Haiphong is the major port and third largest city in North Vietnam. The majority of North Vietnam’s imports arrive through the port of Haiphong, which is connected by railroad with Hanoi. During the Vietnam War, Haiphong was a major supply depot and was heavily bombed from 1965 until 1968, when bombing was curtailed by President Johnson. During the attacks, much of the population was evacuated and the industry dispersed. Continue reading
Arc Light Operations
Code name for the overwhelming aerial raids of B-52 Stratofortresses against enemy positions in Southeast Asia, the first B-52 Arc Light raid took place on June 18, 1965, on a suspected Vietcong base north of Saigon. Elements of the 2nd and 320th Bombardment Wings, of the Strategic Air Command, had deployed from the United States to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam. Shortly after this strike, the results of which were inconclusive, many Americans began to question the advisability of “swatting flies with sledgehammers.” Such criticism became increasingly common during the eight years of Arc Light operations. Continue reading
LAMBEAU FIELD
LAMBEAU FIELD
Those who attended the game said it was extremely emotional to see the entire bowl of the stadium turn red, white and blue. It took 90 workers two weeks to get all the colored card boards mounted under each seat. Each piece of card board had eye slits in them so the fans could hold up the colored sheet and still see through the eye slits. Every seat had to have the proper card, with no mistakes, to make this happen.
This is what ESPN failed to show you Monday night Veterans Day 2011.
Apparently, they thought their commercials were more important than showing this scene for about 5 seconds.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)
By August 1964, the United States Navy was supporting South Vietnam’s struggle against North Vietnam in two programs.
Operations Plan (OPLAN) 34 involved South Vietnamese naval and marine forces raiding North Vietnamese coastal installations with American advice and logistical support.
Operation DeSoto involved American naval vessels patrolling international waters off the coast of North Vietnam to observe the North Vietnamese Navy and probe the North Vietnamese radar capabilities by electronic surveillance. The destroyer USS Maddox patrolling 28 miles off the North Vietnamese coast as part of DeSoto came under attack by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats on August 2. Continue reading
Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954)
General Henri Navarre, the French commander in chief for Indochina, was responsible for the decision to build an outpost in the Red River Delta and its ultimate loss. Dien Bien Phu had been a tranquil crossroads village in northwest Indochina before the French entered it to defeat Vietminh soldiers. The French dropped paratroopers in to build the post since the only roads in were little more than trails, and all of them were controlled by the Vietminh. Continue reading
French Indochina
French Indochina was a federation of French colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, part of the French colonial empire. It consisted of Cochin China, Tonkin, Annam, Laos and Cambodia.
France assumed sovereignty over Annam and Tonkin after the Franco-Chinese War (1884–1885). French Indochina was formed in October 1887, from Annam, Tonkin, Cochin China, and the Kingdom of Cambodia; Laos was added in 1893. The federation lasted until 1954. The capital of French Indochina was Hanoi. The French formally left the local rulers in power (Emperors of Vietnam, Kings of Cambodia, Kings of Luang Prabang), but in fact gathered all powers in their hands, the local rulers acting only as figureheads. Continue reading
Vietnam Fighting Methods
What were the methods of fighting in the Vietnam War?
Answer:
III & IV Corps
The southern portion of South Vietnam (Mekong Delta area, III & IV Corps) was mostly hot, humid, swampy, resembling Louisiana and Florida in the United States. This area contained mostly Viet Cong (VC) guerrilla forces. It was too open and too soft to conduct conventional battle; and when the Communists tried to fight in that manner, it often resulted in their quick defeat. This was booby trap, land mine, and sniper, hit & run country.
II Corps
The Central Highlands (II Corps) of South Vietnam approached the terrain and weather of the Midwestern United States; Dry, hilly, hard wood tree forests, creeks & streams, etc. These areas had more organized VC forces, which would conduct the same hit & run ambush tactics, land mines, etc. But, worse, this was mainly NVA territory, where uniformed regular army forces from North Vietnam would establish bases and operations. Big conventional battles would occur in this AO (Area of Operations), “Hamburger Hill”, “Dak To”, “Chu Moor”, and the dreaded A Shau Valley. [Ed Note: This was the area of operations (AO) of Charlie Company]
I Corps
I Corps, was near the DMZ (17th Parallel), this was mainly US Marine Corp territory. They re-took the city of HUE in this AO, during the TET offensive of ’68. I Corps consisted of the Khe Sahn battles, and the first use of NVA tanks (PT-76’s) over-running of the US Green Beret (Special Forces) outpost at Lang Vei in ’68. Many fights in this area were small unit conventional slugging matches with regular NVA units. Small units meaning company sized firefights, (approximately) one hundred men per side.
SOURCE: wiki.answers.com
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Senate Debates the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, August 6-7, 1964
To Promote the Maintenance of International Peace and Security in Southeast Asia
Whereas naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace; and
Whereas these attacks are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom; and
Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these people should be left in peace to work out their own destinies in their own way: Now, therefore, be it? Continue reading
Vietnam War’s Legacy Is Vivid as Clinton Visits Laos
Mrs. Clinton at the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise Center which provides artificial limbs for victims of the Vietnam War, in Vientiane, Laos.
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: July 11, 2012
VIENTIANE, Laos — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief stop on her Asia tour on Wednesday in Laos, the first visit by an American secretary of state here in 57 years and one that brought into stark relief the enduring legacy of the Vietnam War.
At an artificial-limb center, Mrs. Clinton met a 19-year-old who lost his forearms and eyesight when a bomb, dropped by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War and unexploded for decades, finally blew up three years ago. Continue reading
Vietnam War Protests
The Beginnings of a Movement
In August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. And by the time U.S. planes began regular bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the government’s assertion that it was fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist aggression.
The anti-war movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) began organizing “teach-ins” to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted. Though the vast majority of the American population still supported the administration policy in Vietnam, a small but outspoken liberal minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965. This minority included many students as well as prominent artists and intellectuals and members of the hippie movement, a growing number of young people who rejected authority and embraced the drug culture. Continue reading
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 