The domino theory was the idea that if one key nation in a region came under the control of communists, others would follow like toppling dominoes. The theory was used by many United States leaders during the Cold War to justify U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. The "domino theory" was applied by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his top advisers in 1954 to describe the prospects of 'communist expansion' in Asia if Indochina were to fall
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Prior to World War II Vietnam had been a colony of the French. During World War II the Japanese took control of the area. When the war ended there was a power vacuum. Vietnamese revolutionary and communist Ho Chi Minh wanted freedom for the country of Vietnam. However, the Allies all agreed that Vietnam belonged to the French.
Eventually Ho Chi Minh and his rebels began to fight the French. Ho's soldiers in the north were called the Viet Minh. Ho tried to get US help, but they didn't want Ho to succeed as they were worried about communism spreading throughout Southeast Asia. When Ho began to have success against the French, the US became more concerned. In 1950 they began sending aid to the French in Vietnam. Source: www.ducksters.com |
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After 1945, American involvement in Vietnam was driven and shaped by the Cold War. American foreign policy was largely shaped by the Truman Doctrine(1947), which held that communism must be contained and that governments susceptible to communist infiltration and takeover must be assisted. If this did not occur then communism would expand its global reach, jumping from one nation to its neighbours (the Domino Theory). This particularly relevant to Asia, where national governments were weaker and borders were poorly controlled; Asian nations, therefore, had a lower capacity for resisting communist infiltration and invasion. Having spread from China to North Korea, American planners believed that communism would continue its movement further south to nations like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaya and Indonesia. If these countries fell then communists would rule more than one-quarter of the globe: from East Germany to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
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The draft lottery was based on birth dates. There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates (including February 29) placed into a deep glass container. The capsules was drawn by hand, opened one by one and then assigned to a sequence number started from “001” until “366”. The first date drawn was September 14 followed by April 24, which was assigned to “001” and “002” respectively. The drawing process continued until each day of the year was assigned to a lottery number. The lower the number was, the higher probability men with the corresponding birthday would be called to serve.
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The anti-war 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 the administration policy in Vietnam, a small but outspoken liberal minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965. This minority included many students as well as prominent artists and intellectuals and members of the hippie movement, a growing number of young people who rejected authority.
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Music's Impact on Anti-War Ideas:
Music during the Vietnam war was very influential especially with the anti-war movement in the U.S. This movement sparked a generation of peace-lovers and protesters know as the "hippies". Even though the anti-war movement was not part of the actual battle in Vietnam, it was definitely part of the fight. When the war began, many Americans believed that defending Vietnam from communism was in the interest of America. But as the war raged on, and more and more soldiers were dying, the Anti war movement grew until it was a powerful protest movement. There were cries for peace across the U.S. , and the movement pressured politicians and leaders. Music was a big part of the Anti-war movement, with popular music artists voicing they're protests through song, Artists like Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Bob Dylan. These types of artists were very popular and influential, they had a huge amount of influence on young adults. And young adults were the key to the anti-war movement |
Ia Drang Valley:
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Gulf of Tonkin Resolution:
Why was it important? The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed on August 7, 1964 by nearly a unanimous vote in Congress President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Joint Resolution for the Maintenance of Peace and Security in Southeast Asia, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, on August 10, 1964, giving President Lyndon Johnson a free hand to escalate the war in Vietnam. What happened there? On July 31, 1964, the American destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731)began a reconnaissance mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. The official purpose of the mission was to obtain information about North Vietnamese coastal defense forces. Other similar U.S. ships were involved in supporting South Vietnamese commando raids on the North Vietnamese coast during the same period. On August 2, 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats, mistaking the Maddoxfor a South Vietnamese vessel, launched a torpedo and machine gun attack on it. Responding immediately to the attack, the Maddox, with the help of air support from the nearby carrier Ticonderoga, destroyed one of the attacking boats and damaged the other two. The Maddox, suffering only superficial damage by a single machine gun bullet, retired to South Vietnamese waters where she was joined by the C. Turner Joy. On August 4, a DESOTO patrol to North Vietnam coast was launched by Maddox and the C. Turner Joy. The former got radar signals that they believed to be another attack by the North Vietnamese. For some two hours the ships fired on radar targets and maneuvered vigorously amid electronic and visual reports of torpedoes. It is highly unlikely that any North Vietnamese forces were actually in the area during this gunfight. Captain John J. Herrick even admitted that it was nothing more than an "overeager sonarman" who "was hearing ship's own propeller beat." Also in 1995, General Vo Nguyen Giap, commander-in-chief of North Vietnamese forces at the time, disavowed any involvement with the August 4 incident, though he did confirm the August 2 attack. |
Tet Offensive:
Why was it important? The Tet Offensive ended on September 23, 1968 and was a turning point in the Vietnam War. Although the north Vietnamese suffered massive casualties it gained a psychological and political victory for the communists, dramatically contradicting optimistic claims by the U.S. government that the Vietnam War was all but over. What happened there? On January 30, 1968, during Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, a massive surprise attack was launched by the Vietnamese. The surprise attack became known as the 'Tet Offensive' in which the communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla forces began a coordinated series of ferocious attacks on more than 100 south Vietnamese cities and towns, including the former, ancient imperial capital of Hue. There was even an attack by the Viet Cong on the American Embassy in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. In the same week of the Tet Offensive, the tally of American soldiers who had died in Vietnam passed that of the Korean War. |
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Khe Sanh
Why was it important? This battle was a critical part of the war, highlighting the need on both sides for development of new military tactics. Khe Sanh itself was abandoned on June 23, 1968 since it no longer had any military value. What happened there? The main assaults on the base started on January 21, 1968. A number of massive attacks on Khe Sanh took place over the week, but eventually it became clear the Marines positions were well developed. The buildup nevertheless continued on both sides, and while the US troops were eventually prepared to launch small offensives against the PAVN forces pouring into the area, they were unable to do so due to the heavily forested areas in the valleys between themselves and the fortified hills. After this the tempo slowed and the battle became more of a siege, with the almost continual artillery duels soon turning the base into a huge trench system looking more like the trench warfare of World War I than Vietnam. The US turned to air power as a way out of the stalemate, and called in huge bombardments on the hills by B-52's flown from Okinawa. Soldiers on both sides still express awe to this day when talking about them; the attacks gave absolutely no warning, and suddenly an entire hill would be completely covered with exploding bombs. Meanwhile U.S. losses from artillery fire were made up by continuous resupply. Attempts by the PAVN to shut down the runway were never entirely successful and pointless due to the massive number of helicopters the US could have deployed in such an emergency. The PAVN soon attempted to reopen the battle using the tactics that had been successful at Dien Bien Phu, starting the construction of a major trenchwork/tunnel system in an attempt to enter the base under cover. However the airpower available to the US was of an entirely different nature than that of the French forces a decade earlier and whenever a trench system was detected a B-52 strike would turn the area into a moonscape, completely erasing the engineering efforts. Two further major assaults followed on March 17-18th and the 29th. Both were repulsed, the second one with ease, and it was now clear that the base would not fall to PAVN attacks. At this point the PAVN divisions were recalled and the battle slowly ended. The Americans held Khe Sanh throughout the siege, and were eventually officially relieved by the 2nd Cavalry on April 6th, 1968, and all fighting was over two days later. |
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The Fall of Saigon
Why is it important? Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30th1975. The fall of Saigon (now Ho Chin Minh City) effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War. What happened there? After the introduction of Vietnamisation by President Richard Nixon, US forces in South Vietnam had been constantly reduced leaving the military of South Vietnam to defend their country against the North. Saigon had already experienced direct military action in 1968 when as part of the Tet Offensive North Vietnamese forces had appeared in Saigon and for a short time had entered the US Embassy. However, brief their incursion may have been, the appearance of North Vietnamese forces in the South’s capital had been a shock. By 1975, what remained of the South Vietnamese Army was not capable of withstanding the advance of the North and it was an inevitability that Saigon would fall to communist forces. North Vietnamese tanks smashed down the gates at the Presidential Palace to accept the surrender of General Minh. By the end of April 30th, South Vietnam was wholly under the control of North Vietnam who swiftly announced the creation of a united Vietnam. Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh City. |
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Vietnam is one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history.
-PBS It should go without saying that the Vietnam War is remembered by different people in very different ways. Most Americans remember it as a war fought between 1965 and 1975 that bogged down their military in a struggle to prevent the Communists from marching into Southeast Asia, deeply dividing Americans as it did. The French remember their loss there as a decade-long conflict, fought from 1945 to 1954, when they tried to hold on to the Asian pearl of their colonial empire until losing it in a place called Dien Bien Phu. The Vietnamese, in contrast, see the war as a national liberation struggle, or as a civil conflict, depending on which side they were on, ending in victory in 1975 for one side and tragedy for the other.... The point is not that one perspective is better or more accurate than the other. What's important, rather, is to understand how the colonial war, the civil war and the Cold War intertwined to produce such a deadly conflagration.
CHRISTOPHER GOSCHA, "The 30-Years War in Vietnam", New York Times, February 7, 2017 |
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. Of those killed, 17,539 were married. The average age of the men killed: 23.1 years. |