Debating the
Vietnam War

By 1968 a large number of Americans had concluded that the Vietnam War was not going as planned. As antiwar sentiment grew, protesters seized the attention of the media to make their case for a national and international audience. At the same time, many Americans, dubbed by Richard Nixon as “the silent majority,” grew increasingly disenchanted with the war but resented the Johnson administration for sending their children off to fight while protesters at home mocked their sacrifices and patriotism.

As responsibility for the war in Vietnam transferred from President Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon in 1969, controversy only intensified. Nixon and his conservative supporters had attacked the liberal Johnson administration for failing to win the war and denounced the radical antiwar movement for undermining American morale. Although during his campaign Nixon claimed that he had a secret plan to bring the war to an end honorably, once in power Nixon tried to implement a strategy that would have eased the United States out of the conflict—a policy known as Vietnamization. Yet, at the same time, he increased American involvement by authorizing an invasion of Cambodia in 1970. This escalation further angered the antiwar movement, and the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State campuses only increased this resentment. The Vietnam War exposed the gulf that divided Americans along cultural, social, and generational lines, splits that continued long after Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975.

The following sources focus on the split between liberals and conservatives concerning American involvement in Vietnam. Consider how the creators of these documents characterized the war and what they envisioned as the best course of action.