What happened in 1967 in vietnam? how was america affected by it?
The year was 1967 and Lyndon B. Johnson was the president. America had been heavily involved in Southeast Asian affairs since 1955 and was currently in its third year of combat in Vietnam. While war was raging in Southeast Asia, there were struggles happening domestically as well. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. Leaders of the movement such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were taking a stand against the violence occurring domestically and overseas. Throughout the year, there were numerous protests against the war and countless others for equality amongst all groups. The word of the year, possibly even the decade was “transformation”.
Combat in Vietnam was reaching new heights with missions like Operation Cedar Falls and Operation Junction City in January and February. There were larger scale attacks coming from the United States in hopes to destroy sources of North Vietnamese weaponry and supplies. Many of the United States attacks were successful in this year. Although there were 16,000 American troops left dead by the end of the year, the United States decided that there was more war to be fought. Military personnel like General William Westmoreland and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara were convinced that the Unites States could win the war. There would just have to be more troops to aid the cause. This resulted in an order being sent for 475,000 troops to be sent to Vietnam over the course of the next few years. However, Secretary McNamara sent a request for another 200,000, eventually being denied and reduced to 45,000 by President Johnson. Consequently, by the end of the year, it was planned that 520,000 more men would eventually circulate through at least a year-long tour of duty in Vietnam. Additionally, by the year’s end, there would have been over one million troops who had completed a full cycle of duty in Vietnam and sixteen thousand who, unfortunately, did not make it back home.
Back in the United States various protests were lighting up major cities and college campuses in the effort to end the war and bring attention to what was going on in the American government. Many felt that it was unjust to go into Vietnam in the first place and felt that something should be done to end the war immediately. Others felt that the war had a just cause, but if we could not win than it was time to get out. There were also the people who shamed veterans of the war because they saw them as “baby-killers” and terrorists to the North and South Vietnamese. Altogether, there was a calamity of frustration and confusion about the war effort, making it hard for President Johnson to keep people on his side.
While all of the combat was occurring, the Civil Rights Movement was raging on in the country. Marches across the south in states like Mississippi and Alabama had been causing people to take notice of the segregation and discriminatory practices happening nationwide. Groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were taking action against the United States government in an effort to ensure their equality under the law. Interracial marriage discrimination laws were declared unconstitutional in the case Loving v. Virginia in mid-June of the year. During this year one of the largest Race riots to ever occur happened in Detroit in July of the year. The riots eventually spread to Washington DC. By the end of August, Thurgood Marshall had become the first black Unites States Supreme Court Justice, breaking a major racial barrier for blacks all over the country. Throughout the entire context of the year, African-Americans continued to protest the war. Much of the young black male population was being sent into the war as draftees and dying at a rate of one out of every four men on the American front in Vietnam. Black people wanted the war to end and for their families to come back home. At the same time, they wanted to see a change in legislation that would allow them to live just as freely as other citizens. Overall, the Civil Rights Movement catalyzed feeling of change and transformation throughout the nation.
1967 brought tragedy and death on the war front in Vietnam. But, it also brought a much needed change to the scheme of American cultural and social constructs. Thus, changing the landscape of American society for years to come.
Combat in Vietnam was reaching new heights with missions like Operation Cedar Falls and Operation Junction City in January and February. There were larger scale attacks coming from the United States in hopes to destroy sources of North Vietnamese weaponry and supplies. Many of the United States attacks were successful in this year. Although there were 16,000 American troops left dead by the end of the year, the United States decided that there was more war to be fought. Military personnel like General William Westmoreland and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara were convinced that the Unites States could win the war. There would just have to be more troops to aid the cause. This resulted in an order being sent for 475,000 troops to be sent to Vietnam over the course of the next few years. However, Secretary McNamara sent a request for another 200,000, eventually being denied and reduced to 45,000 by President Johnson. Consequently, by the end of the year, it was planned that 520,000 more men would eventually circulate through at least a year-long tour of duty in Vietnam. Additionally, by the year’s end, there would have been over one million troops who had completed a full cycle of duty in Vietnam and sixteen thousand who, unfortunately, did not make it back home.
Back in the United States various protests were lighting up major cities and college campuses in the effort to end the war and bring attention to what was going on in the American government. Many felt that it was unjust to go into Vietnam in the first place and felt that something should be done to end the war immediately. Others felt that the war had a just cause, but if we could not win than it was time to get out. There were also the people who shamed veterans of the war because they saw them as “baby-killers” and terrorists to the North and South Vietnamese. Altogether, there was a calamity of frustration and confusion about the war effort, making it hard for President Johnson to keep people on his side.
While all of the combat was occurring, the Civil Rights Movement was raging on in the country. Marches across the south in states like Mississippi and Alabama had been causing people to take notice of the segregation and discriminatory practices happening nationwide. Groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were taking action against the United States government in an effort to ensure their equality under the law. Interracial marriage discrimination laws were declared unconstitutional in the case Loving v. Virginia in mid-June of the year. During this year one of the largest Race riots to ever occur happened in Detroit in July of the year. The riots eventually spread to Washington DC. By the end of August, Thurgood Marshall had become the first black Unites States Supreme Court Justice, breaking a major racial barrier for blacks all over the country. Throughout the entire context of the year, African-Americans continued to protest the war. Much of the young black male population was being sent into the war as draftees and dying at a rate of one out of every four men on the American front in Vietnam. Black people wanted the war to end and for their families to come back home. At the same time, they wanted to see a change in legislation that would allow them to live just as freely as other citizens. Overall, the Civil Rights Movement catalyzed feeling of change and transformation throughout the nation.
1967 brought tragedy and death on the war front in Vietnam. But, it also brought a much needed change to the scheme of American cultural and social constructs. Thus, changing the landscape of American society for years to come.