Zinn Chapter 23 Summary

Howard Zinn discussed several things in this chapter. At first, he mentioned the white frontiersmen rebellion and how the rebellion threat the government. This rebellion was bacon’s rebellion. Also, he talked about how the England government ended this rebellion. The main argument for Zinn in this chapter was the division of the community in the colonies according to social and economic status into upper class which was the wealthy people, and the lower class which consist of poor people. Also, he talked about the relationship among white, and Indians, and black slaves.

In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous

Chapter 10 of Zinn discusses the struggle between class systems that was going on when the North and the South conflicted in the United States. During the nineteenth century, there was a competition between class systems that resulted in strikes, killings, and the formation of unions. While reading the chapter, one thing that surprised me was The Contract Labor Law. This law gave business’ bring in foreign workers that provided a source of cheap labor and workers to fill in the spots that strikers left (Zinn, 165). This law rewards business while punishing its workers. It’s saying that industries value money and power more than the well being of their workers, which isn’t right. It amazed me that lawmaker’s valued business more than people’s safety. There were no laws that protected worker’s or their health and safety. No wonder they fought and established strikes. Workers weren’t protected at all during the nineteenth century, to business’ they were disposable and cheap.

The Vietnam war was a costly matter for America that infected U.S. politics and destroyed the economy. When President Nixon took office, he tried to improve the United States relation with Russia through detente in 1969. This couldn’t solve the problem in Vietnam. This lead to the US leaving the fight in Vietnam in 1973 with the help of a peace agreement. President Nixon also continued his negations with Soviet Russia and visited China.

In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since

the case in the past."(8) Nixon later indicated that he intended to make South Vietnam an issue in the 1964 presidential election in Saigon, Nixon stated that what he saw on this trip "convinced me that Johnson 's Vietnam policy would not succeed."(9) Despite his pessimism toward the administration 's strategy, Nixon did not believe that Vietnam was a lost cause.

Nixon’s first term of presidency was full of accomplishments. Once in office, Nixon and his staff faced the problem of how to end the Vietnam War. Nixon made a nationally televised address on November 3, 1969, calling on Americans to renew their confidence in the government and back his policy of seeking a negotiated peace in Vietnam. Earlier that year, Nixon and his Defense Secretary Melvin Laird had unveiled the policy of “Vietnamization,” which entailed reducing American troop levels in Vietnam and transferring the burden of

In the 1960s and 1970s, the most controversial war the United States had ever been involved in during its rich two-hundred year history would engulf the country, ultimately leading to the collapse of a president, and the division of a nation. The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam and neighboring countries from 1959-1975 involving the North Vietnamese and NLF (National Liberation Front) versus the United States and the South Vietnamese ("The Vietnam..."). In 1969, newly elected President Richard M. Nixon, aiming to achieve "peace with honor" in Vietnam, began to put his "Vietnamization" policy into place -- removing the number of American military personnel in the country and transferring combat roles to the South

The Nixon administration was forced to de-escalate the war in Vietnam. The antiwar movement fueled US troop withdraws from Vietnam. Through his ‘Vietnamization' program, President Nixon entailed withdrawing American troops and strengthening the South Vietnam's army. Nixon hoped to calm domestic opposition to the conflict and thereby buy time for his effort to a force favorable outcome to the war. The antiwar movement accomplished congressional legislation that cut off U.S. funds for the war. Wells,

1. Zinn’s thesis for pages 1-11 is that the English did something that they weren’t supposed do, they killed and made the Indians live a life in hell. He hates how the English took the land from the natives and only to get gold. He hates how the English made the Indians do what they didn’t want to do and that they made them their slaves. His statement is that the English are the bad people and that they didn’t need to do anything that they did.

Out of all the chapters in this book, chapter 20 is the one that engaged me to think. This chapter was about the early 1970s. It claims that these years is when many Americans, for the first time, started to hold attitudes that were aggressive to the government and to business. The author, Howard Zinn begins talking about how Americans had, come to be aggressive towards the government and towards big business. Also, thinks that the Vietnam War was the main cause of the attitudes of the Americans. Which makes him argues about the war, which showed the moral bankruptcy of the system. The government fought for what he sees as an immoral cause and it caused the government to mislead the people repeatedly. Then, he talks about the Watergates. The

This was one of his greatest mistakes not only during the war, but also his within the timeline of his presidency. He began by creating the Nixon Doctrine. The Doctrine was claimed to be an aid in which it was supposed to “help” Vietnam by claiming we were allies and that we as a nation would support them in the war. This caused a much outrage because of the fact that we were not supposed to further invest ourselves in the war in the first place (Greene 413). The “doves” began to protest this, which caused one of the first signs against Nixon. Many Americans wanted the U.S. to back out of the war altogether. They stated that it wasn’t our war to fight, and that because of Nixon and his rushed plan, we ended up paying a price too heavy for the war. Nixon, on the other hand, stated that he would continue in the involvement of the United States in their effort to help protect and aid Vietnam and continue the Vietnamization process (Foner). But things took a turn for the worst as on April 30, 1970, he called on the order to invade Cambodia. This, in turn, caused a major commotion in the United States. Almost no one wanted another country to be dragged even farther in the war, and they didn’t want to add another enemy against the U.S. In fact, people were so outraged by this that colleges all over the country were protesting against the call and students were

Nixon presidency the United States decided to bring forth the “Vietnamization” policy. A strategy that pledge to strengthen the South Vietnamese military by training them and eventually reducing the United States combat troops until complete withdrawal. Nixon believed this negotiation would give the give them “a better, shorter path to peace”. Although, the United States had cut all military supplies and funding to South Vietnam resulting in a lack of funds to buy equipments such as bullet, bombs, rockets, weapons etc.. In addition the gradual removal of troops made matters worse. It left South Vietnam without the proper equipments and trained troops to succeed. By 1973, the Paris Peace Accords was signed to establish peace in Vietnamese and end

When America entered the war against Vietnam the American people were confused about why they were in the war. The President did not

Nixon stated, “In the previous administration, we Americanized the war in Vietnam. In this administration, we are Vietnamizing the search for peace.”