The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Ms. Brown
U.S. History
10 April 2013
Vietnam War Essay
In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the United States Congress in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident this resolution stated “Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambition in that area, but desires only that these people should be left alone in peace to work out their destines in their own way: Now, therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as the commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Even though the United States was actively taking part in South Vietnam, pre-1964, once the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed the amount of U.S. involvement aggressively increased.
The Vietnam War had a tremendous impact on American Society. This mostly was because it was the first American war to be nationally televised. As a result of the media directly placing the horrors of war in the home, the public opinion of the war was unsurprisingly low. During the war, the especially large number of young adults, due to the post WWII “baby boom”, partook in a student run antiwar movement that caused problems on college campuses. This antiwar movement led to sit-ins, protests, and riots. Many students even attempted to get out of the war by fleeing the country or purposefully failing their draft exams. In Document C, James Fallows, an American author, describes his 1969 draft board experience and how his wealthy educated friends could get out of the draft and younger, lower class “boys” were drafted into the war. “Since the [boys] had just left high school, it had clearly never occurred to them that there might be away around the draft. They walked through the examination like so many cattle off to slaughter. I tried noticing, but the results where inescapable. While four out of five of my friends from Harvard were being deferred, just the opposite was happening to the Chelsea boys.”
Young college students where not the only people protesting the war; In Document A Martin Luther King Jr. state his opinions about the war and how it was unfair to African American men. “It became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home . . . black young men who had been crippled by our society [were sent] eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties. . . which they had not found in southwest Georgia or East Harlem.” Document E is a song by Joe McDonald with lyrics like “And it’s one, two, thee, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam. And it’s five. Six, seven, Open up the pearly gates, Well there ain’t no time to wonder why Whoopee! We’re all gonna die” Joe McDonald preformed this song at the famous Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. In addition to the antiwar movements of college students, African Americans, and Hippies (also known as flower children) Document G shows that Vietnam’s war veterans were even opposed to the war they fought it. This image of a 1972 antiwar parade held in San Francisco is a classic example of the large amount of people who were all opposed to the war in Vietnam.
In 1968, Vietnam War policies kept President Jonson for running for reelection. In 1969, Richard Nixon won the Presidential election. President Nixon won the election by promising Vietnamization, gradually withdraw the more than 500,000 American soldiers from Vietnam and return control of the war to the South Vietnamese: this election campaign worked well for the President because of the large amount of people opposed to the war.