The antiwar movements within campuses during the Vietnam War

The Anti-War Movements in American Campuses

Historical Background

In 1958 , the North Vietnamese Army was ed by the Communist government to secretly mobilize its ground forces . The b overlooking South Vietnam was heavily fortified with artilleries and tanks . A large group of insurgents ' were seen by some South Vietnamese crossing the Cambodian b . The Communist government of North Vietnam denied all these allegations . In 1959 , the North Vietnamese Army launched its full scale attack against South Vietnam The insurgents ' from Cambodia also began to attack key military installations in South

Vietnam . The South Vietnamese Army failed to stem the attacks of the Communists . They were forced to fight two fronts : one against the main North Vietnamese army , and another against the Viet Congs

Thus , President John F . Kennedy (when he occupied the presidency in 1961 ) ed a minor deployment of US troops in South Vietnam (the number of American troops in Vietnam during his time was about 16 , 000 After Kennedy 's assassination in Dallas , Texas , President Lyndon B Johnson dispatched more American divisions in 1965 . He intensified American involvement in the Vietnam War . US troops were deployed in key military positions in South Vietnam , hoping to cut the main North Vietnamese army into two . The operations of the US military forces in Vietnam were varied . Some units were assigned to amphibious operations Some units were trained for guerilla attacks against North Vietnamese fortifications . The US Air Force launched a series of bombings in North Vietnam to cripple the supply chain of the North Vietnamese ground forces

North Vietnam 's response was to ask support from three Communist governments : China , Laos , and Cambodia . The support North Vietnam procured from these governments varied . China provided most of the supplies of the main Vietnamese army . Cambodia and Laos promised (secretly so as not to intimidate the United States ) to provide the North Vietnamese Army bases of attacks

With the escalating numbers of American troops killed , anti-war protests in the United States increased . Universities , religious institutions and some government officials (mostly in the House of Representatives and the US Senate ) rallied in the streets to force the US government to discontinue the war in Vietnam . Most of the activists argued that the Vietnam War was destroying American lives . More enlightened activists viewed the war as the encroachment of American power in South Vietnam (hence , they perceived the war as an aggressive and unnecessary foreign policy . The US government remained persistent of its position in the war . President Nixon , for example , argued that if South Vietnam fell into the hands of North Vietnam , Communism would spread to all parts of South East Asia .11111

The US forces though made little progress in the war . While they were able to capture some key North Vietnamese positions in the south , they were not able to repulse successive attacks of both the Viet Congs and the main Vietnamese Army . Thus , they suffered what is called Pyrrhic Victory a term which means victory with too much cost ' The...