On the domestic front, many landmark movements were taking shape, which were collectively named the Civil Rights movement. Leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King instigated a collective awakening of mass consciousness about the then existing disparities based on ethnic and racial origins. Parallel to the cause of the Black Americans, women were also taking to the streets demanding equal rights with men. The culmination of these two streams of civil upheaval led to the Hippie culture of the late sixties.
On the Asian continent, the underdeveloped region of Indo-China proved to be the key cold-war battleground. The Vietnam War is also known as the second of the Indochina Wars. It was waged between the late 1950’s and the mid 1970’s. The lush forested terrain of the Vietnamese country side was the battleground for much of the war. The force of the North Vietnam, which was basically oriented towards communism, was seen as a threat by the American government. It believed that left uncontrolled, the spread of communism would usurp the democratic South Vietnam as well. Hence, the American government decided to send troops in support of South Vietnam and retain its democratic government. This wider context of the war made it one of the tense phases of the Cold war period.
It could be asserted that the causes that led to the American defeat were multifold. Some of the salient ones include the inability to understand the foreign primitive culture of the Vietnamese and underestimating their military organization skills. The growing unrest of the American public and student activists in particular over the number of casualties and the ambiguity of the American motive were also important reasons. The guerilla warfare technique proved too difficult for the G.I.s to tackle. The growing lack of discipline and commitment of the American troops was another key reason for the defeat of the United States in the Vietnam War.
The Nixon Doctrine was presented to the American public on 25th July, 1969 by the then President Richard Nixon. The doctrine had two important components to it – one pertaining to relationship with allies and the other regarding achieving world peace. Nixon stated in his address to the nation that the traditional allies of the United States should defend themselves without the latter’s military involvement. He also set an agenda for achieving world peace through a process of diplomacy.
American Presidents presiding over some key events in history, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, The Vietnam War, etc., were hindered from acting as public representatives due to pressure from the military industrial complex. John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower – all of them were subject to these opposing interests. But eventually, the corporate-government nexus proved too powerful; and in this sense American Presidents after the Second World War were largely restricted and powerless to uphold their higher personal values.
References:
Major Problems in American History Since 1945 by Robert Griffith and Paula Baker.
The Portable Sixties Reader edited by Ann Charters.