20 Vietnam Era
Personal is Political
- "The Personal is Political" refers to the rallying cry of the Collectivist Feminist movement during the Second Wave of Feminism that reasons that the personal experience in the private lives of women, family or otherwise, should be of political concern. Student groups such as the SNCC and SDS took up this feminist cause in the mid '60s. An SNCC Position Paper stated that "Assumptions of male superiority are as widespread and deep rooted and every much as crippling to the woman as the assumptions of white supremacy are to the Negro."
War Coverage
- Media coverage of the Vietnam War was and has been unprecedented for war do to the access the media was given. It exacerbated the problem of waning public support. The up close coverage coincided with the Tet Offensive of North Vietnam. Though a military failure for the North, it was a media victory, causing plummeting public and congressional support for the war on U.S. home soil. The news coverage was graphic and shocking. Of particular note is the execution of an accused Viet Cong by a South Vietnamese Police Chief; U.S. military burning of Vietnamese villages; the My Lai Massacre—the killing of 300 civilians due to the fear and jitters of American military men caused by the stresses of the war; and two verified instances of parents watching the news in the evening only to see their son being shot.
3 Pronged Problem
- The Three Pronged Problem is why the American military had so much trouble fighting in Vietnam. First of all, it was extremely hard for ground troops to distinguish who the enemy was in South Vietnam. Massive refugees due to Operation Thunder, South Vietnamese military deserters gone rogue, and North Vietnamese militia living in South Vietnam caused great confusion. Half of all US soldiers killed were by Vietnamese they were "protecting." Another problem was that America could not go on an offensive against North Vietnam for fear that it would cause involvement from the USSR and China and lead into a Nuclear World War. All the bombing the U.S. did—800 tons worth—was done in South Vietnam. Lastly, the war was difficult because support at home deteriorated fast. Protests began in April of 1965 and escalated quickly.
Escalation
- US involvement in Vietnam began to escalate after the USS Maddox was "attacked" (possibly not) in the Tonkin Gulf in August of 1964. Secretary of Defense McNamara was convinced the U.S. was attacked and saw it as a good reason to ramp up U.S. involvement. LBJ addressed the nation at midnight after the talk, speaking cautiously of getting involved in any foreign war. 85% of the public supported LBJ in Vietnam at this moment and two days later Congress gave the President even more executive power for war. When Johnson dismantled his opponent in the '64 presidential election, he saw this as mandate for action in Vietnam. In January of '65 McNamara and George Bundy advised LBJ to either escalate military action in Vietnam or withdraw. At this time LBJ had a 70% approval rating and 80% of the populous supported military action in Vietnam. On March 2, Operation Thunder began, a massive bombing campaign of South Vietnam, and six days later the first US combat troops arrived. By July of '65, the Draft had reached 35,000 a month.
3. What was the "Problem with No Name" and what methods did women in the 1960-70s use to address it?
The "Problem with No Name" is the pervasive societal and cultural oppression of women coined by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique—a bookwhich contributed to the Second Wave of Feminism; a Feminism that fought a 'harder to define' cultural oppression versus the First Wave of Feminism in the early Century which fought for legal rights such as the vote. Friedan was a PhD student who stopped her education due to the age-old story of falling in love and starting a family. While a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs, happily married, Friedan suffered great depression. She sent written surveys to her past classmates, admittedly an upper class group, and found the depression was common. The stories were published in The Feminine Mystique. This Second Wave of Feminism focused on issues sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, also legal issues. The National Organization for Women (NOW) fought for women's rights bureaucratically. NOW pushed to give "teeth" to anti-discrimination laws. They filed lawsuits against the blatantly sexist stewardess requirements of airlines and won. They sued the top 1300 corporations for discrimination. They fought against laws limiting access to contraception and abortion. Due to their fighting, LBJ signed an executive order giving equal access to government jobs. Many individuals and movements grew out of this Second Wave of Feminism that made clear the "Personal is Political," ranging from the practical to the absurd, to the point that by 1970 over 500 Women's Liberation groups existed. Feminist voices grew out of the SNCC and SDS, liberal groups that were still male-dominated. Authors such as Simone de Beauvoir and her Second Sex raised awareness that cultural constructions always put women last. A sexual revolution emerged as women took control of their sexuality through the legalization of the pill in 1960. Fashion designer Mary Quant and her mini-skirt and hot pants were intentionally flashy and sexually aggressive, highlighting women's sexual power. More radical Feminist groups emerged such as S.C.U.M. (Valarie Solanas shooting Andy Warhol); and W.I.T.C.H, a theatrical, street performing, feminist protest group similar to the YIPPIES; and the Redstockings, a more intellectual feminist group who protested the 1968 Miss America Pageant, partly by walking a sheep around they had declared the winner.
Problem with No Name -
The "Problem with No Name" was coined by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique—a published group of stories by Friedan that showed depression amongst [upper class] women due to the oppressive "normal" cultural circumstances of life. It was called the "Problem with No Name" because the oppression was hard to define; it was culturally ubiquitous: It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the 20th Century in the United States. Each Suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slip cover materials, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask of herself the silent question—'Is this all?' -Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique This Second Wave of Feminism differed from the First Wave of the early 1900's; the First Wave fought for only for legal rights such as suffrage.
1. What were the factors that made fighting the Vietnam War so difficult for the United States?
The Three Pronged Problem explains the difficulty of Vietnam for the U.S. Firstly, U.S. troops had an extremely difficult time of identifying who was the enemy in Vietnam. The enemy could often not be distinguished from ally as American troops tried to defend South Vietnam. By the end of '65, three million refugees were spread across the countryside from the initial massive bombing of Operation Thunder. Once American forces were patrolling the ground, 90,000 South Vietnamese troops had deserted, many joining the Northern Forces while still in their Southern uniforms. Also, 35,000 North Vietnamese troops were living in S Vietnam villages at this time. Due to this confusion, half of all US deaths came from hostile fire of people they were "protecting." The second major issue that made fighting the war difficult is that the US was afraid of fighting an offensive war against North Vietnam, fearing a nuclear world war due to the fact that North Vietnam was supported by the USSR and China. An offensive into N Vietnam would have likely seen troop support from these countries, and worse, nuclear warfare. Basically all of the U.S. bombing was done in S. Vietnam, the country the U.S. was trying to protect. Lastly, the deteriorating public support of the war made progress in Vietnam difficult. Protests began in April of '65 and escalated quickly. Draft card burning became popular even though LBJ outlawed the act in August of '65. Advisors estimating 1,000 U.S. casualties per month did not help public opinion. The unparalleled access the media had in Vietnam brought the war up close to those at home, also contributing to the protest and backlash against the war.
2. How did the widespread news coverage of the Vietnam War impact the way the American public felt about the war?
The news coverage of Vietnam was unlike any war before or after, as the press had unlimited access. The Tet Offensive—84,000 Viet Cong backed by NVA troops launched a massive ground assault on 100 towns/cities in early '68—was a military failure for N Vietnam as it did not create the uprising in the South they had hoped, and was crushed by the U.S. However, it was a media victory for N. Vietnam; the graphic news coverage of the fighting eroded U.S. public support, and even congressional support. Examples of the footage from news coverage that turned public opinion are of a S. Vietnamese Police Chief executing a suspected Viet Cong on rolling U.S. TV cameras, and sadly, two reported incidents of parents seeing their sons shot in the fighting while watching the news in the evening. The American public were witness to troops clearing out villagers from S. Vietnamese villages and then burning the villages down, leaving the villagers homeless. The My Lai Massacre in '68—initially covered up until exposed a year and a half later—showed in pictures the horror of 300 killed civilians due to American soldiers seemingly going 'berserk' due to confusion of friend/enemy and the stress of war.
