Crisis of Authority: Defeat in Indochina
The North Vietnamese launch a full-scale offensive against the South in March of 1975. Thieu appeals to Washington for assistance. As the North Vietnamese offensive gathers momentum in March and April of 1975, Ford breaks with Kissinger and announce...
Crisis of Authority: Vietnamization and Escalation
Nixon begins his presidency by turning over more of the war to the Vietnamese so the U.S. can withdraw troops and undermine anti-war rhetoric. While there is a visible attempt to set up negotiations, Kissinger is engaged in private diplomacy. By the...
Crisis of Authority: Vietnam--Peace with Honor?
As the 1972 election approaches, the Nixon administration steps up its efforts to end the carnage in Vietnam. Kissinger continues negotiations. In order to pressure North Vietnam, Nixon unleashes B-52 bombs at Christmas, an act that is condemned int...
Crisis of Authority: Relations with Superpowers
President Nixon believes the world is safer if the strength of the super powers is balanced. Nixon and Kissinger seize on the economic vulnerability of the Soviet Union to establish trade relationships with the USSR, treating it as a "normal state i...
Other America, The: Eisenhower's Use of Covert Action to Accomplish U.S. Aims
The agreement ending hostilities in Korea is signed. Eisenhower feels that covert actions using the CIA is a better way to project American influence than military confrontations. The CIA overthrows the Prime Minister of Iran in 1953 because it is b...
Nation Torn, A: U.S. Intensifies Involvement in Vietnam
Late in 1964, the situation in Vietnam appears to be getting worse despite the investment of American forces and the bombing of coastal positions in North Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin). In 1965, Johnson makes a series of executive decisions, endorsed by ...
Nation Torn, A: Disillusionment Spawned by Vietnam Conflict
The Vietnam war and racial struggles at home creates a wedge between the American people and their government. In retrospect journalists like Marvin Kalb feel they were systematically lied to by the U.S. government, and as a result unknowingly misle...
Nation Torn, A: Influences on U.S. Foreign Policy
The enduring images of the 1960s depict problems that have no easy solutions, at home or abroad. The Kennedy administration attempts to win the hearts and minds of less developed countries by initiating the Peace Corps, and yet most third-world nati...
Nation Torn, A: Nation Torn-The Two Vietnams, A
The United States is confident of its abilities to rebuild South Vietnam given its track record after World War II. Ngo Dinh Diem is hand picked as leader of the south. Elections to reunify the country do not take place in 1956. Members of the Commu...
Nation Torn, A: History of the Vietnam Conflict
Lyndon Johnson enters the presidency with even less experience in international affairs than John F. Kennedy. In his initial days in office, the country's foreign policy is dominated by the bitter civil war in Vietnam. At first it appears to be litt...