( CNN ) -- The Vietnam War began in the decade before , but the conflict , and especially U.S. involvement , escalated in the 1960s . For the first time , Americans witnessed the horrors of war , played out on television screens in their living rooms . This week 's episode of `` The Sixties '' explores the war and its impact on American culture , then and now . Here are five facts from the episode that may surprise those too young to remember the Vietnam War : . 1 . U.S. involvement in Vietnam began with Eisenhower . In the late 1950s , during the Eisenhower administration , Vietnam had split into North Vietnam , which was communist , and South Vietnam . Cold War anxieties dictated that if the North Vietnamese communists prevailed , the rest of Southeast Asia would fall like dominoes . When he took office in 1961 , President John F. Kennedy vowed not to allow South Vietnam fall to communism . 2 . The United States and South Vietnam had Catholic presidents who were shot to death in November 1963 . By the early 1960s , South Vietnam 's conventionally trained army was no match for the Vietcong 's guerrilla-style tactics . In addition , South Vietnam 's Buddhist majority revolted against their president , Ngo Dinh Diem . They saw the Catholic ruler as a tyrant . The Western-educated Diem , however , wielded absolute power and rose to dictator level by the summer of 1963 . The CIA discussed toppling the regime . With U.S. knowledge , Diem was killed by South Vietnamese generals on November 2 , 1963 . Kennedy immediately regretted Diem 's death and U.S. support for the coup . Less than three weeks later , on November 22 , Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas . Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One later that day . Soon after , Johnson told a grieving nation , `` John Kennedy 's death commands what his life conveyed , that America must move forward . '' 3 . TV forever changed the way Americans viewed war . As casualties rose , the country increasingly turned against the war . The official line was that Americans were winning in Vietnam , but the evening news told a different story . `` What Vietnam did to America via television was introduce us to a new kind of America , '' said author Lawrence Wright . `` One that was not pure , one that committed the same kinds of atrocities that are always committed in war , but we had never allowed ourselves to see them . '' Reporter Morley Safer recalled the shock of witnessing Marines burn down 150 houses on the outskirts of the village of Cam Ne . An officer told the newsman that he had been ordered to level the area . Three women were wounded in the attack , one baby was killed , and four people were taken prisoner . Safer asked a soldier if he had regrets about leaving people homeless , and the soldier replied , `` You ca n't expect to do your job and feel pity for these people . '' Another soldier told Safer , `` I think it 's sad in a way , but I do n't think there 's any other way you can get around it in this kind of a war . '' Americans back home were stunned when the CBS report about the Cam Ne village hit the news . After the broadcast , Johnson reportedly called then-CBS president , Frank Stanton , and said , `` Frank , this is your President , your boys just s -- t on the flag of the United States . '' 4 . Some Americans resorted to self-mutilation to avoid the draft . When the choices were Vietnam , jail or draft-dodging by going to Canada , some young men panicked and devised ways to fail the military 's physical exam , including mutilating themselves , starving or pretending to be gay . The compulsory draft , which had been initiated during World War II , meant registration for young men was mandatory at 18 . Working-class men were more likely to get drafted over those in the middle class because college students could get deferments . In January 1965 , 5,400 young men were called for the draft . By December of that year , more than 45,000 young men were called . When the monthly draft call rose from 17,000 to 35,000 per month , young people across the nation began engaging in civil disobedience . On November 27 , 1965 , the March on Washington for Peace in Vietnam took place , attracting tens of thousands of protesters . 5 . U.S. troops endured 120-degree temperatures while sitting in swamps . Facing temperatures sometimes of up to 120 degrees F in the wet jungle terrain , soldiers regularly became afflicted with infections such as ringworm . Author and Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes recalled the difficulty of dealing with losing his friends on the battlefield . `` You 'd throw them on a chopper and that 'd be the last you 'd see of them , '' he said , `` and so you were constantly shoving it down because if you did n't you could n't function . '' Bonus : LBJ feared being remembered for his handling of Vietnam . Johnson , who made great strides with civil rights legislation at home , did not want to be remembered as the American president who lost Southeast Asia . In a taped 1965 conversation , Sen. Richard Russell told Johnson that he `` could n't have inherited a worse mess . '' `` Well , if they say I inherited it , I 'd be lucky , '' Johnson said , `` but they 'll all say I created it . Dick , the trouble is , the great trouble I 'm under , a man can fight if he can see daylight down the road somewhere , but there ai n't no daylight in Vietnam . There 's not a bit . '' Luci Baines Johnson on her father 's legacy . When CBS anchor Walter Cronkite , who was called the most trusted man in America , traveled to Vietnam in 1968 and announced it was time for America to pull out , Johnson reportedly old an aide , `` If I 've lost Cronkite , I 've lost middle America . '' Journalist Marvin Kalb noted that Johnson `` realized he was no longer in charge of the war . The war was in charge of him . '' In 1968 , Johnson announced that he would not be running for re-election .
This week 's episode of `` The Sixties '' explores the Vietnam War . U.S. involvement escalated in the '60s . In addition to being a war, it was also an economic and political disaster for America. but there ai n't no daylight in Vietnam ''