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History > 20th century > Cold War > USA, Vietnam
Timeline in articles, pictures, podcasts and videos
warning: graphic / distressing
1962-1975
L'intervention américaine au Vietnam a suivi la guerre d'Indochine française pour empêcher l'emprise communiste sur la péninsule.
Après Dien Bien Phu (1953) et surtout à partir de 1963, les Américains menèrent une guerre de plus en plus impopulaire jusqu'à leur retrait en 1973.
La chute de Saigon (1975) marqua leur départ définitif.
(...)
2,5 millions de morts en une dizaine d'années au Vietnam, dont 58 000 Américains jusqu'au retrait du contingent en 1973. Source : A Savoir, Libération, 12.2.2004 http://www.liberation.com/page.php?Article=178242 - broken link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1026782.stm https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/vietnam-war
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/ http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/index.html http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/ http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/vietnam-67 https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/03/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/03/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/02/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/20/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/sep/26/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/sep/25/
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/21/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/us/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/02/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/05/01/
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/01/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/01/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/04/30/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/vietnam-
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/30/
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/29/
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/29/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/25/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/arts/television/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/22/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/feb/27/
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/21/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/feb/01/
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/20/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/
https://www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2013/oct/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/28/usa.features11
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1973/jan/15/usa.fromthearchive
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/09/
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/11/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1971/mar/09/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1969/oct/16/
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1968/feb/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/century/year/
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 or one side and tragedy for the other.
For the Vietnamese, it was above all a 30-year conflict transforming direct and indirect forms of fighting into a brutal conflagration, one that would end up claiming over three million Vietnamese lives.
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 by 1967. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/opinion/the-30-years-war-in-vietnam.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/
Vietnam War Ended 40 Years Ago But Lives On For MIA Families NYT 23 April 2015
Vietnam War Ended 40 Years Ago But Lives On For MIA Families Video NYT 23 April 2015
The Vietnam War ended 40 years ago this month, but for the families of 1,600 U.S. service members who remain missing in action, it lives on.
KPBS reporter Susan Murphy talked to one MIA family in San Diego about their search for closure.
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wShCJNT1z2E#t=82
Secretary of State Henry Alfred Kissinger
Tran Thien Khiem 1925-2021
Premier Khiem, right, with President Nguyen Van Thieu, center, in Saigon in September 1970.
As President Thieu’s right-hand man, he led a crackdown on the regime’s opponents.
Photograph: Bettmann, via Getty Images
Tran Thien Khiem, 95, Dies; a Power in South Vietnam Before Its Fall For six years he was the nation’s second in command, a master of political intrigue who had plotted and thwarted coups before fleeing the Communist victory in 1975. NYT July 2, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/
Tran Thien Khiem 1925-2021
a power in South Vietnam before its fall
For six years he was the nation’s second in command, a master of political intrigue who had plotted and thwarted coups before fleeing the Communist victory in 1975.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/
Bui Tin 1927-2018
North Vietnamese colonel who had a prominent role in the Vietnam War’s final moments but later fled the country and became an unlikely critic of its ruling Communist Party
(...)
Colonel Tin personally accepted the surrender of South Vietnam in 1975.
He was also present at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, when Vietnamese revolutionaries defeated French troops to secure their country’s independence.
Though Colonel Tin was a high-ranking army officer and a onetime disciple of Ho Chi Minh, the founding president, he went into exile in France in 1990.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/
Melvin Robert Laird Jr. 1922-2016
as President Richard M. Nixon’s first secretary of defense (Melvin Laird) quietly challenged the administration’s hawkish military policies during the war in Vietnam, prompting deep suspicion — and even spying — between the White House and the Pentagon http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/us/melvin-laird-died.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/us/
Roger Hilsman Jr. 1919-2014
foreign policy adviser in the Kennedy administration who helped draft a cable giving tacit American support to a coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem
of South Vietnam
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/
Vo Nguyen Giap 1911 (some sources say 1912) - 2013
relentless and charismatic North Vietnamese general whose campaigns drove both France and the United States out of Vietnam
(...)
General Giap was among the last survivors of a generation of Communist revolutionaries who in the decades after World War II freed Vietnam of colonial rule and fought a superpower to a stalemate.
(...)
To his American adversaries, however, from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, he was perhaps second only to his mentor, Ho Chi Minh, as the face of a tenacious, implacable enemy.
And to historians, his willingness to sustain staggering losses against superior American firepower was a large reason the war dragged on as long as it did, costing more than 2.5 million lives — 58,000 of them American — sapping the United States Treasury and Washington’s political will to fight, and bitterly dividing the country in an argument about America’s role in the world that still echoes today.
(...)
About 94,000 French troops died in the war to keep Vietnam, and the struggle for independence killed, by conservative estimates, about 300,000 Vietnamese fighters.
In the American war, about 2.5 million North and South Vietnamese died out of a total population of 32 million.
America lost about 58,000 service members. www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/world/asia/gen-vo-nguyen-giap-dies.html
www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/
William Wallace Momyer Jr. 1916-2012
celebrated World War II fighter pilot who helped plot postwar tactics for the Air Force and commanded aerial combat and bombing operations during the early years of the Vietnam War
(...)
During the Tet offensive in 1968, when North Vietnamese forces attacked South Vietnam’s cities and military bases, General Momyer’s high-flying B-52 Stratofortresses pounded enemy troops at Khe Sanh with 100,000 tons of explosives.
The operation, dubbed Niagara, inflicted heavy losses on the North Vietnamese, who eventually broke off the attack.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/us/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/us/
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach 1922-2012
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach (...) helped shape the political history of the 1960s, facing down segregationists, riding herd on historic civil rights legislation and helping to map Vietnam War strategy as a central player in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/us/nicholas-katzenbach-1960s-political-shaper-dies-at-90.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/us/
Stanley Burnet Resor 1917-2012
as secretary of the Army from 1965 to 1971, Stanley Burnet Resor oversaw the troop buildup in Vietnam, investigated the massacre of civilians by American soldiers at My Lai and laid the groundwork for the all-volunteer Army
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/us/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/us/
John Franklin Baker Jr. 1945-2011
John F. Baker Jr. received the Medal of Honor for saving eight fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War while under heavy fire http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/us/john-f-baker-jr-who-saved-8-gis-in-1966-dies-at-66.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/us/
David Dean Rusk 1909-1994
President Lyndon Johnson, left, meeting with Dean Rusk at the White House in 1967.
Photograph: PhotoQuest/Getty Images
Opinion VIETNAM '67 Was Vietnam Winnable? By Mark Moyar May 19, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/
United States secretary of state from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the Franklin Roosevelt administration.
He had been a high government official in the 1940s and early 1950s, as well as the head of a leading foundation.
He is cited as one of the two officers responsible for dividing the two Koreas at the 38th parallel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Rusk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/
Vietnam's President Thieu resigns >
23 January 1973
Nixon announces Vietnam peace deal
The US president, Richard Nixon, appears on national television to announce "peace with honour" in Vietnam.
Statements issued simultaneously in Washington and Hanoi confirmed the peace deal was signed in Paris at 1230 local time, bringing to an end America's longest war. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/23/newsid_2506000/2506549.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/23/
15 January 1973
Nixon orders ceasefire in Vietnam
President Nixon orders a halt to American bombing in North Vietnam following peace talks in Paris. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/newsid_2530000/2530549.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/15/
18-29 December 1972
Operation Linebacker II
Operation Linebacker II was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by U.S. Seventh Air Force, Strategic Air Command and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
The operation was conducted from 18 to 29 December 1972, leading to several informal names such as "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombings".
In Vietnam, it is just simply called "12 days and nights" (12 ngày đêm) and "Operation Dien Bien Phu in the air" (Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ trên không) or just simply "Dien Bien Phu in the air" (Điện Biên Phủ trên không).
Unlike the Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Linebacker air interdiction operations, Linebacker II was designed to be a "maximum effort" bombing campaign to "destroy major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas, which could only be accomplished by B-52s".
It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since World War II.
Wikipedia - 16 October 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/16/
May 1972
Operation Linebacker
Operation Linebacker was the codename of a U.S. Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 air interdiction campaign conducted against North Vietnam from 9 May to 23 October 1972, during the Vietnam War.
Its purpose was to halt or slow the transportation of supplies and materials for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), an invasion of the South Vietnam by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) that had been launched on 30 March.
Linebacker was the first continuous bombing effort conducted against North Vietnam since the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in November 1968.
Wikipedia - 16 October 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/29/
‘I am a big supporter of Save the Children and flew to Vietnam in 1972 to photograph the work they were doing with orphaned children.
This little girl, like so many in the war, had been terribly injured by a mine. The image still remains for me one of the most difficult I have recorded’
Photograph: Brian Aris
From the Troubles to glam rock: through the eyes of Brian Aris – in pictures The British photographer started off covering civil unrest and ended up shooting the Queen – a new exhibition takes you on the wild ride G Thu 22 Jun 2023 07.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/jun/22/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/jun/22/
Black and white soldiers > Segregation
Black soldiers at Camp McDermott stand by a barbed-wire fence intended to segregate their living quarters from those of white soldiers.
Oct. 10, 1970.
Photograph: Brent Procter Overseas Weekly Collection/ Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Forgotten Images of the Vietnam War Made for the Americans Who Fought In It NYT Aug. 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/
Agent Orange
Planes spraying Agent Orange 20 miles southeast of Saigon in 1970.
Photograph: Dick Swanson The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images
The Forgotten Victims of Agent Orange Viet Thanh Nguyen and Richard Hughes NYT VIETNAM '67 SEPT. 15, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/
Xuan Loc, about 100 kilometers north of Saigon. South Vietnam. April 13, 1970.
Photograph: Hiroji Kubota Magnum Photos
Hiroji Kubota, Photographer NYT Nov. 18, 2015
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/
Tuàn (on the right) had gone to get medicine and food from American soldiers when this image was taken.
Shortly afterwards, he and his family were forced to flee.
They were fired at by the North Vietnamese Army, and his mother was badly injured.
Photograph: Bob Shirley
Finding Vietnam's war children – in pictures In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, US medic Bob Shirley photographed a group of local children. Nearly 50 years later photographer Reed Young caught up with them, and found out what happened next Reed Young and Bob Shirley G Friday 27 February 2015 16.30 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/feb/27/
Hồ Chí Minh 1890-1969
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/09/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/08/
first American troop drawdowns 1969
As part of the first American troop drawdowns of the war, Marines departed Vietnam at Da Nang. July 14, 1969.
Photograph: Associated Press
He Enlisted at 14, Went to Vietnam at 15 and Died a Month Later Dan Bullock, a boy from Brooklyn, was the youngest American killed in the war. NYT June 7, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/
Battle for Hamburger Hill May 1969
A US paratrooper, wounded in the battle for Hamburger Hill, grimaces in pain as he awaits medical evacuation at base camp near the Laotian border on 19 May 1969
Photograph: Hugh Van Es AP
Vietnam: The Real War – in pictures G Wednesday 22 April 2015 11.13 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/apr/22/vietnam-
Vietnam: Draw Down - Hamburger Hill PBS
Vietnam: Draw Down - Hamburger Hill Aired: 05/26/2010 06:49 Rating: TV-G
May, 1969 The Battle of Hamburger Hill, fought in the thick jungle of the mountainous A Shau Valley in South Vietnam, was an attempt to seize a heavily fortified enemy base camp.
Ultimately the hill was seized, but the battle waged on many days, with many wounded and killed.
Veterans recall the haunting memories of the fight. (Part 2/7) PBS
https://www.pbs.org/video/
The Battle of Hamburger Hill, fought in the thick jungle of the mountainous A Shau Valley in South Vietnam, was an attempt to seize a heavily fortified enemy base camp.
Ultimately the hill was seized, but the battle waged on many days, with many wounded and killed. http://video.pbs.org/video/1500485810/
https://www.pbs.org/video/
General William C. Westmoreland 1914-2005
South Vietnamese soldier crouched next to badly bleeding woman while awaiting medical aid during an attack by the Viet Cong.
Location: Saigon, Vietnam
Date taken: 1968
Photograph: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=f5c1bcd70abe8526 - broken link
A US paratrooper guides a medevac helicopter down to pick up soldiers injured during a five-day patrol in Vietnam in April 1968.
Photograph: Art Greenspon AP
Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption G Wednesday 22 April 2015 06.00 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/22/
A refugee faces questioning by a U.S. Marine. March 1968.
Photograph: Brent Procter Overseas Weekly Collection Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Forgotten Images of the Vietnam War Made for the Americans Who Fought In It NYT Aug. 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/
on Feb. 25, 1969, (...), as a young lieutenant in the Navy SEALs, (Bob Kerrey) led his squad into the Vietnamese village of Thanh Phong.
By the time they withdrew, 20 civilians had been slaughtered, including 13 children, according to survivors.
(...)
Kerrey was awarded a Bronze Star after his unit falsely reported that it had killed 21 Vietcong guerrillas.
For more than 30 years he kept silent until The New York Times and CBS News were about to publish a joint investigation in 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/
1968
Battle of Ben Cui
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/11/
Mi Lai massacre March 16, 1968
February 12, 1968
Phong Nhi massacre
South Korea, then ruled by a military leader, sent some 320,000 troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Vietnam, the largest contingent of any U.S. ally.
On Feb. 12, 1968, South Korean marines entered the village of Phong Nhi in South Vietnam's Quang Nam province.
It was less than two weeks into the Tet offensive, launched by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, and the marines were looking for Viet Cong fighters.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, 8 years old at the time, says the marines gunned down residents indiscriminately.
She and her family members fled into an underground bomb shelter.
"The Korean soldiers found us and forced us to come out," she tells NPR in an interview from Vietnam.
"If we didn't, they would have dropped a grenade into the shelter. That was a terrifying situation."
But the terror only worsened.
"Everyone started to come out, and as they did, they were shot, one by one."
Now 63, Nguyen says South Korean marines killed more than 70 people in her village and a neighboring one.
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/12/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/12/
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/
Tet offensive Jan. 31, 1968 - Feb. 25, 1968
An American soldier awaiting transportation away from the front line in Hue, Vietnam, in February 1968.
Photograph: Don McCullin courtesy of Glitterati Editions
Beyond the Myth of the War Photographer In “Shooting War,” the psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein explores the complexity of photographers’ day-to-day work covering conflict and human depravity. NYT Dec. 18, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/
From left to right: Secretary of State Dean Rusk, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House.
9 February 1968
Photograph: Yoichi Okamoto (1915–1985)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoichi_Okamoto
Saigon
Viet Cong dead after an attack on the perimeter of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Source: Vietnam Center and Archive 1 Feb. 1968 Description: ASVG-S-1031-65/AGA68 RVN
Photograph: SP5 Edgar Price Pictorial A.V. Plt. 69th Sig. Bn. (A) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Deadvietcong2.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
12 February 1967 - 19 January 1968
Bình Định Province
Operation Pershing
CAN938 1ST CAVALRY DIVISION OF US ARMY BURNS DOWN VILLAGE IN BINH DINH PROVINCE Video AP Archive
(19 Feb 1967) Troops of the 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army burn down huts in a village in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam during Operation Pershing. Villagers, including children, douse the smoking straw roofs of their homes. **Cuts of z070439**
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29IUvzkNdc8
CAN938 OPERATION PERSHING OFFENSIVE CONTINUES US SOLDIERS DEAL WITH CIVILIANS, SEARCH VILLAGES, BURY Video AP Archive
(20 Feb 1967) American soldiers perform operations searching Vietnamese villages. Operation Pershing was a long-range offensive against elements of the NVA 610th Div and VC units, conducted by the 1st and 9th USA CAV Division between 12 February 1967 and 19 January 1968. Losses occurred to Viet Cong, American soldiers and civilians. **Cuts of z071835 ** Possible cuts from a0038208
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29IUvzkNdc8
CAN938 OPERATION PERSHING OFFENSIVE CONTINUES
(20 Feb 1967) Operation Pershing was a long-range offensive against elements of the NVA 610th Div and VC units, conducted by the 1st and 9th USA CAV Divisions between 12 February 1967 and 19 January 1968. Losses occurred to Viet Cong, American soldiers and civilians. **Cuts of z071835 ** Possible cuts from a0038208
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5lDZw-SdnI
The second wave of combat helicopters of the 1st Air Cavalry Division fly over an RTO and his commander on an isolated landing zone during Operation Pershing, a search and destroy mission on the Bong Son Plain and An Lao Valley of South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.
The two American soldiers are waiting for the second wave to come in.
Photograph: Patrick Christain Getty Images
Congress revisits approval for Iraq invasion, recalling change of heart on Vietnam NPR March 25, 2023 10:54 AM ET
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/
Operation Pershing
operation conducted by the 1st Cavalry Division, the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 22nd Division and the South Korean Capital Division in Bình Định Province, lasting from 12 February 1967 to 19 January 1968.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pershing
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/
Phoenix Program
In late December 1967, the government of South Vietnam announced a reorganization of its war effort against the country’s Communist insurgency.
Effective immediately, all South Vietnamese counterinsurgency activities became part of a new program known as Phuong Hoang, a reference to a magical bird associated with royalty and power in Vietnamese and Chinese cultural traditions.
In response to the South Vietnamese move, American officials in Vietnam began referring to their own counterinsurgency coordination efforts by the name that they deemed the closest Western analogue to the mythical creature: Phoenix.
The Phoenix program would become one of the most controversial aspects of America’s war in Vietnam.
Sponsored by the C.I.A., Phoenix used paramilitary teams to target undercover Communist operatives in villages throughout South Vietnam.
Witnesses claimed that members of the program’s teams and their American advisers routinely carried out torture, murders and assassinations, accusations that American officials denied.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/
Records show that members of Tiger Force shot or stabbed at least 81 civilians in violation of military law.
But based on The Blade’s interviews with former soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, the platoon is believed to have killed hundreds of unarmed villagers in the Central Highlands between May and November of 1967.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/
November 1967 Battles of Dak To
Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade filing past bodies of fellow soldiers killed in the Battle of Dak To.
Photograph: Al Chang Associated Press
The Secret History of a Vietnam War Airstrike Gone Terribly Wrong NYT Jan. 31, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/
In some of the heaviest fighting seen in the Central Highlands area, heavy casualties are sustained by both sides in bloody battles around Dak To, about 280 miles north of Saigon near the Cambodian border. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-dak-to-begins
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/
1967
Summer
rapid escalation of (US) involvement in Vietnam
(in the summer) there were some 500,000 American troops in the country
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/
On June 19, 1967, American forces engaged in a bloody fight for the Can Giuoc District of Long An Province, leaving 38 Americans and 250 Vietcong dead, and hundreds more wounded.
By mid-June of 1967, 40,000 men were receiving their draft notices every month to serve in a war that had already cost billions of dollars and 15,000 American lives.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/
June and July, 1967
Tiger Force’s killing of women and children
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/
'Pennsylvania'
secret talks between Washington and Hanoi (...) began in June 1967
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/
May 1967
Maj. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter commander in the Vietnam War led an extraordinary rescue operation that saved the lives of dozens of airborne troops who had been ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers in May 1967.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/
Operation Prairie IV April 20, 1967-May 17, 1967
A Marine held a wounded comrade while under fire during Operation Prairie in 1967.
Photograph: Dotation Catherine Leroy, via Contact Press Images
In Her Own Words, Photographing the Vietnam War NYT Sep. 27, 2017
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/
operation conducted by the United States Marine Corps in the area around Con Thien, South Vietnam known as Leatherneck Square
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/
Operation Junction City February - March - April 1967
American soldiers of 2nd Batt, 503rd Airborne Inf., 173rd Airborne Div. gear up for a long range patrol during Operation Junction City.
Location: Vietnam
Date taken: March 1967
Photographer: Co Rentmeester
Life Images
In one of the largest air-mobile assaults ever, 240 helicopters sweep over Tay Ninh province, beginning Operation Junction City.
The goal of Junction City is to destroy Vietcong bases and the Vietcong military headquarters for South Vietnam, all of which are located in War Zone C, north of Saigon.
Some 30,000 U.S. troops take part in the mission, joined by 5,000 men of the South Vietnamese Army.
After 72 days, Junction City ends.
American forces succeed in capturing large quantities of stores, equipment and weapons, but there are no large, decisive battles. http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html
http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html
1966-1967
documentary > The Anderson Platoon
The Anderson Platoon (French: La Section Anderson, released in 1966 in Europe, 1967 in the US) is a documentary feature by Pierre Schoendoerffer about the Vietnam War, named after the leader of the platoon - Lieutenant Joseph B. Anderson - with which Schoendeorffer was embedded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anderson_Platoon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://www.nytimes.com/1967/12/18/
January 1967
the First and 25th Infantry Divisions of the United States Army began Operation Cedar Falls, their all-out offensive against the Communist strongholds of the “Iron Triangle” northwest of Saigon
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/
1967
Historians, veterans and journalists recall 1967 in Vietnam, a year that changed the war and changed America.
Paul Szep India ink with scraping out on scratchboard, 1967. Published in The Boston Globe, 1967
Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/craws/images/05883r.jpg http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/craws/craws-exhibit.html
https://www.nytimes.com/column/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/
fierce firefight for control of Hill 484 1966
Wounded machine gunnery sergeant Jeremiah Purdie is led past a stricken comrade after a firefight for control of Hill 484 in Vietnam.
Photograph: Larry Burrows The LIFE Picture Collection/Gett
Photojournalism in a world of words – in pictures A striking selection of images that have helped to change history G Sat 5 Dec 2015 08.15 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/dec/05/
Related
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/apr/28/
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2013/01/27/
Vietnam Wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (C) being led past stricken comrade after fierce firefight for control of Hill 484 during the Vietnam war
Location: Vietnam
Date taken: 1966
Photographer: Larry Burrows 1926-1971
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=81efd1973e1b843b
Related
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2013/01/27/
1966
Inside a Hanoi Prison
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/
July 1966
Operation Hastings
The mission was to block North Vietnamese troops from infiltrating the demilitarized zone between the Communist-led North and the American-backed South.
After three days of fighting and severe casualties, American commanders ordered a withdrawal. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/john-j-mcginty-iii-war-hero-dies-at-73.html
http://www.pbs.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/
Vietnam Marines recovering dead comrade while under fire during N. Vietnamese/US mil. conflict over DMZ, w. photog. Catherine LeRoy w. cameras in rear: S. Vietnam.
Location: Vietnam
Date taken: 1966
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images
American Marines aid a wounded comrade during intense battle for Hill 484 as part of Operation Prairie being conducted near the DMZ during the Vietnam War.
Location: Vietnam
Date taken: October 1966
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=581dfff283dda8f6
January 1966
US assault on a Vietcong stronghold at Bao Trai
Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Vietcong fire on 1 January 1966.
Paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (background) escorted the civilians through a series of firefights during the US assault on a Vietcong stronghold at Bao Trai, about 20 miles west of Saigon
Photograph: Horst Faas AP
Vietnam: The Real War – in pictures G Wednesday 22 April 2015 11.13 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/apr/22/vietnam-
Route Nine Defensive-Vietnam
undated photograph
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=5e841ff2ad0749b6
1965 in the Vietnam War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
November 1965
Battle of Ia Drang
The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army-NVA (People's Army of Vietnam-PAVN), part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War.
It comprised two main engagements.
The first involved the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment and supporting units, and took place November 14–16, 1965 at LZ X-Ray, located at the eastern foot of the Chu Pong massif in the central highlands of Vietnam.
The second engagement involved the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment plus supporting units, and took place on November 17 at LZ Albany, farther north in the Ia Drang Valley.
It is notable for being the first large scale helicopter air assault and also the first use of B-52 strategic bombers in a tactical support role. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ia_Drang
A wounded American soldier returning to the X-ray landing zone in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam, November 15, 1965.
Photograph: Neil Sheehan The New York Times
At the Bloody Dawn of the Vietnam War NYT NOV. 13, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/
A wounded American soldier in Vietnam in 1965.
Photograph: Peter Arnett Associated Press
Will the Vietnam War Ever Go Away? NYT APRIL 24, 2015
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/
September 1965
https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/01/
Battle of An Ninh September 1965
Bodies of US paratroopers lie near a command post during the battle of An Ninh, 18 September 1965.
The paratroopers, of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, were hit by heavy fire from guerrillas that began as soon as the first elements of the unit landed.
The dead and wounded were later evacuated to An Khe, where the 101st was based.
The battle was one of the first of the war between major units of US forces and the Vietcong
Photograph: Henri Huet/AP
Vietnam: The Real War – in pictures G Wednesday 22 April 2015 11.13 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/apr/22/
March 2, 1965
Operation "Rolling Thunder" Begins
Johnson approves Rolling Thunder in February, believing that a program of limited bombing in North Vietnam will deter support for Vietcong.
Rolling Thunder continues for three years and eight months, involving 305,380 raids and 634,000 tons of bombs.
Results include:
818 pilots killed and hundreds more captured;
182,000 civilians killed in North Vietnam. https://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html
https://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline
The first American combat troops to arrive in Vietnam landed in the coastal city of Danang (...).
The 2,000 Marines had the job of protecting the nearby U.S. air base.
It took the members of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade almost an entire day to bring their men and materiel ashore that day in March 1965.
(...)
The number of U.S. servicemen in country eventually would reach more than half a million.
But 10 years after that beach landing (...) North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, bringing an end to the Vietnam War, which the Vietnamese call the "American War."
More than 57,000 Americans died fighting that war;
Vietnamese losses on both side were far greater — by some estimates, as many as 2 million.
Danang, where the combat troops first landed, saw more than its fair share of death.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/02/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/05/02/
insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies.
Viet Cong's underground tunnel network in South Vietnam.
The vast tunnel network became a key base and shelter for Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese units during the war http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04kxnbt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04kxnbt
Terrified Vietnamese mother running w. her injured child during a fight between US and Viet Cong forces near Cape Batangan.
Location: Cape Batangan, Vietnam
Date taken: November 1965
Photographer: Paul Schutzer
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=fa01dda4bba0d9c5 - broken link
Civilians huddling after an attack by South Vietnamese forces in Dong Xoai in 1965.
Photograph: Horst Faas Associated Press, via PBS
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Tackle the Vietnam War NYT SEPT. 1, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/
A South Vietnamese stretcher-bearer wears a face mask to protect himself from the smell as he passes the bodies of US and South Vietnamese soldiers killed fighting the Vietcong in the Michelin rubber plantation, 27 November 1965.
More than 100 bodies were recovered after the Vietcong overran South Vietnam’s 7th Regiment, 5th Division, killing most of the regiment and several US advisers.
The plantation, situated midway between Saigon and the Cambodian border, was the scene of frequent fighting throughout the war
Photograph: Horst Faas AP
Vietnam: The Real War – in pictures G Wednesday 22 April 2015 11.13 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/apr/22/vietnam-
A Vietnamese litter bearer wears a face mask to keep out the smell as he passes the bodies of U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers killed in fighting against the Viet Cong at the Michelin rubber plantation, about 45 miles northeast of Saigon, Nov. 27, 1965.
More than 100 bodies were recovered after a human wave assault by guerrillas.
AP Photo/Horst Faas
Boston Globe > Big Picture Vietnam, 35 years later 7 May 2010 http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/vietnam_35_years_later.html
US army helicopters provide covering fire for South Vietnamese troops as they attack a Vietcong camp near the Vietnam-Cambodia border in March 1965.
Photograph: /Horst Faas AP
Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption After the military victory, Vietnam’s socialist model began to collapse. Cut off by US-led trade embargos and denied reconstruction aid, it plunged into poverty. Now its economy is booming – but so is inequality and corruption G Wednesday 22 April 2015 06.00 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/22/vietnam-
Vietnam.... A Marine from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, moves a Viet Cong suspect to the rear during a search and clear operation held by the battalion 15 miles west of Da Nang Air Base
08/03/1965
Source NARA
Author US Marine Corps /PFC G. Durbin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vietcongsuspect.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War Primary source > NARA ARC Identifier 532431 / Local Identifier 127-N-A185020 http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=532431
Route Nine Defensive-Vietnam
undated photograph
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=59c02024df1238d3 - broken link
Route Nine Defensive-Vietnam
undated photograph
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=ee50902cba2bb314 - broken link
Route Nine Defensive-Vietnam
undated photograph
Photographer: Larry Burrows
Life Images http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=b4c44ce6393ac2e2 - broken link
After a while, senseless brutality became little more than a mere spectator sport.
We found this young woman --in her early 20s at most-- lying on the road as we swept it for mines.
It was the first thing in the morning, barely after sunup, but a group of South Vietnamese soldiers and a few civilians had already gathered around.
She had been shot at point blank range sometime during the night.
It was alleged that she was a Viet Cong sympathizer and had been stripped of her clothing as a further embarrassment to her family.
Someone else had covered her over in plastic but as we arrived, the soldiers had removed part of it and were having a good laugh.
It was hard to believe someone as young and innocent looking as she could be the enemy but we soon learned that we could never be sure who to trust.
Steven Curtis. The Vietnam I remember > The enemy.
added 26 September 2004. http://www.stevencurtis.com/vietnam/Stories/enemy.htm http://www.stevencurtis.com/vietnam/author.html
August 5, 1964
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, also called Tonkin Gulf Resolution, resolution put before the U.S. Congress by President Lyndon Johnson on Aug. 5, 1964, assertedly in reaction to two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and August 4, respectively.
Its stated purpose was to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, in taking all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
It also declared that the maintenance of international peace and security in Southeast Asia was vital to American interests and to world peace.
Both houses of Congress passed the resolution on August 7, the House of Representatives by 414 votes to nil, and the Senate by a vote of 88 to 2.
The resolution served as the principal constitutional authorization for the subsequent vast escalation of the United States’ military involvement in the Vietnam War.
Several years later, as the American public became increasingly disillusioned with the Vietnam War, many congressmen came to see the resolution as giving the president a blanket power to wage war, and the resolution was repealed in 1970.
In 1995 Vo Nguyen Giap, who had been North Vietnam’s military commander during the Vietnam War, acknowledged the August 2 attack on the Maddox but denied that the Vietnamese had launched another attack on August 4, as the Johnson administration had claimed at the time. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/249172/Gulf-of-Tonkin-Resolution
https://www.britannica.com/event/
November 1, 1963
1963 South Vietnamese coup
With Washington's tacit approval (...) (President) (Ngo Dinh) Diem (1901-1963) and his brother were captured and later killed
Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu (1910-1963), had raided the Buddhist pagodas of South Vietnam, claiming that they had harbored the Communists that were creating the political instability.
The result was massive protests on the streets of Saigon that led Buddhist monks to self-immolation.
The pictures of the monks engulfed in flames made world headlines and caused considerable consternation in Washington.
By late September, the Buddhist protest had created such dislocation in the south that the Kennedy administration supported a coup.
In 1963, some of Diem's own generals in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) approached the American Embassy in Saigon with plans to overthrow Diem.
With Washington's tacit approval, on November 1, 1963, Diem and his brother were captured and later killed.
Three weeks later, President Kennedy was assassinated on the streets of Dallas. http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/history/
https://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/
https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/08/28/
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/14/
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/17/
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/01/
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/01/
Servicemen lined up at Tan Son Nhut Airfield, in South Vietnam, during services for American killed in action in 1962.
Photograph: Larry Burrows The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images
I Survived Vietnam. Will I Survive This Pandemic? Chance rules. Leaders lie. Deaths become statistics. The parallels between the disease and the war are everywhere. NYT May 9, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/
Related Photographer: Larry Burrows Life Images http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/8bd91f6ec83011cb_large http://images.google.com/hosted/life/8bd91f6ec83011cb.html
Operation Ranchhand begins - Early 1962
Anglonautes > History > 20th century > Cold War
USA > Vietnam > Vietnam War 1962-1975
Kent State University shootings - May 4, 1970
Civil rights > USA > Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Anglonautes > Arts > Photography
Related > Anglonautes > Vocapedia
conflicts, wars > civilians > migrants, refugees
boxing > Muhammad Ali 1942-2016
photojournalism, photojournalists
Related
General Vang Pao 1929-2011
a charismatic Laotian general who commanded a secret army of his mountain people in a long, losing campaign against Communist insurgents, then achieved almost kinglike status as their leader-in-exile in the United States
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/
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