A DIVIDED NATION

UNIT 3.4.3
WARM UP
Explain in 3-5 sentences what struggles soldiers
faced in Vietnam.
“Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, Lord?
But when the taxman come to the door “FORTUNATE SON”
Lord, the house lookin' like a rummage sale, yeah
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no
▪ Other ways to evade the
It ain't me, it ain't me draft
I ain't no fortunate one, no” ▪ Move to Canada
▪ Burning their draft cards
▪ Physical harm themselves
▪ Going to jail
▪ 1977 Jimmy Carter offered
a complete pardon to draft
1. Why would they want to be a millionaire’s dodgers.
son?
2. What do they mean by “fortunate?”
THE ECONOMICS OF THE DRAFT – WORKING CLASS WAR

▪ Selective Service System drafted men

into Vietnam as well.
▪ Register at 18, local draft boards called those
18-26 as they were needed.
▪ A lot of young men tried to avoid it.
▪ Types of deferment “dodging.”
▪ Medical excuses
▪ Change residences.
▪ Coast Guard or National Guard.
▪ College (only those who could afford it)
 THE NEW LEFT
▪ Youth dominated political movement that
demanded sweeping changes in American
society.
▪ March of 1965 Johnson administration
dispatched the first combat troops to Vietnam.
▪ 3,500 marines landed at Da Nang airbase in Vietnam.

▪ Earlier that month, the US began Operation

Rolling Thunder.
▪ Bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

▪ University of Michigan held a teach-in.

▪ Eventually had 30,000 participants.
▪ Soon spread across the nation.
AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN VIETNAM
▪ Number that served was disproportionate to the
percentage that made up the population in the US.
▪ More than 20% of US combat deaths, only 10% of US
population was African-American.
▪ 1969 DOD established a lottery system in the draft.
▪ Vietnam was the first war that was fully integrated.
▪ On paper was one thing, complete equality was another.

▪ Summer 1967 Racial tension erupted with a race riot at

a US Army stockade at Long Binh.
▪ Legitimate complaints of discrimination and domestic tensions at
home.

▪ Formed organizations to protect themselves and

represent their collective interests.
 WOMEN IN
VIETNAM
▪ 1960’s did not allow women to serve in combat
situations.
▪ Very little data actually exists Approximately 11,000
women were stationed in Vietnam during the war.
▪ Nurses, physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers,
clerks.
▪ Army Corps, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Army Medical
Specialist Corps.

▪ Civilian women volunteered through Red Cross, United

Service Organizations, Catholic Relief Services.
▪ Foreign correspondents for news organizations.
 AN ERA OF YOUTHFUL OPPOSITION
▪ Protesting on college campuses.
▪ Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) driving force behind
teach-ins and other forms of anti-war protests on college
campuses.
▪ Founded in the 1960s by Tom Hayden and Al Haber

▪ SDS and the Free Speech Movement (founded at UC Berkeley in

1964) launched a youth movement known as the “New Left.”
▪ Gained momentum out of a clash between administrators and
students over 1st Amendment rights.
▪ FSM was the first revolt of the decade to bring to a college
campus the mass civil disobedience tactics first pioneered
during the Civil Rights Movement.
▪ Tactics quickly spread across the country.
 DOVES AND HAWKS REMAIN DIVIDED
▪ Protests like “teach-ins” were used to protest the war and continued to
grow.
▪ April of 1965 SDS orchestrated a protested march on D.C.
▪ About 25,000 people participated
▪ Led from the US capitol to the Washington Monument.
▪ Objected on moral grounds and a war in which they could not find
purpose.
▪ Musicians began to oppose the war through music.
DOVES AND HAWKS REMAIN DIVIDED
▪ Between 1965 and 1967 the movement intensified.
▪ 500,000 troops and 40,000 drafted per month.

▪ October of 1967 over 100,000 including former veterans

gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to protest.
▪ About 1,500 demonstrators were injured and at least 700 were
arrested as protestors broke past military police.

▪ 1967 Divide between the doves and hawks was clear.

▪ Doves- strongly opposed the war.
▪ Hawks- felt American force was necessary to end the war.

▪ Polls indicated about 2/3 of Americans still felt the war

was justified.
JOHNSON IS STILL COMMITTED TO
FIGHT