Troop 202 houston

We hardly discussed it because it was not worth discussing. On 24 November , Johnson said, "the battle against communism The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, was made up of 12 members headed by General Duong Van Minh —whom Stanley Karnow , a journalist on the ground, later recalled as "a model of lethargy. An alleged NLF activist, captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border, is interrogated.

On 2 August , the USS Maddox , on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin. The circumstances of the attack were murky. Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish.

The second attack led to retaliatory air strikes, prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution , and gave the president power to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without declaring war. In the same month, Johnson pledged that he was not " An undated NSA publication declassified in , however, revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. Herring argues, however, that McNamara and the Pentagon "did not knowingly lie about the alleged attacks, but they were obviously in a mood to retaliate and they seem to have selected from the evidence available to them those parts that confirmed what they wanted to believe.

Between and the Army's strength rose from about , to nearly a million men. On 2 March , following an attack on a U. As well, it was aimed at bolstering the morale of the South Vietnamese. Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam. As one officer noted "this is a political war and it calls for discriminate killing.

The best weapon The worst is an airplane. Universal Newsreel film about an attack on U. Peasants suspected of being Vietcong under detention of U. After several attacks upon them, it was decided that U. Air Force bases needed more protection. The South Vietnamese military seemed incapable of providing security. On 8 March , 3, U. Marines were dispatched to South Vietnam. This marked the beginning of the American ground war.

In a statement similar to that made to the French almost two decades earlier, Ho Chi Minh warned that if the Americans "want to make war for twenty years then we shall make war for twenty years. If they want to make peace, we shall make peace and invite them to afternoon tea. The Marines' assignment was defensive. The initial deployment of 3, in March was increased to nearly , by December. Regardless of political policies, U. Previously communist forces had utilized hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, however at Binh Gia they had successfully defeated a strong ARVN force in conventional warfare.

Desertion rates were increasing, and morale plummeted. General William Westmoreland informed Admiral U. Grant Sharp, Jr. Pacific forces, that the situation was critical.

Phase 1. Commitment of U. Phase 2. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down, thrown on the defensive, and driven back from major populated areas. Phase 3. If the enemy persisted, a period of twelve to eighteen months following Phase 2 would be required for the final destruction of enemy forces remaining in remote base areas. The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the previous administration's insistence that the government of South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the guerrillas.

Westmoreland predicted victory by the end of Instead he emphasized continuity. The opponents were locked in a cycle of escalation. Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin with U. President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Glassboro Summit Conference where the two representatives discussed the possibilities of a peace settlement. The one-year tour of duty deprived units of experienced leadership.

As one observer noted "we were not in Vietnam for 10 years, but for one year 10 times. South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. A huge surge in corruption was witnessed. However, the communist insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility. This ended a series of coups that had happened more than once a year.

In , Thieu became president with Ky as his deputy, after rigged elections. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. However, Thieu outmanoevred and sidelined Ky by filling the ranks with generals from his faction.

Thieu was also accused of murdering Ky loyalists through contrived military accidents. Thieu, mistrustful and indecisive, remained president until , having won a one-man election in The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor" [] in its dealings with the media. Military information officers sought to manage media coverage by emphasizing stories that portrayed progress in the war. Over time, this policy damaged the public trust in official pronouncements.

As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called credibility gap developed. Main article: Tet Offensive. They launched the surprise Tet Offensive in the hope of sparking a national uprising.

Over cities were attacked, with assaults on General Westmoreland's headquarters and the U. Embassy, Saigon. Although the U. But the offensive had another, unintended consequence. General Westmoreland had become the public face of the war. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine three times and was named 's Man of the Year. In November Westmoreland spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support.

Despite its military failure, the Tet Offensive became a political victory and ended the career of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declined to run for re-election. Johnson's approval rating slumped from 48 to 36 percent.

As James Witz noted, Tet "contradicted the claims of progress It had a profound impact on domestic support for the conflict. The offensive constituted an intelligence failure on the scale of Pearl Harbor. Westmoreland became Chief of Staff of the Army in March, just as all resistance was finally subdued. The move was technically a promotion. However, his position had become untenable because of the offensive and because his request for , additional troops had been leaked to the media.

Westmoreland was succeeded by his deputy Creighton Abrams , a commander less inclined to public media pronouncements. On 10 May , despite low expectations, peace talks began between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam.

As historian Robert Dallek writes, "Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps Severe communist losses during the Tet Offensive allowed U. President Richard Nixon to begin troop withdrawals. The policy became known as " Vietnamization ". Vietnamization had much in common with the policies of the Kennedy administration.

One important difference, however, remained. While Kennedy insisted that the South Vietnamese fight the war themselves, he attempted to limit the scope of the conflict. Nixon said in an announcement, "I am tonight announcing plans for the withdrawal of an additional , American troops to be completed during the spring of next year.

This will bring a total reduction of , men in our armed forces in Vietnam below the level that existed when we took office 15 months ago. On 10 October , Nixon ordered a squadron of 18 Bs loaded with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviet Union that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War.

Nixon also pursued negotiations. Theater commander Creighton Abrams shifted to smaller operations, aimed at communist logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN. This policy helped to decrease global tensions. In September , Ho Chi Minh died at age seventy-nine.

The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the United States. Nixon appealed to the " silent majority " of Americans to support the war. But revelations of the My Lai Massacre , in which a U. Army platoon raped and killed civilians, and the " Green Beret Affair " where eight Special Forces soldiers, including the 5th Special Forces Group Commander were arrested for the murder [] of a suspected double agent [] provoked national and international outrage. The civilian cost of the war was again questioned when U.

Beginning in , American troops were being taken away from border areas where much more killing took place, and instead put along the coast and interior, which is one reason why casualties in were less than half of 's totals. Main article: Operation Menu. Prince Norodom Sihanouk had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since , [] but the communists used Cambodian soil as a base and Sihanouk tolerated their presence, because he wished to avoid being drawn into a wider regional conflict.

Under pressure from Washington, however, he changed this policy in The Vietnamese communists were no longer welcome. This violated a long succession of pronouncements from Washington supporting Cambodian neutrality.

Richard Nixon wrote to Prince Sihanouk in April assuring him that the United States respected "the sovereignty, neutrality and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia The country's borders were closed, while U. Victims of the My Lai Massacre.

The invasion of Cambodia sparked nationwide U. Four students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University during a protest in Ohio , which provoked public outrage in the United States.

The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, providing additional impetus for the anti-war movement. The top-secret history of U. The Supreme Court ruled that its publication was legal.

After meeting resistance, ARVN forces retreated in a confused rout. They fled along roads littered with their own dead. When they ran out of fuel, soldiers abandoned their vehicles and attempted to barge their way on to American helicopters sent to evacuate the wounded.

Many ARVN soldiers clung to helicopter skids in a desperate attempt to save themselves. Half of the invading ARVN troops were either captured or killed. The operation was a fiasco and represented a clear failure of Vietnamization. As Karnow noted "the blunders were monumental The South Vietnamese government's top officers had been tutored by the Americans for ten or fifteen years, many at training schools in the United States, yet they had learned little.

In Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers. As peace protests spread across the United States, disillusionment and ill-discipline grew in the ranks. Vietnamization was again tested by the Easter Offensive of , a massive conventional invasion of South Vietnam.

The VPA and NLF quickly overran the northern provinces and in coordination with other forces attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. But American airpower came to the rescue with Operation Linebacker , and the offensive was halted.

However, it became clear that without American airpower South Vietnam could not survive. The last remaining American ground troops were withdrawn in August. Operation Linebacker II , December The war was the central issue of the presidential election. Nixon's opponent, George McGovern , campaigned on a platform of withdrawal from Vietnam. In October , they reached an agreement.

However, South Vietnamese President Thieu demanded massive changes to the peace accord. When North Vietnam went public with the agreement's details, the Nixon administration claimed that the North was attempting to embarrass the President. The negotiations became deadlocked. Hanoi demanded new changes. The offensive destroyed much of the remaining economic and industrial capacity of North Vietnam.

Simultaneously Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement, threatening to conclude a bilateral peace deal and cut off American aid. On 15 January , Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam. A cease-fire was declared across North and South Vietnam. POWs were released. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of , called for national elections in the North and South.

The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U. The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.

Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. April Navy riverboat deploying napalm during the Vietnam War. Main article: Opposition to the U. Some advocates within the peace movement advocated a unilateral withdrawal of U. One reason given for the withdrawal is that it would contribute to a lessening of tensions in the region and thus less human bloodshed.

Early opposition to U. American support of Diem in refusing elections was thought to be thwarting the very democracy that America claimed to be supporting. John Kennedy, while Senator, opposed involvement in Vietnam. Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U. Others, such as Stephen Spiro opposed the war based on the theory of Just War. Some critics of U. These critics advocated U. Advocates of U.

High-profile opposition to the Vietnam War turned to street protests in an effort to turn U. On 15 October , the Vietnam Moratorium attracted millions of Americans. The fatal shooting of four anti-war protesters at Kent State University led to nation-wide university protests. After explosive news reports of American military abuses , such as the My Lai Massacre , brought new attention and support to the anti-war movement, some veterans joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Anti-war protests ended with the final withdrawal of troops after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in South Vietnam was left to defend itself alone when the fighting resumed. Many South Vietnamese fled to the United States. The United States began drastically reducing their troop support in South Vietnam during the final years of " Vietnamization ". Many U. North Vietnam was allowed to continue supplying communist troops in the South, but only to the extent of replacing materials that were consumed.

The communist leaders had expected that the ceasefire terms would favor their side. But Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U. Although McGovern himself was not elected U. On 15 March , U. President Richard Nixon implied that the United States would intervene militarily if the communist side violated the ceasefire.

Martin was a second stringer compared to previous U. Schlesinger stated that he would recommend resumption of U. On 4 June , the U. Senate passed the Case-Church Amendment to prohibit such intervention. The Vietcong resumed offensive operations when dry season began and by January it had recaptured the territory it lost during the previous dry season.

There had been over 25, South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period. Gerald Ford took over as U. Congress immediately voted in restrictions on funding and military activities to be phased in through and to culminate in a total cutoff of funding in A larger offensive might provoke a U. The strike was designed to solve local logistical problems, gauge the reaction of South Vietnamese forces, and determine whether U.

Phuoc Binh, the provincial capital, fell on 6 January Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun.

Congress refused. The fall of Phuoc Binh and the lack of an American response left the South Vietnamese elite demoralized. The speed of this success led the Politburo to reassess its strategy. At the start of , the South Vietnamese had three times as much artillery and twice the number of tanks and armoured cars as the opposition.

They also had 1, aircraft and a two-to-one numerical superiority in combat troops over their Communist enemies. They faced a well-organized, highly determined and well-funded North Vietnam. Much of the North's material and financial support came from the communist bloc. Within South Vietnam, there was increasing chaos. Their abandonment by the American military had compromised an economy dependent on U. South Vietnam suffered from the global recession that followed the Arab oil embargo.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references.

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. May On 10 March , General Dung launched Campaign , a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery.

If the town could be taken, the provincial capital of Pleiku and the road to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in Once again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of their success. Dung now urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and then turn his attention to Kon Tum. He argued that with two months of good weather remaining until the onset of the monsoon, it would be irresponsible to not take advantage of the situation. The president declared this to be a "lighten the top and keep the bottom" strategy.

But in what appeared to be a repeat of Operation Lam Son , the withdrawal soon turned into a bloody rout. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. As the ARVN tried to disengage from the enemy, refugees mixed in with the line of retreat.

The poor condition of roads and bridges, damaged by years of conflict and neglect, slowed Phu's column. As the North Vietnamese forces approached, panic set in. Often abandoned by the officers, the soldiers and civilians were shelled incessantly.

The retreat degenerated into a desperate scramble for the coast. By 1 April the "column of tears" was all but annihilated. Thieu's contradictory orders confused and demoralized his officer corps. Civilians flooded the airport and the docks hoping for any mode of escape. Some even swam out to sea to reach boats and barges anchored offshore. In the confusion, routed ARVN soldiers fired on civilians to make way for their retreat.

By 28 March, 35, VPA troops were poised to attack the suburbs. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces came to an end. With the northern half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered General Dung to launch the final offensive against Saigon.

Hanoi wished to avoid the coming monsoon and prevent any redeployment of ARVN forces defending the capital. For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders made a last stand to try to block the North Vietnamese advance. By 21 April, however, the exhausted garrison were ordered to withdraw towards Saigon. An embittered and tearful President Thieu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam.

In a scathing attack, he suggested U. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had tricked him into signing the Paris peace agreement two years ago, promising military aid that failed to materialise. At the time of the peace agreement the United States agreed to replace equipment on a one-by-one basis. But the United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days? The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50, of its young men.

Thousand of refugees streamed southward, ahead of the main communist onslaught. On 27 April , North Vietnamese troops encircled Saigon.

The city was defended by about 30, ARVN troops. To hasten a collapse and foment panic, the VPA shelled the airport and forced its closure. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out. Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.

Ambassador Graham Martin 's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Schlesinger announced early in the morning of 29 April the evacuation from Saigon by helicopter of the last U. Frequent Wind was arguably the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. But American public opinion had soured on this conflict.

In the United States, South Vietnam was perceived as doomed. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as North Vietnamese tanks breached defenses on the outskirts of Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.

Many of them had been employed by the Americans and were left to their fate. On 30 April , VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing key buildings and installations.

A tank crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace , and at a. President Duong Van Minh , who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered. The Communists had attained their goal, but the cost of victory was high. By war's end, the Vietnamese had been fighting foreign involvement or occupation primarily by the French, Chinese, Japanese, British, and American governments for years.

In , the People's Republic of China extended diplomatic recognition to the Viet Minh 's Democratic Republic of Vietnam and sent weapons, as well as military advisors led by Luo Guibo to assist the Viet Minh in its war with the French. China's ability to aid the Viet Minh declined when Soviet aid to China was reduced following the end of the Korean War in Moreover, a divided Vietnam posed less of a threat to China.

China provided material and technical support to the Vietnamese communists worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Chinese-supplied rice allowed North Vietnam to pull military-age men from the paddies and imposed a universal draft beginning in In the summer of , Mao Zedong agreed to supply Hanoi with 90, rifles and guns free of charge. Starting in , China sent anti-aircraft units and engineering battalions to North Vietnam to repair the damage caused by American bombing, rebuild roads and railroads, and to perform other engineering works.

This freed North Vietnamese army units for combat in the South. Sino-Soviet relations soured after the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia in August The Chinese also began financing the Khmer Rouge as a counterweight to the Vietnamese communists at this time.

China's withdrawal from Vietnam was completed in July The Khmer Rouge launched ferocious raids into Vietnam in — Vietnam responded with an invasion that toppled the Khmer Rouge. In response, China launched a brief, punitive invasion of Vietnam in On the anti-communist side, South Korea had the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam after the United States.

The first South Korean troops began arriving in and large combat battalions began arriving a year later, with the South Koreans soon developing a reputation for effectiveness. Indeed arguably, they conducted counterinsurgency operations so well that American commanders felt that Korean area of responsibility was the safest.

Approximately , South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam, each serving a one year tour of duty. Maximum troop levels peaked at 50, in , however all were withdrawn by Both nations had gained experience in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare during the Malayan Emergency and World War II. Their governments subscribed to the Domino theory. Australia began by sending advisors to Vietnam in , and combat troops were committed in More than 60, Australian personnel were involved during the course of the war, of which were killed and more than 3, wounded.

Some 10, Filipino troops were dispatched to South Vietnam. They were primarily engaged in medical and other civilian pacification projects. Thai Army formations, including the "Queen's Cobra" battalion, saw action in South Vietnam between and Thai forces saw much more action in the covert war in Laos between and , though Thai regular formations there were heavily outnumbered by the irregular "volunteers" of the CIA-sponsored Police Aerial Reconnaissance Units or PARU, who carried out reconnaissance activities on the western side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

COSVN using airspeed and direction would calculate the bombing target and tell any assets to move "perpendicularly to the attack trajectory. The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired USSR-made surface-to-air missiles at the B bombers , which were the first raiders shot down over Hanoi.

Fewer than a dozen Soviet citizens lost their lives in this conflict. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in , Russian officials acknowledged that the Soviet Union had stationed up to 3, troops in Vietnam during the war. Some Russian sources give more specific numbers: the hardware donated by the USSR included 2, tanks, 7, artillery guns, over 5, anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air rocket launchers.

Over the course of the war the Soviet money donated to the Vietnamese cause was equal to 2 million dollars a day. From July to the end of , fighting in Vietnam was attended by some 6, officers and generals, as well as more than 4, soldiers and sergeants of the Soviet Armed Forces. In addition, military schools and academies of the USSR began training Vietnamese soldiers — more than 10 thousand people. As a result of a decision of the Korean Workers' Party in October , in early North Korea sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese st and rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi.

They stayed through , and pilots were reported to have served. In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well.

North Korea also sent weapons, ammunition and two million sets of uniforms to their comrades in North Vietnam. The extent of manpower contributions to North Vietnam by the communist Republic of Cuba , under Fidel Castro , is still a matter of debate. Then and since, the communist Vietnamese and Cuban governments have not divulged any information on this matter. There are numerous reports by former U. Presidential candidate and former Vietnam prisoner of war, according to his book Faith of My Fathers.

Main article: Canada and the Vietnam War. Canada , India and Poland comprised the International Control Commission , which was supposed to monitor the ceasefire agreement. Main article: Republic of China in the Vietnam War. Communist forces were principally armed with Chinese [] and Soviet weaponry [] though some Viet Cong guerrilla units were equipped with Western infantry weapons either captured from French stocks during the first Indochina war or from ARVN units or requisitioned through illicit purchase.

The American M, which replaced the M, was considered more accurate and was lighter than the AK but was prone to jamming. Jamming problems were generally associated with poor maintenance but these problems were remedied with the issuance of cleaning kits and better maintenance. They played an important role in infantry support though there were few actual tank versus tank battles. Artillery was used extensively by both sides but the Americans were able to ferry the lightweight mm M howitzer by helicopter to remote locations on quick notice.

At sea, the U. Navy had the run of the coastline, using aircraft carriers as platforms for offshore strikes and other naval vessels for offshore artillery support. Offshore naval fire played a pivotal role in the Battle for the city of Hue, providing accurate fire in support of the U. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge enacted a genocidal policy that killed over one-fifth of all Cambodians, or more than a million people.

In response, China invaded Vietnam in From to , some , ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat as refugees or were expelled across the land border with China. The Pathet Lao overthrew the royalist government of Laos in December They established the Lao People's Democratic Republic. More than 3 million people fled from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, many as " boat people ". Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept refugees.

Vietnam War memorial in the new Chinatown in Houston , Texas. In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. We thought that we were going into another Korean War , but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business.

It's very dangerous. Some have suggested that "the responsibility for the ultimate failure of this policy [America's withdrawal from Vietnam] lies not with the men who fought, but with those in Congress Yet in Vietnam the Army experienced tactical success and strategic failure Vietnam War 's Success rests not only on military progress but on correctly analyzing the nature of the particular conflict, understanding the enemy's strategy, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of allies.

A new humility and a new sophistication may form the best parts of a complex heritage left to the Army by the long, bitter war in Vietnam. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Gerald Ford that "in terms of military tactics, we cannot help draw the conclusion that our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war.

Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail. Doubts surfaced as to the effectiveness of large-scale, sustained bombing. As he remarked, "I still doubt that the North Vietnamese would have relented. The inability to bomb Hanoi to the bargaining table also illustrated another U.

The North's leadership was composed of hardened communists who had been fighting for independence for thirty years. They had successfully defeated the French, and their tenacity as both nationalists and communists was formidable. Ho Chi Minh is quoted as saying, "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours But even at these odds you will lose and I will win. The Vietnam War called into question the U. Army doctrine. Marine Corps General Victor H. Krulak heavily criticised Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives More than 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War.

By war's end, 58, soldiers were killed, [A 2] more than , were wounded, and at least 21, were permanently disabled. Of those killed in combat, An estimated , Americans fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, [] and approximately 50, American servicemen deserted.

One of the most controversial aspects of the U. They were used to defoliate large parts of the countryside. These chemicals continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain. Early in the American military effort it was decided that since the enemy were hiding their activities under triple-canopy jungle, a useful first step might be to defoliate certain areas. This was especially true of growth surrounding bases both large and small in what became known as Operation Ranch Hand.

Corporations like Dow Chemical Company and Monsanto were given the task of developing herbicides for this purpose. The defoliants, which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands, included the " Rainbow Herbicides "— Agent Pink , Agent Green , Agent Purple , Agent Blue , Agent White , and, most famously, Agent Orange , which included dioxin as a by-product of its manufacture.

About 12 million gallons 45,, L of Agent Orange were sprayed over Southeast Asia during the American involvement. Navy patrol boats were vulnerable to attack from the undergrowth at the water's edge. In and , the Kennedy administration authorized the use of chemicals to destroy rice crops.

Between and , the U. Air Force sprayed 20 million U. Another purpose of herbicide use was to drive civilian populations into RVN-controlled areas. As of , the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,, victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam dioxin levels remain at over times the accepted international standard.

Veterans Administration has listed prostate cancer , respiratory cancers , multiple myeloma , Diabetes mellitus type 2 , B-cell lymphomas , soft tissue sarcoma , chloracne , porphyria cutanea tarda , peripheral neuropathy , and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Although there has been much discussion over whether the use of these defoliants constituted a violation of the laws of war, the defoliants were not considered weapons, since exposure to them did not lead to immediate death or incapacitation.

Main article: Vietnam War casualties. Selection from a U. The number of military and civilian deaths from to is debated. Some reports fail to include the members of South Vietnamese forces killed in the final campaign, or the Royal Lao Armed Forces, thousands of Laotian and Thai irregulars, or Laotian civilians who all perished in the conflict. They do not include the tens of thousands of Cambodians killed during the civil war or the estimated one and one-half to two million that perished in the genocide that followed Khmer Rouge victory, or the fate of Laotian Royals and civilians after the Pathet Lao assumed complete power in Laos.

In , the Vietnamese government reported that its military forces, including the NLF, suffered 1. Civilian deaths were put at two million in the North and South, and economic reparations were expected. Hanoi concealed the figures during the war to avoid demoralizing the population. The Vietnam War has been featured heavily in television, film, video games, and literature in the participant countries.

Trinh Cong Son was a South Vietnamese songwriter famous for his anti-war songs. Vietnam portal. United States portal. Main article: Outline of the Vietnam War. Aircraft losses of the Vietnam War. Awards and decorations of the Vietnam War.

Dak Son Massacre. Draft lottery Kit Carson Scouts. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War. Major General Michael D. Patrol Craft Fast. Protests of The Sixties Unplugged. Tiger Force. United States Air Force in Thailand. United States Army Special Forces in popular culture. Weapons of the Cambodian Civil War.

Weapons of the Vietnam War. Winter Soldier Investigation. Cambodian Civil War. Indochina Wars. Laotian Civil War. North Vietnamese invasion of Laos. History of Cambodia. History of Laos.

List of conflicts in Asia. Retrieved 17 October During the height of U. At the war's end, there were approximately 2, U. Source: Harry G. Summers, Jr. Koch Vision. Event occurs at minutes. ISBN Department of Veterans Affairs. Congressional Research Service. A History of the World , Routledge, Martin's Press, , p. ISBN X. The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February Holly E. Reed and Charles B.

Washington, D. Ben Kiernan. New Haven, Conn. Retrieved 28 April Martin's Press, Retrieved 5 March G and Joseph L. Retrieved 18 August Social Science. Indiana University Press; Ho Chi Minh: the missing years, Tokyo foundation. October Retrieved 10 June Troubled days of peace: Mountbatten and South East Asia command, Manchester University Press ND.

Involvement in the Franco-Viet Minh War', p. Routledge Retrieved 11 June Gravel, ed. Jeffries Trap Door to the Dark Side ". Praeger, Murti, Asian Publishing House, Retrieved 21 January London, Ebury Press: London, Ebury Press: 46—7. Mandate for Change. Garden City, New Jersey. Battlefield Vietnam: A Brief History. Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June New York, Vintage: — Bruscino 16 October Combat Studies Institute Press. Vietcong units regularly threw grenades into crowds and vehicles, fired small arms into villages at night, assassinated and kidnapped village leaders and teachers, and burned down sections of villages.

Human Cost of Communism in Vietnam. II , p. Department of Defense, U. Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam Presidential Studies Quarterly. A Grand Delusion , Basic Books, Boston, Massachusetts Beacon Press, , vol. Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Was Kennedy Planning to Pull out of Vietnam? New York, New York.

John F. Kennedy Library, , Tape V, Reel 1. Army in Vietnam. Available online. The Counterinsurgency Era. Free Press, , p. Boston, Massachusetts McGraw Hill, , p. Government Printing Office, , vol. Averell Harriman and Dean Acheson spoke a different language.

I've told you that when I want you I'll call you. Before a small group, including Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Speaking through an interpreter, a local guard explained to me that a handful of Vietcong agents had entered the hamlet one night and told the peasants to tear it down and return to their native villages. The peasants complied without question. Summons of the Trumpet: U.

Presidio Press. Retrieved 27 April Lewis, Delta Books, August Retrieved 7 May Curtis E LeMay. Pew Research Center.

Letter to Martin Niemoeller. December The Vietnam Wars: — Harper, , p. Triumph forsaken: the Vietnam War, — Cambridge University Press.

Lyndon Johnson's War. New York, W. Norton, , p. CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers pp. The Times : p. New York: St. The Isaiah's Rock Christmas grocery and toy giveaway event has continued to be a vital resource in the lives of many families in southern California. We are grateful to be able to support them in their mission to provide for those in need during the Christmas holiday. Our project includes a variety of efforts.

Leading up to the giveaway, our scouts work with a team of dedicated bicycle enthusiasts to assemble, refurbish, clean, and ready bicycles for the annual giveaway. The evening before the giveaway, recipient families gather overnight in the chilly December air on the grounds of the Chino civic complex in anticipation of the following day's giveaway.

The troop works to provide the families with warm drinks and dutch oven desserts. The Let It Be Foundation's mission is, "To provide ongoing support and services to families of children diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

Their annual 5K Run fundraiser has become an marquis event in the Chino Valley community. In support of their efforts our scouts volunteer to serve breakfast to race participants. Search this site. Troop Living the Adventure of Scouting Since Report abuse.