There were a lot of events that basically unfolded right on top of each other. However, each even that is talked about all came from one major thing that happened in Vietnam, which was the My Lai Massacre. After that event unfolded, it caused protests and after that there were government secrets that were released to the public which made the american citizens more upset than they already were.
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My Lai MassacreFollowing the Tet Offensive, soldiers were ordered to destroy the village of My Lai as it was seen as a location where the Viet-Cong hid amongst the civilians.The soldiers found no insurgents in the village on the morning of March 16, 1968. Some soldiers were lead by Lieutenant William Calley. The soldiers killed hundreds of people, a lot of old men, women, children, and babies. Some were tortured and raped and a lot were put into a ditch and killed with firearms. Calley expressed his intent to throw grenades into a trench filled with villagers.
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Kent State Shooting
This was when there were Student protesters who claimed that Nixon was expanding the war against his promise. The students at Kent State rioted, they burnt down ROTC building and they destroyed local property. The Governor of OH sends in the national guard and several soldiers fired their rifles, killing four student protesters and they wounded others. This was a big controversial issue because this was the national guard killing college students.
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Pentagon papers
These were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg which were top secret government documents from the entire time of the Vietnam War that were leaked to the New York Times. The newspaper company published these secrets that were released. This showed countless lies to the American public about the situation in Vietnam, Gulf of Tonkin and the number of Americans that were killed. This was just the icing on top of the cake for everything else that was going on before.
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