Truman's Presidency (1945-1953

The 1968 Tet Offensive was a series of battles which took place during the Vietnam War where the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the National Liberation Front (NLF) attacked the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and U.S. Forces in South Vietnam. This major offensive by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) forces which were initiated on January 30th of 1968 in coordination with Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. The offensive is historically labeled as a military defeat for the DRV forces while ultimately being a strategic victory through it’s ability to turn major American public opinion against support of the war effort in Vietnam. “Johnson’s decision to halt escalation after the Tet Offensive marked a crucial turning point in American participation in the Vietnam War.” (History.com Staff 2009)

The Vietnam War protests and antiwar movement first began in 1964, gained national prominence in 1965, peaked in 1968, and remained strong throughout the rest of the war. In the beginning, the antiwar movement started out with only a small minority of fervent college students, peace activists, hippies, liberals, and pacifist religious groups who tried to make their voices heard. This opposition originated from people who did not agree with the American government’s actions regarding involvement in the war. Americans were opposed to the Vietnam War because they young men resisted enlistment in the war, citizens argued

The French were highly involved with Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) due to the abundant harvesting riches that were favorable with their own economy. Historically, Vietnam first established the communist party through the influence of China after their conversion into a Communist country in 1949. Ho Chi Min, a nationalist leader, had

In order for Vietnam to be free of a Communist government, the United States decided to ally with France so the Vietminh could not gain more power. Since the Americans were fresh out of fighting the Korean and Chinese Civil War, they believed Communism could be spreading everywhere. Beginning in 1950, the United States initially pledged $15 million dollars in aid of the French. This was the start of an American debt that would damage the U.S economy for almost 30 years. The President of this time, Lyndon B. Johnson, played down the United States' role in Vietnam for two reasons. He believed that if Americans felt that this war had to be fought in order to protect their country from Communism, the public would demand a "full-scale, no-holds-barred war that could have led to Chinese and Russian

How a U.S. president utilizes communication and develops his skills is often thought of as one of the most important parts of a presidency. Communication not only allows a president to ensure that his ideas are properly heard and interpreted, but it also allows him to gain valuable support from both the public and from other entities within the government. Without proper communication, a president such as Harry S. Truman is likely to find it difficult to accomplish his goals during his time in office.

On January 30th 1968 over 80,000 Vietcong soldiers launched a surprise attack on over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam. This is known as the Tet Offensive. The US army and South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) launched a counter-attack which regained all lost territory and crippled the military capabilities of the Vietcong. Some historians argue Tet was not as important as it appears to be. However, it is widely considered to be a pivotal turning point in the Vietnam War, causing the US military to change strategy to Vietnamisation, turning US public opinion against the war, and resulting in President Johnson not standing for re-election. It it provided a catalyst

During the Indochina war, the United States aided the French, but if we inspect France

The United States played a very crucial role in the conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between the U.S.-backed democratic South Vietnam, and Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam. Following the defeat of its French administration in 1954, North Vietnam, led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, wanted to reunify the country with the help of its rebel allies in the south, known as the Viet Cong. Out of this chaos emerged a difficult situation for the United States, as Cold War sentiments were present within this proxy war between the two powerful nations and the third party of Vietnam. The United States wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam, in order to ensure his government would not fall into ruins and be taken control by the communists, but President Eisenhower was also hesitant to get his troops involved in this large scale conflict in Southeast Asia.

Considered one of the worst wars fought in American history, the Vietnam War created many controversies and casualties: a total of 58,000 American soldiers were killed and 304,000 wounded; almost 1,400,000 North and South Vietnamese were killed in action (Woods 9). Generally, people believed that the South Vietnamese would win with U.S. help. The turning point of the war, the Tet Offensive, was a campaign created by North Vietnam to regain initiative in the war by attacking South Vietnamese government and military sites on the Tet holiday (lunar new year). The

Trying to help stop Vietnam from falling into a communist country, the United States helped France in fighting Ho Chi Minh in 1950. In 1954 after the battle at Dien Bien Phu, France pulled out of Vietnam. At the Geneva Conference of 1954 there was a meeting of several nations trying to figure out how the French would withdraw peacefully. The agreement called “the Geneva Accords” stated a “cease fire for the peaceful withdrawal of French armed forces and the temporary division of Vietnam

Despite the threat of communism spreading across the world; Harry S. Truman ended segregation in the armed forces and civil service by executive order. In contrast to the“no named” presidents in the past, Truman was an extraordinary president. During Truman’s presidency, he accomplished many great challenges that would leave a mark in America’s history.

In 1965 the movement began to gain national prominence. Aggressive actions by police and protesters turned the anti-war demonstrations in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention into a riot. News reports of American military abuses, such as the 1968 My Lai Massacre, brought new attention and support to the anti-war movement bringing it to its height. The movement continued to prosper over the span of the conflict.

Truman was the first president to deal with the cold war. Truman gave Greece military aid he gave them the help because they are a small country and they don’t have a very good army and they are poorly armed(Truman sentence 12). He did this because he didn’t want the Greeks to fall to communism. Truman also gave the Greeks Economic

Vietnam was split into two zones which contained a communist North Vietnam and a somewhat democratic South Vietnam. American involvement in the war became once the Cold War occurred. President Harry Truman created the Truman Doctrine (1947) which proposed that communism must be controlled. CONFLICT: Dwight D. Eisenhower made a special speech when he suggested that the fall of the French Indochina could create a “domino” effect around Southeast Asia. This was referred to as the “domino theory” and made the United States question their tactics against Vietnam for over a decade.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a radical anti-war group founded by Tom Hayden. They drew their ideas from the Civil Rights movement and believed in political activism (Isserman 110) They helped put together on the first major anti-war marches that took place in Washington D.C. in April of 1965 (McCormick 37). This group’s name quickly grew in size as it came from around 25,000 people at this first march to 500,000 people in November of 1969. The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam was started by two Wisconsin protestors, Frank Emspak and Roy Robinson. The founding of this group showed that the anti-war movement as stronger and more organized as it had been before. There were other ways that people express their feeling about the war. The San Francisco Mime Troupe expressed their opinions in a creative way as they performed a play with characters that resembled the countries in the Vietnam War (Holden 118-120). Other protesters carried Viet Cong flags, that were red and blue, to demonstrations and burned the American