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Transcript

Credibility Gap

How the War Divided the Nation

Description of the War

  • Growing gap between what the Johnson administration reported and what was actually happening
  • Johnson administration was optimistic about the war in Vietnam
  • T.V. news images showed the thousands of Americans dying.
  • Senator J. William Fulbright charged the president with "lack of candor" in portraying the war effort.
  • Honesty of the administration was questioned.
  • "Living Room War" refers to the reporting of a war on T.V. and other media and how the reporting shapes the public's perception of the war
  • The term first appeared during the Vietnam War
  • First war in the United States to show video clips of what was happening in the war
  • combat footage appeared nightly on the news
  • stark pictures that seemed to contradict the administration's optimistic war scenario
  • body count statistics showed large numbers of communists dying
  • BUT over 16,00 americans died between 1961 and 1967
  • General Westmoreland continually reported that Vietnam surrender was imminent
  • growing credibility gap
  • By 1967 americans were evenly split between supporting and opposing the war
  • anti-war protests from the nation's youth
  • The nation was split.
  • Doves:
  • Those who strongly opposed the war and believed that the United States should withdraw
  • Hawks:
  • Those who strongly believed that America should unleash much of its greater military force
  • Mood of Middle America: "I want to get out, but I don't want to give in."
  • National youth began protesting the war.
  • People felt the protests were "acts of disloyalty"

Bibliography

The Living Room War

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara

https://sites.google.com/site/kassinprotestmusicwebpages2011/home/-lyndon-johnson-told-the-nation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Paxton

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-living-room-war.htm

http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-fact-viet-cong-charlie/

http://www.uswings.com/about-us-wings/vietnam-war-facts/

What did we learn from the song ?

http://books.google.com/books?id=HHQqoUcbd8gC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=tom+paxton+lyndon+johnson+told+the+nation+theme&source=bl&ots=Om_7Z4qtNo&sig=hbTT0hAGGOqVxQ2t1ikLGJKGlJc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QmFaU-ixCsegyAHqjYHYBA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=tom%20paxton%20lyndon%20johnson%20told%20the%20nation%20theme&f=false

  • Johnson told america not to worry
  • it wasn't an actual war
  • tough conditions for the soldiers
  • thousands of troops were send
  • Johnson was for PEACE while he was running for presidency
  • Johnson's policy had begun to create turmoil within its own administration
  • November 1967, Defense Secretary of State Robert McNamara quietly announced he was resigning to become head of the war bank
  • Leads to a drastic turn in Johnson's presidency

"Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (1965)

Facts About the Living Room War

-> being drafted into the Vietnam war

-> no war declaration but technically it is a war !!!

Tom Paxton

-> sending troops even though there's "no war" ????

-> highly ironic situation!!

Facts and Myths About the Vietnam War

-> very different land (jungle terrain, mountains, forests, rivers)

-> fighting under tough conditions

-> don't trust anyone, since you can't always tell them apart

-> the local high-ranked, wealthy people sneak out at night and go join the Viet Cong and attack the U.S

I got a letter from L. B. J.

It said this is your lucky day (...)

So we are sending you to Vietnam

Lyndon Johnson told the nation,

"(...) Though it isn't really war,

We're sending fifty thousand more,

To help save Viet nam from Viet Namese."

And sank in mud up to my hips.

Never mind how hard it's raining,

Think of all the ground we're gaining,

Just don't take one step outside of town.

[The local gentry] put on their black pj's

And come lobbing mortar shells at me (...)

We go round in helicopters,

Searching for the Viet Cong in vain.

They had to get down to Saigon

And I know that Lyndon loves me so.

Yet how sadly I remember,

Way back yonder in November,

When he said I'd never have to go.

-> hard to find the Viet Cong (network of hidden and elusive tunnels)

-> Saigon was a location important in the Vietnam War.

  • 58,148 were killed in Vietnam.
  • 75,000 were severely disabled.
  • 23,214 were 100% disabled.
  • 5,283 lost limbs.
  • 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.
  • Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21.
  • 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old.
  • Of those killed, 17,539 were married.
  • Average age of men killed: 23.1 years.
  • Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
  • The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
  • the Vietcong was called "Charlie" because over the radio they were pronounced as "Viet Charlie" or "Charlie" for short

-> referres to Johnson's promise for success in the "Great Society" not war back in November of 1963

Myth: most Vietnam veterans were drafted.

Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers.

Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range from 50,000 to 100,000 – 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population.

Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate.

Myth: disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War.

Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia.

  • Thomas Richard "Tom" Paxton (born October 31, 1937)
  • American folk singer and singer-songwriter
  • music career spanning more than fifty years
  • his songs demonstrated enduring appeal
  • Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation became "George W. Told the Nation" in 2007

-addressed the american citizens during the Vietnam war -Paxton criticized the "war" -best known song about the credibility gap

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