American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 29: CIVIL RIGHTS, VIETNAM, AND THE ORDEAL OF LIBERALISM

Primary Sources

1
Read the sections of this chapter that deal with the war in Vietnam. (Also review the relevant parts of earlier chapters.) The first selection is from a speech given by President Lyndon Johnson on April 7, 1965, at Johns Hopkins University. The second selection was written in the early 1960s by a staff member of the Defense Department. It was prepared for the historical analysis section of the classified report that became known as the Pentagon Papers after it was leaked to the press in 1971. Consider the following questions: Which was more accurate—Johnson's public declaration of South Vietnam as a "small and brave nation" or the Pentagon Papers' characterization of it as "the creation of the United States"? Should the war in Vietnam be portrayed principally as a civil war or as a response to aggression? Despite the obvious difference in rhetoric and candor, do the two documents really differ on the question "Why are we in South Vietnam?"

The War in Vietnam

2
Read the section of the chapter under the heading "Urban Violence." The document below is drawn from the 1967 report of the National Commission on Civil Disorders, often called the Kerner Commission because it was headed by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois. Consider the following questions: Why did the riots come at a time when blacks were making legal gains? How would conservative whites react to the commission's findings? What traditional American values does the report affront? What values does it affirm? Almost thirty years later, how close is America to realizing the vision of the Kerner Commission? Does the elimination of racism remain "the major unfinished business of this nation"?

National Commission on Civil Disorders

3
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been called the most important civil rights legislation of the twentieth century. What are the most important provisions of this act? Discuss the role of the civil rights movement and the Presidents of the 1960s in its passage.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=97&page=transcript

4
This is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed in 1964. What is its relevance to the conflict in Vietnam? What powers does it grant President Johnson, and what arguments are used to support the application of these powers? In what crucial ways does this act differ from earlier statements of war, such as those made by Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt prior to WWI and WWII?

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=98&page=transcript

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