Vietnam and the Sixties
An escalating war in Southeast Asia, the movement it provoked at home, and a president's own war on poverty.
4 topics · 13 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
The Vietnam War Escalates
- How it worksWalk me through how the domino theory turned Vietnam into a test case for stopping communism across all of Asia.
- Worked exampleShow me US troop levels in Vietnam climbing from a few thousand advisors in 1961 to over 500,000 by 1968.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Gulf of Tonkin incident the clear unprovoked attack Congress was told it was in 1964?
Your turn1 of 2
What began as a civil war between North and South Vietnam eventually drew in over half a million American troops. Why did a conflict in one small Southeast Asian country pull in a force that large?The Tet Offensive
- How it worksShow me North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces striking over 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam at once in January 1968.
- Going furtherWhat happens to public and media trust in the war effort once Tet reaches American living rooms nightly?
- How it worksHow did televised combat footage from Tet contradict what officials had been telling the American public?
Your turn1 of 2
During the January 1968 Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces struck over 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam at once, but suffered heavy losses and failed to hold most of their targets. Why did this military defeat end up turning American opinion against the war?The Antiwar Movement and the Counterculture
- How it worksShow me antiwar protests spreading from college campuses to a march of hundreds of thousands on the Pentagon in 1967.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the entire generation who came of age in the 1960s accurately represented by Woodstock's counterculture?
- How it worksHow did the draft's college deferment rules push protest disproportionately onto working class draftees?
Your turn1 of 2
Woodstock, with its huge crowds and countercultural spirit, is often used to represent the 1960s generation. Why isn't the entire generation who came of age in the 1960s accurately represented by Woodstock's counterculture?Lyndon Johnson's Great Society
- How it worksShow me the Great Society's programs routing federal money into Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start at once.
- How it worksHow did Medicare and Medicaid split health coverage between the elderly and low-income Americans?
- Going furtherWhat happens to Great Society funding once the costs of the Vietnam War start competing for the same budget?
- Ties togetherHow does Great Society funding competing with Vietnam War spending connect to the budget battles of the 1970s?
Your turn1 of 2
President Johnson escalated an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam while simultaneously launching the Great Society, the largest anti-poverty push since the New Deal. Why pursue both at once?