Vietnam is widely considered Lyndon Johnsons tragedy, failure, betrayal, depending on your position on the political spectrum. There are two books in print, both entitled Lyndon Johnsons war and both advancing compelling, if sometimes contradictory analysis of the reasons why the series of decisions made between 1964 and 1968 that led to the official justification for escalating the vietnam war, of incidents of august 1964, the first landing of u. S. Combat troops to defend the base in march of 1965, the stepped up escalation of American Forces in country over the next few years until the total was greater than half a million men, change from a military strategy of base security to enclave strategy to what was finally and unfortunately if accurately titled, search and destroy. The shock and humiliation of the 1968 tet offensive and johnsons decision to turn down a request by general william moreland, commander in vietnam, for 200,000 more troops and johnsons decision to withdraw from t
She was pregnant. Approximate her husband had recently traveled to europe where he acquired a drug. It had not been approved yet for use in the United States of america but it was available many european countries. It was used to treat a number of Different Things. Women began taking it to aleave morning sickness and her husband had been in europe. He had acquired some of these pills and brought it back home for her and she takes about 40 of them early on in her pregnancy. They did not know that it causes birth defects. She read an article about the drug, she found out a little bit more and she called her doctor. She started to learn more about what the medicine can do. For children, it can cause brain damage, damage the eyes, nose, ears, face, damage the growth of limbs. And many cases, the children who had been affected by it did not survive at all. In england about half of the babies died within a few months. Somewhere around 10,000 of these children were born. Most in western europ
There is a famous quote from 1960, in which johnson says to the journalist, saying this is not Lyndon Johnsons war, is americas war. If id drop that tomorrow, this war will still be here. He was right in a way, he was out of office, the work continued. The manner in which the war was fought and led vietnam is widely considered Lyndon Johnsons, failure, depending on the position of the left right political spectrum. There are two books out named Lyndon Johnsons war, talking about the series of decisions made between 1964 and 68, that led to the official justification the incidents of august 1964, the first landing of u. S. Combat troops to protect the base in 1965, the drastically escalation of American Forces in the country for next few years, after the total was half 1 million men. The change of strategy a basic unity, to enclave strategy, which is finally unfortunately accurately called search and destroy. The shocking humiliation of the 1968 offensive, and johnsons decision to turn
So, lets move on to employment discrimination. So, the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it was passed, to sabotage the act, a couple of legislators who were against the act decided to insert a gender clause, thinking that that would sort of cause a lot of people to basically not vote for the act. That backfired. The act got passed anyway. But also, in terms of what it did for race, which weve talked about in the class, it also made it illegal to discriminate based on sex, okay . And so, initially, a lot of womens organizations are pretty optimistic that this will be enforced, but when it is not, of course, a group of women in 1966 founded an Organization Called the National Organization for women. So, n. O. W. , now, is founded in june of 1966 at the third annual conference of commissions on the status of women in washington, d. C. , by its first major organizational meeting in 1966 it was still pretty small, just had about 300 members, but by the early 70s, it had grown to roughly 40,000 me
So, want to start with a little story. In 1963, this woman, sherry finkbein, which is a pseudonym, was featured in a life magazine article. The story was about a choice that her family was facing. She was pregnant. Her husband had recently traveled to europe where he acquired a drug called thalidamide. Thalidomide had not been approved for use in the United States of america but it was approved in european countries. It was used to treat a number of Different Things, anxiety, insomnia, nausea. Nausea is key. Women began taking it to relieve morning sickness. Sherrys husband had been in europe, he acquired these pills and brought them back home for her. Shes pregnant, she takes about 40 of them during early on in her pregnancy. She and her husband did not know that thalidomide causes birth defects. Then she read an article about the drug, found out more, and she called her doctor. She started to learn more about what thalidomide can do. For developing babies, children, thalidomide cause