To What Extent Do You Agree That Vietnam Was the Main Reason of the Decline in Confidence of the Presidency

To what extent do you agree that Vietnam was the main reason of the decline in confidence of the presidency

There are many factors that caused people to lose confidence in the government from the years 1968-80. It could be agreed with this statement, to an extent that the Vietnam war was the main reason of the decline in confidence, however to a greater extent there were contributing factors that have higher validity as to why there was a decline in confidence towards the presidency. These contributing factors included, the media, scandals surrounding the government and mishandling of events at the time. In my opinion, I somewhat disagree with the statement and feel that the media played the most important factor as to why the confidence in the government declined.

To some extent the Vietnam war could be argued as the main reason of the decline in confidence of the presidency. Due to the increased amount of power assigned to the president in decision making after rooservelt, it seemed to the public the presidents were the driving forces of the war. This was made clear when the Tet offensive incident happened in 1968. This was the first time the us people began to believe that the already unpopular Vietnam war was unlikely to be won by America. The Vietcong had attacked over 100 cities in south Vietnam causing over 1,500 American casualties, this made the president; Eisenhower at the time particularly vulnerable to criticism when events like the Vietnam war were increasingly unpopular. The public therefore held massive protest movements over the loss of this generation. This was illustrated by the protest chants “hey! hey! LBJ how many kids did you kill today? This shows that the American people placed the responsibility for the Vietnam war directly on the president, therefore it could be argued that this unpopular war would leave its mark on following presidents to come and damage the trust that was previously given to presidents. In 1975 when US troops had finally withdrawn from Saigon, it was in world-wide humiliation: the media had shown footage of a chaotic helicopter evacuation of the American troops. The once unpopular war was growing in unpopularity, within 2 years of us withdrawal Vietnam had become a fully communist country meaning America had officially lost the war and fought for nothing. The American public’s disapproval was clear, not only did America impact through the economic and human costs but the war was a propaganda war. Globally the war was being broadcasted by the media and shown how the atrocities and brutalities within the war were direct to the homes of the American people. Opposition inevitably grew, and led to a mass of protests against the president’s approach. In 1971, 300,000 Americans protested in Washington DC, this clearly demonstrated the lack of trust in the presidency and continual decline in confidence of the presidents.