This photograph shows President Harry S. Truman and French President Charles de Gaulle during welcoming ceremonies on the White House lawn, with officers saluting in the background.

In this official visit to Washington in 1945, French President Charles de Gaulle thanked the United States for its help liberating France from German occupation during World War II.

During the visit, Truman told de Gaulle that the U.S. would not oppose a return of French authority in Indochina. And when France went to war to recolonize Vietnam in 1945, the U.S. government needed its ally’s cooperation to contain the spread of communism in Europe.

From 1946 to 1950, the United States adopted a neutral policy toward the conflict. In 1950 President Harry S. Truman authorized direct financial and military assistance to the French.

This poster, created and distributed internationally by the United States Information Agency (USIA), says "Anywhere there is communism, there is terrorism and assassination!"

It was designed to amplify fear of communism in a newly divided Vietnam. Earlier in 1954, the Geneva Accords had called for a temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th Parallel—creating a communist state in the North and a French-backed non-communist state in the South.

A series of events intensified the "Red Scare" that gripped Americans in the 1940s and 50s. In 1949 the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb. Chinese Communists formed the People’s Republic of China that same year. North Korea invaded South Korea the next. Many interpreted these events as evidence of a global Communist plot.

USIA posters were designed to promote U.S. values; to expose alleged Communist falsehoods, threats, and crimes; and to strengthen understanding of and support for U.S. objectives in the Cold War.

This is a sound recording of President John F. Kennedy dictating a memoir entry in November 1963. He talks about the coup in Saigon, South Vietnam, and the assassinations of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. President Kennedy is interrupted by his son, John F. Kennedy, Jr. — the light tone he strikes with his son stands in stark contrast to his words about the overthrow of Diem and his brother, which clearly upset him. This was just a few weeks before President Kennedy's assasination.

This is Public Law 88-408, Joint Resolution for the Maintenance of Peace and Security in Southeast Asia, that was passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This is a "ceremonial copy" of the Public Law from the Lyndon B. Johnson Museum Collection.

Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution with the understanding that U.S. ships had been attacked twice in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin near North Vietnam. They gave Johnson unprecedented power to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

There was little debate as legislators considered two incidents that had happened in the preceding days. On August 2 – the first Tonkin Gulf incident – North Vietnamese torpedo boats were spotted and attacked the destroyer USS Maddox. The Maddox was conducting electronic eavesdropping on North Vietnam to assist South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) commando raids on North Vietnamese targets, but that wasn't publicly known at the time. Historians now suspect the North Vietnamese boats had set out to attack an ARVN raid in progress when it encountered the Maddox.

On August 4, the USS Maddox captain reported a second incident, that he was “under continuous torpedo attack.” He later cabled “freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports,” but Defense Secretary Robert McNamara did not report the captain’s doubts to President Johnson. (A 2002 National Security Agency report made available in 2007 confirmed the August 2 attack, but concluded the August 4 attack never happened.)

Johnson portrayed confrontations between U.S. and North Vietnamese ships off the coast of North Vietnam as unprovoked aggression. When contrary information surfaced, many believed Congress had been conned. It was too late.

The Gulf of Tonkin act became more controversial as opposition to the war mounted. A Senate investigation revealed that the Maddox had been on an intelligence mission in Tonkin Gulf, contradicting Johnson’s denial of U.S. Navy support of such missions. The Resolution was repealed in 1971 in an attempt to curtail President Nixon’s power to continue the war.

Transcript

Eighty-eighth Congress of the United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four

Joint Resolution
To promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.

Whereas naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace; and

Whereas these attackers are part of deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom; and

Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protest their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these people should be left in peace to work out their destinies in their own way: Now, therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as 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.

Section 2. The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. Consonant with the Constitution of the United States and the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with its obligations under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, the United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.

Section 3. This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace and security of the area is reasonably assured by international conditions created by action of the United Nations or otherwise, except that it may be terminated earlier by concurrent resolution of the Congress.

[endorsements]

Assistant National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told newly elected President Johnson that their current course in Vietnam could not succeed. They presented two alternatives: bring in the full force of the U.S. military or negotiate with the enemy. They knew Johnson would never consider the second but recommended both options be debated. Within a year, 175,000 American troops were in Vietnam. Negotiation was never discussed.

On October 21, 1967, an estimated crowd of 70,000–100,000 demonstrators gathered by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to protest the Vietnam War and march on the Pentagon in the first major national protest against the war. In addition to the signs, chants, and other hallmarks of an anti-war demonstration, activists distributed daisies, and additionally planned to levitate the Pentagon off its foundation in an act of political theater. By the end of the protest, over 600 protesters had been jailed, and dozens hospitalized.

This photograph shows President Lyndon B. Johnson speaking to the nation from the White House Oval Office, surrounded by TV technicians. In his speech, he called for a halt to bombing in Vietnam, greater reliance on the South Vietnamese, and a modest troop increase. In April, North Vietnam agreed to open peace talks.

President Johnson also shocked even his closest advisers when he announced his decision not to run for a second term as President: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

During a telephone call on the night of October 22, 1968, Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon told his closest aide (and future chief of staff) H. R. Haldeman to "monkey wrench" President Johnson’s efforts to begin peace talks over the Vietnam War (see the second page of the notes). Nixon was campaigning on ending the Vietnam war and he thought a peace agreement might threaten his election.

Nixon long denied giving such an order, but Haldeman’s notes, which were quietly made public in 2007 and discovered by historian Jack Farrell in 2017, provide evidence of Nixon’s direct involvement.

The first page includes a notation to "keep Anna Chennault working on SVN" (South Vietnam). Nixon had sent Chennault as an emissary to tell President of South Vietnam Thieu, "Hold on, we are gonna win." The implication was clear: Thieu should not sign the peace agreement President Johnson was currently negotiating. When Nixon became President, he would negotiate a peace deal that left Thieu in a more powerful position.

Transcript

[top left corner] RN [Richard Nixon]

[crossed out in top right corner] R/W 2

file

10/22

late

Z [Possibly Ron Ziegler who became Nixon’s press secretary] - indicate tomorrow

Preparing & recording 2 radio speeches

Harlow [Bryce Harlow, a Republican strategist and Nixon aide] – Harlow monitoring V.Nam [Vietnam]

Fl – Andrews -if take a poll – inform us immy.

G’ [in red: done]  Rhodes [John Rhodes, House Minority Leader] says we’ve dropped on older people – use radio for Soc Sec spot & a nspr [newspaper] ad – nail the lie

R+W – sit down w/ RW + Moore etc. – in terms of their thot [thought] on tempo & content
how do you want him to hit HH [Hubert Humphrey] – how hard?

F? maybe have to bite V.N.

! [illegible] – keep Anna Chennault working on SVN [South Vietnam] – insist [illegible] on the 3 Johnson [President Lyndon B. Johnson] conditions

Z [Ron Ziegler] say for Fri – doing 3 hrs of TV spots

Moore -et al - get a reading on how they thk [think] we’re doing

Harlow – be sure cc [copy] of defense goes to DDE [Dwight D. Eisenhower, former President] & to our defense types.

---

RW – how do you want him to hit HH [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] how hard shld [should] he go?

re: V.N. [Vietnam] bomb haltment:

Harlow – have Dirksen [Everett Dirksen, Senator from Illinois] & Tower [John Tower, Senator from Texas] blast this

Dirksen call LBJ [President Lyndon B. Johnson] and brace him w/ [with] this

-any other way to monkey wrench it?

Anything RN can do.

Rose [Rose Mary Woods, Richard Nixon’s personal secretary] – get her frd [?] Louie [illegible] – zing [?] on the SVN [South Vietnamese] – tell him hold firm

Dirksen – or someone

Rebozo [Charles “Bebe” Rebozo, Florida banker and businessman who was a friend and confidant of Richard Nixon] – have Smathers [George Smathers, Senator from Florida] threaten J [President Lyndon B. Johnson]

N [Richard Nixon] has learned staffers are dealing w/ H [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] & N [Richard Nixon] is going to blast him –

the bets are off & N [Richard Nixon] very disapptd [disappointed]

hard evidence W/house [White House] is giving H [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] stuff he’s not giving N [Richard Nixon]

will blast in major speech on V.N. [Vietnam] on Thurs –

---

10/22

file

[crossed out]
213-
277-2000
1739

-ABC confirming 2 hrs 8:30-10:30 Mon nite
says he’ll do telethon – now AT&T problem

-G just 1 & 5 min. very good

C – booking [illegible] 11:30 Fri AM

tape Congress radio spot –

NO? – Las Vegas prop stop – rec H. Baker [Howard Baker, Senator from Tennessee]

F – press conf – 2 today – re polls
extra – hard drive

Ray A [Possibly Ray Arbuthnot?] – workers told RN [Richard Nixon] – not working as hard as ’60 [1960 Presidential Campaign]

---

2

-ask him about Va. [Virginia]

– talk to Jack Kilpatrick [James J. Kilpatrick, newspaper columnist] (ch B)
column for Star – [illegible] paper
fnd of Buckley’s [William F. Buckley, author and commentator] –
give him honest shake on polls – outlook

-get Sun Times [Chicago Sun-Times newspaper] poll every day

B - [illegible] – can go three releases last couple days
pick out lines to be used in stump speech

Keo themes
– one theme for releases –
– harlow [Bryce Harlow] uncertain trumpet
miscalculation – can lead to wars
– most confused candidate in history
– go back to forgotten American theme
– admitted he can’t get the popular vote
can’t unite his party –

---

[top left] Add Harlow

– Harlow fly to V.N. [Vietname] – see Goodpaster [Andrew Goodpaster, U.S. Army General]
RN [Richard Nixon] sure military not for it.
– this might make SVN [South Vietnamese] govt. fall

– tomorrow RN [Richard Nixon] blandly say US shld [should] pause [underlined] under conditions J [President Lyndon B. Johnson] laid down in N Orleans [New Orleans]
ie go further than present position
if conditions are not met that J [President Lyndon B. Johnson] laid down then we would approve bomb pause
but H [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] is wrong in saying pause [underlined] period
to give away our trump card w/o getting this much would be bad

they’re selling out SVN [South Vietnam]– leave new admin to hdl [handle]
make a communist Asia –
wld [would] have to go into Thailand.

Bebe – N [Richard Nixon] mad as hell –

W House staffers (many) [written above: Clifford [Clark Clifford, Presidential advisor], Califano [Joseph A. Califano, Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson] & L. Thompson] are now talking to H [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] giving info they’re not giving N [Richard Nixon]

thot [thought] that at Al Smith dinner they had an understanding

now is going to blast LBJ [President Lyndon B. Johnson] – Thurs.

(Bebe – our private polls show we lead in every one of critical states.)

talking to H [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] & working w/ Ball [George Ball, Johnson presidential advisor who opposed escalation of the Vietnam war]­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

---

Har – Harlow [Bryce Harlow] – try Burke, Radford, Guenther
find out what’s going on
Les Arends [House Representative from Illinois] – Mel Laird [House Representative from Wisconsin and later Nixon’s Secretary of Defense]
have Dirksen call J [President Lyndon B. Johnson]

Har [Bryce Harlow]– Scranton [William Scranton, former Governor of Pennsylvania] call Vance [Cyrus Vance, former Deputy Secretary of Defense]
heard rumor – N [Richard Nixon] very distressed what’s going on

Har [Harlow] – tell Dirksen if don’t get 3 conditions N [Richard Nixon] will blast bomb halt

Agnew [Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon’s running mate and later Vice President] – go see Helms [Richard Helms, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency] –
tell him we want the truth – or he hasn’t got the job.

---

10/22

[crossed out] E/Chot.- Kl [Possibly Herb Klein, national communications manager for Nixon’s 1968 Presidential campaign] – Agnew hit on [underlined] popular vote –

[underlined] report mid day – Chot E etc have done
also surrogates –
who handling etc.

– gamesmanship on CBS – feel of our figures.

– Ck Minn. today – late polls?

FL– any results on phone operation

M-G – get G – up TV budget by another million because Dems tendency to blitz & they now have the $

G – be sure our spots are now effective
Moore strongly against W. Wallace
– have screening?
gut issues – hitting strong enuf [enough]
have to step up –
? raised $300M for one 5-min Dem spot

Chot-Kl [?] – in South – danger that H’s [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968] going to be Pres.

— [illegible] attack on popular vote

---

E – popular vote attack on HH [Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Presidential Candidate for 1968]

F – step up pollsmanship
1^st step – local state chmn [chairman]– put out their [illegible] run optimism deal in terms of press
esp. Charlie [possibly Charles Colson, counsel to candidate Nixon’s Key Issues Committee, and later Special Counsel to President Nixon] – talking to press
– not much more for RN [Richard Nixon] to do
will hit hard – hope for the best

M – keep grinding – don’t let them let up.

put out some of [illegible] polls – as local polls
but as ORC [Opinion Research Corporation] poll – Missouri –

Klein [Herb Klein] – what papers talked to – [illegible] on book – etc.
report

– esp. concerned re G. & TV – feels not tough enuf. [enough]

P. Hitt [Patricia Reilly Hitt, longtime Nixon supporter and later Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Nixon administration] – get reading on bumper strip day
Kl [Herb Klein] run something on what was done

– ride hard on Rhyne [possibly Charles Rhyne, a Nixon classmate at Duke University Law School] & P. Hitt –
get on people to get to work
Pat [possibly Patricia Hitt] skip mtgs [meetings] & stuff – just ride on our troops.

---

3
T

VC [?]– want to know today what ORC time lag is

– how far behind is report from field work
is this wave the last –
or do we get something next Thurs.
& need to know when the thing is through

Check Tex. & Minn.

In the midst of Vietnam War, President Nixon had decided to initiate the Cambodian campaign. This apparent expansion of the Vietnam War detonated an explosion of antiwar activity that escalated to a national crisis when four students were shot at a protest at Kent State University in Ohio.

Students had been protesting for days when the town mayor declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to help reestablish order. There were over 1,300 armed troops, armored personnel carriers, mortar launchers, and helicopters on the Kent State University campus on May 4, 1970.

Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed students. In a period of 13 seconds, 67 shots were fired, wounding nine—one paralyzed for life—and killing four students. Two of the slain victims were not protesters; they were walking to class. One was a member of the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) who was planning to go into the military.

News of the shootings rocked the nation. Many were outraged, but according to a Gallup Poll, 58 percent of Americans blamed the students for the violence at Kent State. Dean Kahler, who was shot and paralyzed during the attack, opened a letter when he came out of an induced coma. It began, “Dear communist hippie radical, I hope by the time you read this, you are dead.”

In response to the shootings President Nixon said, “When dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.” Others were horrified and erupted in protest. An estimated four million striking students shut down 800 campuses nationwide.

President Nixon created the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest to investigate protest at schools across the country. It concluded that “the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable.” A federal grand jury indicted eight guardsmen, but found they were not subject to criminal prosecution because they acted in self defense.

National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had began backchannel negotiations with North Vietnam in February 1970 to try to end the Vietnam War. Hoping to gain an edge in these deliberations, North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam in March 1972. President Nixon was enraged by this "Spring Offensive" and retaliated by bombing.

In October 1972, a defeated North Vietnam made concessions and Kissinger announced "peace is at hand." But South Vietnamese President Thieu balked at the agreement and demanded changes. When Kissinger attempted to renegotiate, the talks collapsed.

Nixon blamed North Vietnam and ordered a massive "Christmas Bombing" to bring both sides back to the table. In this letter to Thieu, President Richard Nixon describes two motives for his December "Christmas Bombing," which would take place the next day, December 18, 1972. He wants to quickly end the conflict, and to demonstrate how he would respond if the peace agreement were violated. Nixon was trying to convince a reluctant Thieu to sign the agreement by showing his commitment to South Vietnam.

This is the "Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-nam." The first pages and signatures are shown here.

On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords officially ended the war in Vietnam. South Vietnamese President Thieu reluctantly signed after President Nixon secretly promised "swift and severe retaliatory action" against North Vietnam if they violated the agreement.

Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger declared they had achieved “peace with honor” and hoped it would last long enough to give Saigon a fighting chance. In fact the war was far from over. Fighting between Saigon and Hanoi continued and even increased in parts of South Vietnam. North Vietnam began preparations to overtake the South. President Nixon, embroiled in the Watergate scandal, did not have the political capital to provide the backup he had repeatedly promised his ally, President Thieu.

Ambassador Graham Martin sent this telegram to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, at the White House, during the evacuation of Saigon during the Vietnam War. He states that he is "well aware of the danger here tomorrow and I want to get out tonight." He asks that the President send an order to finish the job quickly, evacuating the rest of the Americans and their children.

The American Ambassador to Vietnam resisted limiting the evacuation to Americans. In this cable he asks with evident desperation, “Perhaps you can tell me how to make some of these Americans abandon their half Vietnamese children?” Before sunrise on April 30, the Ambassador was forced to leave while a few hundred Vietnamese still awaited rescue.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall lists more than 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in the Vietnam War. "The Wall that Heals" is one of the most popular sites on the National Mall.

According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website, "More than 400,000 items have been left by visitors as remembrances and tributes. The National Park Service collects, catalogs, and preserves these objects as part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial collection, with curatorial support from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund."