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"Because it was a war. A really fucked up war." - Playwright

Basic Vietnam War Info

Causes of Vietnam War:
1883-1945 - Cochin-China, southern Vietnam, and Annam and Tonkin, central and northern Vietnam, along with Cambodia and Laos make up colonial empire French Indochina.

1946 - Communists in the north begin fighting France for control of the country.

1949 - France establishes the State of Vietnam in the southern half of the country.

1951 - Ho Chi Minh becomes leader of Dang Lao Dong Vietnam, the Vietnam Worker's Party, in the north.

North Vietnam was communist. South Vietnam was not. North Vietnamese Communists and South Vietnamese Communist rebels, known as the Viet Cong, wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and re-unite the country.

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Other Facts:
1954 - North Vietnamese begin helping South Vietnamese rebels fight South Vietnamese troops, thus BEGINS the Vietnam conflict.

April 30, 1975 - South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnam as North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon, ENDING the Vietnam conflict.

The war was estimated to cost about $200 billion.

Anti-war opinion increased in the US from the mid-1960s on, with rallies, teach-ins, and other forms of demonstration. 

North Vietnamese guerrilla forces used the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of jungle paths and mountain trails, to send supplies and troops into South Vietnam.

The bombing of North Vietnam surpassed the total tonnage of bombs dropped on Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II.

Today, Vietnam is a communist state.

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US Troop Statistics:
Source: Dept. of Defense

8,744,000 - Total number of US Troops that served worldwide during Vietnam
3,403,000 served in Southeast Asia
2,594,000 served in South Vietnam

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US Deaths:
Battle: 47,434
Non-Battle: 10,786
Total In-Theatre: 58,220 

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1.3 million - Total military deaths for all countries involved

1 million - Total civilian deaths

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(Source)

(Source 1; Source 2)

Timeline of the War

I created a Vietnam War timeline for KCPT. (Click on the link and scroll to the bottom of the page.)

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Mapping the War 

An interactive map of the war in Vietnam.

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Abbreviated Vietnam War Timeline

1950

  • American advisors arrive in French Indochina

 

1951

  • U.S. signs an agreement with Saigon to aid South Vietnam

 

1952

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president

 

1953

  • U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon visits Vietnam

  • President Eisenhower approves budget to continue to supply military aid to Vietnam

 

1954

  • Vietnamese forces occupy the French command post and the French are defeated

  • Eisenhower outlines “Domino Theory”

  • Geneva Convention

 

1955

  • China and Soviet Union pledge support to Hanoi

  • Ngo Dinh Diem becomes President of Republic of Vietnam

  • The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty (SEATO) is ratified by the Senate and President Eisenhower

 

1956

  • Last of the French military leaves Vietnam

  • President Diem writes a new constitution

 

1957

  • Communist insurgency begins in South Vietnam

  • Captain Harry Cramer, Jr., dies in a munitions accident and is the first American killed in the Vietnam War

 

1958

  • Communist guerrillas attack north of Saigon

 

1959

  • Weapons move Ho Chi Minh Trail

  • Major Dale R. Buis and Master Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand are the first Americans to die from hostile fire in the Vietnam War

 

1960

  • John F. Kennedy is elected President

  • Vietcong (National Liberation Front) is formed

 

1961

  • President Kennedy appoints Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense, McGeorge Bundy as National Security Advisor

  • President Kennedy approves a counterinsurgency plan, expanding U.S. assistance

  • Bay of Pigs invasion

  • President Kenney sends Vice President Johnson to tour Saigon

  • President Diem declares a national state of emergency

 

1962

  • U.S. begins air support in South Vietnam

  • U.S. 39th Signal Battalion (strictly a communication unit) arrives in Vietnam

  • Strategic Hamlet program begins to provide security to rural populations

  • U.S. military employs Agent Orange

 

1963

  • Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc immolates himself in Saigon to protest President Diem

  • President Diem overthrown and assassinated

  • President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas

 

1964

  • General Nguyen Khanh takes power in Saigon

  • U.S. air power increases

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

  • Lyndon B. Johnson is elected President

  • First U.S. women serve as advisors in Saigon

 

1965

  • Operation Rolling Thunder begins

  • First American combat troops (Marines) arrive in Vietnam (Danang)

  • First conventional battle of the Vietnam War takes plays at War Ia Drang Valley (US vs. North Vietnamese units)

 

1966

  • First B-52 bombings of North Vietnam

  • President Johnson meets with South Vietnamese leaders

  • Veterans (from WWI and WWII) stage anti-war rally

 

1967

  • Operation Cedar Falls begins

  • Battle of Tra Binh Dong

  • Operation Junction City begins

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks out against the war

  • Battle of Dak To

 

1968

  • Tet Offensive

  • Battle for Hue

  • My Lai massacre

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. killed in Memphis

  • Paris peace talks begin

  • Robert Kennedy assassinated

  • Operation Rolling Thunder ends

  • Richard Nixon elected president

 

1969

  • President Nixon begins secret bombing of Cambodia

  • “Vietnamization” announced

  • Battle Hamburger Hill

  • Ho Chi Minh dies at 79

  • My Lai massacre news reaches U.S.

 

1970

  • Kent State Incident

  • Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho begin secret talks

 

1971

  • Lt. Calley is convicted of murder for My Lai

  • Pentagon Papers published by New York Times

  • Thieu re-elected in South Vietnam

 

1972

  • Secret peace talks revealed

  • Break-in at Watergate Hotel

  • Henry Kissinger says “peace is at hand”

  • President Nixon wins reelection

 

1973

  • Cease-fire signed in Paris

  • End of draft announced

  • Last American troops leave Vietnam

  • Kissinger and Le Duc Tho win Nobel Peace Prize

 

1974

  • Theiu announces renewal of war

  • President Nixon resigns

 

1975

  • Saigon falls

  • U.S. Marines and Air Force airlift thousands of U.S. civilians and South Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon

Anti-War Movement in the US

(Research from Hannah Taylor, Literary Manager)

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The anti-war movement began with small groups of students on college campuses. It wasn’t until 1965 that the movement began to have national prominence. The anti-war movement is marked by unprecedented student activism, the most prominent group being the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

 

The movement took place in the form of teach-ins, peaceful protests, marches, and draft resistance demonstrations. The most prominent anti-war demonstration took place on October 21, 1967 as more and more young men were being drafted. Approximately 100,000 protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial followed by around 30,000-50,000 who proceed to march on the Pentagon that night. See this video below. The movement peaked in 1969 when the Tet Offensive proved that the end of the war was nowhere in sight.

The anti-war movement began an unprecedented norm of distrust in government, particularly after four student protesters were killed by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970. In 1971, the Pentagon Papers were released, causing even more Americans to question the accountability of the U.S. government.

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(Source) 

Additional Anti-War Movement Resources

The Four Stages of Antiwar Movement

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The Other Side of the Anti-War Movement

“It must be nice fighting fights with just words and signs

But you’re not the one next to me on the front line.

So when ya tell me ya think it’s all just bullshit

You’re telling me that my family wasn’t worth it

Every story, however gory, has another side” - Quang

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What do Vietnamese-Americans Think of the Vietnam War? 

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"I am emotionally exhausted. By the end of this month, I will have seen 36 hours of documentary film about a momentous event that is the backbone of my identity. It doesn’t matter that I was born after the fighting ended. Whether I like it or not, the Vietnam War is my war, too."

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