Overview: The US had just officially gone to war, and they had started bombing Vietnam. By 1965, the Us had 125,000 soldiers in Vietnam. They had also started the US's longest bombing campaign in history, lasting 3 years. During the bombing campaign, the US dropped more bombs on Vietnam than Japan and Germany combined. Regardless of it being the longest and largest campaign, the bombings were a failure. Lyndon B. Johnson had a never give up, never surrender attitude during the war. He believed we were strong enough to win the war, and we didn't plan to stop until we did. |
Tet OffensiveOn the Buddhist holiday TET, the Buddhist new year, the Vietcong launched a surprise attack on many of the US bases in Vietnam. We were far under prepared because of the fact that it was a holiday, and a day of ceasefire. The US suffered great losses, making it one of the greatest losses the US had ever suffered.
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ProtestsThough some people supported the war, many protested it. The Hippie peace movement was in full swing. College students around the US had protests against the war, and nine people even broke into a selective service office and destroyed draft records. The most trusted News anchor of the time, Walter Cronkite, traveled to Vietnam and returned to say we couldn't win the war. This was a huge blow to the US governments war efforts
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LBJ Gives UpLBJ understood how much the people hated the war in Vietnam, but he never really gave up on it himself. However, after Cronkite's announcement he admitted "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." Deep down he knew we couldn't win the war, so in the March of 1968, he announced the stop of the bombings, and denounced his running for a second presidential term. Later, Robert Kennedy, JFK's brother, decided to run for president, but was assassinated before he could run.
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