The Homefront11.9.3, 11.9.4

EQ: How did the American war effort in Vietnam lead to rising protests and social divisions back home?

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Selective Service• most of the 2.5 million who

served were poor working class

• disproportionate rate of AA casualties

• 15 million men received deferments

• college students and certain jobs• many left for Canada

• changed to lottery system in 1969

• widespread resistance to the draft

• draft cards burned2

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

• students at the U of Michigan organized against the war in ‘64

• UC Berkeley students were forbidden to organize on campus

• started the Free Speech Movement

3

Credibility Gap

• LBJ’s optimism did not match what people saw on TV

• people began to distrust the government

• Vietnam Veterans Against the War grew from 6 to 40,000 members

•Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?•Eighteen today, dead tomorrow!•Make love, not war!•Hell no, we won’t go!•Trust no one over thirty!

4

Tet Offensive, 1968 • 70,000 Vietcong caught

U.S. by surprise on Vietnamese New Year

• attacked all across S. Vietnam

• military win for US but publicity victory for Vietcong

• 2000 US dead• 50,000 Vietcong dead

• severe blow to US confidence in the war

5

Election of 1968

• LBJ refused to run for re-election

• RFK was killed• major riots broke out in

Chicago at the Democratic Convention

• Nixon promised “peace with honor”

• the “Silent Majority”

1968

R Richard M. Nixon 31,785,480 301D Hubert Humphrey 31,275,166 191AI George Wallace 9,906,473 46

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