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Discover the Vietnam War's unexpected challenges for America, its lasting ramifications at home, and the incalculable cost in lives lost and pain felt by veterans. Explore the defining moments in American history through a timeline of involvement, from Dien Bien Phu to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Uncover the government's attempts to misrepresent and conceal the truth, and the revealing impact of the Pentagon Papers.
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Vietnam U.S. Involvement
America faced a tougher challenge than expected against the North Vietnamese and the ramifications were felt back home, where a polarized population lived in constant tension. Today the cost is incalculable — the loss of life, the pain felt by grieving families, the slow and sometimes endless road to recovery for veterans. It was a defining time in American history. Wars have a way of being romanticized through time, but decades after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, the bitter taste resonates. Time Magazine
Dien Bien Phu, 1954 • A force of 40,000 heavily armed Vietminh lay siege to the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu. • Using Chinese artillery to shell the airstrip, the Vietminh make it impossible for French supplies to arrive by air. It soon becomes clear that the French have met their match.
"Domino Theory" and Southeast Asia • Responding to the defeat of the French by the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu, President Eisenhower outlines the Domino Theory: "You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly."
Geneva Accords, 1954 • Delegates from nine nations meet in Geneva to start negotiations that will lead to the end of hostilities in Indochina. • Vietnam is temporarily divided along the 17th parallel, with the Communists in the North.
Partitioned Vietnam Ho Chi Minh becomes the leader of Communist North Vietnam South Vietnam is supported by the US
1956 US Training South Vietnamese • The US military takes over from French, training South Vietnamese forces. • The US supports Ngo Dinh Diem, who becomes unpopular.
Ngo Dinh Diem • Strong Anti-Communist • He is Catholic (most of the country is Buddhist) • He is corrupt. • Killed in 1963.
Vietcong • By 1957, Communists oppositions in the South Vietnam began attacking the government supported by the United States.
Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1959 • Weapons Moving Along Ho Chi Minh TrailNorth Vietnam begins supply weapons into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. • The Trail will become a strategic target for future military attacks.
First U.S. Casualties, 1959 • US Servicemen Killed in Guerilla AttackMajor Dale R. Buis and Master Sargeant Chester M. Ovnand become the first Americans to die in the Vietnam War when guerillas strike at Bienhoa
National Liberation Front, 1960 • Hanoi forms National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Diem government dubs them "Vietcong." These are rebels who want South Vietnam to become Communist.
Timeline of Further United States Involvement The War Years
July 30, 1964On this night, South Vietnamese commandos attack two small North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. The U.S. destroyer Maddox, an electronic spy ship, is 123 miles south with orders to electronically simulate an air attack to draw North Vietnamese boats away from the commandos. August 4, 1964The captain of the U.S.S. Maddox reports that his vessel has been fired on and that an attack is imminent. Though he later says that no attack took place, six hours after the initial report, a retaliation against North Vietnam is ordered by President Johnson. American jets bomb two naval bases, and destroy a major oil facility. Two U.S. planes are downed in the attack 1964 American air power in Southeast Asia is massively reinforced. Two aircraft carriers arrive off the Vietnamese coast prompted by a North Vietnamese offensive in Laos.
The Tonkin ResolutionLet the Escalation Begin… • August 7, 1964The U.S. congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he sees necessary to defend southeast Asia.
Trouble and Misrepresentation • The Pentagon Papers: • These documents were a government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. • Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. • It was written by a team of analysts who had access to classified documents, and was completed in Jan., 1969.
What Was Disclosed? • The study revealed a considerable degree of miscalculation, bureaucratic arrogance, and deception on the part of U.S. policymakers. • In particular, it found that the U.S. government had continually resisted full disclosure of: • increasing military involvement in Southeast Asia air strikes over Laos, • raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and • offensive actions by U.S. marines had taken place long before the American public was informed.
The Times Reveals • On June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing a series of articles based on the study. The Justice Dept. obtained a court injunction against further publication on national security grounds, but the Supreme Court ruled (June 30) that constitutional guarantees of a free press overrode other considerations, and allowed further publication. • The government indicted (1971) Daniel Ellsberg, a former government employee who made the Pentagon Papers available to the New York Times,and Anthony J. Russo on charges of espionage, theft, and conspiracy. • On May 11, 1973, a federal court judge dismissed all charges against them because of improper government conduct.
