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2024 IP4H1_T2W7-T2W9 Competing Narratives about the Second Indochina War

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2024 IP4H1_T2W7-T2W9 Competing Narratives about the Second Indochina War

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Learn about the life of Ho Chí Minh, Prime Minister and President (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), and how he became a communist and founded the Viet Minh, a national independence coalition.

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Ho Chi Minh | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the life of Ho Chí Minh, Prime Minister and President (1945-69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), and how he became a communist and founded the Viet Minh, a national independence coalition. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Political Philosophy of Ho Chi Minh and US Foreign Policy.

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1. Causes and Impact of the Second Indochina War (1955-1975)? (TJC IP4 History 1_Vietnam Package).docx

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2024 IP4H1 Vietnam War Inquiry Package (Sources)

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2024 IP4H1 Vietnam War Inquiry Package (Sources)

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Introductory Video: The Vietnam War (Khan Academy)

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Introductory Video: The Vietnam War (Khan Academy)

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Vietnam War | The 20th century | World history | Khan Academy

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Ngo Dinh Diem's Rise to Power | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn how the United States hoped to encourage the creation of a democratic government in South Vietnam under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the many challenges presented by this goal. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The US Becomes Further Involved in South Vietnam.

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The French Regain Control of Vietnam | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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In the fall of 1945, French troops began arriving in Saigon. They quickly established control of the city and set out to reoccupy the entire country. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Political Philosophy of Ho Chi Minh and US Foreign Policy.

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Johnson Secretly Escalates the War | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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In 1964, President Johnson authorized an increased number of military personnel in Vietnam and widened the scope of bombing, but concealed this from the American public to avoid hurting his chances in the upcoming election. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Both Sides Escalate Their Efforts.

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The Day the '60s Died was produced by Room 608, Inc. for PBS

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The Day the '60s Died was produced by Room 608, Inc. for PBS

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Learn about the tumultuous period in the United States history when the unpopular War in Vietnam sparked a wave of anti-war demonstrations at college campuses across the nation including the May 4, 1970 Kent State protests. During this demonstration, four student protestors were shot dead by national guardsman and the nation became even more divided as anti-war and pro-Nixon factions reacted to the tragic event.

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What Was the Tet Offensive?

As the celebration of the lunar new year, the Tet holiday is the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar. In previous years, the holiday had been the occasion for an informal truce in the Vietnam War between South Vietnam and North Vietnam (and their communist allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong).

In early 1968, however, the North Vietnamese military commander General Vo Nguyen Giap chose January 31 as the occasion for a coordinated offensive of surprise attacks aimed at breaking the stalemate in Vietnam. Giap, in coordination with North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, believed that the attacks would cause Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces to collapse and foment discontent and rebellion among the South Vietnamese population.

Furthermore, Giap believed the alliance between South Vietnam and the United States was unstable-he hoped the offensive would drive the final wedge between them and convince American leaders to give up their defense of South Vietnam.

Did you know? In February 1968, in the wake of the Tet Offensive, the respected TV journalist Walter Cronkite, who had been a moderate and balanced observer of the war's progress, announced that it seemed "more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." President Johnson reportedly told an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

Khe Sanh Attacked

In preparation for the planned offensive, Giap and his troops in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a series of attacks in the fall of 1967 on isolated American garrisons in the highlands of central Vietnam and along the Laotian and Cambodian frontiers.

On January 21, 1968, PAVN forces began a massive artillery bombardment of the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located on the principal road from northern South Vietnam into Laos. As President Lyndon B. Johnson and General William Westmoreland focused their attention on the defense of Khe Sanh, Giap's 70,000 poised to begin their true objective: the Tet Offensive.

Tet Offensive Begins

On the early morning of January 30, 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked 13 cities in central South Vietnam, just as many families began their observances of the lunar new year.

Twenty-four hours later, PAVN and Viet Cong forces struck a number of other targets throughout South Vietnam, including cities, towns, government buildings and U.S. or ARVN military bases throughout South Vietnam, in a total of more than 120 attacks.

In a particularly bold attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, a Viet Cong platoon got inside the complex's courtyard before U.S. forces destroyed it. The audacious attack on the U.S. Embassy, and its initial success, stunned American and international observers, who saw images of the carnage broadcast on television as it occurred.

Though Giap had succeeded in achieving surprise, his forces were spread too thin in the ambitious offensive, and U.S. and ARVN forces managed to successfully counter most of the attacks and inflict heavy Viet Cong losses.

The Battle of Hue

Particularly intense fighting took place in the city of Hue, located on the Perfume River some 50 miles south of the border between North and South Vietnam.

The Battle of Hue would rage for more than three weeks after PAVN and Viet Cong forces burst into the city on January 31, easily overwhelming the government forces there and taking control of the city's ancient citadel.

Early in their occupation of Hue, Viet Cong soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, arresting civil servants, religious leaders, teachers and other civilians connected with American forces or with the South Vietnamese regime. They executed these so-called counter-revolutionaries and buried their bodies in mass graves.

U.S. and ARVN forces discovered evidence of the massacre after they regained control of the city on February 26. In addition to more than 2,800 bodies, another 3,000 residents were missing, and the occupying forces had destroyed many of the city's grand temples, palaces and other monuments.

The toughest fighting in Hue occurred at the ancient citadel, which the North Vietnamese struggled fiercely to hold against superior U.S. firepower. In scenes of carnage recorded on film by numerous television crews on the scene, nearly 150 U.S. Marines were killed in the Battle of Hue, along with some 400 South Vietnamese troops.

On the North Vietnamese side, an estimated 5,000 soldiers were killed, most of them hit by American air and artillery strikes.

"What I saw was probably the most intense ground fighting on a sustained basis over several days of any other period during the war," Howard Prince, a U.S. Army captain, later told NPR.

"We didn't know where the enemy was, in which direction even," Mike Downs, a Marine captain, told NPR.

Impact of the Tet Offensive

Despite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure to inspire widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved to be a strategic success for the North Vietnamese.

Before Tet, Westmoreland and other representatives of the Johnson administration had been claiming that the end of the war was in sight; now, it was clear that a long struggle still lay ahead, shaking their confidence in their ability to win the Cold War. Westmoreland requested more than 200,000 new troops in order to mount an effective counteroffensive, an escalation that many Americans saw as an act of desperation.

"You had the incredible rose-colored reports coming from General William Westmoreland, who was the American commander in Vietnam," Mark Bowden, author of the book Hue 1968, told NPR. "[He was] assuring the American people that the end was near, that the enemy was really only capable of small kinds of ambushes in the far reaches of the country."

Antiwar Movement Grows

As antiwar sentiment and Vietnam War protests on the home front gathered strength, some of Johnson's advisers in the White House that had supported past military buildup in Vietnam (including soon-to-be Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford) now argued for scaling back U.S. involvement.

On March 31, a beleaguered President Johnson declared that he was limiting the bombing of North Vietnam to the area below the 20th parallel (thus sparing 90 percent of communist-held territory) and calling for negotiations to end the war. At the same time, Johnson announced he would not run for re-election that November.

Though peace talks would drag on for another five years-during which more American soldiers were killed than in the previous years of the conflict-Johnson's decision to halt escalation after the Tet Offensive marked a crucial turning point in American participation in the war in Vietnam.

Sources

Military Victory But Political Defeat: The Tet Offensive 50 Years Later. NPR.
U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
Jan 30, 1968 CE: Tet Offensive. National Geographic.
Tet Offensive at Fifty. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Tet Offensive: 1968, Definition & Date - HISTORY

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The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks against more than 100 cities and outposts in U.S.-supported South Vietnam.

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This 21-Year-Old College Student Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - History

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This 21-Year-Old College Student Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - History

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You've probably seen it: the simple black walls that emerge from the peaceful Constitution Gardens in Washington, D.C., the more than 58,000 half-inch-high names inscribed on the granite. It's the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and since 1982, it has commemorated military personnel who died or were declared missing in action during their Vietnam War service.

The moment plans for the memorial were unveiled, it was clear the structure would be immediately recognizable-and controversial. It was all the more astonishing because of its creator, an unknown, 21-year-old student with no professional experience.

Maya Lin was still an undergraduate at Yale University when she beat out over 1,400 competitors in a competition to design the memorial. A Chinese-American, Lin was born in Ohio, where her parents were professors. They escaped mainland China as young adults when it became clear that their families might be threatened by Maoist revolutionaries.

Though she majored in architecture, Lin was far from an architect. She also had little personal connection to the Vietnam. She did experience its effects, though: During the 1970s, the war indelibly impacted American life and popular culture. Television news brought the war into peoples' living rooms in unprecedented -and graphic-detail. Young adults lived in fear of the draft, and the father of one of Lin's high school friends was killed in combat.

For veterans, the toll was even greater. The war had profound psychological effects, and even 40 years later veterans suffer from PTSD, exposure to chemicals like Agent Orange and wounds they received in the war. Over 300,000 Americans were wounded during the war.

Lin was aware of those costs, and she wanted to commemorate them with a fiercely modern design. She created it as part of a college architecture class that challenged students to make an entry for the national design competition for the planned memorial.

Instead of something heroic or celebratory, Lin imagined two stark black walls that began inside the earth, then grew and grew in height until they met-like a "wound that is closed and healing." The V-shaped wall, designed to point toward the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, would be inscribed with the names of the dead in chronological order. It would exist inside a park, as inextricable from the landscape as it was from the minds of Americans.

"I just wanted to be honest with people," Lin told The Washington Post. "I didn't want to make something that said 'They've gone away for a while.' I wanted something that would just simply say 'They can never come back. They should be remembered.'"

The jury, which judged the entries blind, agreed. (Meanwhile, Lin only got a B on her assignment; she ended up beating out her professor in the competition.) But Lin's bleak concept didn't sit well with many members of the public, who expected a more imposing, complex and grandiose monument with marble, columns and statues in the vein of other buildings on the Mall, like the Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials.

A group of veterans protested the design, claiming that it was an ugly insult that portrayed the war as shameful, dishonorable and worth hiding. "For too long the veterans of that miserable conflict have borne the burden of the national ambivalence about the war," wrote one critic. "To bury them now in a black stone sarcophagus, sunk into a hollow in the earth below eye level, is like spitting on their graves."

Critics found an ally in then-radio host Patrick Buchanan and Congressman Henry Hyde. They launched a campaign to change the wall to a white color and add an eight-foot-high sculpture of soldiers to the site. The wall's detractors used everything from Lin's age to her ethnicity to her as reasons the design should be changed or abandoned altogether. Lin vehemently disagreed and accused Hyde of "drawing mustaches on other people's portraits."

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which was in charge of the final design, finally brokered a compromise. They kept Lin's design and added a sculpture that had won third place in the design competition, Frederick Elliot Hart's "Three Soldiers," nearby. A tribute to the 11,000 in uniform-the first to honor women's military service in the nation's capital-was added in 1993.

Lin did not attend the compromise meeting, and was so hurt by the controversy over her work that it took her years to discuss it publicly. In 2000, she published an essay about her design process. "It wasn't so much of an artistic dispute as a political one," she wrote. "It was extremely naïve of me to think that I could produce a neutral statement that would not become politically controversial simply because it chose not to take sides." She had always intended the memorial to be apolitical, she wrote, but she regretted the ways she had become a weapon in the fight against a memorial intended to highlight veterans.

The critics may have been louder at the time, but many Americans were appreciative of Lin's striking design. Spurred on by the activism of the wounded Vietnam veteran Jan C. Scruggs and sympathetic celebrities like Bob Hope, some 275,000 Americans, as well as businesses and veterans' groups, donated $8.4 millon so the memorial could be built. While U.S Congress had allocated three acres on the National Mall for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, funding for the project came from the private sector, not the government.

Today, the wall has become a destination for visitors to Washington D.C., even those who did not experience the war firsthand. People with friends or relatives who fought in the war search for their names and rub impressions of them onto paper. Offerings like letters, medals, photos and dog tags are left almost daily.

In 1999, Congress expanded its definition of both the length of the war and the areas it covered. As a result, the Department of Defense regularly learns of more service members who died during combat or whose service records have been re-evaluated and adds their names.

In 2010, a study even found that visiting the wall multiple times can help Vietnam veterans better cope with post-traumatic stress.

Now a world-respected artist and architect, Lin continues to design iconic structures like the Civil Rights Memorial, a fountain and sculpture in Montgomery, Alabama that is inscribed with the names of activists who died during the Civil Rights Movement. A member of the National Women's Hall of Fame, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. But her most lasting legacy will likely be the wall she designed as a 21-year-old student-and how it honors the veterans it was meant to commemorate.

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This 21-Year-Old College Student Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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You've probably seen it: the simple black walls that emerge from the peaceful Constitution Gardens in Washington, D.C., the more than 58,000 half-inch-high names inscribed on the granite. It's the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and since 1982, it has commemorated military personnel who died or were declared missing in action during their Vietnam War service.

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Ngo Dinh Diem's Regime | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the regime of South Vietnamese politician Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. By the early 1960s, the Diem regime had become known for corruption and oppression - some said it was not that different from the Communist regime in North Vietnam.

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Conflicting Visions for an Independent Vietnam and a Life of Uncertainty

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Conflicting Visions for an Independent Vietnam and a Life of Uncertainty

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Ho Chi Minh and John F. Kennedy had conflicting visions for how an independent Vietnam should be governed—it boiled down to the difference between communism and democracy.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

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Conflicting Visions for an Independent Vietnam and a Life of Uncertainty | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Ho Chi Minh and John F. Kennedy had conflicting visions for how an independent Vietnam should be governed-it boiled down to the difference between communism and democracy. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Kennedy's "Limited War" Campaign.

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Ho Chi Minh’s Quest to End French Colonial Rule

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Ho Chi Minh’s Quest to End French Colonial Rule

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By the spring of 1945, more than three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government was looking for allies behind the lines in Vietnam.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

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Ho Chi Minh's Quest to End French Colonial Rule | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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By the spring of 1945, more than three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government was looking for allies behind the lines in Vietnam. NOTE: This video is part of lesson plans titled The Political Philosophy of Ho Chi Minh and US Foreign Policy and Truman's Decision to Aid the French.

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LBJ’s 1965 Decision to Escalate the Vietnam War

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LBJ’s 1965 Decision to Escalate the Vietnam War

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In this video segment adapted from American Experience, view archival photos, newsreel footage, and interviews to examine the decision-making process that led Lyndon Johnson to order increased United States military involvement in the Vietnam War. With military and political advisers recommending massive American troop involvement over a number of years, and only one adviser urging complete withdrawal, Johnson chose to continue the commitments made by past presidents. This decision reflected Johnson's conviction that history taught the United States never to give in to aggressors.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Guiding Questions

Why did President Johnson decide to go forward with the bombing of North Vietnam and, later, the introduction of ground troops? Who and what influenced his decision making? Why do you think there was so little opposition to Johnson’s decision to escalate the war, even though many in Congress and elsewhere had deep concerns about the policy?

1. Some military advisors said that increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam would create a “quagmire.” Locate and write down a definition for this term. What did the advisors mean by using that term?

2. What political concerns influenced President Johnson to escalate the war in Vietnam? What did he stand to lose?

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(Video) “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe McDonald

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(Video) “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe McDonald

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOo13RnfaMc

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Country Joe And The Fish I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die

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 U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968 - Office of the Historian

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 U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive, 1968 - Office of the Historian

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NOTE TO READERS
"Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations" has been retired and is no longer maintained. For more information, please see the full notice.

In late January, 1968, during the lunar new year (or "Tet") holiday, North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated attack against a number of targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. The Tet Offensive played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war in Vietnam.

U.S. Captain Franklin Eller coordinates with military command during the Tet Offensive

Ho Chi Minh and leaders in Hanoi planned the Tet Offensive in the hopes of achieving a decisive victory that would end the grinding conflict that frustrated military leaders on both sides. A successful attack on major cities might force the United States to negotiate or perhaps even to withdraw. At the very least, the North Vietnamese hoped it would serve to stop the ongoing escalation of guerilla attacks and bombing in the North. Hanoi selected the Tet holiday to strike because it was traditionally a time of truce, and because Vietnamese traveling to spend the festival with their relatives provided cover for the movement of South Vietnamese National Liberation Forces (NLF) who supported the communist forces.

The first phase of the assault began on January 30 and 31, when NLF forces simultaneously attacked a number of targets, mostly populated areas and places with heavy U.S. troop presence. The strikes on the major cities of Huế and Saigon had a strong psychological impact, as they showed that the NLF troops were not as weak as the Johnson Administration had previously claimed. The NLF even managed to breach the outer walls of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Although the first phase of the offensive became the most famous, a second phase also launched simultaneous assaults on smaller cities and towns on May 4 and stretched into June. A third phase began in August and lasted six weeks. In the months that followed, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces retook the towns that the NLF had secured over the course of the offensive, but they incurred heavy military and civilian casualties in the process.

At the end of the Tet Offensive, both sides had endured losses, and both sides claimed victory. The U.S. and South Vietnamese military response almost completely eliminated the NLF forces and regained all of the lost territory. At the same time, the Tet Offensive weakened domestic support for the Johnson Administration as the vivid reporting on the Tet Offensive by the U.S. media made clear to the American public that an overall victory in Vietnam was not imminent.

The aftermath of Tet brought public discussions about de-escalation, but not before U.S. generals asked for additional troops for a wide-scale "accelerated pacification program." Believing that the U.S. was in a position to defeat the North, these military leaders sought to press for a U.S.-South Vietnam offensive. Johnson and others, however, read the situation differently. Johnson announced that the bombing of North Vietnam would cease above the 20th parallel and placed a limit on U.S. troops in South Vietnam. Johnson also attempted to set parameters for peace talks, but it would be several more years before these came to fruition. Within the United States, protests against continued involvement in Vietnam intensified. On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced that he would not seek a second term as president. The job of finding a way out of Vietnam was left to the next U.S. president, Richard Nixon.

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Milestones: 1961-1968 - Office of the Historian

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The Vietnam War 1945–1975: “Napalm Girl” - New-York Historical Society

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The Vietnam War 1945–1975: “Napalm Girl” - New-York Historical Society

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The Vietnam War 1945–1975: “Napalm Girl”

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By the end of the movie screening, create a post-it with your name as the Title and answer any ONE of the following questions:

1. What are your reflections on government deception during the Vietnam War?

2. What are the responsibilities of newspaper publishers when they are provided with secret or top-secret government information? How do you suggest that they fulfill these responsibilities? Put yourself in the position of an editor of a paper who is given an important top-secret document that will influence the public debate on an issue? What would you do?

3. What do you agree or disagree most with from the movie The Post? Explain your answer.

4. To what extent has The Post deepened your learning about the Vietnam War? Explain your answer.

5. If you could direct a movie on the Vietnam War, what aspect would you focus on and why?

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The Strategic Hamlet Program | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the Strategic Hamlet Program, which was part of the effort to win the hearts, minds, and loyalty of the Vietnamese people. By the summer of 1962, the results seemed so promising that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara made sure the Pentagon was prepared to implement a plan for a gradual withdrawal of American advisors to be completed by 1965.

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Learn about how in South Vietnam, President Kennedy felt he had to act. Advisors urged him to commit ground troops, but Kennedy refused. Instead, the President supported a new, flexible, way to confront and contain communism—"limited war."

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Growing American Presence in Vietnam | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about how in South Vietnam, President Kennedy felt he had to act. Advisors urged him to commit ground troops, but Kennedy refused. Instead, the President supported a new, flexible, way to confront and contain communism-"limited war."

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Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence, September 2, 1945

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Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence, September 2, 1945

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Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

For the people of Vietnam, who were just beginning to recover from five years of ruthless economic exploitation by the Japanese, the end of World War II promised to bring eighty years of French control to a close. As the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi), better known as the Viet Minh, Vietnamese nationalists had fought against the Japanese invaders as well as the defeated French colonial authorities. With the support of rich and poor peasants, workers, businessmen, landlords, students, and intellectuals, the Viet Minh (led by Ho Chi Minh) had expanded throughout northern Vietnam where it established new local governments, redistributed some lands, and opened granaries to alleviate the famine. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi's Ba Dinh square. The first lines of his speech repeated verbatim the famous second paragraph of America's 1776 Declaration of Independence.

All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united.

They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood.

They have fettered public opinion; they have practiced obscurantism against our people.

To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.

In the field of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone, impoverished our people, and devastated our land.

They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issuing of bank-notes and the export trade.

They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty.

They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie; they have mercilessly exploited our workers.

In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists violated Indochina's territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them.

Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased. The result was that from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, from Quang Tri province to the North of Vietnam, more than two million of our fellow-citizens died from starvation. On March 9, the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French colonialists either fled or surrendered showing that not only were they incapable of "protecting" us, but that, in the span of five years, they had twice sold our country to the Japanese.

On several occasions before March 9, the Vietminh League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists so intensified their terrorist activities against the Vietminh members that before fleeing they massacred a great number of our political prisoners detained at Yen Bay and Caobang.

Notwithstanding all this, our fellow-citizens have always manifested toward the French a tolerant and humane attitude. Even after the Japanese putsch of March 1945, the Vietminh League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from Japanese jails, and protected French lives and property.

From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession.

After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The truth is that we have wrested our independence from the Japanese and not from the French.

The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character with France; we repeal all the international obligation that France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Vietnam and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland.

The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country.

We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Tehran and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam.

A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eight years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country-and in fact is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.

Source: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works Vol. 3, (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-62), 17-21.

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For the people of Vietnam, who were just beginning to recover from five years of ruthless economic exploitation by the Japanese, the end of World War II promised to bring eighty years of French control to a close.

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Agent Orange and the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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Agent Orange and the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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Agent Orange was the name of a potent herbicide that was used by United States troops during the Vietnam War to defoliate trees in the jungle. The chemical has since been determined to cause various diseases, including cancer. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage, and a first-person account of a veteran and his experiences with Agent Orange.

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Agent Orange and the Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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Agent Orange was the name of a potent herbicide that was used by United States troops during the Vietnam War to defoliate trees in the jungle. The chemical has since been determined to cause various diseases, including cancer. This segment from Iowa Public Television’s Iowans Remember Vietnam docume…

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(Lyrics) “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe McDonald (Lyrics)

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(Lyrics) “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe McDonald (Lyrics)

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De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization - Encyclopedia Britannica

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De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization - Encyclopedia Britannica

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Vietnam War - The Nixon administration and the Vietnam War

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Nixon and his close adviser on foreign affairs, Henry A. Kissinger, recognized that the United States could not win a military victory in Vietnam but insisted that the war could be ended only by an “honourable” settlement that would afford South Vietnam a reasonable chance of survival.

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Environmental Consequences of the Second Indochina War: A Case Study - Arthur H. Westing

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Environmental Consequences of the Second Indochina War: A Case Study - Arthur H. Westing

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You need to be able to access JSTOR to read this.

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Environmental Consequences of the Second Indochina War: A Case Study on JSTOR

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This is a preview. Log in through your library. Journal Information AMBIO, a multidisciplinary English language journal, is indexed in more than 40 international databases, and is distributed in more than 100 countries worldwide. AMBIO is published in eight (8) issues per year.

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What Were the Pentagon Papers? | History

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South Vietnam: A Crumbling and Unstable Government

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South Vietnam: A Crumbling and Unstable Government

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In early November 1963, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup. Coordinated attacks by the Viet Cong swept the countryside and the unstable government in Saigon was hit by more coups.

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South Vietnam: A Crumbling and Unstable Government | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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In early November 1963, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup. Coordinated attacks by the Viet Cong swept the countryside and the unstable government in Saigon was hit by more coups. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Fallout after the Diem Coup.

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How Young (US) Soldiers Saw Life in Wartime Vietnam (Published 2016)

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How Young (US) Soldiers Saw Life in Wartime Vietnam (Published 2016)

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How Young Soldiers Saw Life in Wartime Vietnam (Published 2016)

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A new exhibit of photos made by young soldiers in war zones features poignant images of daily life in a distant, and dangerous, land.

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The Path Which Led Me To Leninism - Ho Chi Minh

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The Path Which Led Me To Leninism - Ho Chi Minh

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Ho Chi Minh

First Published: In the Soviet review Problems of the East on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of V.I. Lenin's birthday, April 1960
Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 4
Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House
Transcription/Markup: Roland Ferguson and Christian Liebl
Online Version: Ho Chi Minh Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003

After World War I, I made my living in Paris, now as a retoucher at a photographer's, now as painter of "Chinese antiquities" (made in France!). I would distribute leaflets denouncing the crimes committed by the French colonialists in Viet Nam.

At that time, I supported the October Revolution only instinctively, not yet grasping all its historic importance. I loved and admired Lenin because he was a great patriot who liberated his compatriots; until then, I had read none of his books.

The reason for my joining the French Socialist Party was that these "ladies and gentlemen" - as I called my comrades at that moment - has shown their sympathy towards me, towards the struggle of the oppressed peoples. But I understood neither what was a party, a trade-union, nor what was socialism nor communism.

Heated discussions were then taking place in the branches of the Socialist Party, about the question whether the Socialist Party should remain in the Second International, should a Second and a half International be founded or should the Socialist Party join Lenin's Third International? I attended the meetings regularly, twice or thrice a week and attentively listened to the discussion. First, I could not understand thoroughly. Why were the discussions so heated? Either with the Second, Second and a half or Third International, the revolution could be waged. What was the use of arguing then? As for the First International, what had become of it?

What I wanted most to know - and this precisely was not debated in the meetings - was: which International sides with the peoples of colonial countries?

I raised this question - the most important in my opinion - in a meeting. Some comrades answered: It is the Third, not the Second International. And a comrade gave me Lenin's "Thesis on the national and colonial questions" published by l'Humanite to read.

There were political terms difficult to understand in this thesis. But by dint of reading it again and again, finally I could grasp the main part of it. What emotion, enthusiasm, clear-sightedness and confidence it instilled into me! I was overjoyed to tears. Though sitting alone in my room, I shouted out aloud as if addressing large crowds: "Dear martyrs compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to our liberation!"

After then, I had entire confidence in Lenin, in the Third International.

Formerly, during the meetings of the Party branch, I only listened to the discussion; I had a vague belief that all were logical, and could not differentiate as to who were right and who were wrong. But from then on, I also plunged into the debates and discussed with fervour. Though I was still lacking French words to express all my thoughts, I smashed the allegations attacking Lenin and the Third International with no less vigour. My only argument was: "If you do not condemn colonialism, if you do not side with the colonial people, what kind of revolution are you waging?"

Not only did I take part in the meetings of my own Party branch, but I also went to other Party branches to lay down "my position". Now I must tell again that Comrades Marcel Cachin, Vaillant Couturier, Monmousseau and many others helped me to broaden my knowledge. Finally, at the Tours Congress, I voted with them for our joining the Third International.

At first, patriotism, not yet communism, led me to have confidence in Lenin, in the Third International. Step by step, along the struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in practical activities, I gradually came upon the fact that only socialism and communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world from slavery.

There is a legend, in our country as well as in China, on the miraculous "Book of the Wise". When facing great difficulties, one opens it and finds a way out. Leninism is not only a miraculous "book of the wise", a compass for us Vietnamese revolutionaries and people: it is also the radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism.

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First Published: In the Soviet review Problems of the East on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of V.I. Lenin's birthday, April 1960 Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol.

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Not Their Father's War: The Vietnam War Is Unlike WWII and Korea

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Not Their Father's War: The Vietnam War Is Unlike WWII and Korea

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As they continued to escalate the war, President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara were frustrated that American Commanders in Vietnam, who had come of age during World War II and Korea, were having a hard time making sense of what was happening on the ground. Further, Johnson had tried to forge an international coalition to defend South Vietnam, but America's most important allies – Britain, France, and Canada – refused to take part and were calling instead for peace talks. As 1966 began, nearly 200,000 American soldiers were stationed in Vietnam, and more were on the way. Those soldiers quickly discovered that the war they were being asked to fight was not their father's war.

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Not Their Father's War: The Vietnam War Is Unlike WWII and Korea | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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As they continued to escalate the war, President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara were frustrated that American Commanders in Vietnam, who had come of age during World War II and Korea, were having a hard time making sense of what was happening on the ground.

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What Are We Fightin' For? Contrasting Viewpoints on the Vietnam War | Media Gallery

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What Are We Fightin' For? Contrasting Viewpoints on the Vietnam War | Media Gallery

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Access this page and watch the videos.

Learn about the wide variety of reasons that Americans chose to fight in the Vietnam war, including men who supported and opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam, in Lesson Three of Vietnam War Oral History Lesson Plans.

Joseph Rank attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana during the Vietnam War before he joined the Navy. While in college, he had a roommate with a very different view of the Vietnam conflict, yet they both remained friends. Paul Wisovaty lived in Taylorville, Illinois and believed the United States was fighting to contain communism, but ended up fighting for his friends during his time in Vietnam. Richard Hertel of Milladore, Wisconsin says he was trained to kill efficiently and was given no information about the politics of the war, while Robert Ritter of Monticello, Illinois believed in the American cause.

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What Are We Fightin' For? Contrasting Viewpoints on the Vietnam War | Media Gallery | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the wide variety of reasons that Americans chose to fight in the Vietnam war, including men who supported and opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam, in Lesson Three of Vietnam War Oral History Lesson Plans. Joseph Rank attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana during the Vietnam War before he joined the Navy.

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Vietnamization was a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep rifts in American society. President Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam's armed forces and withdrawing U.S. troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to act in their own defense against a North Vietnamese takeover and allow the United States to leave Vietnam with its honor intact. But the Vietnamization process was deeply flawed from the beginning.

Nixon and the Vietnam War

When President Richard M. Nixon took office in January 1969, the U.S. had been sending combat troops to fight in Vietnam since 1965, and some 31,000 American lives had been lost.

However, the full-scale U.S. military commitment seemingly had made little progress in defeating communist North Vietnam and its Viet Cong guerrilla allies. The enemy forces had absorbed tremendous punishment but remained determined to overthrow the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam and reunite the country under Communist rule.

Facing intense pressure from a war-weary public and widespread Vietnam War protests, Nixon sought a way to disengage American combat forces without appearing to abandon South Vietnam to the communists. He rejected calls from the anti-war movement to order an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and publicly expressed a desire to achieve "peace with honor" in Vietnam.

Toward this end, Nixon and his advisors-including Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird-developed a new strategy they called Vietnamization. The Vietnamization plan provided for a gradual, phased withdrawal of American combat forces, combined with an expanded effort to train and equip South Vietnam to take over military responsibility for its own defense.

The president announced his Vietnamization strategy to the American people in a nationally televised speech on November 3, 1969. He emphasized how his approach contrasted with the "Americanization" of the war that had taken place under his predecessor, President Lyndon B. Johnson.

"The defense of freedom is everybody's business, not just America's business. And it is particularly the responsibility of the people whose freedom is threatened," Nixon explained in his speech. "In the previous administration, we Americanized the war in Vietnam. In this administration, we are Vietnamizing the search for peace."

Did you know? Democrat Hillary Clinton (1947-) did a college internship with Melvin Laird, creator of Nixon's Vietnamization strategy. "I've always kidded Bill Clinton that Hillary went wrong after meeting him," Laird said in a 2008 Reader's Digest interview. "She was a good Republican when she worked for me."

Invasion of Cambodia

In addition to U.S. troop withdrawals and efforts to prepare and modernize the South Vietnamese army, Nixon's Vietnamization strategy also featured programs designed to strengthen the South Vietnamese government and expand its political base in rural areas. He offered U.S. assistance to help South Vietnamese officials organize local elections and implement social reforms and economic development initiatives.

At the same time that the Vietnamization plan was put in place, however, the Nixon administration also escalated U.S. military activity in other parts of Southeast Asia. In April 1970, for example, the president secretly authorized bombing campaigns and a ground invasion of Cambodia, a neutral country.

When his expansion of the war came to public attention, Nixon asserted that the incursion into Cambodia was necessary to keep pressure on the enemy until the Vietnamization strategy took root. The president's actions nonetheless came under harsh criticism and prompted massive anti-war demonstrations across America.

Nixon gradually reduced the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam in several stages, from a peak of 549,000 in 1969 to 69,000 in 1972. However, during this same period, North Vietnamese leaders launched several offensives that tested the president's resolve and cast doubt on his Vietnamization strategy.

The March 1972 Easter Offensive, for instance, highlighted the poor performance of the South Vietnamese army and its heavy reliance on U.S. air power to repel the Communist attack.

Effectiveness of Vietnamization

In January 1973, the Nixon administration negotiated a peace agreement with North Vietnamese leaders. Under the terms of the settlement, the U.S. agreed to withdraw its remaining troops within 60 days in exchange for an immediate cease-fire, the return of American prisoners of war, and North Vietnam's promise to recognize the legitimacy of South Vietnam's government and submit future disputes to an international commission.

In his final report before leaving office that month, Laird declared the Vietnamization process completed: "As a consequence of the success of the military aspects of Vietnamization, the South Vietnamese people today, in my view, are fully capable of providing for their own in-country security against the North Vietnamese."

However, later events proved that the Laird's confidence was completely unfounded, as South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese communist forces in 1975.

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Vietnamization was a strategy that aimed to reduce American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep rifts in American society. President Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam's armed forces and withdrawing U.S.

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The Vietnam War and Some Aspects of Its Economic Impact on Asian Countries - Seiji Naya

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The Vietnam War and Some Aspects of Its Economic Impact on Asian Countries - Seiji Naya

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HISTORICAL ACCURACY

Here’s some of what’s accurate about the movie, and what’s not.

In the movie, a Post journalist ferrets out the Pentagon Papers. But firsthand accounts credit the leakers with contacting the newspaper. The leakers contacted many papers figuring that the government couldn’t restrain them all.

The film shows President Nixon’s furious reaction to the Pentagon Papers’ release. However, Nixon was intially unfazed because the Papers tarnished his Democratic predecessors.

In a pivotal scene, Robert McNamara tries to stop the Post from running the Papers. In reality, he supported publication.

In the film, Bradlee regrets having kept a cozy relationship with Kennedy while covering him as a journalist. But the real Bradlee believed he did a prudent job straddling both worlds.

In the film, the Post’s courageous decision to print inspires other newspapers to follow suit. In reality, other newspapers were hungry to get in on the action and published the Pentagon Papers based on the leakers’ distribution plan.

President Nixon did not ban the Washington Post from the White House after the newspaper published the Pentagon Papers.

The Post’s and Katherine Graham’s vulnerability to the companies handling the stock offering is correct. Ketherine Graham said, “We had announced our plans and not sold the stock, so we were particularly liable to any kind of criminal prosecution from the government.”

The meeting in which Graham said, “Go go ahead, go ahead. Let’s go. Let’s publish.” occurred during the retirement party for an employee of the paper.

There was conflict over the Style Section which Bradlee had instituted ove the protests of some at the paper.

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President Kennedy instructed Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador to South Vietnam, to tell the renegade generals that, while the United States did not wish to stimulate a coup, it would not thwart one, either. The generals proceeded with their plans and on November 1, 1963, troops loyal to them seized key installations in Saigon. Diem and Nhu surrendered the next day and were murdered shortly thereafter.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

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South Vietnam: Diem and Nhu | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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President Kennedy instructed Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador to South Vietnam, to tell the renegade generals that, while the United States did not wish to stimulate a coup, it would not thwart one, either. The generals proceeded with their plans and on November 1, 1963, troops loyal to them seized key installations in Saigon.

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Chinese and Soviet Involvement in Vietnam - Alpha History

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Chinese and Soviet Involvement in Vietnam - Alpha History

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Chinese and Soviet involvement in Vietnam

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Across the border to the north, Chinese and Soviet involvement in Vietnam was also building. Their support strengthened North Vietnam and the Viet Cong.

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"The Imperialist Aggressors Can Never Enslave The Heroic Vietnamese People" - Ho Chi Minh

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"The Imperialist Aggressors Can Never Enslave The Heroic Vietnamese People" - Ho Chi Minh

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Ho Chi Minh

Written: January, 1952
First Published: In the Review For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy on April 4, 1952 under pen name Din
Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 3
Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House
Transcription/Markup: Roland Ferguson and Christian Liebl
Online Version: Ho Chi Minh Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003

I avail myself of the short New Year holiday to write these lines.

More fortunate than other peoples, we, the Vietnamese people, like our friends, the Chinese and the Korean peoples, enjoy two New Year festivals every year. One New Year Day is celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar and falls on the First of January. On that day, which is the official New Year Day, only government offices send greetings to one another. Another New Year Day, the Tet, is observed according to the lunar calendar, and, this year, falls on a day of the closing week of January. This traditional New Year Day, celebrated by the people, usually lasts from three to seven days in peacetime.

In our country Spring begins in the first days of January. At present, a splendid springtime prevails everywhere. The radiant sunbeams bring with them a merry and healthy life. Like an immense green carpet, the yoang rice plants cover the fields, heralding a coming bumper harvest. The birds warble merrily in evergreen bushes. Here winter lasts only a few days and rarely the thermometer falls to 10c above zero. As far as snow is concerned, generally speaking, it is unknown for all our people.

Before during the Tet festival, pictures and greetings written on red paper could be seen stuck at entrance doors of palaces as well as tiny thatched huts. Today these greetings and pictures are replaced by slogans urging struggle and labour, such as "Intensify the emulation movement for armed struggle, production and economic development!", "The war of Resistance will win!", "Combat bureaucracy, corruption and waste!", "The national construction will certainly be crowned with success"!

During the Tet festival, people are clad in their most beautiful garments. In every family the most delicious foods are prepared. Religious services are performed in front of the ancestral altars. Visits are paid between kith and kin to exchange greetings. Grown-ups give gifts to children; civilians send presents to soldiers... In short, it can be said that this is a spring festival.

Before telling you the situation of Viet Nam, may I send you and all our comrades my warmest greetings!

COLLUSION BETWEEN THE AGGRESSORS

Let us review Viet Nam's situation in 1951.

After their defeat in the China-Viet Nam border campaign in October 1950 - the greatest reverse they had ever suffered in the whole history of their colonial wars, which involved for them the loss of five provinces at one time - Cao Bang, Lang Son, Lao Cat, Thai Nguyen and Hoa Binh - the French colonialists began the year 1951 with the despatch of General de Lattre de Tassigny to Viet Nam.

They resorted to total war. Their manoeuvre was to consolidate the Bao Dai puppet government, organise puppet troops and redouble spying activities. They set up no man's lands of from 5 to 10 kilometres wide around areas under their control and strengthened the Red River delta by a network of 2,300 bunkers. They stepped up mopping-up operations in our rear, applied the policy of annihilation and wholesale destruction of our manpower and potential resources by killing our compatriots, devastating our countryside, burning our ricefields, etc... In a word, they followed the policy of "using Vietnamese to fight Vietnamese and nursing the war by means of warfare".

It is on orders and with the assistance of their masters, the American interventionists, that the French colonialists performed the above-mentioned deeds.

Among the first Americans now living in Viet Nam (of course in areas under French control) there are a fairly noted spy, Donald Heat, ambassador accredited to the puppet government and a general, head of the U. S. military mission.

In September 1951, de Lattre de Tassigny went to Washington to make his report and beg for aid.

In October, General Collins, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, came to Viet Nam to inspect the French Expeditionary Corps and puppet troops.

In order to show their American masters that U.S. aid is used in a worthwhile manner at present as well as in the future, in November, de Lattre de Tassigny attacked the chief town of Hoa Binh province. The result of this "shooting offensive" which the reactionary press in France and in the world commented on uproariously, was that the Viet Nam People's Army held the overwhelming majority of enemy troops tightly between two prongs and annihilated them. But this did not prevent de Lattre de Tassigny and his henchmen from hullabalooing that they had carried the day!

At the very beginning of the war, the Americans supplied France with money and armaments. To take an example, 85 percent of weapons, war materials and even canned food captured by our troops were labelled "made in U.S.A.". This aid had been stepped up all the more rapidly since June 1950 when the U.S.A. began interfering in Korea. American aid to the French invaders consisted in airplanes, boats, trucks, military outfits, napalm bombs, etc.

Meanwhile, the Americans compelled the French colonialists to step up the organisation of four divisions of puppet troops with each party footing half the bill. Of course, this collusion between the French and American aggressors and the puppet clique was fraught with contradictions and contentions.

The French colonialists are now landed in a dilemma: either they receive U.S. aid and be then replaced by their American "allies", or they receive nothing, and be then defeated by the Vietnamese people. To organise the puppet army by means of pressganging the youth in areas under their control would be tantamount to swallowing a bomb when one is hungry: a day will come when at last the bomb bursts inside. However not to organise the army on this basis would mean instantaneous death for the enemy because even the French strategists have to admit that the French Expeditionary Corps grows thinner and thinner and is on the verge of collapse.

Furthermore, U.S. aid is paid for at a very high price. In the enemy held areas, French capitalism is swept aside by American capitalism. American concerns like the Petroleum Oil Corporation, the Caltex Oil Corporation, the Bethlem Steel Corporation, the Florid Phosphate Corporation and others, monopolise rubber, ores, and other natural resources of our country. U.S. goods swamp the market. The French reactionary press, especially Le Monde is compelled to acknowledge sadly that French capitalism is now giving way to U.S. capitalism.

The U.S. interventionists have nurtured the French aggressors and the Vietnamese puppets, but the Vietnamese people do not let anybody delude and enslave them.

People's China is our close neighbour. Her brilliant example gives us a great impetus. Not long ago the Chinese people defeated the U.S. imperialists and won an historical victory. The execrated Chiang Kai-shek was swept from the Chinese mainland, though he is more cunning than the placeman Bao Dai. Can the U.S. interventionists, who were drummed out of China and are now suffering heavy defeats in Korea, conquer Viet Nam? Of course, not!

ATROCIOUS CRIMES OF THE U. S. INTERVENTIONISTS

Defeated on the battlefield, the French colonialists retaliated upon unarmed people and committed abominable crimes. Hereunder are a few examples:

As everywhere in the enemy controlled areas, on October 15, 1951 at Ha Dong, the French soldiers raided the youths even in the streets and pressganged them into the puppet army. And there as everywhere, the people protested against such acts. Three young girls stood in a line across the street in front of the trucks packed with the captured youngsters to prevent them from being sent to concentration camps. These courageous acts were worthy of heroine Raymonde Dien's The French colonialists revved the engines and, in a split second, our three young patriots were run over.

In October 1951, the invaders staged a large-scale raid in Thai Binh province. They captured more than 16,000 people - most of whom were old people, women and children - and penned them in a foot-ball field surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers and dogs.

For four days, the captives were exposed in the sun and rain, ankle-deep in mud. They received no food and no drinking water. Over 300 of them died of exhaustion and disease.

The relatives and friends who brought food to the captives were roughly manhandled, and the food was thrown into the mud and trampled under foot. Mr. Phac, a surgeon of 70, who tried to save the victims' lives was shot dead on the spot as also were a number of pregnant women.

Incensed by these barbarous acts, the townsfolk staged. a strike and sought ways and means to help the internees. The determination of the population compelled the French colonialists to let the food in, but on order of Colonel Charton of the French Expeditionary Corps, it was declared a donation from the U.S.A.

On October 38, 1951, Le Van Lam, 27, from Ha Coi, a puppet soldier who had been saved from drowning by an old fisherman at Do Son, said after he had come to: "On October 37, the French embarked me as well as one hundred other wounded men on board a steamer, saying they would send us to Saigon for medical attention. In the night, when the ship was in the offing, they threw us one by one into the water. Fortunately, I managed to snatch at a piece of floating wood and swam landward. I was unconscious when I was saved ".

Hereunder is the confession of Chaubert, a French captain captured at Tu Ky on November 35, 1951, "The French High Command gave us an order to destroy everything in order to transform this region into a desert", he said. "This order was observed to the letter. Houses were burnt down. Animals and poultry were killed. Havoc was wrought to gardens and plants and trees hewn down. Ricefields and crops were set afire. Many days on end, black smoke covered the sky and there was not a single soul alive, except the French soldiers. The conflagration lasted until November 25, when the Viet Nam People's Army unexpectedly attacked and annihilated our unit."

The examples quoted above can be counted by the thousands and are sufficient proof to substantiate the essence of the French colonialists' and U.S. interventionists' "civilisation".

ACHIEVEMENTS RECORDED BY THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM

In 1951, the Vietnamese people made a big stride forward. In the political field, the founding of the Viet Nam Workers' Party, the amalgamation of the Viet Minh and Lien Viet, the setting up of the Committee of action for Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, greatly consolidated the unity and enhanced the confidence of the Vietnamese people; they strengthened the alliance between the three brother countries in their struggle against the common enemies - the French colonialists and U.S. interventionists - in order to realise their common goal, i.e. national independence.

So we were able to frustrate the enemy's policy of "Divide and rule".

In the economic field, the National Bank of Viet Nam has been established, our finance is placed under centralised and unified supervision, and communications have been re-organised.

Formerly we demolished roads to check the enemy's advance; at present we repair them to drive the enemy to an early defeat. Formerly we did our utmost to sabotage roads, now we encounter great difficulties in mending them, but have managed to complete our work quite rapidly. This is a hard job, especially when we lack machines. However, thanks to the enthusiasm and sacrificing spirit of our people, this work was carried through. To avoid enemy air raids, it was done at night by workers even knee deep in water. In the bright torch light, hundreds of men, women and young people dug the earth to fill the gaps in the roads, broke stones, felled trees and built bridges. As in any other work, here the workers' enthusiasm was roused by emulation drives. I am sure that you would be astonished to see teams of old volunteers from 60 to 80 years competing with teams of young workers.

Here it must be pointed out that in the free zone, most of the work is done at night - children go to school, housewives go to market and guerillas go to attack the enemy...

Great successes have been achieved in the elaboration of the agricultural tax. Formerly the peasants were compelled to pay taxes of various kinds and make many other contributions; nowadays, they have only to pay a uniform tax in kind. Households whose production does not exceed 60 kilogrammes of paddy per year are exempt from tax. Households who harvest greater quantities have to pay a graduated tax. Generally speaking, the taxes to be paid do not exceed 20 per cent of the total value of the annual production. To collect taxes in time, the Party, the National United Front and the Government have mobilised a great number of cadres to examine the new tax from the political and technical points of view. After their study, these cadres go to the countryside and hold talks and meetings to exchange views with the peasants and explain to them the new taxation policy.

After this preparatory period, the peasants of both sexes appoint a committee composed of representatives of the administration and various people's organisations whose duty it is to estimate the production of each household and fix the rate to be paid after approval by a Congress in which all the peasants take part.

This reform was welcomed by the population who enthusiastically took part in this tax collection.

Agricultural tax has been established simultaneously with the movement for increased production. At present the Government possesses adequate stocks of foodstuffs to cater for the soldiers and workers.

So we have thwarted the enemy's cunning plot of blockading us to reduce us to starvation.

As far as mass education is concerned, in 1951 we scored worthwhile results. Though great difficulties were created by the war, such as frequent changes of school site, schooling at night time, lack of school requisites, the number of schools rose from 2,712 in 1950 to 3,591 in 1951 with an attendance of 293,256 and 411,038 pupils respectively.

In south Viet Nam the situation is all the more ticklish. There, the free zones exist everywhere, but they are not safe. Children go to their class-rooms - in fact there are only single class-rooms and not schools in the strict meaning of this word - with the same vigilance as their fathers and brothers display in guerilla fighting. Despite that, at present there are in south Viet Nam 3,332 classrooms attended by 111,700 pupils.

The liquidation of illiteracy is actively undertaken. In the first half of 1951, there were in zone III, zone V and Viet Bac zone, 324,000 people who were freed from illiteracy and 350,000 others who began learning. During the same period illiteracy was wiped out in 53 villages and 3 districts (one district is composed of from 5 to 10 villages).

People's organisations opened 837 classes attended by 9,800 public employees.

The Party, National United Front, Government, the General Confederation of Labour and the Army have periodically opened short-term political training courses (about one week).

In short, great efforts are being made in mass education.

DEVELOPMENT AND STRENGTHENING OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

In 1951, the relations between the Vietnamese people and foreign countries were developed and strengthened.

For the first time, in 1951, various delegations of the Vietnamese people visited great People's China and heroic Korea. Through these visits, the age-old friendship between our three countries has been strengthened.

The delegation of the Vietnamese youth to the Youth Festival in Berlin, the delegation of the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour to the Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions in Warsaw and the delegation to the World Peace Conference in Vienna, have returned to Viet Nam, filled with confidence and enthusiasm. At various meetings and in the press, members of these delegations told the Vietnamese people the tremendous progress they had witnessed in the people's democracies and the warm friendship shown by the brother countries to the Vietnamese people who are struggling for national independence and freedom.

Those of the delegates who had the chance of visiting the Soviet Union are overjoyed because they can tell us of the great triumph of socialism and the evergrowing happiness enjoyed by the Soviet people.

Upon returning from the Youth Festival, Truong Thi Xin, a young woman worker said, "The youth in the Soviet Union received us most affectionately during our stay in their great country."

The talks held by these delegates are living lessons most useful for the inculcation of internationalism.

"Peace in Viet Nam!", "Withdraw foreign troops from Viet Nam!", were the claims formulated in a resolution passed by the plenary session of the World Peace Council held in Vienna, claims which have given great enthusiasm to the Vietnamese people.

THE INTERVENTIONISTS SUFFER DEFEAT AFTER DEFEAT

Last year was a year of brilliant victories for our People's Army, and a year of heavy defeats and losses in men and materials for the invaders. According to incomplete figures and excluding the China-Viet Nam border campaign in October 1950, during which the French army lost more than 7,000 men (annihilated and captured) in 1951 the enemy lost 37,700 officers and men, (P. O. W.s included). He will never forget the Vinh Yen - Phuc Yen campaign (north Viet Nam) in January last year during which he received a deadly blow from the Viet Nam people's Army. He will not forget the strategic points of Quang Yen (road No 18), Ninh Binh, Phu Ly and Nghia Lo in north Viet Nam where our valiant fighters crushed him to pieces in March, May, June and September. But the most striking battle was waged in December in the Hoa Binh region which left to the enemy no more than 8,000 men alive. Our heroic militiamen and guerillas who operate in the north, centre and south of Viet Nam have caused heavy losses to the enemy. From the outbreak of the war of aggression unleashed by the French, their Expeditionary Corps has lost 170,000 men (in killed, wounded and captured), while the Vietnamese regular army and guerilla units have grown stronger and stronger.

Guerilla warfare is now being intensified and expanded in the enemy controlled areas, especially in the Red River delta. Our guerillas are particularly active in the provinces of Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Ha Dong, Hung Yen, and Thai Binh. Hereunder are some facts.

Early in October 1951, 14 enemy regiments carried out a large scale raid in the districts of Duyen Ha, Hung Nhan, and Tien Hung. From October 1 to October 4, our guerillas waged violent battles. In three points (Cong Ho, An My and An Binh) 500 French soldiers were annihilated. All these victories were due to the heroism of our soldiers and guerillas and to the sacrifice of the entire Vietnamese people. In each campaign tens of thousands of voluntary workers of both sexes helped the armymen. As a rule they worked in very hard conditions, in pelting rain, on muddy and steep mountain tracks, etc.

Thousands of patriots have left the enemy controlled areas to take part in the above-mentioned task. It is wortli mentioning here that the youth have set up many shock units.

The following example will illustrate the great patriotism and initiative of our people:

In the Hoa Binh campaign, our army had to cross the Lo river. French troops were stationed along the right bank, while their boats continually patrolled the river. In these conditions how could the crossing be made without the enemy noticing it?

But the local population managed to find a way. In a locality some dozen kilometres from the Lo river, they called in a great number of craft and through roundabout paths, carried them to the spot assigned at scheduled time. As soon as our troops had crossed the river, the inhabitants carried their craft back so as to keep secrecy and avoid enemy air raids.

Here I wish to speak of the women who sponsor the soldiers. Most of them are old peasants; many have grandchildren. They help our officers and men and nurse the wounded as if they were their own sons. Like "goddesses protecting our lives" they take care of those of our fighters who work in enemy controlled areas. Their deeds are highly esteemed and appreciated.

As is said above, the French colonialists are compelled to set up puppet troops in order to offset the losses suffered by the French Expeditionary Corps. But this is a dangerous method for the enemy.

First, everywhere in the enemy-held areas, the population struggles against the enemy raiding and coercing the youth into their army.

Second, the people so mobilised have resorted to actions of sabotage. Take an example: Once, the Quisling governor of Tonking, styling himself "elder of the youth" paid a visit to the officers' training school of second degree at Nam Dinh. On hearing this news, the cadets prepared in his honour a "dignified" reception by writing on the school wall the slogans "Down with Bao Dai!", "Down with the puppet clique!", while Bao Dai's name was given to the lavatory.

During this visit, the cadets made so much noise that the governor was unable to speak. They put to him such a question as, "Dear elder! Why do you want to use us as cannon fodder for the French colonialists?" A group of cadets contemplated giving him a thrashing, but, he managed to take French leave like a piteous dog.

Many units of the puppet army secretly sent letters to President Ho Chi Minh, saying they were waiting for a propitious occasion to "pass over to the side of the Fatherland" and they were ready to "carry out any orders issued by the Resistance, despite the danger they might encounter."

COMPLETE FAILURE OF THE FRENCH COLONIALISTS

As soon as de Lattre de Tassigny set foot in Viet Nam early in 1951, he boasted of the eventual victories of the French troops.

After his defeat and disillusion at the beginning of 1952, he realised that he would soon meet with complete failure.

The fate of the French colonialists' policy brought misgivings to the most reactionary circles in France.

In the paper Information issued on October 22, 1951, Daladier one of the 'criminals' in the Munich affair, wrote, "Delving into the real reason of our desperate financial situation, we shall see that one of the underlying causes was lack of ripe consideration of our policy over Indo-China... In 1951, an expenditure of as much as 330,000 million francs was officially reserved for the Indo- Chinese budget. Due to the constant rise in the prices of commodities and increase in the establishments of the French Expeditionary Corps which number 180,000 at present, it should be expected that in 1952 this expenditure will increase by 100,000 million francs. We have the impression that the war in Indo-China has caused exceedingly grave danger to our financial as well as military situation... It is impossible to foresee a rapid victory in a war which has lasted five years and is in many ways reminiscent of the war unleashed by Napoleon against Spain and the expedition against Mexico during the Second Empire.

In its issue of December 13, 1951, the paper Intransigeant wrote, "France is paralysed by the war in Indo-China. We have gradually lost the initiative of operation because our main forces are now pinned down in the plains of north Viet Nam... In 1951, 330,000 million francs were earmarked for the military budget of Indo-China, while according to the official figures, our expenditure amounted to over 350,000 million. A credit of 380,000 million francs will be allotted to the 1952 budget but in all probability the mark of 500,000 million will be reached. Such is the truth... Whenever France tried to take some action, well, she immediately realised that she was paralysed by the war in Indo-China."

In its number of December 16, 1951, Franc Tireur wrote, "General Vo Nguyen Giap's battalions, which are said to have been annihilated and to have a shattered morale, are now launching counter-offensives in the Hanoi region... It is more and more obvious that the policy we have followed up to the present time, has failed. Today it is clear that it has met with complete failure."

Hereunder is an excerpt from a letter sent to his colleagues by captain Gazignoff, of the French Expeditionary Corps, captured by us on January 7, 1952 in the Hoa Binh battle. "Taken prisoner a few days ago, I am very astonished at the kind and correct attitude of the Viet Nam People's army men towards me... The Vietnamese troops will certainly win final victory, because they struggle for a noble ideal, a common cause, and are swayed by a self-imposed discipline. It is as clear as daylight that the Viet Nam People's Army will crush the French Expeditionary Corps, but it is ready to receive any of us who will pass over to its side.

"French officers, non-commissioned officers and men who want to go over to the Viet Nam People's Army will be considered as friends and will be set free."

THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE WILL WIN

In 1952, Viet Nam will embark on a programme which includes the following points:

- To buckle down to production work and consolidate the national economy,

- To struggle and annihilate the enemy's forces. To intensify guerilla warfare,

- To expose by all means the enemy's policy of "using the Vietnamese to fight the Vietnamese, and nursing the war by means of warfare."

- To closely link patriotism to internationalism,

- Energetically to combat bureaucracy, corruption and waste.

The patriotism and heroism of the Vietnamese people allow us to have firm confidence in final victory.

***

The Vietnamese people's future is as bright as the sun in spring. Overjoyed at the radiance of the sun in spring, we shall struggle for the splendid future of Viet Nam, for the future of democracy, world peace and socialism. We triumph at the present time, we shall triumph in the future, because our path is enlightened by the great Marxist-Leninist doctrine.

1. A French patriot. Raymonde Dien is member of the French Communist Party. On February 13, 1950, she lay across a railway track to prevent the movement of a train carrying armaments and tanks for the French colonialists to fight the Vietnamese people in Indo-Chlna. She was sentenced by a French reactionary court to one year imprisonment, but owing to pressure by public opinion and the struggle waged by the masses, the French government was compelled to release her in November 1950 before her sentence expired.

2. Daladier, born in 1884, was Chairman of the French Radical Socialist Party, Premier of the French Government in 1933 and 1934 and from 1938 to 1940. In September 1938 he attended the Munich conference and his surrender fo Hitler paved the way for the attack and occupation of France by the German fascists.

3. In 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte sent an expedition against Spain and was routed by the Spanish people. This campaign ended In 1812 in victory in favour of the Spaniards.

4. In 1861 France (of Napoleon III) Great Britain and Spain waged a coalition war against Mexico. In this campaign France also suffered a pitiful defeat.

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The Imperialist Aggressors Can Never Enslave The Heroic Vietnamese People

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Written: January, 1952 First Published: In the Review For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy on April 4, 1952 under pen name Din Source: Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh Vol. 3 Publisher: Foreign Languages Publishing House Transcription/Markup: Roland Ferguson and Christian Liebl Online Version: Ho Chi Minh Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003 I avail myself of the short New Year holiday to write these lines.

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Reassessing Rolling Thunder and the Crossover Point

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Reassessing Rolling Thunder and the Crossover Point

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The military claimed to have killed some 57,000 enemy soldiers in the first six months of 1966. But privately, the Johnson administration worried that General Westmoreland's crossover point—the moment when more enemy soldiers had been killed than could be replaced—seemed no nearer. Despite his concerns about bringing the Soviet Union and China into the war, and increased civilian casualties, Johnson agreed to intensify the bombing campaign called Operation Rolling Thunder. Increased civilian casualties resulted, as he had feared.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Project Credits:

Bank of America; Corporation for Public Broadcasting; PBS; David H. Koch; Blavatnik Family Foundation; Park Foundation; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Endowment for the Humanities; The Pew Charitable Trusts; Ford Foundation Just Films; Rockefeller  Brothers Fund; and Members of The Better Angels Society: Jonathan & Jeannie Lavine, Diane & Hal Brierley, Amy & David Abrams, John & Catherine Debs, Fullerton Family Charitable Fund, The Montrone Family, Lynda & Stewart Resnick, The Golkin Family Foundation, The Lynch Foundation, The Roger & Rosemary Enrico Foundation, Richard S. & Donna L. Strong Foundation, Bonnie & Tom McCloskey, Barbara K. & Cyrus B. Sweet III, The Lavender Butterfly Fund.

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Reassessing Rolling Thunder and the Crossover Point | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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The military claimed to have killed some 57,000 enemy soldiers in the first six months of 1966. But privately, the Johnson administration worried that General Westmoreland's crossover point-the moment when more enemy soldiers had been killed than could be replaced-seemed no nearer.

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Antiwar Movement Begins

In August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. By the time U.S. planes began regular bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the government's assertion that it was fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist aggression.

The antiwar movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) began organizing "teach-ins" to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted.

Though the vast majority of the American population still supported U.S. government policy in the Vietnam War, a small but outspoken minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965, especially after Johnson began an increasingly aggressive air and ground war in Vietnam.

This vocal minority included many students as well as prominent artists, intellectuals and members of the "hippie" movement, i.e., the growing number of mostly young people who rejected authority and embraced the counterculture.

Did you know? Boxer Muhammad Ali was one prominent American who resisted being drafted into service during the Vietnam War. Ali, then heavyweight champion of the world, declared himself a "conscientious objector," earning a prison sentence (later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court) and a three-year ban from boxing.

Widespread Disillusionment

By November 1967, American troop strength in Vietnam was approaching 500,000 and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The Vietnam War was costing the United States some $25 billion per year, and disillusionment was beginning to reach greater sections of the taxpaying public.

More casualties were reported in Vietnam every day, even as U.S. commanders demanded more troops. Under the draft system of conscription, as many as 40,000 young men were called into service every month, adding fuel to the fire of the antiwar movement.

On October 21, 1967, one of the most prominent antiwar demonstrations took place as some 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial-around 30,000 of them continued in a march on the Pentagon later that night.

After a brutal confrontation with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. One of them was the author Norman Mailer, who chronicled the events in his book "The Armies of the Night," published the following year to widespread acclaim.

Also in 1967, the antiwar movement got a big boost when the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. went public with his opposition to the war on moral grounds, condemning the war's diversion of federal funds from domestic programs as well as the disproportionate number of Black casualties in relation to the total number of soldiers killed in the war.

At a march of over 5,000 protestors in Chicago, Illinois, on March 25, 1967, King called the Vietnam War "a blasphemy against all that America stands for."

Vietnam War Protest Songs

The Vietnam War protest inspired many popular songs that became an anthem for that generation. Phil Ochs wrote "What Are You Fighting For?" in 1963 and "I Ain't Marching Anymore" in 1965. Other songs whose very titles were a protest themselves included Pete Seeger's "Bring 'Em Home" (1966) and Joan Baez 's "Saigon Bride" (1967).

Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues" (1967) took a civil rights poem by Langston Hughes and adapted it into a protest of Vietnam: "Raise my taxes/Freeze my wages/Send my son to Vietnam." Marvin Gaye 's "What's Going On?" from 1971 went on to be one of the most popular songs of all time.

John Lennon's first song after leaving the Beatles, "Give Peace a Chance," hit airwaves in 1966. " Imagine," from 1971, has transcended the Vietnam era to be a timeless song of peace and unity.

Political Consequences of Vietnam War Protests

The launch of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese communist troops in January 1968, and its success against U.S. and South Vietnamese troops, sent waves of shock and discontent across the home front and sparked a most intense period of antiwar protests. By February 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of Johnson's handling of the war and a full 50 percent disapproved.

Joining the antiwar demonstrations by this time were members of the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, many of whom were in wheelchairs and on crutches. The sight of these men on television throwing away the medals they had won during the war did much to win people over to the antiwar cause.

After many 1968 New Hampshire primary voters rallied behind the antiwar Democrat Eugene McCarthy, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection.

Later that year, Hubert Humphrey accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the 1968 Democratic Convention, held at Chicago's International Amphitheatre. Meanwhile, outside the convention hall, 10,000 antiwar demonstrators showed up, clashing violently with security forces assembled by Mayor Richard Daley.

Humphrey lost the 1968 presidential election to Richard M. Nixon, who promised in his campaign to restore "law and order"-a reference to conflict over antiwar protests as well as the rioting that followed King's assassination in 1968-more effectively than Johnson had.

Silent Majority

The following year, Nixon claimed in a famous speech that antiwar protesters constituted a small-albeit vocal-minority that should not be allowed to drown out the "silent majority" of Americans. Nixon's war policies divided the nation still further, however: In December 1969, the government instituted the first U.S. draft lottery since World War II, inciting a vast amount of controversy and causing many young men to flee to Canada to avoid conscription.

Tensions ran higher than ever, spurred on by mass demonstrations and incidents of violence by officials such those at Kent State in May 1970, when National Guard troops shot into a group of protesters demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four students.

At the Mayday Protest in 1971, thousands of antiwar protestors tried to shut down Washington, D.C., completely, all but crippling the U.S. government. Traffic was stopped for a few hours, and CIA director Richard Helms later remarked that Mayday was "one of the things that was putting increasing pressure on the [Nixon] administration to try and find some way to get out of the war."

Vietnam War Ends

As antiwar fervor grew, in mid-1971, Daniel Ellsberg brought about the publication of the Pentagon Papers -which revealed previously confidential details about the war's conduct-and misconduct by government and military officials. Ellsberg called the Pentagon Papers "evidence of a quarter-century of aggression, broken treaties, deceptions, stolen elections, lies and murder."

These and other revelations caused more and more Americans to doubt the accountability of the U.S. government and the integrity of the U.S. military establishment.

Finally, in response to an almost overwhelming antiwar mandate, Nixon announced the effective end to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January 1973. The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, effectively ending the Vietnam War.

Sources

Vietnam War. Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium: University of Washington.
Anti-War Protests of the 1960s-70s. The White House Historical Association.
Anti-War Movement. PBS.

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Vietnam War Protests: Antiwar & Protest Songs - HISTORY

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Vietnam War protests began among antiwar activists and students, then gained prominence in 1965 when the U.S. military began bombing North Vietnam heavily.

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50 years ago: Walter Cronkite calls for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam - CBS Evening News

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50 years ago: Walter Cronkite calls for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam - CBS Evening News

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50 years ago: Walter Cronkite calls for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam

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Table of Contents

1. U.S. Army Women in Vietnam

2. Women in the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines in Vietnam

3. Civilian Women in Vietnam

Women in the Vietnam War served as soldiers, health workers, and in news-gathering capacities. Though relatively little official data exists about female Vietnam War veterans, the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation estimates that approximately 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict. Nearly all of them were volunteers, and 90 percent served as military nurses, though women also worked as physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks and other positions in the U.S. Women's Army Corps, U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines and the Army Medical Specialist Corps. In addition to women in the armed forces, an unknown number of civilian women served in Vietnam on behalf of the Red Cross, United Service Organizations (USO), Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian organizations, or as foreign correspondents for various news organizations.

U.S. Army Women in Vietnam

The great majority of the military women who served in Vietnam were nurses. All were volunteers, and they ranged from recent college graduates in their early 20s to seasoned career women in their 40s. Members of the Army Nurse Corps arrived in Vietnam as early as 1956, when they were tasked with training the South Vietnamese in nursing skills. As the American military presence in South Vietnam increased beginning in the early 1960s, so did that of the Army Nurse Corps. From March 1962 to March 1973, when the last Army nurses left Vietnam, some 5,000 would serve in the conflict.

Five female Army nurses died over the course of the war, including 52-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Annie Ruth Graham, who served as a military nurse in both World War II and Korea before Vietnam and suffered a stroke in August 1968; and First Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane, who died from shrapnel wounds suffered in an attack on the hospital where she was working in June 1969. Lane was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. Colonel Graham is one of eight women whose names are listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, a monument designed by 21-year-old female college student Maya Lin.

Did you know? In November 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. in front of a crowd of some 25,000 people. The centerpiece of the memorial is a bronze statue by Glenna Goodacre, which depicts three female nurses assisting a wounded soldier.

Early on, the U.S. Army resisted sending women other than nurses to Vietnam. The Women's Army Corps (WAC), established during World War II, had a presence in Vietnam beginning in 1964, when General William Westmoreland asked the Pentagon to provide a WAC officer and non-commissioned officer to help the South Vietnamese train their own women's army corps. At its peak in 1970, WAC presence in Vietnam numbered some 20 officers and 130 enlisted women. WACs filled noncombat positions in U.S. Army headquarters in Saigon and other bases in South Vietnam; a number received decorations for meritorious service. No WACs died during the conflict.

Women in the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines in Vietnam

Members of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps also played an important role in the conflict beginning in 1963. Five Navy nurses were awarded the Purple Heart after they were injured in a Viet Cong bombing of an officers' billets in downtown Saigon on Christmas Eve 1964; they became the first female members of the U.S. Armed Forces to receive that award in the Vietnam War. Apart from nurses, only nine Navy women-all officers-served in Vietnam, including Lieutenant Elizabeth G. Wylie, who worked in the Command Information Center on the staff of the Commander of Naval Forces in Saigon beginning in June 1967; and Commander Elizabeth Barrett, who in November 1972 became the first female naval line officer to hold command in a combat zone.

Women also served as members of the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps and the Women's Air Force (WAF) during the Vietnam conflict. Captain Mary Therese Klinker, one of the eight military women killed in Vietnam, was the flight nurse on the U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxy that crashed April 1975 near Saigon. (The plane had been on a mission for Operation Babylift, which placed Southeast Asian orphans with families in the United States; some 138 people were killed in the crash, including many Vietnamese children and a number of female civilians working for U.S. government agencies.) Klinker was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal. The U.S. Marine Corps had a more limited female presence in Vietnam, as until 1966 only 60 female marines were permitted to serve overseas, with most of those stationed in Hawaii. From 1967 to 1973, a total of 28 enlisted Marine women and eight officers served in Vietnam at various times.

Civilian Women in Vietnam

In addition to the U.S. military women who served in Vietnam, an unknown number of female civilians willingly gave their services on Vietnamese soil during the conflict. Many of them worked on behalf of the American Red Cross, Army Special Services, United Service Organizations (USO), Peace Corps and various religious groups such as Catholic Relief Services.

Other American women traveled to Vietnam as foreign correspondents for news organizations, including Georgette "Dickey" Chappelle, a writer for the National Observer who was killed by a mine while on patrol with U.S. Marines outside Chu Lai in November 1965. According to the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation, 59 female civilians died during the conflict.

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U.S. Army Women in Vietnam Women in the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines in Vietnam Civilian Women in Vietnam Women in the Vietnam War served as soldiers, health workers, and in news-gathering capacities. Though relatively little official data exists about female Vietnam War veterans, the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation estimates that approximately 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict.

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One of the issues that the movie The Post examines is the integrity of the political office of the Presidency, where the covering up of Vietnam casts a shadow over American politics.

The ending of the movie references the role of the security guard who would help expose Nixon's role in the Watergate Scandal, a further indictment on the US presidency and the lack of integrity that its office holders (in this case, Nixon) was conducting himself with.

You can access any of these links to learn more:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-the-post-watergate-security-guard-20171222-story.html

https://www.umass.edu/ellsberg/featured-documents/pentagon-papers-watergate-and-trials/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal

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President Kennedy and his advisers were sharply divided regarding the decision to promote a coup in South Vietnam.

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Promoting a Coup in South Vietnam | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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President Kennedy and his advisers were sharply divided regarding the decision to promote a coup in South Vietnam. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Kennedy and the Diem Coup: The Torch Is Passed.

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Vietnam and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1965: The View from China - Wilson Center

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Vietnam and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1965: The View from China - Wilson Center

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Not Their Father's War: The Vietnam War Is Unlike WWII and Korea | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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As they continued to escalate the war, President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara were frustrated that American Commanders in Vietnam, who had come of age during World War II and Korea, were having a hard time making sense of what was happening on the ground.

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Documents:
Biography
List of Claims of the Annamese People (1919)

Some Considerations on the Colonial Question (1922)

In A 'High Civilization' (1922)

Equality! (1922)

The Civilizers (1922)

Racial Hatred (1922)

Annamese Women and French Domination (1922)

An Open Letter To M. Albert Sarraut, Minister of Colonies (1922)

Murderous Civilization! (1922)

The Martyrdom of Amdouni and Ben-Belkhir (1922)

About Siki (1922)

Indochinese Prosperity Under the Rule of M. Long (1922)

Open Letter to M. Leon Archimbaud (1923)

The Colonial Abyss (1923)

Just As In The Mother Country (1923)

Menagerie (1923)

Uprising at Dahomey (1923)

Despotism in Indo-China Protected and Protectors (1923)

Oppression Hits All Races (1923)

The Counter-Revolutionary Army (1923)

It Is Not Militarism, But... (1923)

English 'Colonization' (1923)

The Workers' Movement In Turkey (1924)

Workers' Movement In The Far East (1924)

Lenin And The Colonial Peoples (1924)

Report On The National And Colonial Questions At The Fifth Congress Of The Communist International (1924)

Appeal Made on the Occasion of the Founding of the IndochineseCommunist Party (1930)

Vietnamese Declaration of Independence (1945)

Letter To Old People (1945)

Wage Resistance War! An Appeal to the Vietnamese People (1946)

Appeal To Compatriots To Carry Out Destruction, To Wage Resistance War (1947)

Twelve Recommendations (1948)

Instructions Given at the Conference Reviewing the Second Le Hong Phong Military Campaign (1950)

Address On The Occasion Of The Inauguration Of The Congress To Merge The Viet Minh And Lien Viet (1951)

Message Sent To The Artists On The Occasion Of The 1951 Painting Exhibition (1951)

The Imperialist Aggressors Can Never Enslave The Heroic Vietnamese People (1952)

Letter To The Compatriots In The Thai-Meo Autonomous Region (1955)

Instructions Given At The Conference Reviewing The Mass Education In The First Half Of 1956 (1956)

Consolidation and Development of Ideological Unity Among Marxist-Leninist Parties (1956)

The Path Which Led Me to Leninism (1960)

Pictures:
Delivering address in Hanoi, 1945 Portrait 1 Portrait 2

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Biography List of Claims of the Annamese People (1919) Some Considerations on the Colonial Question (1922) In A 'High Civilization' (1922) Equality! (1922) The Civilizers (1922) Racial Hatred (1922) Annamese Women and French Domination (1922) An Open Letter To M. Albert Sarraut, Minister of Colonies (1922) Murderous Civilization!

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Why Did Columbia University Students Protest in 1968? - History

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Why Did Columbia University Students Protest in 1968? - History

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Learn how the Vietnam War and the construction of a gym on campus prompted Columbia University student groups to protest the administration in 1968. See how their numbers swelled into the thousands and inspired student protests all over the country.

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Why Did Columbia University Students Protest in 1968?

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Learn how the Vietnam War and the construction of a gym on campus prompted Columbia University student groups to protest the administration in 1968. See how their numbers swelled into the thousands and inspired student protests all over the country.

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Walter Cronkite Speaks Out against Vietnam, February 27, 1968 - Bill of Rights Institute

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Walter Cronkite Speaks Out against Vietnam, February 27, 1968 - Bill of Rights Institute

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Suggested Sequencing

Introduction

During the 1960s and 1970s, television was one of primary ways people received their news. Newspapers circulated widely and radios still offered newscasts, but many Americans wanted to watch while they listened to their news. During this time, Walter Cronkite was the standard bearer on CBS news. He covered many historic events and, during his career, he became one of the most trusted people on television. The war in Vietnam seemed to be dragging on and Cronkite wanted to go to Vietnam and see for himself what the war was truly about. After his visit, he came home and shared his personal commentary on the situation. This aired on February 27, 1968.

Sourcing Questions

1. Who spoke these words and when?

2. Briefly explain the context for this newscast.

speculative(adj): based on conjecture; guesswork bastion(n): a fortified place

Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, and subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tat offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Kherson could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff.

On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.

Hanoi: the capital of North Vietnam attrition(n): a reduction or decrease in numbers, size, or strength

We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds . They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that--negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.

mired(adj): entangled

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.

Comprehension Questions

1. According to the newscast, what was the current situation in Vietnam?

2. Why was there a lack of confidence in the Vietnamese government? Why was this a problem?

3. Why did Cronkite express disappointment in American leaders?

4. Which side had the most to gain from negotiations? Why?

5. What was at stake in this fight, according to Cronkite?

6. Why did Cronkite believe the war had become a stalemate?

7. Why couldn't the United States negotiate as victors? Explain.

Historical Reasoning Questions

1. How did the American people respond to this opinion? Why?

2. Consider the power the press has in shaping public opinion about war. Do you think it is good to have the media giving constant reports about a war instead of the military or government? Explain your reasoning.

Walter Cronkite report from Vietnam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn4w-ud-TyE

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Walter Cronkite Speaks Out against Vietnam, February 27, 1968 - Bill of Rights Institute

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During the 1960s and 1970s, television was one of primary ways people received their news. Newspapers circulated widely and radios still offered newscasts, but many Americans wanted to watch while they listened to their news. During this time, Walter Cronkite was the standard bearer on CBS news.

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The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed against unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. A company of American soldiers brutally killed most of the people-women, children and old men-in the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. More than 500 people were slaughtered in the My Lai massacre, including young girls and women who were raped and mutilated before being killed. U.S. Army officers covered up the carnage for a year before it was reported in the American press, sparking a firestorm of international outrage. The brutality of the My Lai killings and the official cover-up fueled anti-war sentiment and further divided the United States over the Vietnam War.

Charlie Company

The small village of My Lai is located in Quang Ngai province, which was believed to be a stronghold of the communist National Liberation Front (NLF) or Viet Cong (VC) during the Vietnam War.

Quang Ngai province was therefore a frequent target of U.S. and South Vietnamese bombing attacks, and the entire region was heavily strafed with Agent Orange, the deadly herbicide.

In March 1968, Charlie Company-part of the Americal Division's 11th Infantry Brigade-received word that VC guerrillas had taken control of the neighboring village of Son My. Charlie Company was sent to the area on March 16 for a search-and-destroy mission.

At the time, morale among U.S. soldiers on the ground was dwindling, especially in the wake of the North Vietnamese-led Tet Offensive, which was launched in January 1968. Charlie Company had lost some 28 of its members to death or injuries, and was down to just over 100 men.

William Calley

Army commanders had advised the soldiers of Charlie Company that all who were found in the Son My area could be considered VC or active VC sympathizers, and ordered them to destroy the village.

When they arrived shortly after dawn, the soldiers-led by Lieutenant William Calley-found no Viet Cong. Instead, they came across a quiet village of primarily women, children and older men preparing their breakfast rice.

The villagers were rounded up into groups as the soldiers inspected their huts. Despite finding only a few weapons, Calley ordered his men to begin shooting the villagers.

My Lai Massacre Begins

Some soldiers balked at Calley's command, but within seconds the massacre had begun, with Calley himself shooting many men, women and children.

Mothers who were shielding their children were shot, and when their children tried to run away, they too were slaughtered. Huts were set on fire, and anyone inside who tried to escape was gunned down.

"I saw them shoot an M79 (grenade launcher) into a group of people who were still alive. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else," Sgt. Michael Bernhardt, a soldier at the scene, later told a reporter.

"We met no resistance and I only saw three captured weapons. We had no casualties. It was just like any other Vietnamese village-old papa-sans [men], women and kids. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing one military-age male in the entire place, dead or alive," Bernhardt said.

In addition to killing unarmed men, women and children, the soldiers slaughtered countless livestock, raped an unknown number of women, and burned the village to the ground.

Calley was reported to have dragged dozens of people, including young children, into a ditch before executing them with a machine gun. Not a single shot was fired against the men of Charlie Company at My Lai.

Hugh Thompson

The My Lai massacre reportedly ended only after Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot on a reconnaissance mission, landed his aircraft between the soldiers and the retreating villagers and threatened to open fire if they continued their attacks.

"We kept flying back and forth ... and it didn't take very long until we started noticing the large number of bodies everywhere. Everywhere we'd look, we'd see bodies. These were infants, two- three-, four-, five-year-olds, women, very old men, no draft-age people whatsoever," Thompson stated at a My Lai conference at Tulane University in 1994.

Thompson and his crew flew dozens of survivors to receive medical care. In 1998, Thompson and two other members of his crew received the Soldier's Medal, the U.S. Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.

Cover-Up of the My Lai Massacre

By the time the My Lai massacre ended, 504 people were dead. Among the victims were 182 women-17 of them pregnant-and 173 children, including 56 infants.

Knowing news of the massacre would cause a scandal, officers higher up in command of Charlie Company and the 11th Brigade immediately made efforts to downplay the bloodshed.

The coverup of the My Lai Massacre continued until Ron Ridenhour, a soldier in the 11th Brigade who had heard reports of the massacre but had not participated, began a campaign to bring the events to light. After writing letters to President Richard M. Nixon, the Pentagon, State Department, Joint Chiefs of Staff and several congressmen-with no response-Ridenhour finally gave an interview to the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story in November 1969.

Who Was Responsible For the My Lai Massacre?

Amid the international uproar and Vietnam War protests that followed Ridenhour's revelations, the U.S. Army ordered a special investigation into the My Lai massacre and subsequent efforts to cover it up. The inquiry, headed by Lieutenant General William Peers, released its report in March 1970 and recommended that no fewer than 28 officers be charged for their involvement in covering up the massacre. The My Lai trial began on November 17, 1970.

Did you know? Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who stopped the My Lai massacre, later told the news program "60 Minutes" that he was ostracized and received death threats upon his return from Vietnam. But in 1998, Thompson attended a memorial service at My Lai on the 30th anniversary of the massacre.

The Army would later charge only 14 men, including Calley, Captain Ernest Medina and Colonel Oran Henderson, with crimes related to the events at My Lai. All were acquitted except for Calley, who was found guilty of premeditated murder for ordering the shootings, despite his contention that he was only following orders from his commanding officer, Captain Medina.

In March 1971, Calley was given a life sentence for his role in directing the killings at My Lai. Many saw Calley as a scapegoat, and his sentence was reduced upon appeal to 20 years and later to 10; he was paroled in 1974.

Later investigations have revealed that the slaughter at My Lai was not an isolated incident. Other atrocities, such as a similar massacre of villagers at My Khe, are less well known. A notorious military operation called Speedy Express killed thousands of Vietnamese civilians in the Mekong Delta, earning the commander of the operation, Major General Julian Ewell, the nickname "the Butcher of the Delta."

Impact of My Lai

By the early 1970s, the American war effort in Vietnam was winding down, as the Nixon administration continued its " Vietnamization " policy, including the withdrawal of troops and the transfer of control over ground operations to the South Vietnamese.

Among the American troops still in Vietnam, morale was low, and anger and frustration were high. Drug use increased among soldiers, and an official report in 1971 estimated that one-third or more of U.S. troops were addicted.

The revelations of the My Lai massacre caused morale to plummet even further, as GIs wondered what other atrocities their superiors were concealing. On the home front in the United States, the brutality of the My Lai massacre and the efforts made by higher-ranking officers to conceal it exacerbated anti-war sentiment and increased the bitterness regarding the continuing U.S. military presence in Vietnam.

Sources

Eyewitness accounts of the My Lai massacre; story by Seymour Hersh Nov. 20, 1969. Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The Heroes of My Lai. Transcript of 1994 Tulane University My Lai Conference.
Was My Lai just one of many massacres in Vietnam War? BBC News.
Coverup-I, by Seymour Hersh. The New Yorker.
The Scene of the Crime, by Seymour Hersh. The New Yorker.

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The 1968 My Lai Massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed against unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War. A company of American soldiers brutally killed more than 500 villagers, including women and children, in the province of Quang Ngai.

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Ho Chi Minh Shares His Power | The Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

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By the early 1960s, Ho Chi Minh was still a beloved figure in North Vietnam, but shared power with younger, more impatient, leaders. At the November 1963 Party Plenum in Hanoi, Ho, who favored the new Soviet policy of de-escalating the Cold War, was outmaneuvered by party First Secretary Le Duan, who sided with the Chinese in advocating revolution through violence.

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Why the Vietnam War Produced Such Iconic Music - Time Magazine

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Why the Vietnam War Produced Such Iconic Music - Time Magazine

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Why the Vietnam War Produced Such Iconic Music

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The relationship between music and war was not an invention of the 1960s. So what made Vietnam's music special?

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WALTER CRONKITE EDITORIAL ON TET AND VIETNAM (1968) - Alpha History

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WALTER CRONKITE EDITORIAL ON TET AND VIETNAM (1968) - Alpha History

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On February 27th 1968, with the Tet Offensive a month old, US news anchor Walter Cronkite appeared on television and delivered an editorial claiming that the Vietnam War was "mired in stalemate":

"Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective.

Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Viet Cong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarised Zone. Khe Sanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff.

On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff.

We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realisation that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realisation, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that - negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms.

For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.

On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honourable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could.

This is Walter Cronkite. Good night."

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Walter Cronkite editorial on the Vietnam War (1968)

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On February 27th 1968, with the Tet Offensive a month old, US news anchor Walter Cronkite appeared on television and delivered an editorial claiming that the Vietnam War was "mired in stalemate": "Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective.

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An African American’s Experience with Discrimination on the Battlefront and at Home During the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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An African American’s Experience with Discrimination on the Battlefront and at Home During the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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African Americans volunteered in large numbers for the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. For some, the color line among troops blurred quickly in battle, but many still faced discrimination when they returned home. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and interviews of veterans of the war.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

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An African American's Experience with Discrimination on the Battlefront and at Home During the Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
African Americans volunteered in large numbers for the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. For some, the color line among troops blurred quickly in battle, but many still faced discrimination when they returned home. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and interviews of veterans of the war.

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Primary Sources: Vietnam War - Florida Atlantic University Libraries

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Primary Sources: Vietnam War - Florida Atlantic University Libraries

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LibGuides: Primary Sources: Vietnam War: Welcome to the Vietnam War Primary Source Guide

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The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Vietnam Veterans© 2015 Iowa PBS

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Vietnam Veterans© 2015 Iowa PBS

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Many Vietnam veterans have experienced anxiety and other effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), both on the battlefield and upon returning home. Most soldiers who were involved in active combat situations in the war returned home with little assistance to make the transition back to civilian life. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and a first-person account from a veteran of the war.

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The Day the 60's Died | PBS LearningMedia

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Learn about the tumultuous period in the United States history when the unpopular War in Vietnam sparked a wave of anti-war demonstrations at college campuses across the nation including the May 4, 1970 Kent State protests.

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Remembering Vietnam: Online Exhibit - National Archives

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Remembering Vietnam: Online Exhibit - National Archives

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Explore the 12 Critical Episodes of the “Remembering Vietnam” Exhibition Visit Episodes 1-4 Visit Episodes 5-8 Visit Episodes 9-12 Visit Legacy INTRODUCTION: Twelve Critical Episodes in the Vietnam War All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. Viet Tha…

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U.S. Veteran Describes Fighting in the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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U.S. Veteran Describes Fighting in the Vietnam War© 2015 Iowa PBS

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By 1969, more than half a million Americans were stationed in Vietnam. Fighting in the jungle was chaotic and the goal was not only to accomplish the objectives of the mission, but to survive. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and an interview with an Iowa veteran of the war.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

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U.S. Veteran Describes Fighting in the Vietnam War | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By 1969, more than half a million Americans were stationed in Vietnam. Fighting in the jungle was chaotic and the goal was not only to accomplish the objectives of the mission, but to survive. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and an interview with an Iowa veteran of the war.

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The Vietnam War pitted communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong against South Vietnam and the United States. The war ended when U.S. forces withdrew in 1973 and Vietnam unified under Communist control two years later.

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How WWII and Vietnam Veterans Were Treated Differently - History

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How WWII and Vietnam Veterans Were Treated Differently - History

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How WWII and Vietnam Veterans Were Treated Differently

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WWII and Vietnam Veterans put their lives on the line for their country. But their treatment by government and civilians were completely different.

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Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam? - The Washington Post

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Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam? - The Washington Post

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CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam to provide viewers with an assessment of the war's progress. His one-hour special report aired on Feb. 27, 1968. (Video: Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Until 1968, Walter Cronkite believed what his government told him about the Vietnam War. He was an old-school journalist, a patriot, a man who came of age covering World War II as a wire-service reporter and then taking over as the anchor of "The CBS Evening News" at the height of the Cold War. Like most journalists of his generation, he embraced the fight against communism and understood why the United States had intervened in the war raging in Vietnam.

When he'd visited Vietnam on a reporting trip early in the war, he'd been annoyed by the attitude of the young reporters who seemed to be "engaged in a contest among themselves to determine who was the most cynical," he wrote in his autobiography.

Cronkite's nightly newscasts helped shape public opinion about Vietnam, which became known as "the living-room war," in the words of Michael Arlen of the New Yorker. Until 1968, network news operations tended to edit out the blood and gore and avoid direct criticism of military operations while American lives were on the line. There was no government censorship, but negative news reports infuriated President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and he didn't hesitate to let the networks know it.

That had been the case in August 1965. CBS News correspondent Morley Safer and his colleagues had followed Marines into a hamlet named Cam Ne, which was allegedly infested with the communist guerrilla fighters known as the Viet Cong.

The Marines briefly encountered sporadic gunfire, which Safer later described as friendly fire. The Marines found no Viet Cong or firearms. Following orders, they burned down the hamlet. Safer's report showed Marines using flamethrowers and Zippo lighters to ignite the thatching on the huts amid wails of despair from Vietnamese women and children.

The day after the report aired on the CBS Evening News, President Johnson called network executive Frank Stanton, according to a book Safer wrote many years later.

"Hello, Frank, this is your president."

"Yes, Mr. President."

"Frank, you trying to fuck me?"

The Tet effect

The Cam Ne dispatch by Safer is a classic moment in journalism, but an even more legendary report came from Cronkite. His trip to Vietnam in February 1968 and the hour-long prime-time broadcast that followed have been so mythologized among journalists that they call it the Cronkite Moment.

Like so much about Vietnam, the Cronkite Moment remains controversial, because it's at the center of a seemingly endless debate about news coverage of the war, and whether the media exposed an unfolding debacle or undermined the American cause.

Journalists stationed full time in Vietnam had a contentious relationship with U.S. officials from the start. The U.S. intervention was built on a scaffolding of deception. The U.S. initially claimed, for example, that American military personnel were merely observers, not combatants. If wounded in the early years, they weren't even eligible for a Purple Heart.

Much of the U.S. effort was aimed at rooting out communist guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam - the "pacification" effort. This became known as the struggle for the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Meanwhile, a similar battle was happening on the home front. Public approval of the war effort gradually eroded.

Johnson vowed not to be the first U.S. president to lose a war. His generals claimed to see light at the end of the tunnel. In November 1967, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, declared, "The enemy's hopes are bankrupt."

Then came the Tet Offensive. At the end of January 1968, at the start of the Tet Lunar New Year, the Viet Cong broke a cease-fire by launching surprise attacks on dozens of cities across South Vietnam.

A Vietnam War photographer captured the bloody Tet offensive. Fifty years later, he bears witness again

Until then, journalists based in Saigon had to go find the war. Now the war came to them. In Saigon, 19 guerrilla fighters entered the U.S. Embassy compound through a hole they'd blown in the outer wall. The embassy invaders were all killed, but more battles raged across Saigon and the rest of the country.

When the first bulletins arrived at CBS headquarters, Cronkite was aghast. "What the hell is going on? I thought we were winning the war!" he said.

In fact, the U.S. military and its South Vietnamese allies were winning at the tactical level, repulsing the attacks, killing tens of thousands of Viet Cong fighters. The communists failed to topple the government in Saigon or persuade the rice farmers in the countryside to join their cause.

Even so, images of street fighting in Saigon shocked the American public. This didn't look like a war the Americans were winning. "Tet was the first sustained period during which it could be said that the war appeared on television as a really brutal affair," wrote Daniel C. Hallin in his 1989 book " The 'Uncensored War': The Media and Vietnam."

On Feb. 2, Johnson said at a news conference that, when the American people knew the facts, "I do not believe that [the communists] will achieve a psychological victory." He relied, like the other architects of the war, on the enemy kill count as the key metric of success. "They say 10,000 died and we lost 249 and the South Vietnamese lost 500. Now that doesn't look like a communist victory. I can count," the president said.

But as Lee Lescaze, a Washington Post reporter stationed in Saigon, wrote, "The casualty figures . . . are thrown into question by the incredibly favorable ratios claimed and by the assertion of precise figures in battles for which even the most general of details are lacking."

The significance of the Tet Offensive was in doubt. Who was truly winning this war? At CBS News, Cronkite decided to go look for himself.

Cronkite's verdict

"Uncle Walter" had developed a reputation as the ultimate straight shooter, "the avatar of objectivity," in the words of Richard Perloff, a professor of communications at Cleveland State University. He'd never taken a public position on the war. That, he thought, would give him special standing to assess what was really going on.

He flew to Vietnam and at first stayed at the Caravelle Hotel, a favorite place for journalists who wanted to witness the war in comfort in a place where the bar stayed open late. But then he went to Hue, the ancient imperial capital, where the most intense urban fighting of the war was grinding along day after day, house to house, room to room. It took most of February for the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies to drive the communists from the city. Cronkite left Hue in a helicopter carrying the remains of 12 Marines in body bags.

"He was just doing the gumshoe reporting all over Vietnam, and the print reporters all swooned over Cronkite for doing it," says historian and Cronkite biographer Douglas Brinkley.

U.S. Gen. Creighton W. Abrams Jr. told Cronkite the war effort needed another 200,000 American troops. The general engaged in what Cronkite described in his memoir as a "brutally technical discussion of the fire power and kill ratios and the like. How, in effect, we could kill more Vietnamese. I wanted us to win the war, but this emotionless professionalism was hard to take."

He flew home, and on Feb. 27, at 10 p.m. Eastern time, CBS News aired "Report from Vietnam: Who, What, When, Where, Why?"

The program opens with Cronkite, in a short-sleeve safari shirt, standing in harsh daylight in front of Saigon ruins. It looks like a home movie. Cronkite doesn't talk about military casualties. There are no images of body bags. One would not know that 416 Americans were killed in Vietnam in the week ending Feb. 3 and another 543 in the week ending Feb. 17 - each a record to that point.

Instead, Cronkite and his producers assess the progress of the war on the terms set by U.S. commanders, such as whether the "pacification" program had suffered a setback from the Viet Cong.

"Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I'm not sure," he says early in the report. "The Viet Cong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw."

At the close of the hour, Cronkite, back at his desk in New York, delivers his verdict. He acknowledges that what he is about to say is "subjective." It's his opinion.

"[I]t seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate . . . [I]t is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

"This is Walter Cronkite. Good night."

A swift reversal

President Johnson was deflated by Cronkite's report, saying, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

That anecdote from a presidential aide is, like so many things involving this war, the subject of dispute. What's certain is that political dominoes fell rapidly after Tet. The antiwar Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, had sudden momentum heading into the March 12 New Hampshire primary. Robert F. Kennedy, the heir to Camelot, for the first time delivered a speech attacking the administration's dissembling about Vietnam.

Kennedy then had an important lunch, with . . . wait for it . . . Walter Cronkite.

Cronkite told Kennedy that he should run for president. Kennedy told Cronkite that the Democrats wanted him - Cronkite! - to run for a U.S. Senate seat in New York.

Shenanigans, maneuverings.

McCarthy ran a shockingly strong second to Johnson in New Hampshire. A few days later, Kennedy jumped into the race. On March 31, LBJ went on national television and announced a partial halt to bombing in North Vietnam amid new peace negotiations. Then he stunned the nation: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."

Journalists look for direct causality, while historians see complexity. Did the media coverage of Tet change the way Americans viewed the war? Not measurably. The Gallup organization had been asking Americans since 1965 if the U.S. made a mistake by getting involved in Vietnam. The responses were remarkably static in the first half of 1968, despite Tet, the Cronkite Moment and heavy U.S. casualties. Not until August 1968 did the Gallup numbers reveal a significant plunge in support for the war.

But something did pivot when Cronkite crossed the line into opinion. Cronkite mainstreamed antiwar sentiment. The U.S. intervention ceased to be framed by TV news reporters as "our" fight against the Viet Cong. The news media distanced itself from the government's agenda, and that paved the way, a few years later, for the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

A Cronkite Moment is no longer possible, because the news ecosystem today is too fragmented. The role of the news anchor has been diminished. Many Americans would be hard-pressed to name the current anchor of "The CBS Evening News."

Cronkite's great persuasive power emerged from his long history of not attempting to be persuasive at all. That allowed him to fly to Vietnam like an intercontinental ballistic missile of objectivity. But the past half-century has seen a steady erosion in the trust Americans place in institutions such as the news media. Partisan journalists, wielding verbal flamethrowers, view their "objective" counterparts as retailers of false balance. The media culture no longer requires or wants someone with the authority to say, as Cronkite did every night at the close of his broadcast, "And that's the way it is . . ."

And thus, today, Cronkite's daring, historic, precedent-busting words about Vietnam would probably be greeted with hot takes of outrage, for one reason or another - in the brief moments before those words were lost in the noise.

Shifting perspectives

Conservative pundits and historians have declared that Cronkite, who died in 2009, bungled the biggest story of his life by failing to see that the Viet Cong were clearly defeated in the Tet Offensive. Peter Braestrup, who worked for The Washington Post in Saigon during Tet, wrote in his 1977 book " Big Story " that journalists unfamiliar with combat or military tactics got the story of Tet wrong. Braestrup's conclusion is embraced in many revisionist retrospectives.

But there is revisionism to the revisionism. In the 2017 book " The Myths of Tet," Edwin Moïse pushes back, saying the news media largely got it right. And Mark Bowden, author of a new book on the Battle of Hue, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times, "Cronkite was right. The war was not being won, nor would it be."

Cronkite, who retired from his anchor position in 1981, worked on a 1987 documentary series on the Vietnam War. In the episode on Tet, he addressed the criticism that reporters got the story wrong.

"Let me show you what we did report," Cronkite says, cutting to a clip from "The CBS Evening News" on Feb. 14, 1968. There's Cronkite in Saigon. He says to the viewer, "First and simplest, the Viet Cong suffered a military defeat." And then he goes on to explain multiple ways the Viet Cong failed to achieve their objectives.

When you root around in the history books, you realize there's little consensus about anything. Something as simple as the notion that Vietnam was a "TV war" incites academic blowback. Barbie Zelizer, professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, says news photos - such as the famous Eddie Adams photo of the national police chief executing a Viet Cong fighter - were just as central in shaping public opinion.

That photo incited revulsion, depicting a callous disregard for human life. Except that the executed fighter had just killed the police chief's close friend and the friend's family. Adams, whose photograph won the Pulitzer Prize, later said he felt his photo unfairly tarnished the police chief.

And was it really a "living-room war"? When Michael Arlen coined the term, he didn't say that television brought the reality of the war into people's homes. He argued the opposite. He said that, because of the scale of a television, the war is "a picture of men three inches tall shooting at other men three inches tall, and trivialized, or at least tamed, by the enveloping cozy alarums of the household."

The disputed narrative of the Vietnam War, and what it meant, and why it unfolded the way it did, highlights the genius of the wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall. There are no dubious metrics of enemy deaths, no media reports, no speeches. There are just the names of the Americans who lost their lives in Southeast Asia.

More than 58,000 U.S. military personnel died in the Vietnam War, and by far the bloodiest year was 1968, when 16,899 Americans perished - an average of 46 a day.

The east and west ends of the memorial feature the names from the very midpoint of the war, as measured by Americans killed. It was May 25, 1968.

When Cronkite reported from Vietnam earlier that year and predicted the conflict would end in a stalemate, he did not imagine that this terrible war was not even half over.

The men killed on a single, bloody day in Vietnam, and the haunting wall that memorializes them

To fight the status quo, the activists of 1968 harnessed the power of fashion

Explore other 1968 stories

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Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam?

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Or did they reveal a vital truth that needed to be told? The debate, like the war, seems unlikely to ever really end.

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- Addresses WA1, which was on Indonesia's independence but there are relevant points you should reflect on as you approach WA2

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Vietnam Background: Uneasy French Rule

* 1887: France imposes a colonial system over Vietnam, calling it French Indochina. The system includes Tonkin, Annam, Cochin China and Cambodia. Laos is added in 1893.

* February 1930: Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party at a meeting in Hong Kong.

* June 1940: Nazi Germany takes control of France.

* September 1940: Japanese troops invade French Indochina and occupy Vietnam with little French resistance.

* May 1941: Ho Chi Minh and communist colleagues establish the League for the Independence of Vietnam. Known as the Viet Minh, the movement aims to resist French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam.

* March 1945: Japanese troops occupying Indochina carry out a coup against French authorities and announce an end to the colonial era, declaring Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia independent.

* August 1945: Japan is defeated by the Allies in World War II, leaving a power vacuum in Indochina. France begins to reassert its authority over Vietnam.

* September 1945: Ho Chi Minh declares an independent North Vietnam and models his declaration on the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 in an (unsuccessful) effort to win the support of the United States.

* July 1946: Ho Chi Minh rejects a French proposal granting Vietnam limited self-government and the Viet Minh begins a guerrilla war against the French.

When Was the Vietnam War?

* March 1947: In an address to Congress, President Harry Truman states that the foreign policy of the United States is to assist any country whose stability is threatened by communism. The policy becomes known as the Truman Doctrine.

* June 1949: The French install former emperor Bao Dai as head of state in Vietnam.

* August 1949: The Soviet Union explodes its first atom bomb in a remote area of Kazakhstan, marking a tense turning point in the Cold War with the United States.

* October 1949: Following a civil war, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declares the creation of the People's Republic of China.

* January 1950: The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union formally recognize the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and both begin to supply economic and military aid to communist resistance fighters within the country.

* February 1950: Assisted by the Soviet Union and the newly Communist China, the Viet Minh step up their offensive against French outposts in Vietnam.

* June 1950: The United States, identifying the Viet Minh as a Communist threat, steps up military assistance to France for their operations against the Viet Minh.

* March-May 1954: French troops are humiliated in defeat by Viet Minh forces at Dien Bien Phu. The defeat solidifies the end of French rule in Indochina.

The Geneva Accords

* July 1954: The Geneva Accords establish North and South Vietnam with the 17th parallel as the dividing line. The agreement also stipulates that elections are to be held within two years to unify Vietnam under a single democratic government. These elections never happen.

* 1955: Catholic nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem emerges as the leader of South Vietnam, with U.S. backing, while Ho Chi Minh leads the communist state to the north.

* July 1959: The first U.S. soldiers are killed in South Vietnam when guerrillas raid their living quarters near Saigon.

* September 1960: Ho Chi Minh, facing failing health, is replaced by Le Duan as head of North Vietnam's ruling communist party.

* December 1960: The National Liberation Front (NLF) is formed with North Vietnamese backing as the political wing of the antigovernment insurgency in South Vietnam. The United States views the NLF as an arm of North Vietnam and starts calling the military wing of the NLF the Viet Cong-short for Vietnam Cong-san, or Vietnamese communists.

* May 1961: President John F. Kennedy sends helicopters and 400 Green Berets to South Vietnam and authorizes secret operations against the Viet Cong.

* January 1962: In Operation Ranch Hand, U.S. aircraft start spraying Agent Orange and other herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam to kill vegetation that would offer cover and food for guerrilla forces.

* February 1962: Ngo Dinh Diem survives a bombing of the presidential palace in South Vietnam as Diem's extreme favoritism toward South Vietnam's Catholic minority alienates him from most of the South Vietnamese population, including Vietnamese Buddhists.

* January 1963: At Ap Bac, a village in the Mekong Delta southwest of Saigon, South Vietnamese troops are defeated by a much smaller unit of Viet Cong fighters. The South Vietnamese are overcome despite their four-to-one advantage and the technical and planning assistance of U.S. advisers.

* May 1963: In a major incident of what becomes known as the "Buddhist Crisis," the government of Ngo Dinh Diem opens fire on a crowd of Buddhist protestors in the central Vietnam city of Hue. Eight people, including children, are killed.

* June 1963: A 73-year-old monk immolates himself while sitting at a major city intersection in protest, leading other Buddhists to follow suit in coming weeks. The United States' already declining confidence in Diem's leadership continues to slide.

* November 1963: The United States backs a South Vietnam military coup against the unpopular Diem, which ends in the brutal killing of Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Between 1963 and 1965, 12 different governments take the lead in South Vietnam as military coups replace one government after another.

America Enters the Vietnam War

* August 1964: USS Maddox on an espionage mission is attacked by North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second attack on the Maddox and another U.S. ship in the Gulf is alleged, but likely never occurred, according to National Security Agency documents declassified in 2005. The incidents lead President Johnson to call for air strikes on North Vietnamese patrol boat bases. Two U.S. aircraft are shot down and one U.S. pilot, Everett Alvarez Jr., becomes the first U.S. airman to be taken prisoner by North Vietnam.

* August 1964: The attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin spur Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorizes the president to "take all necessary measures, including the use of armed force" against any aggressor in the conflict.

* November 1964: The Soviet Politburo increases its support to North Vietnam, sending aircraft, artillery, ammunition, small arms, radar, air defense systems, food and medical supplies. Meanwhile, China sends several engineering troops to North Vietnam to assist in building critical defense infrastructure.

* February 1965: President Johnson orders the bombing of targets in North Vietnam in Operation Flaming Dart in retaliation for a Viet Cong raid at the U.S. base in the city of Pleiku and at a nearby helicopter base at Camp Holloway.

* March 1965: President Johnson launches a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Operation Rolling Thunder. The same month, U.S. Marines land on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam as the first American combat troops to enter Vietnam.

* June 1965: General Nguen Van Thieu of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Governmental Military (ARVN), becomes president of South Vietnam.

More Troops, More Deaths, More Protests

* July 1965: President Johnson calls for 50,000 more ground troops to be sent to Vietnam, increasing the draft to 35,000 each month.

* August 1965: In Operation Starlite, some 5,500 U.S. Marines strike against the First Viet Cong Regiment in the first major ground offensive by U.S. forces in Vietnam. The six-day operation diffuses the Viet Cong regiment, although it would quickly rebuild.

* November 1965: Nearly 300 Americans are killed and hundreds more injured in the first large-scale battle of the war, the Battle of la Drang Valley. At the battle, in South Vietnam's Central Highlands, U.S. ground troops are dropped onto and withdrawn from the battlefield by helicopter, in what would become a common strategy. Both sides declare victory.

* 1966: U.S. troop numbers in Vietnam rise to 400,000.

* June 1966: American aircraft attack targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that are among the first such attacks on cities in North Vietnam.

* 1967: U.S. troop numbers stationed in Vietnam increase to 500,000.

* February 1967: U.S. aircraft bomb Haiphong Harbor and North Vietnamese airfields.

* April 1967: Huge Vietnam War protests occur in Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco.

* September 1967: Nguyen Van Thieu wins the presidential election of South Vietnam under a newly enacted constitution.

* November 1967: In the Battle of Dak To, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces resist an offensive by communist forces in the Central Highlands. The United States forces suffer some 1,800 casualties.

* January-April 1968: A U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam is bombarded with massive artillery by communist forces from the People's Army of North Vietnam (PAVN). For 77 days, the marines and South Vietnamese forces fend off the siege.

North Vietnam Shocks America

* January 1968: The Tet Offensive begins, encompassing a combined assault of Viet Minh and North Vietnamese armies. Attacks are carried out in more than 100 cities and outposts across South Vietnam, including Hue and Saigon, and the U.S. Embassy is invaded. The effective, bloody attacks shock U.S. officials and mark a turning point in the war and the beginning of a gradual U.S. withdrawal from the region.

* February 11-17, 1968: This week records the highest number of U.S. soldier deaths during the war, with 543 American deaths.

* February-March 1968: Battles at Hue and Saigon end with American and ARVN victory as Viet Cong guerillas are cleared from the cities.

* March 16, 1968: At the U.S. massacre at Mai Lai, more than 500 civilians are murdered by U.S. forces. The massacre happens amid a campaign of U.S. search-and-destroy operations that are intended to find enemy territories, destroy them and then retreat.

* March 1968: President Johnson halts bombing in Vietnam north of the 20th parallel. Facing backlash about the war, Johnson announces he will not run for reelection.

* November 1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon wins the U.S. presidential elections on the campaign promises to restore "law and order" and to end the draft.

* May 1969: At Ap Bia Mountain, about a mile from the border with Laos, U.S. paratroopers attack entrenched North Vietnamese fighters in an attempt to cut off North Vietnamese infiltration from Laos. U.S. troops eventually capture the site (temporarily), which would be nicknamed Hamburger Hill by journalists due to the brutal carnage of the 10-day battle.

* September 1969: Ho Chi Minh dies of a heart attack in Hanoi.

* December 1969: The U.S. government institutes the first draft lottery since World War II, prompting ever more young American men-later disparaged as "draft dodgers"-to flee to Canada.

Gradual Withdrawal from Vietnam

* 1969-1972: The Nixon administration gradually reduces the number of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, placing more burden on the ground forces of South Vietnam's ARVN as part of a strategy known as Vietnamization. U.S. troops in Vietnam are reduced from a peak of 549,000 in 1969 to 69,000 in 1972.

* February 1970: U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger begins secret peace negotiations with Hanoi politburo member Le Duc Tho in Paris.

* March 1969-May 1970: In a series of secret bombings known as "Operation Menu," U.S. B-52 bombers target suspected communist base camps and supply zones in Cambodia. The bombings are kept under wraps by Nixon and his administration since Cambodia is officially neutral in the war, although The New York Times would reveal the operation on May 9, 1969.

* April-June 1970: U.S. and South Vietnamese forces attack communist bases across the Cambodian border in the Cambodian Incursion.

* May 4, 1970: In a bloody incident known as the Kent State Shooting, National Guardsmen fire on anti-war demonstrators at Ohio's Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine.

* June 1970: Congress repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to reassert control over the president's ability to use force in the war.

Vietnamization Falters, America Exits

* January-March 1971: In Operation Lam Son 719, ARVN troops, with U.S. support, invade Laos in an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They are forced to retreat and suffer heavy losses.

* June 1971: The New York Times publishes a series of articles detailing leaked Defense Department documents about the war, known as the Pentagon Papers. The report reveals the U.S. government had repeatedly and secretly increased U.S. involvement in the war.

* March-October 1972: The People's Army of Vietnam launches the large-scale, three-pronged Easter Offensive against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and U.S. forces. While North Vietnam gains control of more territory in South Vietnam, the offensive isn't the decisive blow its military leaders had hoped for.

* December 1972: President Nixon orders the launch of the most intense air offense of the war in Operation Linebacker. The attacks, concentrated between Hanoi and Haiphong, drop roughly 20,000 tons of bombs over densely populated regions.

* January 22, 1973: Former President Johnson dies in Texas at age 64.

* January 27, 1973: The Selective Service announces the end to the draft and institutes an all-volunteer military.

* January 27, 1973: President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese accept a cease fire. But as U.S. troops depart Vietnam, North Vietnamese military officials continue plotting to overtake South Vietnam.

* February-April 1973: North Vietnam returns 591 American prisoners of war (including future U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, John McCain) in what is known as Operation Homecoming.

How Many Were Killed in the Vietnam War?

* January 1975: President Ford rules out any further U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

* April 1975: In the Fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam is seized by communist forces and the government of South Vietnam surrenders. U.S. Marine and Air Force helicopters transport more than 1,000 American civilians and nearly 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon in an 18-hour mass evacuation effort.

* July 1975: North and South Vietnam are formally unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under hardline communist rule.

* The War Dead: By the end of the war, some 58,220 Americans lose their lives. Vietnam would later release estimates that 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed, up to 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and more than 2 million civilians were killed on both sides of the war.

Sources

The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History, created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, published by DK | Penguin Random House, 2017.
The Vietnam War: An Intimate History, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, based on the film series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, published by Penguin Random House, 2017.
Vietnam Profile - Timeline, BBC News, June 12, 2017.
Operation Starlite: The First Battle of the Vietnam War, Military.com.
South Vietnam: The Buddhist Crisis, Time.
Buddhists - The 1963 Crisis, GlobalSecurity.org.
Vietnam, Diem, the Buddhist Crisis, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
The Fall of Saigon, United States History.
What Were the Major Battles of the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War.
Statistical information about casualties of the Vietnam War, U.S. National Archives.
"Feuds and Bad Planning in Saigon Exit Recalled," The New York Times, May 5, 1975.
"Nixon Again Deplores Leak on Bombing Cambodia," The New York Times, March 11, 1976.
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume III, Vietnam, January-August 1963, The U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
"The Truman Doctrine Fades," The New York Times, May 4, 1975.

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A guide to the complex political and military issues involved in a war that would ultimately claim millions of lives.