Chapter 29 Great dreams and broken dreams - 1
President Kennedy focused his inaugural address on foreign affairs, while President Johnson's 4,000-word inaugural address (which he delivered so slowly and carefully that one observer said it sounded as if the president was dictating to a stonemason), with almost no mention of foreign affairs.The same goes for his second State of the Union address, which used only 131 words on Vietnam.His emphasis on economics is odd, given what's to come ("Last year we eliminated federal waste and saved nearly $3.5 billion. [Applause.] I'm going to save even more this year. [Applause.] ").Johnson said he hoped that in the future he will always be remembered as an "educational president and a health-conscious president."He intends to finish the unfinished business of the New Deal and Fair Governance.
He also intended to be loyal to the Kennedy cause.He inherited four major bills from the New Frontier: the Civil Rights Act, proposed tax cuts, subsidized health care, and federal subsidies for education.The first two were prioritized, but under his guidance, all the bills were passed in Congress.The battle for Medicare is a high-profile confrontation between the president, a veteran of Congress, and the AMA's powerful lobby in Congress. In 1945, President Truman personally attended a joint meeting of Congress to demand a comprehensive medical insurance plan, and the American Medical Association defeated him severely, which made him bitter.Now, after five presidents and 16 congresses, the doctors of the American Medical Association are proposing a voluntary plan for so-called "better health care" sponsored by the private insurance industry, which is a drop in the bucket. Since then, the number of Americans over the age of 65 has more than doubled.
To fight Johnson, the AMA hired 23 full-time lobbyists in Congress, spending $5,000 a day on campaign expenses.The president fired back with phone calls and invitations to the White House.He threatened and lured, both soft and hard.Just 204 days after Johnson asked for a medical subsidy plan, on July 30, 1965, he signed the bill in Truman's hometown of Independence. When he signed, the 81-year-old Harry Truman stood beside him, beaming with joy. On July 1, 1966, 160,000 elderly patients in hospitals in the United States were eligible for medical subsidies.A 65-year-old embroidery worker from New Jersey named Eugene Schneider went to a New York hospital at 12:01 on that Friday for an eye treatment paid for by Social Security. He and Napier, Illinois Mrs. Robert Avery of Vail, became one of the first patients on the Medicaid program.An Associated Press investigation found that the program increased inpatient visits to hospitals by 3 percent -- about 100,000 new patients a week.
Five days after he asked for approval of the Medicaid subsidy program, Johnson sent another historic message to Congress: "Affirming Full Educational Opportunity," asking for $1 billion for public and parochial schools.Federal funding for Catholic education is a radical departure from tradition and is bound to spark a lively debate in the House of Representatives.But Johnson was well aware that some six million of the forty million American schoolchildren were in overcrowded parish schools; if the churches pushed them away, they would have to be maintained at public expense.Moreover, excluding them has offended Catholic members of Congress, who, in retaliation, have voted against federal funding of public schools.So Johnson decided to do the same, and let it be known that he rejected any amendment, not even a single comma.In the 89th Congress, he could do whatever he wanted—Goldwater had come to call it the "Xerographic Congress"—and the bill on education passed both houses of Congress in 87 days.The president called it "the most important bill I've ever signed," at a one-room Texas schoolhouse he attended as a boy, with his 72-year-old retired teacher standing beside him. beside.
Next up was the Voting Rights Act, the answer to the growing civil rights movement. The bill was ready for August 6, just waiting for his signature.By this time, the "Great Society" legislation was passing through Congress one after another-more than forty bills had been passed in education alone, including $2.4 billion in subsidies for colleges and universities, which was more than any enacted in the history of the United States up to that time. The entire education legislation is much more.Johnson's plan also: fight heart disease, stroke, cancer, water pollution, air pollution, highway billboards, abandoned car yards.Congress established agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities, and the Agency on Aging.The High Speed Surface Transportation Act has opened the way for research on mass traffic issues, immigration reforms have been made, and a massive excise tax cut (up to $4.7 billion) has been approved.Agricultural legislation and the Municipal Works and Economic Development Act gave the federal government, for the first time since the 1930s, a strong role in changing the face of the land.
Allocating more than $900 million to Appalachia, America's oldest rural slum.The new Economic Opportunity Agency, under the strong leadership of Sargent Shriver, who was the first head of the Peace Corps, declared war on poverty.Some of the Economic Opportunity Agency's programs include: "Corporate Sector Employment Opportunities," which provides special assistance to the long-term unemployed in finding jobs; The future of 1.3 million of these children was brightened in the first year of the program; the Volunteer for America Corps, which is, in effect, the Domestic Peace Corps; 500,000 part-time jobs; "skip classes," which enroll under-college-age youth in college; "Local Action Plans," which coordinate local health, housing, and employment programs and provide free legal education to the poor. consultation; the "Orphanage" program, which adopted homeless children; and the establishment of institutions for the placement of Indians, agricultural migrant workers, seasonal workers, etc.
The Economic Opportunity Agency leased a seven-story office building in Washington, which disgruntled dubbed the "Poverty Palace."Republican Representative Albert Quay of Minnesota said what the Economic Opportunity Agency was doing "could become not just a national disgrace but a national disaster." Richard Nixon said: "War on poverty is a wish. First, politics first, news coverage first, but grades last." Even Shriver had to admit that the most successful of the Economic Opportunity Agency's programs, "Good Beginnings," had been completed in one state (Mississippi). Fucked by back door openings, public and private misuse, misuse of government cars and giving subsidy money to people who aren't even in the state.
But time will be in EOA's favor, as it was in Roosevelt's Works Agency.Within five years, the War on Poverty program will play a key role in lifting 13 million people out of poverty.In addition, the economic prosperity of Johnson's presidency also played a role. The "Great Society" seems to be coming, and Americans seem to appreciate it; at the end of Johnson's second year in office, polls report that in their thirty years of polling, no president has yet Received such strong and powerful support.
His victory over Goldwater would tempt other presidents to be rough with Congress.Not so Johnson.He also vividly recalls Roosevelt's discredited efforts to reshuffle the Supreme Court after his huge victory in 1936.Johnson said after the 1964 election: "In and out, I have been watching Congress for more than forty years, and I have not seen a Congress that did not end up weighing the weight of the President with whom it was dealing. Instead of pursuing the blockbuster "100 days," he said he would rather send each bill to Congress when lawmakers are ready.He explained: "It's like a bottle of whiskey. If you drink one glass at a time, it's fine. But if you drink the whole bottle in one night, you're in trouble. I'm planning on taking one sip at a time , enjoy it."
The end result was astonishing.When the 89th Congress adjourned for its first session on October 23, it had passed 89 major bills proposed by the administration and vetoed only two: making the District of Columbia a self-governing district and repealing the Taft-Hartley Act Article 14, paragraph 2, which stipulates that each state has the right to prohibit the signing of a limited-term union contract mainly refers to the contract that the labor union restricts the factory to hire non-union members. If the factory hires non-union members, it must let them Join a union. - Translator - And that's because Congress simply hasn't figured out whether the president really wants to change the Taft-Hartley Act.He could be complacent about his achievements, but he was not. He was never satisfied. He kept trying to monopolize the attention of the press and change the attitude of those who criticized him.
One of the most inexplicable events was a summit meeting with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at Holly Bush, the stone tower residence of the chancellor of Glassboro State University in New Jersey.So Glassboro was chosen because it happened to be halfway between Washington and the United Nations headquarters in New York (where Kosygin was at the time).Neither of the two leaders intends to visit the door for advice, and the small campus represents a compromise.The two leaders have no agenda for a meeting - and there really isn't anything in particular to discuss.Afterwards, Johnson said: "It helps us to take the approach of reasoning with each other. That's why we went to Holly Bush. Reasoning with each other is the spirit of Holly Bush." deep differences between them", and there is not much else to say.Despite this, the prestige of the president continued to grow.The mere fact that these two leaders, with nuclear arsenals at their disposal, sat down and talked seemed reassuring to the people.
But there are also many who are uneasy, and these people regard Johnson with ridicule, often even contempt.Among the creative circles of big cities and among the teaching staff of universities, Johnson haters abound.British journalist Henry Fairley wrote after a visit to the United States in 1965: "I find it strange and disgusting that American intellectuals take pleasure in insulting President Johnson." Fairley pointed out that the harshness was "personal," Reflecting an "excessively critical contempt for the man . . . I was told by one person that he was a big eater . . . others said the same thing, if at least not quite so bluntly."
One of their harshest critics, Dwight Macdonald, described Lyndon Johnson as "low and boorish" and coined the term "cult of moderation" to mock the president's shallow taste.MacDonald and others like him also laughed at Mrs. Johnson for her fondness for watching the TV show "Gun Smoke."They also despised many aspects of Johnson: love to see the new Christie singing group. A man named Edwin Christie founded the first black imitation singing group in 1842, and such performances have continued to use the Christie name. - Translator; asks photographer to "take my left side"; dislikes Peter Heard's portrait of him; has a daughter who changed her name to Lucy; Call it "artistic" and so on.Their grievances spilled over to a much larger group of Americans who originally had only a vague distaste for Johnson's charlatanism.There are millions more who feel this way because they loved John F. Kennedy, still mourn him, and unreasonably see Johnson as a usurper.Finally, to these are the broad masses of the United States who are disturbed, or even threatened, by the escalating violence in black ghettos in major cities and the growing riots on college campuses.Johnson's insistence on doing everything would make him a target, so they focused their fire on him.
At the end of his unprecedented string of legislative victories in Congress in 1965, he was admitted to the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he underwent surgery for gallstones.During his recovery, he pondered the people who had been tormenting his paper and taunting him. "Those people out there," he blurted out in exasperation, "what do they want—what do they want? Here comes the good times, I give them more good legislation than anyone else, and what are they doing - attacking and ridiculing! Could Roosevelt have done better? Could anyone have done better? What do they want...”
Senator Eugene McCarthy would later play a decisive role in keeping Johnson out of unanimous Congressional support, arguing at the time that Johnson was a somewhat anachronistic president prescribing a "New Deal" for a country -- Social welfare legislation, but not the country's difficulties, he puts forward, this kind of view provides half the answer to the above riddle.But this view is debatable. For example, it was said that the biggest domestic challenge in the 1960s was not poverty but wealth.McCarthy said Johnson had completely miscalculated the mood of liberal intellectuals: "He kept telling them how many bills he'd passed—a running account, and didn't know they weren't interested in it any more."
Johnson fumed, "Do they know they can only get a president like me?" Sometimes he added, "Do they know they're still fighting?"
they know.That's the other half of the answer to that riddle.
After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, U.S. military activity in Vietnam was suspended for a period until November 1, 1964, when Bien Hoa Airfield, 20 miles north of Saigon, was heavily bombarded by the Viet Cong.Five U.S. military advisers were killed and 76 wounded in the attack.On Christmas Eve, the guerrillas struck again, planting a bomb at the Brink Hotel in Saigon, where 2 Americans were killed and 58 were injured.Lyndon Johnson's patriotic instincts were instantly aroused.He strode through the White House and said never let them kill our lads there, he said they were shooting at the American flag, and he wanted them to know he wasn't a "Chamberlain with an umbrella" ".Clearly, the North Vietnamese were guilty of aggression. (“Aggression is when one country keeps another country quiet. Everyone recognizes when that happens.”) But expecting the UN to act would be a mistake. ("If it's all an afterthought, it's useless.") He doesn't want to be remembered as the president who lost Vietnam.The United States has the power to teach these little chicken-like, ragged communists a lesson.The resolution on the Gulf of Tonkin incident gave him the power to use force, and if the Viet Cong didn't push back, he would.
The difficulty is deciding what to do.There is no general military solution to this new and unusual enemy.The powerful U.S. military system has absolutely no use for their hit-and-run tactics.President Kennedy sent a Special Forces force of 400 men, specialists in counterinsurgency warfare, to Vietnam, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff were less than enthusiastic about the handpicked burly men.At one point, none of the more than a hundred American generals in USMAV had ever received counterinsurgency training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.And none of these generals was more of a traditional soldier than William Childs Westmoreland, the new commander of the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam.
What the chiefs of staff of the armed services demanded was heavy bombing of North Vietnam.This, they told the White House, would bring the enemy to its knees and force them to come to the negotiating table.Apparently, the Johnson administration was very much in favor of bombing.Why this is so is not quite clear.Two influential Democrats, George Ball and John Kenneth Galbraith, served on the U.S. Strategic Bombing Effects Survey after World War II.The investigation found that the bombing of the Allies not only failed to weaken Germany's war production, but instead strengthened the common hatred of the German people.Germany is a highly industrialized country.If the air force fails there, the chances of success against the economy of a backward Asian state are at least dubious.
Johnson's advisers were not all that convinced of the bombing, either.Ball and Galbraith didn't believe it, and they were far from alone.As early as 1964, the Policy and Planning Committee of the State Council conducted a detailed investigation on the bombing issue.The conclusion: Bombing North Vietnam would have no effect, and it would not even have the effect of encouraging South Vietnam.Pierre de Silva, who succeeded John Richardson as CIA station chief in Saigon, believed that bombs were useless, as did Westmoreland.Both West Pointers knew that if you put in planes, you needed troops to protect the airfield, so a decision to bomb would involve the United States fully.As early as 1965, CIA analysts in Saigon wrote two more lengthy reports on the subject.The central idea of the report was that sending out the bombers would not only be a waste of time, it would most likely lead to a massive infiltration of North Vietnamese forces through the Ho Chi Minh Trail that would cost us our lives.
That should prompt the White House to reconsider.At the very least, the president should also listen carefully to advice that advises him to proceed with caution.But after the dovish titles of those who opposed the escalation of the war began to spread, they mysteriously changed.In the chambers of the center of power, their numbers dwindled. When George Ball presented his first memorandum at the State Department in October 1964 opposing further U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, he had many associates.Later, one by one, his allies were removed from key positions or dismissed.By the time Johnson took office, Roger Hillsman, Averill Harriman, Michael Forrestal, Paul Katenberg, and William Truhart had all left.Ball was alone.Maxwell Taylor, who had agreed with Ball on the bombing, was still in the leadership core, but he had changed his mind.He now also wants to give the Air Force the green light.He believed that the number of US troops in Vietnam could be controlled and did not need to exceed 100,000.
Now only one of the main White House special aides remains silent.He's McGeorge Bundy, the president's national security adviser. On January 27, 1965, Bundy proposed that he visit Vietnam as the president's eyes and ears.McNamara agreed, and Johnson's security aide flew to Asia during the first week of February.This is a journey of great importance.Bundy is talented and experienced, but he has never experienced military life.What he knew about the war came from documents, reports and films.The filthy and stinking life on the battlefield was completely foreign to him, and when he came into contact with it, he felt sick.More importantly, he can't see bloodshed, and that's decisive.
On the evening of February 5, while Bundy was attending a cleanup banquet in Saigon, Jesse Pyle (of Marina, Calif.) of Special Forces Unit 5 was standing guard in a foxhole outside an American stronghold in Pleiku, Poleku. Laigu is a mountain city on the central plateau of Vietnam.He wasn't off work until 2 a.m. when he saw a dark figure in black moving towards him through the undergrowth.Pyle opened fire, and the Viet Cong guerrillas immediately hurled a barrage of hand grenades. Americans in nearby barracks woke up and joined the fight.The battle of Pleiku raged on for 15 minutes.As a result, the guerrillas destroyed and injured 16 helicopters and 6 aircraft.Eight American soldiers, including Pyle, were killed and 126 others were wounded.
The first reports of the fighting in Pleiku reached the president at 2:38 p.m. Washington time.After a four-hour National Security Council meeting, he ordered Navy jet fighter-bombers from three aircraft carriers to attack Dong Hoi, a Viet Cong supply transshipment base 40 miles north of the 17th parallel.He declared that it was up to the "North Vietnamese aggressors" to decide whether the U.S. role in the fighting would escalate."I think it's quite clearly a test of will," McNamara said. But the most unexpected outcome of the Pleiku battle was its effect on the president's national security adviser there, who was visiting The wounded were very emotional when they left.By the time he flew home he was already a hawk.The President said to him, "Well, they've convinced you, don't they. A little gunfire can do it."
Ball still opposed the bombing.Vice President Hubert Humphrey also objected so strongly, and so forcefully made his case that Johnson now sees such skepticism as cowardice, excluding him from NSC meetings.The United States has entered a critical moment to make a decision.McNamara later admitted that the United States had made many mistakes in Vietnam. He pointed out that these mistakes were made in the late spring of 1965; after that time, the United States could not get out of it.In Washington, it seemed that the Viet Cong were bent on teasing the United States into large-scale intervention.Less than three days after the Pleiku battle, guerrillas in black bombed the Viet Gang Hotel, an American barracks in Quy Nhon, Annan port, killing 23 American soldiers and wounding 21 others.Johnson was so angry that he ordered a three-hour bombing of the North Vietnamese military supply bases of Zhenghe and Zhili.
On February 11, the Viet Cong attacked Qui Nhon again.This time, Johnson didn't do anything for 48 hours.However, once he took action, it was a big step on the road to escalation of the war.Since then, the United States' air retaliation has not been limited to one-on-one, you come and go.Johnson ordered continued bombing of North Vietnam, regardless of provocation.The operation was code-named Operation Rolling Thunder.In a 64-page white paper, "Aggression from the North," it makes the case for this action.The State Department said the white paper established "beyond any doubt that North Vietnam was conducting a well-orchestrated invasion of South Vietnam."To defend Da Nang Air Base, 50 miles southeast of Hue (from which Operation Rolling Thunder would launch), General Westmoreland asked for two battalions of Marines.These 3,500 Marines were the first ground troops that the United States entered into the Vietnam War. On March 8, they waded and landed at Nam Wo Tan, three miles from Da Nang, under overcast skies.Ten smiling Vietnamese girls holding flowers are waiting for them.
The landing caused an uproar around the world.In Moscow, 2,000 demonstrators threw bricks and stones at the U.S. embassy, where two Western journalists were beaten.In the United States, lectures were held across universities, culminating in Washington, D.C., when Bundy agreed to debate his critics on a radio program broadcast to more than a hundred universities (he had to do so at the last minute). Withdrew from the debate because the President asked him to deal with another foreign crisis in the Dominican Republic).The authorities sent a "fact-telling mission" to visit universities and answer accusations from dovish faculty members.Dean Rusk wryly told the American Institute of International Law: "I sometimes cannot help but marvel at the credulity of our cultured people and the obstinacy of those who are supposed to help us of young people learn—especially how to think.”
But the more critics of the war heard about the South Vietnamese allies, the stronger their reservations.They heard that half of the American aid went to the black market in Saigon.Young people from wealthy families can avoid military service by spending money.South Vietnamese troops deserted at a rate of 15 percent.Politicians in Saigon seem to have a natural knack for doing the wrong thing.It seemed that at every juncture of battle, no matter what government was in power, it was about to be overthrown by a new regime.Johnson, furious, told his men that he "wanted no more of this crap coup," but he got the same thing. On February 21, 1965, General Ruan Qingzhong was expelled and was succeeded by a doctor, Pan Huikuo (Pan Huikuo’s background figure was Major General Ruan Van Thieu, the secretary-general of this team, and he has become a noteworthy figure since then).Phan Huy Kho's government existed for a full 111 days. After it was overthrown (the ninth change of government since Ngo Dinh Diem's assassination), the new prime minister was Nguyen Cao Ky, the often-obtrusive South Vietnamese air force commander, and Nguyen Van Thieu was the deputy prime minister.
Each new upheaval in Saigon added doves, who quickly replaced the Republicans as Lyndon Johnson's most powerful political opponent.Former Army Secretary Cyrus Vance says anxiety about war "has threatened to tear America apart," warns Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, one of the earliest doves in the Senate Said: "There is a limit to what we can do to help any government subdue Communist riots. If the people themselves do not support the government in power, we cannot save it... The Saigon government did not lose the war because of a lack of equipment, but due to the lack of any internal cohesive power."
However, this is not a generally held position.When Johnson asked for the 700 billion needed for the escalation of the war, the original text is so, which is suspected to be wrong. -- Translator's supplemental appropriation of the dollar, the House of Representatives approved it by a vote of 408 to 7 within 24 hours; the Senate approved it by a vote of 88 to 3 within another 24 hours.Disapproval of America's entry into the war has been criticized in the popular press.Majority Leader Mike Mansfield expressed concern to the Senate that the war could go on "for four, five, or 10 years," an Associated Press writer called it an "extreme view." played for eight years).The Associated Press, which is generally known for its impartiality, also believes that anti-war is to help and comfort the enemies of the United States in its annual special article reviewing the major news of the year.Senator Fulbright chaired hearings on Vietnam in April, giving a platform to prominent critics of administration policy such as George Kennan and General James Gavin, which NBC's 24 stations refused to include in their simulcasts Report it, and CBS blocks it all.
The war was getting more and more intense for Americans in Vietnam. On March 30, a Vietnamese driver parked a black Citroen in front of the US embassy in Saigon, then jumped on a motorcycle driven by his accomplice and fled.The car, loaded with 250 pounds of explosives, exploded at 10:55 a.m., blowing a hole in the side of the embassy building and killing 17 embassy employees.The next day, American aircraft bombed six North Vietnamese radar installations.This is the 15th time since the Pleiku incident that US aircraft have carried out airstrikes across the dividing line between the two Vietnams.The Viet Cong responded with more explosions.one evening.A bicycle loaded with nitroglycerin explosives is parked next to a beautiful view of a floating restaurant frequented by foreigners on the banks of the Saigon River.When it exploded, 44 people were killed, including 12 Americans.The U.S. military continues to build up strength.There were 25,000 American soldiers in Vietnam at the beginning of that year, and by the end of the spring the number had tripled.
The White House stated on June 9 that it had authorized General Westmoreland to send U.S. soldiers and Marines into combat "when no other effective means are available and, in his judgment, the general military situation so requires" .Four days later, Westmoreland argued that American intervention was fully justified because of what had happened in Tongshuai, a county town 60 miles north of Saigon.After a night battle, 1,200 paratroopers from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, along with 1,600 Vietnamese and Australians, pursued the guerrillas.Westmoreland called this a "search and destroy" mission, a term that has since been used to describe the strategy of searching for and destroying the Viet Cong that developed during those months.This strategy has been costly and often met with setbacks.The scuffle with the commander can quite explain the characteristics of the Vietnam War. After the smoke on the battlefield dissipated, it was impossible to tell which side was the winner. All that the commander of the 173rd Brigade could confirm was that he had lost 19 men.The casualty list grew rapidly as the Viet Cong entered the second month of fighting in their spring offensive.Much later Westmoreland admitted that when the offensive began, the enemy had won the war.But no one knew this at the time.That same month, Westmoreland asked Washington to send 44 additional battalions and authorized him to use them as he saw fit, and even if he got them, he could not guarantee that the task would be completed.
It was also during this period that Lyndon Johnson's cunning and treacherous style began to weaken the public's trust in him. An editor at the New York Herald Tribune made this point on May 23 when he used the phrase "the credit gap" in the headline of a story written by the paper's White House correspondent, David Wise.Murray Mudd of The Washington Post later wrote in an analysis of the prevailing feeling in Washington at the time that the president sometimes closed his eyes to the facts: "The problem could be called the credit gap." Johnson was recalled in 1964 In the 2019 election campaign, he made a grandiose promise of peace and contrasted it with his current bellicose attitude.Mudd also underscores that "the announcements made by the administration in Washington have increasingly aroused suspicion and irony." Journalists are particularly sensitive to this.Because the president is now pursuing the same policies that he denounced as suggested by Senator Goldwater, the press is skeptical of the White House's new olive branch.
On April 7, the president declared in a speech at Johns Hopkins University that the United States was ready to engage in "unconditional talks" that would lead to peace talks.The speech was broadcast worldwide by the US Information Agency, and some of its details sound new and encouraging.He proposed that the countries of Southeast Asia, including North Vietnam, participate in a contingency Marshall Plan, adding: "For our part, once this plan is implemented, I will ask Congress for a billion dollars for the participation of the United States in this project." Investing in effort." Surplus U.S. farm produce to go to hungry Asians.He will shortly appoint "a special team of eminent and patriotic American personalities" to direct all of this work in the United States.Ending the Vietnam War is of course "necessary for the eventual victory of this project. But we cannot and will not wait for peace to come before we begin this work."It all makes sense, and it makes Asia almost sound as close as Central Texas.
The article in which David Wise expressed doubts was written after Johnson's speech, and many of the flaws in the president's proposed plan had become apparent.His proposal to negotiate an armistice was, after all, on the condition that he exclude the Viet Cong from participation, a point that would inevitably be opposed by Hanoi.As for the U.S. bearing 1 billion U.S. dollars or providing the U.S. with surplus agricultural products, nothing has been heard about it, and the special group of prominent U.S. figures has never been selected.What once seemed like an innovative solution to Southeast Asia's problems in the space of a month has turned into a publicity stunt.Not only did the president not follow through on any part of the plan, but he showed that his real Asia policy was to more aggressively accelerate making the Vietnam War an American war.
The first six weeks of Operation Rolling Thunder were a complete failure.The bombing did not bring the enemy to its knees, force him to the negotiating table, or even wake him up, as the Johnson administration had imagined, and the Viet Cong's disrespect for the American flag remained the same.The president decided to up the ante again.In the third week of April, he flew to Honolulu for a two-day meeting with Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu.After the meeting, McNamara announced that the U.S. aid to Saigon in 1965 would jump from 207 million yuan to 330 million yuan.Another 40,000 American soldiers—they began to call themselves the "Grudge Soldiers"—would be sent to Vietnam.Senator Greening asked Johnson how long it would take to win the battle, and the president replied six months.Hanoi, he said, could not support a bombing that lasted longer than six months, and the Viet Cong would beg for a peace with U.S. Command in Viet Nam before Christmas.
George Ball was deeply disturbed.He knew that intelligence could only lead to entirely different conclusions.John McCone reported that the CIA determined that the bombing had neither paralyzed nor frightened Hanoi.Instead, airstrikes have strengthened the hard-line faction there.One North Vietnamese regiment was identified as being in South Vietnam, and a second regiment was equipped on the demarcation line.Adding U.S. troops, McCone told the National Security Council, would invite a larger infiltration of North Vietnam; the role of transport planes transporting U.S. troops to Saigon would have been negated even before those soldiers had arrived.The Pentagon replied that the Air Force was ready to take on the eight-engine B-52, which was originally designed to carry nuclear weapons, and that no one could stand up to a B-52, Phantom, or F-111.
But aerial warfare was no longer the only, or even the main, concern for Americans in Vietnam.The U.S. military role there is undergoing a subtle shift, with U.S. forces now targeting more than just protecting airports.怨气兵将用来恐吓游击队，让他们懂得山姆大叔不是闹着玩的。在国内的美国人没有察觉这个转变。后来，詹姆斯·赖斯顿评论说，总统偷偷摸摸地把战争升了级。戴维·哈伯斯塔姆好几年后写道，在约翰逊的领导下，华盛顿的决策者们“已慢慢地越过了有去无回的界线，还不肯承认”，而他们的发布新闻的官员们的任务变成了“向公众谎报而不是实报”。
7月，华盛顿决定使驻越南军援司令部所承担的义务再次迅速升格。麦克纳马拉从他的第六次赴越实地调查回来后，报告说局势“恶化”，建议做出提供更多的人和钱的保证。7月17日，约翰逊召集他的将领们和顾问们到戴维营去度周末，以取得一致意见，虽然他所用的一致意见这个词已经失却它的原义，因为对他来说，这个词的意思是走走形式，让大家全同意他已经做出的决定——把驻越南的美国军队增加到5万人。参谋长联席会勉强地予以同意。他们原来希望的要多得多，他们最害怕的是卷入局部性战争。在戴维营，有一些人表示碍难从命。克拉克·克利福德预言式地说到共产党的反应，“不管我们采取什么措施，他们一定也会跟上。”迈克·曼斯菲尔德也表示反对，他对总统说他认为越南战争会使美国分裂，因此他反对再派遣军队去。其他的人同意总统的判断，多米诺骨牌论、共同安全、遏制以及慕尼黑的教训等等仍然超过他们对战争的疑虑不安。
在他的这一决定已被确定下来以后，约翰逊变得诡秘起来。他不愿再让人进行辩论。麦克纳马拉提议征召预备役23.5万人。总统提出的代替办法是用行政命令把征兵的人数增加一倍，每月从1.7万人增至3.5万人，理由是这个办法比一次征召更不显眼。他还决定不再向国会开口要更多的钱，新的费用可以隐藏在国防部庞大的预算中。他说他不愿让任何人担心受怕，因而有一个时候他曾考虑不全部公布新增加的驻越美军人数。《先驱论坛报》的道格拉斯·凯克问他传说关于增加驻越美军的消息。约翰逊向他保证，那是谣言，纯属谣言；他只不过是补充少数几个单位的缺额而已，而且驻越美军将穷追越共的报道也是不确实的。7月28日，他忽然改变主意，宣布了全部数字，以及驻越军援司令部担任的拥有巨大权力的新使命，这一来就得罪了凯克，扩大了信用差距。总统在中午播放的电视节目中对估计达两千八百万的观众说：“我们并不想当把守大门的警卫，但是又没有别的人干这种差事。”
不信任是他在那年夏天播下的一颗不幸的种子，另一颗则是在他迫使一致同意的那些人中终于产生的误解。参谋长联席会以为他所以把数字保持得很低，是为了让他等到有机会说服老百姓，说明他必须增加更多的兵员；他们指望最终将达到100万人。威斯特摩兰看到河内以谁都梦想不到的速度向南方增援，把这情况向华盛顿作了汇报，根据他的计划最终他手下的美国军队将达到60～64.8万人之间，他确信一旦需要，他就会及时得到这些兵力。他的参谋人员有一项应急计划，使驻越军援司令部指挥的兵力可以达到75万人，并认为这个数字是切合实际、无可非议的。但是最不可思议的却是国防部长的设想。事情过去了好几年，仍只有了解麦克纳马拉的十分有条理的头脑、了解他认为能使无条理的客观事物适应他的有条理的头脑的人，才能理解他的想法。麦克纳马拉在1965年毫无根据地断定，战争将在1967年6月30日，那一财政年度终了时结束。这对他来说是个很合适的日期，可以使他的预算获得平衡，甚至在威斯特摩兰已对他说不可能之后，他还是坚持这一点。
但是，从一个方面来说，麦克纳马拉和五角大楼比白宫还更为现实一些。参谋长联席会敦促总统增税，他们所持的理由和经济学理论无关。他们希望国家处于总体战状态，对于公众的冷漠态度，按照他们从课本上学来的解决办法就是增加赋税。实际上，政府中的经济学家都衷心地表示同意。约翰逊的经济顾问委员会的领导人，密执安大学教授加德纳·阿克利对总统说，如果不采取增税办法，就做不到下面三件事：把战争进行下去，继续执行他的“伟大社会”计划，以及制止通货膨胀。
但这正是约翰逊提交国会通过大量社会立法的时期。他担心，如果战争的真正耗费为人所知，立法程序就会令人寒心地停止下来。他对他周围的人说：“我不懂得经济学，但是我深知国会。”他们有些入后来认为这个自白应该铭刻在他的墓碑上。“我现在能把'伟大社会'计划付诸实行——这是一个最好的时机。我们掌握着一个听话的国会，我又是个有心的总统，我能做到这一点。如果我谈战争的花费问题，那'伟大社会'计划就搞不下去，增税法案也通过不了。老威尔伯·米尔斯民主党国会议员，从1958年起曾任国会筹款委员会主席多年。——译者将稳坐在那里，向我热烈致谢，退还我的'伟大社会'计划，然后，他会对我说，他们将乐于开销我们为战争所需的任何费用。”
在这一点上，他终于铸成大错。他欺骗了他自己。他盘算如果能廉价买得胜利，就会万事如意。或许会天从人愿，或许河内和越共游击队会土崩瓦解。如果真是那样，五角大楼的估计就将是过高了。这种主观愿望立即变成了他的思想的基础，因而当阿克利及其同事坚持需要增税3%～4%时，总统以玩弄一套特别的猜字谜游戏为答。他把重要的国会议员和企业界领袖请到白宫，征询他们对增税的意见。他们反过来询问战争费用。他告诉他们假的数字。一听这个数字，他们就反对增税的主张。约翰逊然后对经济顾问委员会说，增税是不可能的，他无法使国会通过。后来，《纽约时报》经济记者小埃德温·戴尔说，他在华盛顿采访15年，还从未见过一个总统采取如此不负责任的行动。
约翰逊1966年初做出的反对增税的决定，是对财政稳定的一个沉重打击。那一年的联邦赤字达98亿元。更大的赤字摆在前头，因为到那时每月的战费将高达20亿～30亿元之巨。白宫估计的每月战费是8亿元，当企业委员会的拉尔夫·拉扎勒斯认为政府估计的数字太低时，他接到阿贝·福塔斯打来一个激愤的电话，说他的计算是错误的，使得总统心烦意乱。实际上拉扎勒斯是说中了。那年的战费达270亿元，赤字高达230亿元。约翰逊耍的花招招致了无法控制的通货膨胀的开始。
从这次战争的各个方面来看，最令人莫名其妙的也许是缺乏真正的计划。戴维·哈伯斯塔姆后来发现，“不管是作战任务还是军队人数，主要官员都没有做出明确的规定。回顾起来似乎是不可思议的，但确系事实。战略究应如何，从来也没有一个精确的数字和明确的表示。”1965年惟一显而易见的一件事是军队人数越来越多。8月，美军如潮水般涌进越南；到9月军队人数显然已快突破20万大关了。
为了核实西贡附近的一次战斗的报道，美联社记者彼得·阿内特驱车出首都看到了三种颜色烟尘，这是南越军队在作战，但是对面并没有敌人。有人对他说，士兵们是在为美国新闻处拍一部彩色电影，“以便说明此间真相”。那里的真相究竟如何，各方包括国内，争论得不可开交。林登·约翰逊有时候说起话来好像他在回答胡志明个人的挑战，好像他同胡志明是像电影“正午”中场面那样怒目对峙。西贡接近事实真相的情况，倒似乎是一起起的炸弹恐怖事件，这类暴行事件还正有增无减。12月4日拂晓，发生了另一起卡车装载的250磅炸药爆炸事件，这一次是发生在供美军使用的大都会饭店外面，死7人，伤137人。
威斯特摩兰的发言人常常只发表每日“尸体计数”，这是用来描述越共伤亡的麻木不仁的用语。在随军记者尼尔·希恩看来，越南战争的特点是不分青红皂白狂轰滥炸造成无辜平民大量伤亡。希恩问威斯特摩兰，这种情况是否使他感到烦恼，这位将军回答说：“是有点，可是那也减少了敌人的人口，是不是·”
在1965年，美国人的反战示威在全国大部分地方看来还是比较怪异的事。只有少数人愿意被认为是赞成美军立即无条件地从印度支那撤走的。甚至国内最具有鸽派观点的集团之一的大学教员，迟至1967年在这个问题上还分裂成了势均力敌的两派。尽管如此，和平运动的气势已不同一般了。在10月15～16日的周末，估计有1.4万人的一支群众队伍在曼哈顿第五号大道举行了游行。同时，另外还有1万人向奥克兰陆军基地进军——他们在市区的边界线上被警察拦回来了——在伯克利有2000人游行示威。在各地举行的这次被宣布为“周末抗议”期间，威斯康星大学的50名学生打算把特劳克斯空军基地的司令官当做“战争罪犯”拘捕起来，抗议者们在安阿伯的征兵局办事处举行了一次“静卧”。
第五号大道争取越南和平游行示威委员会宣称：
我们要求不再把美国青年送到一场对他们、对越南人民都没有好处的战争中去打仗。我们已从纳粹德国吸取了教训，决不同意任何政府的侵略性的好战政策，即使这个政府是我们自己的政府，我们也是这样。
这话合情合理，但是许多地方的示威者所使用的语言，像战争本身一样，越来越充满仇恨。就在华盛顿感恩节后的星期六，2万名示威者首次喊出：“喂!喂!约翰逊!你今天杀死了多少青年·”以1964年5月2日他们首次上街抗议美国卷入战争的日子命名的“五二运动”的成员们，带着越共旗帜在白宫周围游行，为了给北越士兵收集血液而大张旗鼓地搞“输血”活动，在伯克利，言论自由运动已为越南日委员会所接替，它曾两度以占据车辆和坐轨的方式企图使运送部队的车辆无法开过。
1965年10月15日，示威运动又出现了一个新的方式，这是由22岁的戴维·米勒开始的，他是义务救济工作者，他在纽约爬上一辆宣传车，宣布说：“我原准备讲话，现在我打算让行动本身来说话了”——他划着一根火柴烧掉了征兵卡。几周后，米勒被捕，尽管在8月31日国会把烧毁征兵证定为可罚金1万元和监禁五年的触犯联邦刑律的罪行，但仍风靡一时。自我牺牲的行动继续是一种最后抗议的形式，一名教友派教徒在五角大楼外面、一名信奉天主教的救济工作者在联合国外面举火自焚。
进行反示威的美国纳粹党人则带着汽油罐，举着“为乞求和平的小爬虫们免费供应汽油”的标语牌。照例是没有人赞成他们。大多数针对着抗议运动举行的反抗议的调门都比较温和。在纽约有一个大姑娘拿着一个标语牌，上面写道，“我希望我有一张兵役卡”。一些认真的示威是由“青年美国人争取自由组织”、“美国退伍军人团”和“对外战争退伍军人会”等团体组织的。他们的标语反映出的最好战的情绪是“轰炸河内”。在佛罗里达州举行的一次有代表性的游行中有这样一些标语：“我们爱美国”，“爱我们的国家”，“美国是我的祖国——对也罢，错也罢”，“我们能让他们把美国埋葬掉吗”·以及“没有比美国国旗更光荣的旗帜”等等。鲍勃·霍普对一批听众说：“如果我们让共产党获胜，我们就有需要冒终生进行战斗和牺牲一百万青年的大危险。”这是一个夸张其辞的说法，但是这和谴责总统杀害青年的说法可是完全不属于一类的。
那些赞成这次战争的人对反战的一方提出的最严厉的指控，是说他们不忠。西弗吉尼亚州查尔斯顿的警察局长说：“我们决不像这些叛徒所做的那样，拿着蜡烛在黑暗中匍匐爬行，我们要在光天化日之下进军，让自由的人民立即参加进来，在我们的后面齐步前进。”一些报纸在关于1965年和平运动各种活动的报道中，普遍倾向于暗示有共产党参与其事。联邦调查局，也像鲍勃·霍普那样，已逐步抛弃了它的超党派的名声，实际上认为所有这些反战抗议都是克里姆林宫指挥的。政府的一份报告说：“反对越战运动的控制权，显然已经从可能一度控制着运动的温和分子手中转到了共产党和极端分子手中，他们公开同情越共，公开敌视美国。”
事实上，实际情况恰好相反。尽管个别的反战战士使用了煽动性语言和表现出挑衅性的举止，但是那些示威游行一次比一次更无可非议。政治上保守的中产阶级主妇，甚至穿着军服的军人也参加了运动。参加的著名人士也越来越多，他们被吸引到和鲍勃·霍普相反的方向去。11月27日在晴空如洗的华盛顿举行的要求停止轰炸的游行队伍中，除诺曼·托马斯和詹姆斯·法默之外，还有一些从不参加政治活动的人物，如本杰明·斯波克医生、漫画家朱尔斯·菲弗、小说家索尔·贝洛、雕刻家亚历山大·考尔德和作家迈克尔·哈林顿。
那年秋天，来自越南的消息报道，美国的一些著名的部队已在越南战场被打得落花流水。其中有9月份在安溪惨败的第101空降旅，10月份在波来梅惨败的绿色贝雷帽特种部队，11月份在德浪河谷惨败的第一骑兵师。在华盛顿举行的要求停炸游行前一周发生的德浪遭遇战，有着特别的意义。像越共前次的春季攻势和1968年初的新年攻势一样，德浪之战是越南战争中的一个转折点。第一骑兵师的空降兵在波来梅交战后穷追敌人的小股部队，在德浪河谷遭到顽强抵抗，此处靠近朱邦山，距柬埔寨边境七英里，位于西贡以北200英里的越南中部高原。这次美国人面对的不是越共游击队，而是北越第66团。
北越的精锐部队66团，面临着一次严峻考验。从军事史上说，第一骑兵师可算是一种新部队，它是一个用美国最优越的火力装备起来的直升机空降师。共产党军队，对有发明才能的美国人所研制的在战场上使用的武器都颇为熟悉，他们现在的战术则要求士兵们在近距离和那些怨气兵交锋，如果可能的话就打肉搏战，但至多不超过34码的距离，这样就可以使美国的炮兵和战术空中支援全部失去作用。
德浪之战的含义肯定是极大的。在7月举行戴维营会议之际，在南方还只有两个北越团。现在驻越军援司令部已经查明有六个来自北方的团，此外大概还有两个团，可能甚至三个团。还有一些正在南来途中。胡志明的司令官武元甲将军一直在把他的营分散成连和排，以比美国运入军队快得多的速度经小道源源而来。
双方都把援兵投入河谷，尽管第一骑兵师投入的一个营遭到伏击损失惨重，德浪之战结束后，威斯特摩兰和他的副手威廉·德普伊将军却声称获得一次胜利。数字似乎支持了他们的说法，敌军像第二次世界大战中的日本人那样采取波浪式的攻击，用英语大叫：“杀死美国兵!”他们被打死1200人，而美国人仅死200。但是另外一些观察家，其中包括以文职人员身份回到越南的约翰·保罗·范恩，则做出了迥然不同的结论。共产党已准备好无限期地接受这样的损耗。(一个越共士兵在他的日记中写道：“为祖国牺牲自己的生命是我们这一代人的天职。”)而美国在德浪之战中的伤亡，尽管小得多，仍是威斯特摩兰部队的一个新纪录，它使美国在越南战争中的伤亡达到了死1335人，伤6131人。美国驻越军援司令部却认为威斯特摩兰已找到获胜的战略秘诀，迫不及待地在筹划更多的德浪战役，而武元甲却完全同意范恩的观点。这位北越将军确信(后来的事实完全证明他是对的)，美国人民不会接受这样重大的伤亡，容许美国承担没有尽头的义务。武元甲认为这场战争的新阶段是他的人力与威斯特摩兰的技术装备之间的抗争，充当评判员的是美国公众舆论。
12月间，麦克纳马拉劝请约翰逊暂停轰炸。腊斯克表示反对，现在他已经是最强硬的鹰派人物之一了。但是总统停止了B-52的出动，并向世界一些重要的首都派出外交人员，散布华盛顿准备谋和的消息。两位意大利教授抵达河内试探胡志明的态度。一开头，谈判似乎是有可能的，但是在共产党准备采取和解态度的话刚传到腊斯克那里的时候，河内却忽然谴责一切都是“彻头彻尾毫无根据的捏造”。美国人吃了一惊。在德浪之战以后，美国人认为胡志明应该清楚他面临着失败。海军陆战队的士兵们想起了他们的一个老笑话的结尾的一句话：“总有哪个狗娘养的没有得到信儿。”
林登·约翰逊向国会两院联席会议要求制定1965年选举权法时，他在演说结尾处的一句话，由于新的一代美国黑人为社会正义流出的血和泪，而有了光辉的意义。他说他们的事业“只能也是我们的事业。因为不仅黑人，而实际上是我们所有的人都必须克服祖辈传下来的偏执和不公正的缺陷。我们也一定会克服掉的”。
这是自由派说得很漂亮的空话，但是在那一年中这句话有时似乎不过是很可怀疑的预言。最高法院关于布朗对教育局一案的裁决，在5月17日刚度过它的11周年，而种族主义现象却似乎比过去更甚了。耶鲁大学的斯蒂林讲座历史学教授范恩·伍德沃德说：“在学校里，现在黑人与白人比他们上一代更少接触。”从1964年年中到1965年年中，三K党获得了空前众多的党徒，即使在南北战争后的南部重建时期，也没有这么多过。1965年10月，据报道，伯明翰的一个黑人由于一个白人救护车司机拒绝送他上医院而流血致死。一个亚拉巴马州的商人在谈到民权运动时，信口对一个《纽约时报》的记者说：“等这股风过去了，这些黑鬼在这里不用想过好日子”。在北部城市中，种族方面的气候也好不了多少。马丁·路德·金在芝加哥湖南区的马克特公园发表演讲说：“我在密西西比和亚拉巴马都没有看到过像在芝加哥看到的这样深刻的仇恨。”达拉斯县警长小詹姆斯·克拉克在塞尔马事件时佩戴的一个小徽章似乎象征着千百万白人的态度，那上面就简单两个字：“决不”。意思是，不论在北部或南部，像克拉克这样的人，决不会承认黑人的平等地位。
面对着这种不公正的境遇，黑人的态度继续发生变化。他们不断分裂成许多小派别，相互十分敌视。马尔科姆·艾克斯正在他快要掌握领导权力之际，于1965年2月21日在上曼哈顿区的奥杜邦舞厅被他的黑人同胞刺杀，这反映了在黑人好斗分子之间的深刻分歧。黑人绝望心情的一个标志就是一些团体提倡“返回故里”——“回到非洲故乡去”。在黑人地带大约五十个居民区中组织起了“防卫执事团”与三K党战斗。其他的人则相信李·罗伊·琼斯的话，他告诉他们“美国白人大多数是坏蛋”；或相信詹姆斯·福尔曼的话，他发表一个“黑人宣言”，要求白人教堂和犹太教堂(有讽刺意味的是，这些恰恰都是极为热情地支持民权运动的)付给黑人5亿元的“赔偿费”。
鼓吹分离主义的集团中最著名的是穆斯林，1966年在奥克兰出现了第一小批黑豹党人。1965年11月，丹尼尔·帕特里克·莫伊尼汉提出了莫伊尼汉报告，这是一个说理严谨的文件，它论证说，解决黑人社会内部的问题的最现实的做法是首先消灭奴隶制度留下的最坏的遗产：黑人依赖福利救济过活，离婚率比白人高40%，以及骇人听闻的私生子数量，每四个黑人婴儿中就有一个是非婚生的。莫伊尼汉报告谈到的事实是无可争辩的，但是那一年正是黑人痛苦已极的一年，许多事都对黑人的自尊心产生破坏性的影响，以致他们不能正视这些事实。黑人领袖因此给这个报告扣上种族主义宣传的帽子，并且指责报告的作者是一个“法西斯分子”。
范恩·伍德沃德在1965年写道，“就联邦法律有能力处理”种族隔离和不公正现象而言，“国会刚刚能完成它的任务”。这类立法的最主要的一项是该年的选举法。马丁·路德·金在1月份举行了一次记者招待会，指出南部500万黑人适龄选民中有300万人没有进行选民登记，他宣布要发动一次全面登记选民的活动。这一活动将在亚拉巴马州的塞尔马开始，在这里，1.5万名可以登记的黑人选民中，只有325人登记了，而1.4万名可以登记的白人选民，登记的却达到9300人。金博士照例带领第一批黑人要住进塞尔马过去只供白人使用的艾伯特旅社，当他在旅社办理登记手续时他照例被一个白人种族主义分子拳打脚踢打了一顿。殴打他的那个人被课以100元罚款和60天监禁，在金看来这是尊重法律的一个良好开端，可是选民登记运动很快就停顿了。一个最简单不过的道理是，塞尔马的大多数黑人对选举权不感兴趣。需要某种剧烈的行动才能使他们觉醒起来。这类行动果然——这是富有典型意义的——出现了：在附近的佩里县，一个准备进行选民登记的黑人被一伙白人杀害了。当地的民权运动领袖们指望利用这件事，利用县警长吉姆·克拉克的暴躁脾气，利用华莱士州长炫耀权势的作风，来使他们的运动得到复兴。
他们宣布要在3月7日举行一次抗议游行。黑人和白人同情者将从塞尔马到54英里外的蒙哥马利市，沿杰弗逊-戴维斯公路系统第80号公路中段往南走。华莱士立即以威胁商业和公安为理由禁止此次游行示威，并派遣100名州警察增援克拉克警长；后者为了表示他忠于过去的传统，还纠集了一批骑马的自警团。3月7日(这一天将作为“黑色的星期日”载人亚拉巴马州的历史和成为民间传说)，600名黑人和一些同情他们事业的白人不顾禁令，从非洲人卫理公会主教派布朗教堂出发走到了横跨亚拉巴马河的埃德蒙-皮特斯桥。在这里，他们与克拉克的骑马的自警团和戴有防毒面具的州警相遇了。由于他们不理睬限两分钟内散开的警告，自警团于是挥动警棍和湿皮鞭猛烈攻击他们。催泪瓦斯的黄烟从州警的队伍中喷射出来。被轰散的黑人狼狈退回教堂。伴随着他们的是电视摄影记者，他们拍摄的影片将保证塞尔马在一夜之间变成镇压的象征。
在“黑色的星期日”这一天，金博士正在亚特兰大布道。他放下手头的一切事务飞赴塞尔马，宣布他要在星期二领导第二次进军，并号召黑人和白人的教士都来参加。三百多白人神甫、牧师和犹太教教士都同意参加。在北部各大城市都举行了同情示威游行。黑人运动活动家在司法部和白宫举行了静坐抗议，约翰逊总统发表一项声明谴责亚拉巴马的官员“对待一些黑人公民的粗暴行径”。他派遣约翰·多尔和佛罗里达前州长勒鲁瓦·柯林斯去塞尔马，他们成功地安排了一次象征性的进军，在那桥上走一个来回。克拉克警长和金博士虽然极不乐意，都勉强同意了。从金这方面来说，他不乐意是有道理的。“大学生非暴力协调委员会”的好斗的黑人青年，指责他是“汤姆大叔”主义者。在离开那座桥时，他们唱着民权运动的歌曲嘲弄他：“我们不能随便让人使我们回头。”
在同一天晚上，塞尔马危机中发生的三起谋杀事件中的第一起，便使金不得不暂时回头了，这三起谋杀案的受害者都是同情民权运动的白人。波士顿惟一神教派牧师詹姆斯·里布，在他离开一家黑人饭馆时，遭到一群农村恶棍的猛烈攻击而被打死。“大学生非暴力协调委员会”的詹姆斯·福尔曼和他的500名追随者威吓说，如果金博士不采取更大胆的方针，他们就要造反。1500名愤怒的黑人在蒙哥马利市以色列浸礼会教堂举行群众大会。金有令人鼓舞的消息要向他们报告。蒙哥马利市联邦法官小弗兰克·约翰逊同意允许举行从塞尔马到蒙哥马利市的游行，虽然这样的游行“已达到了为宪法所允许的极限”，但是他裁决说，对待示威者的做法显然也已超越了“宪法所允许的极限”。
华莱士州长在由电视转播的亚拉巴马州两院联席会议上，谴责即将举行的进军，可比之为共产党的“街头战”，就是这种战争“把古巴毁掉，把越南的吴庭艳断送，把中国强占——它把这个世界的文明和既有的制度撕成了血淋淋的碎片”。他说该州当局不能向所有这些外来的煽动者提供保护，他打电报给白宫，要联邦政府派人来执行联邦法官的决定。而这正中林登·约翰逊的下怀。总统现在有了华莱士提出的保护示威者的正式请求，他于是派遣了1863名拨归联邦统辖的国民警卫队，250名联邦法院法警和联邦调查局特工人员，两营正规陆军军事警察，一些爆破专家，检查游行队伍前方的道路和桥梁，直升机在头顶上空盘旋巡视。此外，还为游行队伍提供过夜休憩用的巨大帐篷、一辆600加仑的饮水车、一些厕所车、救护车、垃圾车和事先安排宿营地用的先行车。约翰逊其实也做得太过一点了。
进军本身是一次胜利。民权运动的老手已能很巧妙地为电视摄影记者提供丰富多彩的镜头。走在进军队伍前列的是金博士、拉尔夫·本奇、一个漂亮的女大学生、一个穿工装裤的佃农、一个犹太教教士、一个基督教牧师、一个修女和一个架着拐杖的一条腿的人(沿路站着的亚拉巴马白人，他们完全不知道为自己留点脸面，竟冲着修女做出淫猥的动作；在进军者唱歌时，哄笑着给一条腿的那个人叫拍子，“左，左，左”)。尽管亚拉巴马州的立法当局义愤填膺地——而且一致地——谴责“有证据在进军者宿营地发生大量私通行为”，但是大家一路上态度和平，秩序良好，考虑到参加的人是如此之多，应该说这是一次了不起的成就。3月21日从塞尔马整队出发时是3200人，四天后到达蒙哥马利市时已增加到2.5万人。金博士在州首府广场上向群众发表演说，一百年以前，这个地方是南北战争时“南部同盟”的首都所在。他在演说结束时连呼四次“光荣归于上帝!”队伍解散后，大批汽车在80号公路上把他们拉回塞尔马。一伙满脸不高兴的三K党徒盯着他们离去。汽车的洪流稀薄下来，这伙三K党徒要动手进行第二件谋杀了。
受害者是一位红头发的底特律人，一个有五个孩子的家庭妇女维奥拉·格雷格·柳佐。她的丈夫是卡车司机工会的代表，柳佐太太曾对他说：“我一定得参加这一次的活动。”在州议会大楼外面草地上举行的集会胜利结束后，她自愿运送亚拉巴马的进军者回家。最后一趟，她的乘客只有一个19岁的黑人理发师，他们俩正一起唱着“我们将一定胜利”时，在公路的一段寂静的地段，一辆满载三K党徒的汽车逼近并行。这群白人暴徒中的一个汽车机工，用三八口径手枪对准她的头部开了一枪。她立时歪倒，鲜血从太阳穴喷涌而出，汽车也栽进道旁沟中。吓坏了的青年理发师搭乘便车到塞尔马报警。
第三件凶杀案是一个从新罕布什尔来的主教派教会神学院学生，在一间杂货店中被枪杀。凶手是一个兼职的副警长，他申辩开枪是为了自卫，可是在这个