Vietnam


One of the more famous LBJ cartoons. The President, a rather uncouth man, was fond of showing visitors the scar from his gall bladder surgery. In this version, however, the scar had a rather different shape.
 

LBJ and Vietnamese President Nguyen van Thieu, in 1968, as military conditions began to fall apart. Thieu would govern South Vietnam for the last eight years of existence, until 1975.
Today's class will focus on the Americanization of the Vietnam War and its effect on the Cold War liberal consensus. The reading looks at the options considered by the Johnson administration in early 1965; in class, we'll be spending more time on the dissents against the war from the public and, especially, the Senate.
READING:
bullet Patterson, Major Problems, Vietnam chapter.

DOCUMENTS:

bullet FRUS, early 1965
bullet Transcripts (Please print out and bring to class.)

 

 vietnammap.jpg (170065 bytes)
Southeast Asia in 1965.