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“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

During the Vietnam War the M42 (Duster) tracked self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) vehicle influenced the future versatility and capabilities of the Air Defense Artillery systems of today’s United States Army. This system put a lasting impression on the minds and confidence of the American Army Soldiers. These Soldiers actively participated in defending the South Vietnamese from the North Vietnamese and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communist). Not only did the M42 Duster (SPAAG) raise the moral and boost confidence with the American Soldiers, it instilled fear and discouraged the enemy from attacking positions that were fortified with versatile air defense systems. This

Because Johnson believed in the domino theory, that if one county turned Communist, namely Vietnam, then neighboring nations would also turn Communist, his approach to the Vietnam War was to escalate the attacks to the point in which the Communists could no longer fight back. Johnson escalated the war through a variety of attacks, including Operation Rolling Thunder, which was the first of many aerial bombings on North Vietnam. Moreover, it was under Johnson’s administration that tens of thousands of American troops were dispatched to Vietnam which was another factoring intensifying the war. On the contrary, Nixon’s approach to the war in Vietnam was to pull out American troops because he valued American lives over containing Communism in Vietnam. Therefore, because the war had reached a stalemate by the time Nixon was in office and he valued American lives over containing communism, he implemented the process of Vietnamization, the organized transaction of American troops in Vietnam that were replaced by South Vietnamese troops. The reason why Johnson chose to escalate the war while Nixon tried to bring American troops home was because of their differing political views. Since Johnson was a Democrat and held some fairly liberal beliefs, like helping the impoverished at any cost, it was only natural for him to show compassion for the South Vietnamese by fighting Communism in order to create a better quality life for them even if it meant sacrificing American lives. However, because Nixon held more conservative views and believed in preserving order in one’s own nation before reaching out to others, Nixon implemented the process of Vietnamization in order to bring

In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since

On January 30th 1968 over 80,000 Vietcong soldiers launched a surprise attack on over 100 towns and cities in South Vietnam. This is known as the Tet Offensive. The US army and South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) launched a counter-attack which regained all lost territory and crippled the military capabilities of the Vietcong. Some historians argue Tet was not as important as it appears to be. However, it is widely considered to be a pivotal turning point in the Vietnam War, causing the US military to change strategy to Vietnamisation, turning US public opinion against the war, and resulting in President Johnson not standing for re-election. It it provided a catalyst

Widespread disaster, extreme mobilization, heightened fears and are all characteristics of war. The Vietnam War was a war that spanned almost twenty years, with over a decade of those years involving the United States military forces. During the war, elections so if things aren’t going your country’s way on the battlefront you are going to be on the hot seat. This is exactly what happened for Lyndon B Johnson amidst the Vietnam War. The year was 1968, with the incumbent President, not running for office anymore. The President of the United States was up for grabs and between the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon, in order to gain the upper hand in this election, would sabotage peace talks in Vietnam and end

January 30, 1968, 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces had launched the Tet Offensive, which were fierce surprise attacks to Central South Vietnam. These attacks established many of the first views that Americans had seen first hand that were put out for them to see. General Vo Nguyen Giap, “leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the

During the time of the war the Vietnam came about war a different way than the Americans. The Americans used the same strategy they used in WW2 which seemed to be very successful for us and the Vietnamese used an all out, no grudge strategy known as guerilla warfare. This strategy had no petty on mankind. A group of people sprayed trees, houses, grass and etc with a chemical called herbicides. They sprayed over 19 million gallons of it across about 4.5 million acres of land.

By 1972, North Vietnam staged one of its largest attacks yet, prompting Nixon to order more bombings upon the cities of North Vietnam.

Commitment towards the recovery of isolated personnel has remained a steadfast value in the military throughout the evolution of warfare and supports the stronghold of the Warrior Ethos, “never leave a fallen comrade behind.” The rescue of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Iceal “Gene” Hambleton is regarded as the “largest, longest, and most complex search and rescue operation” by American Forces during the Vietnam War. On Easter Sunday, April 2 1972, Hambleton was serving on board of a United States Air Force EB-66 aircraft (call sign Bat 21) as a navigator in a flight of 2 aircraft, which was escorting 3 B-52 bombers, when his aircraft was destroyed by a SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM). As the sole survivor, Hambleton was able to eject from his

The Vietnam War was a civil war that divided the country that began in 1954 and ended in 1975. From 1945 to 1964, the United States fought in a proxy war, which is a conflict where neither country of both side are directly involved each other, by sending supplies and aids to South Vietnam rebels. The government of Southern Vietnam wants to follow a democratic type of government like the United States while the North follows a communist regime. The North wanted to reunify the whole country under the ideology of a communist government. In 1965, the United States began to become directly involved in the war. I think that January 31st, 1968 was an important event in this period because it was the time of the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive was

The entire US government and the Democratic party were split into pro-war and antiwar factions also affected by the attack turned the Americans against the idea of the war from happening. In February 1968, Robert McNamara is Johnson’s own secretary of defense who resigned. Also in February 1968, over 500,000 US troops were stationed in Vietnam, but almost 30,000 of the troops had been killed in an unknown war that was hard to win and defeat. In March 1968, the American policy and public makers alike were dumbfounded when the leaders of of the Joint Chiefs of staff and Westmoreland requested 200,000 more soldiers in order to send to Vietnam(173). Johnson contradicted Westmoreland the additional troops due to Westmoreland’s request of threatened the army’s strategy of victory of erosion and aroused multiple foreign policy officials along with Dean Acheson, who is the former secretary of state. The North Vietnamese Army benefitted no territory for more than a brief period, comparing 3,000 dead South Vietnamese and Americans together comparing to 40,000 Vietnamese Communist troops dead. But as a result Ho Chi Minh’s armies were severely blemished due to the Tet

The planned attacks by communist forces inside South Vietnam’s major cities and towns that began around the Vietnamese new year of 1 February 1968. The coordinated attacks from the Vietcong on major urban areas and military bases in the attempt to rouse a popular resistance of the anti-Saigon and American forces. The heaviest contact lasted for three weeks in cities, such as Hue. Both sides took massive causalities, but the large number of loses of the Vietcong led to the PAVN to take the primary role of aggressor against the South. Furthermore, the fighting destabilized the weakened South Vietnamese government, because of large wave of displaced refugees. The largest impact of the Tet Offensive surprise attack was the crumbing American support

While Easter Offensive was happening, Henery Kissinger was negotiating with the North Vietnamese. However, the North Vietnamese negotiator walked away from the negotiation table and the Nixon administration gave the North Vietnamese an ultimatum; return to the negotiation table or else. The North Vietnamese did not return and Nixon retaliated with the Linebacker offensive. The new offensive included sending 700 B-52 bombers and 1,000 jet fighters to bomb the City of Hanoi for 11 days. Nixon also ordered bombing on the NVA in the cities they had taken during the Easter Offensive. The Linebacker offensive was successful and 8 days after the operation had ended, the North Vietnamese began negotiations again

In 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, eventually known as the Viet Cong, began to battle the government of the South Vietnamese. The United States then sent 2,000 military advisors t support South Vietnam’s government. This number grew to 16,3000 by 1963. The military force slowly deteriorated. By 1963 the fertile Mekong Delta was lost to the overpowering Viet Cong. The war rose in 1965, when President Johnson issued commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and ground forces, which had risen to 536,000 by 1968. The Tet Offensive by North Vietnam turned many Americans against the waging war. President Nixon, following Johnson, promoted Vietnamization, the withdrawing of American troops and handing over the great responsibility of the war to South Vietnam. Protesting of the war dramatically increased, especially after Nixon’s attempt to slow North Vietnam forces and supplies into the South by sending American forces to destroy supply bases in Cambodia in 1970, which violated Cambodian neutrality. This provoked antiwar protests on many of the United Stats’ college campuses. In 1968 through 1973 attempts were made to end the ongoing conflict through diplomacy. Then in January 1973, an agreement was reached. U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam and the U.S. POWs were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was once again united. The Vietnam War ended, but it took the lives of 58,000