A) The 1960s are often labeled with terms such as “a generation in conflict”, “the sixties generation”,

and the “counterculture” because more than any previous generation, they rebelled against
established cultural norms. These were baby boomers who began to come of age during the 1960s,
a generation divided in half—the traditional, conservative culture and the rebellious, new anti-
establishmentarian society. The latter formed “the counterculture,” rebelling against traditional
cultural and societal norms and fighting the establishment.

B) The Tet Offensive was on one hand a military victory because they technically defeated the North
Vietnamese, destroying much of the North Vietnamese forces and fighting them back and forcing
them into retreat, making this a victory in the technical sense. However, this was a public relations
nightmare for the Johnson administration, who had previously led the American people to believe
that the North Vietnamese operation was inferior and incapable of staging such a largescale attack,
thereby understating the difficulty of the war in a dishonest manner.

C) During the Vietnam War, President Eisenhower and Kennedy had created a relatively passive
approach to the war, limiting involvement in the civil war of another nation. Eisenhower had sent
funding and advice but no troops. Kennedy, too, had sent advisors and assistance to train
Vietnamese soldiers, but under JFK’s tenure, the US Armed Forces was not actively involved in
fighting the war itself, given that JFK’s goal was not to win a proxy war, but to assist democracy. But
after Lyndon Johnson assumed the Presidency due to Kennedy’s assassination, he abruptly changed
everything. LBJ perceived the conflict as a proxy war within the Cold War rather than as a civil war,
so seeking to defeat the Communists, he sent many troops in to Vietnam in order to fight the war
after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.