After President Lydon Johnson announces a massive increase in US troop levels in South Vietnam, American Catholics become more deeply engaged in debating the war, particularly in terms of morality. The radical Baltimore protest attracts attention to the Catholic antiwar movement.

The United States responds to events in Vietnam as the French War comes to an end and the Geneva Conference brings a flood of regugees to the noncommunist south of Vietnam. The US plays a signficant role in the refugee movement, making a national hero and celebrity of Catholic navy doctor Tom Dooley. The Diem regime is established in South Vietnam and survives a series of crises, leading to a deepened commitment by Washington to his survival. The Eisenhower administration is now firmly committed to the survival of an anticommunist regime in the south. Meanwhile, the Church suffers increasing persecution in North Vietnam. US Catholics develop a special concern for their coreligionists in Vietnam.

Yet the war was not over, and as Jussi Hanhimӓki notes, “the Americans left behind a situation ripe for further turmoil rather than a tentative peace.” Yet, despite confident predictions by antiwar activists that the Saigon regime would collapse as soon as the final American forces were gone, the war went on for another two years. Saigon finally fell on April 30, 1975. In the end, the Republic of Vietnam “died not from an economic collapse or internal revolution but from military defeat.”

After Johnson’s exit from the race, Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated. This and other events, such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and urban unrest, bring reflection on violence in US society, which in turn raises questions about American actions in Vietnam. The Catonsville Nine protest brings national attention to the Catholic antiwar movement while also summoning criticism and even condemnation from other sectors of the Catholic community.

The twelve months leading up to the Tet Offensive witness more defections among Catholics from the pro-intervention camp. The result is greater division within the American Catholic community. In addition, Lyndon Johnson – a great admirer of popes – finds himself in conflict with Paul VI on the issue of peace. Tet helps to drive Johnson from the race, and the Catholic Robert F. Kennedy emerges as a strong contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

This chapter begins with Wu Jijue’s early years and upbringing, including his family and his education, with an eye toward the strategies that capital elites like the Wu family used to protect their status. It then turns to his long – nearly half a century – career in the capital and the provinces. As the sovereign’s man, Wu Jijue – like all merit nobles – performed a wide variety of tasks, and this chapter offers a series of snapshots to give a sense of the range of his duties, including (1) ritual officiant, (2) envoy to princely courts, (3) regional commander, and (4) participant in imperial reviews. The following chapter traces Wu Jijue’s service as a senior administrator in key military institutions with special attention to the light it sheds on the dynasty’s regularized assessment and reward of administrative performance.

This chapter is organized into four sections. First, using Wu Shixing as a focal point, it examines the role of merit nobles as envoys of the throne in missions to provincial courts and in offerings to the souls of the imperial house’s deceased members. Second, it briefly reviews the heightened prominence of military affairs during the reign of Zhengde (1505–21), including important changes to the organization of the Capital Garrisons, which was where Wu Shixing and other merit nobles held posts. Third, it considers the military laborscape of the early sixteenth century, with particular attention to how the Ming court addressed issues of ability and difference in the suppression of a series of large-scale rebellions. Fourth, this chapter returns to debates at the Ming court surrounding the education and training of merit nobles like Wu Shixing.