1. Further Dividing a Nation
Agenda:
Pick up guided notes
Notes on Tet Offensive
If a commanding officer gives you an order, should you have the ability or right to choose if you follow that order or not? Explain & give an example!
TET
Further Dividing a Nation

2. TET, and MY LAI
Investigate some of the events that contributed to making Vietnam the most controversial war in our Nation’s history.

3. 1967-General Westmoreland
Claims that resolution is close
Cited the communist body count
60,000 Americans to 2 million Vietnamese
“We can see the Light at the end of the tunnel”

4. What are your thoughts about the “body count” strategy?
Westmoreland’s strategy for winning the war was to fight a war of attrition, and destroy the Vietcong’s morale. Publicizing the daily body count (Vietcong killed in battle) would lead to their eventual surrender, he thought. Another key part of the American strategy was to keep the Vietcong from gaining the support of the South Vietnam’s rural population.
What are your thoughts about the “body count” strategy?

5. A leader of the Green Berets stated, “Just remember this…communist guerillas hide among the people. If you win the people over to our side, the communist guerillas have no place to hide.”
The IRONY of the U.S. strategy was summed up in February of 1968 by a U.S. major whose forces had just leveled the town of Ben Tre…
“We had to destroy the town in order to save it.”
What did he mean? Explain.

6. The Tet Offensive
1968
Vietnamese Villagers go to cities to celebrate Tet (Vietnamese new year)
Vietcong amongst the crowd attack over 100 towns, including 12 U.S. air bases

8. Tet Offensive (Continued)
Lasts 1 month before U.S. and S. Vietnam regain control
Westmoreland declares attacks are “military defeat for Vietcong”
Vietcong lost 32,000 men
US lose 3,000 men
Public witnesses these attacks all over Vietnam on TV
How do you think U.S. citizens reacted to this footage?

10. Response
After seeing this footage, and keeping the rest of the war in context do you side with the doves or the hawks? Why? (aggressor or peace maker)
Before Tet, most Americans were hawks;
After Tet, hawks and doves both equaled 40%
Why was the Tet Offensive considered a crushing defeat?
Many believed from a Psychological and political standpoint the attacks were a disaster –
Public had believed the enemy was supposed to be defeated

11. Vietnam was the first American war where the press and television had full access to first-hand information that was not censored to the public.
It soon became clear that there was a discrepancy between the optimistic claims made by Westmoreland and other U.S. military, in regards to the reality of the situation. In 1982, CBS aired documentary entitled The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception. The report, viewed by millions, claimed that Westmoreland and the Pentagon had deceived the U.S. government about the enemy’s size and strength during ‘67 and ’68 to make it appear that the U.S. was winning the war.
Westmoreland ended up filing a $120 million law suit against CBS and it was settled out of court.

12. Is it ever appropriate to “bend the truth” for the sake of morale and/or to gain support of the public and soldiers toward a military effort? Explain.

13. MY LAI
WAR ATROCITIES

14. What Happened at My Lai?
On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, America Division secured the landing area, and the First Platoon entered the village of My Lai on a search and destroy mission to root out VietCong.
“This is what you’ve been waiting for--search
and destroy-- and you’ve got it,”
said their superior officers.
Calley ordered his men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposition fire. (most of the Vietnamese were simply having breakfast)

15. Atrocities at My Lai
Families who had huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Several women were raped.
One soldier would testify later, "I cut their throats, cut off their hands, cut out their tongues, scalped them. I did it. A lot of people were doing it and I just followed. I lost all sense of direction."
Those who surrendered with their hands held high were murdered.
Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured.

16. Atrocities at My Lai
Calley, for his part, was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a blast of machine gun fire.
Vietnam Online, PBS
The dead civilians included fifty age 3 or younger, 69 between 4 and 7, and 27 in their 70s or 80s.

17. The Investigation
General Westmoreland, one recipient of the letter, could not believe that his men would engage in mass murder and ordered an immediate inquiry.
Over the next few months, evidence was amassed, and it was evident that war crimes had been committed.
On September 5, 1969, Calley was charged with 109 counts of murder, and his Court Martial began on November 12th.

18. Last statements of participants & witness
Video folder

19. Charges and a Pardon
On March 29, 1970, Lieutenant Calley was found guilty of the murder of at least 33 “oriental human beings, occupants of the village of My Lai, whose names and sexes are unknown, by means of shooting them with a rifle.”
Calley was dishonorably discharged and sentenced to life in Leavenworth Prison.
The sentence was reduced to 20 years by President Nixon.
In 1974, after serving just three years, Calley was pardoned by Nixon.

20. The Burning of My Lai

21. Visitors take in a re-created scene at the massacre museum at Vietnam's My Lai village

22. Lasting Effects of My Lai
Two weeks after the Calley verdict, a public opinion poll reported for the first time that a majority of Americans opposed the war in Vietnam.
The incident in My Lai also caused the military to re-evaluate its training and handling of non-combatants.

23. Lessons of My Lai Hugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot who
landed his aircraft at My Lai as the massacre
was happening. He managed to stop the
massacre and saved about a dozen people.
His eye-witness testimony led to the investigation.
“We went back to the ditch.  There was still some movement in there.  We got out of the aircraft and walked down into the ditch…. My crew chief came back up carrying a little kid.  We didn't know what we were gonna do with this one either, but we all get back in the aircraft and figure we'd get him back to the orphanage or hospital.  In examining him in the aircraft, the kid wasn't even wounded, or we didn't see any wounds, I'll put it that way.  He was covered with blood, and the thought was going through my mind and my crew's mind, "How did these people get in that ditch?"

24. Vietnam in HD
Video Folder