of a Great Society would be destroyed if he backed down on the communist challenge in Asia. Each step in deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam made it harder to admit failure and reverse direction.
  • President Johnson campaigned in the 1964 election with the promise not to escalate the war. "We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves," he said. But following reports that the North Vietnamese had attacked an American destroyer (which was engaged in a clandestine intelligence mission) off the Vietnamese coast, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Lyndon Johnson power to "take all necessary measures." The vote was amazingly unanimous and the event that escalated the Vietnam War was highly questionable (again the source of many conspiracy theories).
  • In early 1965, Viet Cong units (communist insurgents) operating autonomously attacked a South Vietnamese garrison near Pleiku, killing eight Americans. Convinced that the communists were escalating the war, Johnson began the bombing campaign against North Vietnam that would last for 2 ½ years. He also sent the first regular U.S. ground combat troops to Vietnam. Johnson announced that the lessons of history dictated that the United States use its might to resist aggression. “We did not choose to be the guardians at the gate, but there is no one else,” Johnson said. He ordered 210,000 American ground troops to Vietnam.
  • By April 1967, we had a force of 470,000 men in Vietnam. We were learning that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The Johnson administration's strategy--which included search and destroy missions in the South and calibrated bombings in the North--proved ineffective, though highly destructive. Despite the presence of 549,000 American troops, the United States had failed to cut supply lines from the North along the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, which ran along the border through Laos and Cambodia. By 1967, the U.S. goal was less about saving South Vietnam and more about avoiding a humiliating defeat. By 1971 a series of leaks from within the Defense Department collectively known as the Pentagon Papers showed that there was no real strategy at all in Vietnam.

The Tet Offensive and the Turning Point Year of 1968

  • This year was one of the most divisive and traumatic turning points in our history. In early 1968, General Vo Nguyen Giap, the man in charge of North Vietnam's army, believed it was time for the North Vietnamese to make a major surprise attack on South Vietnam. After coordinating with the Viet Cong and moving troops and supplies into position, the Communists made a diversionary attack against the American base at KheSanh on January 21, 1968.
  • On January 30, 1968, the real Tet Offensive began. Early in the morning, North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong forces attacked both towns and cities in South Vietnam, breaking the ceasefire that had been called for the Vietnamese holiday of Tet (the lunar New Year). The attack was highly coordinated.
  • The Communists attacked around 100 major cities and towns in South Vietnam. The size and ferocity of the attack surprised both the Americans and the South Vietnamese, but they fought back. The Communists, who had hoped for an uprising from the populous in support of their actions, met heavy resistance instead.
  • In some towns and cities, the Communists were repelled quickly, within hours. In others, it took weeks of fighting. In Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, the Communists succeeded in occupying the U.S. embassy, once thought impregnable, for eight hours before they were overtaken by U.S. soldiers. It took about two weeks for U.S. troops and South Vietnamese forces to regain control of Saigon; it took them nearly a month to retake the city of Hue.
  • The results of the Tet Offensive were rather strange. In military terms, the United States was the victor of the Tet Offensive for the Communists did not succeed in maintaining control over any part of South Vietnam. The Communist forces also suffered very heavy losses (an estimated 45,000 killed). As a fighting force the Viet Cong were completely destroyed. However, the Tet Offensive showed another side of the war to Americans, one which they did not like. The coordination, strength, and surprise instigated by the Communists led the U.S. to realize that their foe was much stronger than they had expected. In addition, the commander of Vietnam and the President both had made recent statements that the war was nearly over there. Faced with an unhappy American public and depressing news from his military leaders, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to end the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. This was also the end of LBJ’s Presidency. He announced that he would not run for President again.

Nixon and the end of the Vietnam War 1968-1975