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Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national war memorial located in Washington, D.C. that honors members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The Memorial consists of three separate parts — the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the most recognized part of the memorial. The main part of the memorial was completed in 1982 and is located in Constitution Gardens on the National Mall, just northeast of the Lincoln Memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and receives around 3 million visitors each year.

History

Lincoln Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., was incorporated on April 27, 1979 as a non-profit organization to establish a memorial to veterans of the Vietnam War. Much of the impetus behind the formation of the Fund came from a Vietnam veteran, Jan Scruggs, who believed that the public would donate money to build the memorial. Eventually, $8.4 million was raised by private donations. Congress authorized the site on July 1 1980, and a competition to design the memorial was announced later that year. On May 6, 1981 a jury of eight architects and sculptors unanimously selected a design by Maya Ying Lin, a 21 year old Yale University architecture student from Athens, Ohio, as the winner from 1,421 entries. Lin had originally designed the Memorial Wall as a student project. Controversially, the design lacked many of the elements traditionally present in war memorials, such as patriotic writings and heroic statues, and a flagstaff and figurative sculpture, The Three Soldiers, was added to the design on January 1982. The design was formally approved on March 11 1982 and the ground was formally broken on March 26, 1982, with dedication of the memorial on November 13, 1982 after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans. The Three Soldiers statue was installed in 1984, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated on November 11 1993. Controversy surrounded the wall's dedication, with some veterans' groups decrying it as inappropriate or unpatriotic. Since then, however, both veterans and the American public in general have come to admire the Wall, which is one of the most visited sites in Washington.

Structure

1993 by the United States Geological Survey. The dots visible along the length of the angled wall are visitors. For a satellite view of the Wall in relation to other monuments, see Constitution Gardens.]]

Memorial Wall

The Memorial Wall is made up of two black granite walls 246 feet 9 inches (75 metres) long, designed by Maya Ying Lin. The walls are sunk into the ground, with the top flush with the earth behind them. At the highest point (the apex where they meet), they are 10.1 feet (3 m) high, and they taper to a height of eight inches (20cm) at their extremities. Granite for the wall came from Bangalore, India and was deliberately choosen because of its reflective quality. The concept is that, while a visitor looks upon the names, their reflection can be seen at the same time thereby bringing the past and present together. One wall points toward the Washington Monument, the other in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial, meeting at an angle of 125° 12′. Each wall has 72 panels, 70 listing names (numbered 1E through 70E and 70W through 1W) and 2 very small blank panels at the extremities. There is a pathway along the base of the Wall, where visitors may walk, read the names, make a pencil rubbing of a particular name, or pray. Lincoln Memorial Inscribed on the wall are the names of those who died in chronological order, starting at the apex on panel 1E in 1959 (although it was later discovered that the first casualties were military advisors who were killed by artillery fire in 1957), moving day by day to the end of the eastern wall at panel 70E, which ends on May 25, 1968, starting again at panel 70W at the end of the western wall which completes the list for May 25, 1968, and returning to the apex at panel 1W in 1975. Symbolically, this is described as " wound that is closed and healing." Information about rank, unit, and decorations are not given. The wall listed 58,159 names when it was completed in 1993; as of 2005, when four names were added, there are 58,249 names, including 8 women. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing (MIAs, POWs, and others), denoted with a cross; the confirmed dead are marked with a diamond. If the missing return alive, the cross is circumscribed by a circle, (although this has never occurred as of August 2005); if their death is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over the cross. Optima is the typeface used on the wall. typeface

The Three Soldiers

A short distance away from the wall is another part of the memorial, the Three Soldiers statue. It was designed to complement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by adding a more traditional component. The statue, unveiled in 1984, was designed by Frederick Hart, who placed third in the original competition. Frederick Hart

Women's Memorial

Also part of the Memorial is the Vietnam Women's memorial. It is located a short distance south of The Wall, north of the Reflecting Pool. It was designed by Glenna Goodacre and dedicated on November 11, 1993.

Memorial Commemorative Plaque

A memorial plaque was dedicated on November 10, 2004 at the northeast corner of plaza surrounding the Three Soldiers statue to honor veterans who died after the war as a direct result of injuries suffered in Vietnam, but who fall outside Department of Defense guidelines. The plaque is a carved block of black granite, 3 feet by 2 feet, inscribed "In memory of the men and women who served in the Vietnam War and later died as a result of their service. We honor and remember their sacrifice."

References


- Vietnam Veterans Memorial, National Park Service leaflet, GPO:2004—304-377/00203

External links


- [http://www.VirtualWall.org The Virtual Wall (TM)]
- [http://www.viewthewall.com View The Wall]
- [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm022.html Maya Ying Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial proposal at the Library of Congress]
- [http://www.nps.gov/vive/home.htm The U.S. National Park Service]
- [http://www.themovingwall.org/ The Moving Wall (TM)] Category:National memorials in Washington, DC Category:National Mall

War memorial

.]] ]] .]] ] A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to commemorate those who died, or been injured, in war. For most of human history war memorials were erected to commemorate great victories and remembering the dead was a secondary concern. The Arc de Triomphe or Nelson's Column contain no names of those killed. In modern times the intent of the war memorial is not to glorify war, but to honour those who have died, or been injured. This change occurred largely after the First World War which saw massive devastation and loss of life. In response, most cities in the countries involved in the conflict erected memorials, and the memorials in smaller villages and towns often listed the names of each local soldier who had been killed. Massive monuments commemorating thousands of dead with no identified war grave, such as the Menin Gate at Ypres, were also constructed. In many cases, the World War I memorials were later extended to also show the names of locals who died in World War II. Since that time memorials to the dead in other conflicts such as the Second World War and the Vietnam War have also noted individual contributions, at least in the west. In the Soviet Union, China, Japan and other nations, memorials remained communalistic with long lists of names being far rarer. A war memorial can be an entire building, often containing a museum, or just a simple plaque. Many war memorials take the form of a monument or statue, and serve as a meeting place for memorial day services. As such, they are often found near the centre of town, or contained in a park or plaza to allow easy public access. Many war memorials bear plaques listing the names of those that died in battle. Sometimes these lists can be very long. Some war memorials are dedicated to a specific battle, while others are more general in nature and bear inscriptions listing various theatres of war. Many cemeteries tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have an identical war memorial called the Cross of Sacrifice designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield that vary in height from 4.5m to 9m depending on the size of the cemetery. If there are one thousand or more burials, a Commonwealth cemetery will contain a Stone of Remembrance, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens with words from Ecclesiasticus "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE"; all the Stones of Remembrance are 3.5m long and 1.5m high with three steps leading up to them. Arlington National Cemetery has a Canadian Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during the Korean War and two World Wars. Many war memorials have epitaphs relating to the unit, battle or war they commemorate. For example an epitaph which adorns numerous memorials in Commonwealth countries is "The Ode" by Laurence Binyon: :They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. :Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. :At the going down of the sun and in the morning :We will remember them. The Kohima Epitaph which is on the World War II War Memorial for the Allied fallen at the Battle of Kohima says: :When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, :For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today Unsurprisingly, war memorials can sometimes be politically controversial. A notable example is the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, where a number of convicted World War II war criminals are interred.

Famous war memorials


- Australia
  - Australian War Memorial
  - Shrine of Remembrance
- Belgium
  - Menin Gate Memorial
  - War Memorial Saint Julien
- Canada
  - National War Memorial (Ottawa)
  - National War Memorial (Newfoundland)
  - The Brooding Solider at St Julien
  - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
  - Vimy Ridge Memorial (In France, but the site has been ceded to Canada in perpetuity)
  - Beaumont-Hamel Memorial (In France, but the site has been ceded to Newfoundland and Canada in perpetuity)
- China
  - Monument to the People's Heroes
- France
  - World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial
  - Notre Dame de Lorette
  - Vimy Ridge Memorial
  - Beaumont-Hamel Memorial
- India
  - India Gate
- Ireland
  - Garden of Remembrance
  - National War Memorial, Islandbridge
- Japan
  - Yasukuni Shrine
- Russia
  - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
  - Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery
  - Poklonnaya Gora
  - Mamayev Kurgan
- Singapore
  - Kranji Memorial
- South Korea
  - The War Memorial Museum
- UK
  - Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey
  - The Cenotaph
- USA
  - USMC War Memorial
  - Korean War Veterans Memorial
  - Tomb of the Unknowns
  - Vietnam Veterans Memorial
  - Vietnam Women's Memorial
  - World War II Memorial

See also


- Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, for listings of memorials specifically dedicated to unknown soldiers.
- War grave
- Moreton in Marsh & Batsford War Memorial, Gloucestershire

External links


- [http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/architecture.htm History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Architecture]
- [http://www.warmemorials.org/ War Memorials Trust]
- [http://www.memorial-genweb.org French war memorials (photos and inscriptions)] Category:Memorials Memorials, war Category:Aftermath of War

United States armed forces

United States armed forces
Military manpower
Military age18 years of age
Availabilitymales & females ages 18-49: 134,813,023 (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annuallymales & females: 4,180,074 (2005 est.)
Active troops1,427,000 (Ranked 2nd)
Military expenditures
Dollar figure $400 billion (FY2005 est.)
Percent of GDP3.7% (FY2005 est.)
The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the
- United States Army
- United States Marine Corps
- United States Navy
- United States Air Force
- United States Coast Guard Approximately 1.4 million personnel are currently on active duty in the military with an additional 860,000 personnel in the seven reserve components (456,000 of which are in the Army and Air National Guard). There is currently no conscription. The armed forces are also members of the United States Uniformed Services. The United States Armed Forces is the most powerful military in the world and their power projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other singular nation (e.g. People's Republic of China, Russia, India) or organization (e.g. the European Union). The United States Department of Defense is the controlling organization for the U.S. military and is headquartered at The Pentagon. The Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military is the President of the United States. The United States military is a hierarchical military organization, with a system of military ranks to denote levels of authority within the organization. The military service is divided into a professional officer corps along with a greater number of enlisted personnel who perform day-to-day military operations. The United States officer corps is not restricted by social class or nobility, but is by college education. United States military officers are appointed from a variety of sources, including the service academies, ROTC, and direct appointment from both civilian status and the enlisted ranks. The U.S. military also maintains a number of military awards and badges to denote the qualifications and accomplishments of military personnel. On July 26, 1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which racially desegregated the military of the United States. Homosexuals, however, are still barred from serving openly (see Don't ask, don't tell.) By law, women may not be put into direct combat; however, asymmetrical warfare has put women into situations which are direct combat operations in all but name. (Approximately 9% of Army positions available; see [http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=47] as an example).
Don't ask, don't tell

Capabilities

:Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States. — President George W. Bush, National Security Strategy, Chapter IX, September 2002. The United States military is unique in the amount of power it can project globally. Although France and the United Kingdom are capable of projecting limited amounts of power overseas, the United States military is the only military capable of fighting a major regional war at a distance from its homeland. The U.S. is also one of the few nations in the world that has a sizable nuclear arsenal and maintains active doctrines for plausible nuclear attack operations. As such, much of the U.S. military capabilities are tied up in logistics and transportation, which allow rapid buildup of forces as needed. The Air Force maintains a large fleet of C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster, and C-130 Hercules transportation aircraft. The Marine Corps maintains Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. The Navy's fleet of 12 aircraft carriers, combined with a military doctrine of power projection, enable a flexible response to potential threats. The United States Army is not as portable as the Marine Corps, but Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker announced a reorganization of the Army's active-duty units into 48 brigade groups with an emphasis on power projection. There will be three classes of brigade group: light, medium, and heavy, with a different mix of armored and infantry units. In reorganizing the Army, however, battalions will still be affiliated with traditional regiments and brigades will still be affiliated with traditional divisions. Reorganized brigades have begun operation in Iraq in the third quarter of 2005.

Organization

Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. To coordinate military action with diplomatic action, the President has an advisory National Security Council. Under the President is the United States Secretary of Defense, a Cabinet Secretary responsible for the Department of Defense. Both the President and Secretary are advised by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In accordance with the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 (which fundamentally changed the organization of the Department) the 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However operational control flows from the President and Secretary of Defense to the Commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands. (see Goldwater-Nichols Act) Each service is responsible for providing military units to the commanders of the various Unified Commands.

National Command organizational chart

-------------------President-------------- | | | | | | | | | SECDEF ----------| | | | | | | | Chairman JCOS NSC | | | | | | Regional Combatant JCOS Commander or Commanders (functional command) | | | Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps commanding officer

Joint Chiefs of Staff

The 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Unified Combatant Commands

There are 9 Unified Combatant Commands- 5 geographic and 4 functional.
The 5 Geographic Commands
image:Unified Command map s.jpg

Personnel

Recruitment

As in most militaries, members of the U.S. armed forces hold ranks and can be promoted, and subscribes to the Officer/Enlisted distinction.

Enlisted

After enlistment new recruits undergo Basic Training, followed by Advanced Individual Training in their primary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) at any of the numerous MOS training facilities around the world. Initially recruits without higher education, or college degrees will hold the pay grade of E-1, and will be elevated to E-2 following Basic Training or soon thereafter. Different services have different incentive programs for enlistees, such as higher initial ranks for college credit and referring friends who go on to enlist as well. Enlistees in the Army can even attain the initial pay grade of E-4 with a full four year degree, but generally the highest initial grade is E-3.

Officer

There are four common ways for one to receive a commission as an officer in one of the branches of the U.S. military (although other routes are possible).
- Reserve Officer Training School (ROTC)
- Officer Candidate School (OCS)
- Military Academy
- Direct Commission - Lawyers, doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and chaplains may be directly commissioned into their respective corps. There also are opportunities in the Reserves and National Guard for those who have significant professional civilian experience in a related field, and time in service. They do, however, go through a brief school for military customs, courtesies and tradtions. Officers receive a commission assigning them to the Officer Corps from the President. Through their careers, officers usually will receive further training at one or a number of the many U.S. military staff colleges.

Warrant Officer

Additionally, all services except for the U.S. Air Force have a Warrant Officer corps. Above the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Two, these officers are also commissioned officers, but usually serve in a more technical and specialized role within units. More recently though they can also serve in more traditional leadership roles associated with the more recognizable officer corps. With one notable exception, these officers ordinarily have already been in the military often serving in senior NCO positions in the field in which they later serve as a Warrant Officer as a technical expert. The exception to the NCO rule is helicopter pilots in the U.S. Army, although most Army pilots have indeed served some enlisted time, it is also possible to enlist, complete basic training, go directly to the Warrant Officer Candidate school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and then on to flight school.

Uniforms

Battledress

Battle dress uniform

Utility uniform

Utility uniform

Mess Dress

Mess dress

Full dress uniform

Dress uniform

Personnel in each service

As of the middle of 2004

Personnel deployed

Main article: Deployments of the U.S. Military

Overseas

The United States has military personnel deployed in numerous countries around the world, with numbers ranging from merely a handful to tens of thousands. Some of the largest contingents are:

Within the United States

Including territories and ships afloat within territorial waters A total of 1,168,195 personnel are within the United States including some deployments in:

Budget Comparison

Deployments of the U.S. Military Main article U.S. military budget The military expenditure of the Department of Defense for 2004 was: The United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next twenty biggest spenders combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second (it should be noted that it is widely believed that China greatly understates its actual military expenditures). Dollar for dollar, the United States and its closest allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for two-thirds). Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which comprises all of the U.S. government's money not accounted for by pre-existing obligations [http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp]. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$956,000,000,000. :See also: China's military budget

Notes


- The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. Title 14, United States Code, Section 1, states "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In peacetime it is part of the Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime falls under the operational command of the United States Navy. Coast Guard units, or ships of its predecessor service, the Revenue Cutter Service, have seen combat in every war of the United States since 1790, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
- Both the Coast Guard and the Air Force have volunteer civilian auxiliaries: the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (Coast Guard) and the Civil Air Patrol (Air Force).
- The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the armed forces from interfering with civilian affairs, with the exception of the Coast Guard.
- The NOAA and The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are branches of the military, but it's members are considered as non-combatants.

See also


- Military history of the United States
  - List of military actions by or within the United States
- List of U.S. military books
- U.S. military historical joint commands
- United States military academies
- U.S. military staff colleges

External links


- [http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/9059/usaob.html United States Order of Battle]
- [http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00181/en_index.php kamouflage.net > U.S. Military camouflage patterns]
- [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/index.html Global Security on U.S. Military Operations]
- [http://www.todaysmilitary.com Today's Military website]
- ko:미국의 군사 ja:アメリカ軍

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or "Viet Cong") against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies—notably the United States military in support of the South, with US combat troops involved from shortly after The Korean War until the official withdrawal in 1975. After France's attempted recolonization of Indochina was defeated in 1954 by the Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, an agreement to temporarily partition the country in two with a de-militarized zone (DMZ) was reached at the Geneva Conference (1954). The "Vietnam War" ostensibly began as a civil war between feuding governments. Being Western-oriented and far less popular than Ho, the South Vietnam government fought largely to maintain its governing status within the partitioned entity, rather than to "unify the country" as was the goal of the North. Fighting began in 1957 and with U.S. and Soviet-Chinese involvement would steadily escalate and spill over into the neighboring Indochinese countries of Cambodia and Laos. The Geneva partition was not a natural division of Vietnam and was not intended to create two separate countries. But the South government, with the support of the United States, blocked the Geneva scheduled elections for reunification. In the context of the Cold War, and with the recent Korean War as a precedent, the U.S. had feared that a reunified Vietnam would elect a Communist government under the popular Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam and its Western allies portrayed the conflict as based in a principled opposure to communism —to deter the expansion of Soviet-based control throughout Southeast Asia, and to set the tone for any likely future superpower conflicts. The North Vietnamese government and its Southern dissident allies (NLF) viewed the war as a struggle to reunite the country and to repel a foreign aggressor —a virtual continuation of the earlier war for independence against the French. After fifteen years of protracted fighting and massive civilian and military casualties, major, direct U.S. involvement ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Fighting between Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces against the dominant combined People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and NLF forces would soon bring an end to the RVN and the war. With the Northern victory, the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) with a communist-controlled government based in Hanoi.

Overview

A precise timeline of the Vietnam War is difficult to determine. Some consider the Vietnam War to have been a continuous conflict beginning with the French attempt to reestablish colonial control in 1946 and continuing until the fall of Saigon in 1975. Others divide the conflict into two separate wars, the First Indochina War between the French and the Viet Minh and the Second Indochina War between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and its US allies. Many experts consider the Vietnam War to have just been one front in the larger Cold War. The First Indochina War may be said to have begun in 1946 with the writing of the Vietnamese constitution and to have ended in 1954 with the Geneva Peace Accord. The US involvement in the conflict is less distinct. The United States had supported Vietnamese guerillas against the Japanese during World War II, and provided aid to the French in the early 1950s. A US military presence was established in South Vietnam following the 1954 Peace Accord. As US advisors were drawn into battles between North and South Vietnamese forces the US involvement escalated. Many US citizens view the Vietnam War as beginning with the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964. The Vietnam War Memorial reports American casualties as early as 1957. The ground war was fought in South Vietnam and the border areas of Cambodia and Laos (see Secret War). The air war was fought there and in the strategic bombing (see Operation Rolling Thunder) of North Vietnam. Commando raids or secret operations were conducted by US or South Vietnamese forces in the north but there was never any full-scale ground fighting north of the 17th parallel (For more details of the events during the war, see: Timeline of the Vietnam War.) A coalition of forces fought for South Vietnam, including its army the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (or ARVN), the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Participation by the South Korean military was financed by the United States, but Australia and New Zealand fully funded their participations. The United Kingdom and Canada did not participate in the war militarily, although a few of their citizens volunteered to join the US forces and Canada led peace talks between the two countries for years. The Spanish government sent a small group of military medical personnel from 1966 to 1971. The North Vietnamese government directed the fighting against that of South Vietnam, using forces including their People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN, better known to the US as the NVA) and the guerrilla forces of the National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong. The USSR provided military and financial aid, along with diplomatic support to the North Vietnamese as did the People's Republic of China. Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and North Korea provided minor assistance through provision of supplies and armor. North Vietnamese pilots and other specialized members of the PAVN often received training in the USSR or in North Korea, as did many of their Southern counterparts in Arizona or Hawaii.

Background

France had gained control of Indochina in a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840s and lasting until the 1880s. During World War II, Vichy France had collaborated with the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. Vietnam was under effective Imperial Japanese control, as well as de facto Japanese administrative control, although the Vichy French continued to serve as the official administrators until 1944. After the Japanese surrender Vietnamese nationalists hoped to achieve formal independence from France. On September 5, 1945, Ho Chi Minh spoke at a ceremony heralding an independent Vietnam. In his speech he cited the US Declaration of Independence and a band played "The Star Spangled Banner." Minh had hoped that the United States would be an ally of a Vietnamese independence movement based on speeches by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt against the continuation of European imperialism after World War II. However, the death of Roosevelt; the development of the Cold War; and Ho's Communist sympathies led to U.S. support being given to the French. Communist Indochina had been in the British theater of operations during the war. The French prevailed upon the British to turn control of the region back over to them, setting the stage for the First Indochina War in which France attempted to reestablish Vietnam as part of a French overseas colony. In a gradual process—accelerated by the establishment of the People's Republic of China—the Vietnamese nationalist army, the Viet Minh, gradually wrested control of the country from France. After the Viet Minh's historic victory over the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu all of Indochina was granted independence, including Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. However, Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel, above which the former Viet Minh established a Communist state and below which an anti-communist state was established under the Emperor Bao Dai. As dictated in the Geneva Accords of 1954 the division was meant to be temporary pending free elections for national leadership. The agreement stipulated that these two military zones, which were separated by the temporary demarcation line, "should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary," and specifically stated "general elections shall be held in July 1956." But such elections were not held as Diem, who had not signed the Geneva Accords, refused to hold them. The U.S. supported this move to maintain its Southern ally, also later claiming that Ho had no intention of holding free elections. The majority of Vietnamese were angered that the scheduled elections for the unification of the country never took place. Neither of the two Vietnamese countries signed the election clause in the agreement. The United States, fearing a Communist takeover of the region, supported Ngo Dinh Diem, who had ousted Bao Dai, as leader of South Vietnam while Ho Chi Minh became leader of the North.

The war begins

Ho Chi Minh

NLF (National Liberation Front) in the South

Communist forces initiated guerilla activities in South Vietnam in 1957. Two years later these forces named themselves the National Liberation Front (NLF). Although considered by many to have been composed of northern agents under the control of Hanoi, ostensibly the NLF was an organization of South Vietnamese communists committed to establishing a communist state in South Vietnam. By 1959 the Hanoi government were supplying the NLF via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply route running from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia (a violation of neutrality) into South Vietnam. Further supplies were sent by sea to Sihanoukville in Cambodia until that outlet was closed by Lon Nol in 1970. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was steadily expanded to become the vital lifeline for communist forces in South Vietnam, which included the North Vietnamese Army in the 1960s when it became a major target of US air operations. The Diem government was initially able to cope with the insurgency with the aid of US advisors, and by 1962 seemed to be winning. Senior U.S. military leaders were receiving positive reports from the US commander, Gen. Paul D. Harkins of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. However outside Saigon large areas of the country were not under government control. In 1963 a Communist offensive beginning with the Battle of Ap Bac inflicted major defeats on the South Vietnamese army, while disorganization reigned in the Saigon government.

John F. Kennedy and Vietnam

Battle of Ap Bac In June 1961, John F. Kennedy met with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, where Khrushchev sought to bully him over key U.S.-Soviet issues. Kennedy left the meeting convinced that the Russians were committed to conflict. This led to the conclusion that Southeast Asia would be an area where Soviet forces would test the USA's commitment to the containment policy. Although Kennedy's election campaign had stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, Kennedy was particularly interested in Special Forces. Originally intended for use behind front lines after a conventional invasion of Europe, it was quickly decided to try them out in the "brush fire" war in Vietnam. brush fire The Kennedy administration remained essentially committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman administration. Furthermore in 1961 Kennedy found himself faced with a three-part crisis that seemed very similar to that faced by Truman in 1949–50. 1961 had already seen the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and a negotiated settlement between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao Communist movement. Fearing that another failure on the part of the United States to stop Communist expansion would fatally damage the West's position and his reputation, Kennedy was determined to prevent a Communist victory in Vietnam. The Kennedy administration grew increasingly frustrated with Diem. In 1963 a violent crackdown by Diem's forces against Buddhist monks protesting government policies prompted self-immolation by monks, leading to embarrassing press coverage. The most famous event is the self-burning of Thich Quang Duc to protest the government's violence against Buddhists. Vietnam was a largely Buddhist nation (two-thirds were Buddhist in the Southern half), while Diem and much of his administration were Roman Catholic, and Diem was criticized as being out of touch with his citizens. The U.S. attempted to pressure Diem by asking South Vietnamese generals to act against the excesses. The South Vietnamese military interpreted these messages as tacit U.S. support for a coup d'etat which overthrew and killed Diem on November 1, 1963. Initially the death of Diem made the South more unstable. The new military rulers were politically inexperienced and unable to provide the strong central authority of Diem's rule and a period of coups and countercoups followed. The communists, meanwhile, stepped up their efforts to exploit the vacuum. Kennedy himself was assassinated three weeks after Diem's death, and the newly sworn-in president, former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed on November 24 1963, that the United States intended to continue supporting South Vietnam.

The propaganda campaign

The nature and identity of the opposing forces was as always a major political focus of the war. The U.S. depicted a war in which an independent country was fighting international Communist aggression, thus depicting the NLF and even the PAVN as puppet armies. The North Vietnamese portrayed the conflict as one between an imperialist United States and an indigenous South Vietnamese insurgency that was receiving the noncombat support of North Vietnam and its allies. This view presented the South Vietnamese as puppets of the U.S. These conflicting stances influenced early peace talks in which arguments were made over "the shape of the negotiating table," with each side seeking to depict itself as a group of distinct allies opposing a single entity, ignoring the other's "puppet".

Escalation

The U.S. involvement in the war has been described as an escalation. This is typically meant to refer to the incremental increase in forces in response to greater need, rather than an intentional strategy. However a key element was that there was no traditional declaration of war which would have involved a national commitment to using all available means to secure victory. Instead U.S. involvement increased over several years, beginning with the deployment of noncombatant military advisors to the South Vietnamese army, followed by the use of special forces for commando-style operations, followed by the introduction of regular troops for defensive purposes, until regular troops were used in offensive combat. Once U.S. troops were engaged in active combat, escalation meant increasing their numbers. The escalation of the war complicated its ambiguous legal status. The treaty agreements between the U.S. and South Vietnam allowed each escalation to be seen as simply another step in helping an ally resist Communist aggression. This allowed the U.S. Congress to vote appropriations for war operations without requiring the Johnson Administration to meet the Constitutionally mandated requirement that Congress declare war. Successive U.S. administrations also hoped that by limiting its involvement to defending the South only and not directly invading the North, it could support South Vietnam without provoking a major response from China and/or the Soviet Union, as had happened in the Korean War. President Johnson maintained the Kennedy administration's position that South Vietnam's independence was a crucial U.S. defense against Soviet aggression, while at the same time trying to avoid provoking direct participation in the conflict by the Warsaw Pact. The situation caused friction between the US armed services and the civilian authorities in Washington. Military officials such as General William Westmoreland resented the Johnson Administration's restraints on their operations but feared making outspoken policy criticisms lest they suffer the same fate as General Douglas MacArthur who had been dismissed by Truman on such grounds during the Korean War. The relatively slow process of escalation also tended to mute U.S. political debate, since no individual instance of escalation dramatically increased the level of U.S. involvement. However in 1968 the Joint Chiefs of Staff considered increasing the total number of active reserve troops by 200,000, concerned about having roughly a third of U.S. forces committed to one theater of conflict. The Joint Chiefs of Staff asked General Westmoreland, the only military official currently commanding U.S. troops in a conflict to testify to the need to increase. The press portrayed this increase as a need for more troops in Vietnam to reconcile the situation after the Tet Offensive. When this possibility was made public, popular criticism caused the Johnson Administration to abandon the idea. Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon called for a decrease in U.S. troop levels and by the end of 1969, under his new administration, they were reduced by 60,000 from their wartime peak.

Intervention by the USA

Johnson and the Gulf of Tonkin

Johnson raised the level of U.S. involvement on July 27, 1964, when 5,000 additional U.S. military advisors were ordered to South Vietnam. This brought the total number of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. On July 31, 1964, the US destroyer USS Maddox was in international waters conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. Critics of President Johnson have suggested that the purpose of the mission was to provoke a reaction from North Vietnamese coastal defense forces as a pretext for a wider war. North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the Maddox and in response, with the help of air support from the nearby carrier USS Ticonderoga, she destroyed one of the torpedo boats, damaging two others. The Maddox suffered only superficial damage and retired to South Vietnamese waters where she was joined by USS C. Turner Joy. USS C. Turner Joy On August 3, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) again attacked North Vietnam; the Rhon River estuary and the Vinh Sonh radar installation were bombarded under cover of darkness. On August 4, a new DESOTO patrol to the North Vietnam coast was launched, with Maddox and C. Turner Joy. The latter got radar signals later claimed to be another attack by the North Vietnamese. For some two hours the ships fired on radar targets and maneuvered vigorously amid electronic and visual reports of torpedoes. Later, Captain John J. Herrick admitted that it was nothing more than an "overeager sonarman" who "was hearing the ship's own propeller beat". In consequence the U.S. Senate approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August 1964, which gave broad support to President Johnson to escalate U.S. involvement in the war "as the President shall determine". In a televised address Johnson claimed that "the challenge that we face in South-East Asia today is the same challenge that we have faced with courage and that we have met with strength in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin and Korea, in Lebanon and in Cuba." National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor agreed on November 28, 1964, to recommend that President Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam. With the decision to escalate its involvement in the conflict, The USA's ANZUS Pact allies Australia and New Zealand were pressured to contribute troops and material to the war effort. As a result, in late 1964 the Australian government controversially re-introduced conscription for compulsory military service by eligible males aged 18-25, and many Australian conscripts served alongside US troops.

Operation Rolling Thunder

Operation Rolling Thunder was the code name for bombing raids in North Vietnam conducted by the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to destroy the will of the North Vietnamese to fight, to destroy industrial bases and air defenses (SAMs), and to stop the flow of men and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Starting in March 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder gradually escalated in intensity to force the Communists to negotiate. Although half North Vietnam's bridges were destroyed and many supply depots hit, its Communist allies were always able to resupply it. The two principal areas where supplies came from, Haiphong and the Chinese border, were off limits to aerial attack. Restrictions on the bombing of civilian areas also enabled the North Vietnamese to use them for military purposes, siting anti-aircraft guns on school grounds. In March 1968 Operation Rolling Thunder was suspended after the North agreed to negotiate in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.

U.S. forces committed

1968 In February 1965 the US base at Pleiku was attacked twice, killing over a dozen US military. This provoked the reprisal air strikes of Operation Flaming Dart in North Vietnam, the first time a US air strike was launched because its forces had been attacked in South Vietnam. That same month the US began independent air strikes in the South. A US HAWK team was sent to Da Nang, a vulnerable airbase if Hanoi intended to bomb it. One result of Operation Flaming Dart was the shipment of anti-aircraft missiles to North Vietnam which began in a few weeks from the Soviet Union. On March 8, 1965, 3,500 United States Marines became the first US combat troops to land in South Vietnam, adding to the 25,000 US military advisers already in place. The air war escalated as well; on July 24, 1965, four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi became the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against US planes in the war. One plane was shot down and the other three sustained damage. Four days later Johnson announced another order that increased the number of US troops in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. The day after that, July 29, the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay. On August 18, 1965, Operation Starlite began as the first major US ground battle of the war when 5,500 US Marines destroyed a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quang Ngai Province. The Marines were tipped off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the US base at Chu Lai. The Viet Cong learned from their defeat and tried to avoid fighting a US-style war from then on. The North Vietnamese committed regular army troops to South Vietnam beginning in late 1964 to use guerilla and regular forces to wear down and destroy the South Vietnamese Army. However some North Vietnamese officials favored an immediate invasion, and a plan was drawn up to use PAVN forces to split South Vietnam in two at the Central Highlands, and then to defeat each half. However in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley the PAVN was defeated, prompting a return to guerilla tactics. The Pentagon told President Johnson on November 27, 1965, that if planned major sweep operations needed to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year were to succeed, the number of US troops in Vietnam needed to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000. By the end of 1965, 184,000 US troops were in Vietnam. In February 1966 there was a meeting between the commander of the US effort, head of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam General William Westmoreland and Johnson in Honolulu. Westmoreland argued that the US presence had prevented a defeat but that more troops were needed to take the offensive, he claimed that an immediate increase could lead to the "crossover point" in Vietcong and NVA casualties being reached in early 1967. Johnson authorized an increase in troop numbers to 429,000 by August 1966. The large increase of troop numbers enabled Westmoreland to carry out numerous search and destroy operations in accordance with his attrition strategy. In January 1966 during Operation Masher/White Wing in Binh Dinh province the US 1st Cavalry Division killed 1,342 Viet Cong by repeatedly marching through the area. The Operation continued under Thayer/Irving until October where a further 1,000 Viet Cong were killed and numerous others wounded and captured. US forces conducted numerous forays into Viet Cong controlled "War Zone C", an area northwest of the densely populated Saigon area and near the Cambodian border, in Operations Birmingham, El Paso, and Attleboro. In 1st Corp Tactical Zone (CTZ) located in the Northern provinces of South Vietnam North Vietnamese conventional forces entered Quang Tri province. Fearing an assault on Quang Tri city might develop, US Marines initiated Operation Hastings which caused the North Vietnamese to retreat over the DMZ. Afterwards, a follow-up operation called Prairie began. "Pacification", or the securing of the South Vietnamese countryside and people, was mostly conducted by the ARVN. However, morale was poor in the South Vietnamese army due to corruption and incompetence of generals and hence little was accomplished in the form of pacification other than high desertion rates. On 12 October 1967, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives were futile because of North Vietnam's opposition. Johnson then held a secret meeting with a group of the nation's most prestigious leaders ("the Wise Men") on November 2 and asked them to suggest ways to unite the US people behind the war effort. Johnson announced on November 17 that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking....We are making progress." Following up on this, General William Westmoreland on November 21 told news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing." Nevertheless it was recognized that although the communists were taking a major beating, true victory could not come until the country was pacified. Most of the PNVA operational capability was possible due only to the movement of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. In order to threaten this flow of supplies, a firebase was set up just on the Vietnam side of the Laosian border, near the town of Khe Sanh. The US planned to use the base as a launching point for raids against the trail. To the PNVA leaders this looked like a wonderful opportunity to repeat their famous victory at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and hand the USA a massive defeat. Over the next few months both the PNVA and US Marines added forces to the area, with the Battle of Khe Sanh "officially" starting on January 21st, 1968. Every PNVA attempt to take the base was repulsed with heavy casualties, and even their rear areas were under constant attack by US airpower, including B-52 strikes. When the battle finally petered out in April, the PNVA had lost an estimated 8,000 KIA and many more wounded, while never seriously threatening resupply into the base (an important feature of Dien Bien Phu) due to the US's massive resupply ability and helicopter support. In retrospect it appears the PNVA was using the battle to draw US attention away from other operations being developed, but this position appears difficult to support considering the loss of about one-third of the attacking force KIA alone. B-52

The Tet Offensive

General Westmoreland had asserted that US forces were on the verge of victory, infamously claiming he "could see the light at the end of the tunnel." As a result it was a considerable shock to public opinion when on January 30, 1968 NLF and NVA forces broke the Tet truce and mounted the Tet Offensive (named after Tet Nguyen Dan, the lunar new year festival which is the most important Vietnamese holiday) in South Vietnam attacking nearly every major city in South Vietnam. The goal of the attacks was to ignite an uprising among the Vietnamese people which would result in the overthrow of the South Vietnamese government and withdrawal of US forces. To the contrary, no such uprising occurred and it drove some previously apathetic Vietnamese to fight with the RVN government. Attacks everywhere were shortly repulsed except in Saigon where the fighting lasted for three days and in Hue for a month. During the temporary communist occupation of Hue, 2,800 Vietnamese were killed by the Viet Cong in what was the worst single massacre during the war (see Massacre at Hue). Although the Communists' military objectives had not been achieved, the propaganda effect was considerable and had a profound impact on public opinion. Many US citizens felt that the government was misleading them about a war without a clear end. When General Westmoreland called for still more troops to be sent to Vietnam, Clark Clifford, a member of Johnson's own cabinet, came out against the war.

Tet aftermath

Soon after Tet, Westmoreland was replaced by his deputy, General Creighton W. Abrams. Abrams pursued a very different approach than Westmoreland's, favoring more openness with the media, less indiscriminate use of air strikes and heavy artillery, elimination of body count as the key indicator of battlefield success, and more meaningful cooperation with ARVN forces. His strategy, although yielding positive results, came too late to influence U.S. public opinion. Facing a troop shortage, on October 14, 1968, the United States Department of Defense announced that the United States Army and Marines would be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours. Two weeks later on October 31, citing progress with the Paris peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced what became known as the October surprise when he ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1. Peace talks eventually broke down, however, and one year later, on November 3, 1969, then President Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation on television and radio asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies. The credibility of the government suffered when The New York Times, and later The Washington Post and other newspapers, published The Pentagon Papers. This top-secret historical study of Vietnam, contracted by Robert McNamara (the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson,) presented a pessimistic view of victory in the Vietnam War and generated additional criticism of U.S. policy.

Opposition to the war

Robert McNamara, which became a symbol of the international movement against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. (© Nick Ut/The Associated Press)]] Small-scale opposition to the war began in 1964 on college campuses. This was happening during a time of unprecedented leftist student activism, and of the arrival at college age of the demographically significant Baby Boomers. Protests against the draft began on October 15 1965, when the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States. The first draft lottery since World War II in the United States was held on 1 December 1969, and was met with large protests and a great deal of controversy; statistical analysis indicated that the methodology of the lotteries unintentionally disadvantaged men with late year birthdays. [http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v5n2/datasets.starr.html] This issue was treated at length in a 4 January 1970, New York Times article titled "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random". U.S. public opinion became polarized by the war. Many supporters of the war argued for what was known as the Domino Theory, which held that if the South fell to communist guerillas, other nations, primarily in Southeast Asia, would succumb like falling dominoes. Military critics of the war pointed out that the conflict was political and that the military mission lacked clear objectives. Civilian critics of the war argued that the government of South Vietnam lacked political legitimacy and that support for the war was immoral. Some anti-war activists were themselves Vietnam Veterans, as evidenced by the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Some of the US citizens opposed to the Vietnam War, as for instance Jane Fonda, stressed their support for ordinary Vietnamese civilians struck by a war beyond their influence. President Johnson's undersecretary of state, George Ball, was one of the lone voices in his administration advising against war in Vietnam. The growing anti-war movement alarmed many in the U.S. government. On August 16, 1966 the House Un-American Activities Committee began investigations of US citizens who were suspected of aiding the NLF. Anti-war demonstrators disrupted the meeting and 50 were arrested. House Un-American Activities Committee]] On 1 February 1968, a suspected NLF officer was captured near the site of a ditch holding the bodies of as many as 34 police and their relatives, bound and shot, some of whom were the families of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan's deputy and close friend. General Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief, summarily shot the suspect in the head on a public street in front of journalists. The execution was filmed and photographed and provided another iconic image that helped sway public opinion in the United States against the war. In Australia, resistance to the war was at first very limited, although the Australian Labor Party (in opposition for most of the period) steadfastly opposed conscription. However anti-war sentiment escalated rapidly in the late 1960s as more and more Australian conscripts were killed in battle. Growing public unease about the death toll was fuelled by a series of highly-publicised arrests of conscientious objectors, and exacerbated by the shocking revelations of atrocities against Vietnamese civilians, leading to a rapid increase in domestic opposition to the war between 1967 and 1970. The Moratorium marches, held in major Australian cities to coincide with the marches in the USA, were among the largest public gatherings ever seen in Australia up to that time, with over 200,000 people taking to the streets in Melbourne alone. On 15 October 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States. A second round of "Moratorium" demonstrations was held on November 15. On April 22, 1971, John Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress about the war, when he appeared before a Senate committee hearing on proposals relating to ending the war. He spoke for nearly two hours with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what has been named the Fulbright Hearing, after the Chairman of the proceedings, Senator J. William Fulbright. Kerry presented the conclusions of the Winter Soldier Investigation, where veterans had described personally committing or witnessing war crimes. In 1968, President Lyndon B.. Johnson began his reelection campaign. A member of his own party, Eugene McCarthy, ran against him for the nomination on an antiwar platform. McCarthy did not win the first primary election in New Hampshire, but he did surprisingly well against an incumbent. The resulting blow to the Johnson campaign, taken together with other factors, led the President to make a surprise announcement in a March 31 televised speech that he was pulling out of the race. He also announced the initiation of the Paris Peace Talks with Vietnam in that speech. Then, on August 4, 1969, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy began secret peace negotiations at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris. This set of negotiations failed, however, prior to the 1972 North Vietnamese offensive. Paris

Pacification and "Hearts and Minds"

The U.S. realized that the South Vietnamese government needed a solid base of popular support if it was to survive the insurgency. In order to pursue this goal of "winning the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people, units of the United States Army, referred to as "Civil Affairs" units, were extensively utilized for the first time for this purpose since World War II. Civil Affairs units, while remaining armed and under direct military control, engaged in what came to be known as "nation building": constructing (or reconstructing) schools, public buildings, roads and other physical infrastructure; conducting medical programs for civilians who had no access to medical facilities; facilitating cooperation among local civilian leaders; conducting hygiene and other training for civilians; and similar activities. This policy of attempting to win the "Hearts and Minds" of the Vietnamese people, however, often was at odds with other aspects of the war which served to antagonize many Vietnamese civilians. These policies included the emphasis on "body count" as a way of measuring military success on the battlefield, the accidental bombing of villages (symbolized by journalist Peter Arnett's famous quote, "it was necessary to destroy the village in order to save it"), and the killing of civilians in such incidents as the My Lai massacre. In 1974 the documentary Hearts and Minds sought to portray the devastation the war was causing to the South Vietnamese people, and won an Academy Award for best documentary amid considerable controversy. The South Vietnamese government also antagonized many of its citizens with its suppression of political opposition, through such measures as holding large numbers of political prisoners, torturing political opponents, and holding a one-man election for President in 1971. Despite this, a high percentage of Vietnamese participated and the government captured a large percentage of the votes.

Vietnamization

Nixon was elected President and began his policy of slow disengagement from the war. The goal was to gradually build up the South Vietnamese Army so that it could fight the war on its own. This policy became the cornerstone of the so-called "Nixon Doctrine". As applied to Vietnam, the doctrine was called "Vietnamization". The stated goal of Vietnamization was to enable the South Vietnamese army to increasingly hold its own against the NLF and the North Vietnamese Army. The unstated goal of Vietnamization was that the primary burden of combat would be returned to ARVN troops and thereby lessen domestic opposition in the U.S to the war. During this period, the United States conducted a gradual troop withdrawal from Vietnam. Nixon continued to use air power to bomb the enemy, along with a US troop incursion in Cambodia. Ultimately more bombs were dropped under the Nixon Presidency than under Johnson's, while US troop deaths started to drop significantly. The Nixon administration was determined to remove US troops from the theater while not destabilizing the defensive efforts of South Vietnam. Many significant gains in the war were made under the Nixon administration, however. One particularly significant achievement was the weakening of support that the North Vietnamese army received from the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. One of Nixon's main foreign policy goals had been the achievement of a "breakthrough" in U.S. relations with the two nations, in terms of creating a new spirit of cooperation. To a large extent this was achieved. China and the USSR had been the principal backers of the North Vietnamese army through large amounts of military and financial support. The eagerness of both nations to improve their own U.S. relations in the face of a widening breakdown of the inter-Communist alliance led to the reduction of their aid to North Vietnam. People's Republic of China The morality of U.S. conduct of the war continued to be a political issue under the Nixon Presidency. In 1969, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh exposed the My Lai massacre and its cover-up, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. It came to light that Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in Vietnam, had led a massacre of several hundred Vietnamese civilians, including women, babies, and the elderly, at My Lai a year before. The massacre was only stopped after three US soldiers (Glenn Andreotta, Lawrence Colburn and Hugh Thompson, Jr.) noticed the carnage from their helicopter and intervened to prevent their fellow soldiers from killing any more civilians. Calley was given a life sentence after his court-martial in 1970, but was later pardoned by President Nixon. Cover-ups may have happened in other cases, as contended in the Pulitzer Prize-winning article series about the Tiger Force by the Toledo Blade in 2003. In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was deposed by Lon Nol in Cambodia, who became the chief of state. The Khmer Rouge guerillas with North Vietnamese backing began to attack the new regime. Nixon ordered a military incursion into Cambodia in order to destroy NLF sanctuaries bordering on South Vietnam and protect the fragile Cambodian government. This action prompted even more protests on US college campuses. Several students were shot and killed by National Guard troops during demonstrations at Kent State. One effect of the incursion was to push communist forces deeper into Cambodia, which destabilized the country and in turn may have encouraged the rise of the Khmer Rouge, who seized power in 1975. The goal of the attacks, however, was to bring the North Vietnamese negotiators back to the table with some flexibility in their demands that the South Vietnamese government be overthrown as part of the agreement. It was also alleged that US and South Vietnamese casualty rates were reduced by the destruction of military supplies the communists had been storing in Cambodia. All U.S. forces left Cambodia on June 30. In an effort to help assuage opposition to the war, Nixon announced on October 12, 1970, that the United States would withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas. Later that month on October 30, the worst monsoon to hit Vietnam in six years caused large floods, killed 293, left 200,000 homeless and virtually halted the war. Backed by US air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invaded Laos on 13 February 1971. On August 18 of that year, Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam. The total number of US troops in Vietnam dropped to 196,700 on 29 October 1971, the lowest level since January 1966. On November 12, 1971, Nixon set a 1 February 1972 deadline to remove another 45,000 US troops from Vietnam. By this time, facilitated by general instability in the region and the U.S.-backed ousting of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia, the opium and heroin trade that had arisen in the infamous Golden Triangle region was also beginning to escalate. Significant amounts of heroin started to flow into Vietnam during 1970 and this was followed soon after by the first large-scale seizures of Asian heroin in the United States and Europe. Historian and drug trafficking expert Dr Alfred W. McCoy claims that there was significant covert US involvement in the drug trade which, he alleges, was the result of what he calls the CIA's policy of "radical pragmatism". McCoy claims that this policy led to the creation of a new Asian-based heroin trade, organised as a collaboration between the Sicilian-US and Corsican-French Mafia, with assistance from elements of the CIA. Although McCoy's broader claims remain controversial, the indisputable fact was that by late 1970 heroin use was emerging as a major health issue among US servicemen, with some medics reporting that as more than 10% of GIs in some units were regular heroin users by the end of 1970. The penetration of drugs into US military in Vietnam also led to a rapid increase in drug importation into Australia, thanks in part to the the thriving Rest and Recreation circuit, with some US personnel sent to Sydney on R&R leave being used as drug "mules". Around this time, US journalists also began to report allegations that South Vietnamese politicians were

Vietnam Women's Memorial

The Vietnam Women's Memorial is a memorial dedicated to the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War, most of whom were nurses. It is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and is located on the Mall in Washington DC, a short distance south of The Wall, north of the Reflecting Pool. Diane Carlson Evans, who served as a nurse in the army during the Vietnam War, initiated the drive to add the bronze sculpture to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was designed by Glenna Goodacre and dedicated on November 11, 1993.

External links


- [http://www.nps.gov/vive/memorial/women.htm National Parks Service page]
- [http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation]
- [http://www.VirtualWall.org/women.htm The women who died in the war] 1993 Category:National memorials in Washington, DC Category:National Mall Category:Nursing Category:Women in war Category:United States military memorials and cemeteries
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Category:Nursing stubs

1982

1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January


- January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the "freeway killer".
- January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself into twenty-two subdivisions.
- January 10 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar, in Aberdeenshire. This equals the record set in the same place in 1895.
- January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara during Paris-Dakar rally. He is rescued January 14.
- January 11 to January 17 - A brutal cold snap sends temperatures to all-time record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
- January 13 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78. Half an hour later, a Washington Metro train derails, killing three. It is the system's first fatal accident.
- January 17 - Cold Sunday sweeps over northern United States.
- January 26 - Mauno Koivisto elected the President of Finland.
- January 28 - James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.

February


- February 1 - Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation.
- February 2 - Hama Massacre begins in Syria.
- February 3 - Syrian president Hafez al-Assad orders army to purge the city of Harran of the Muslim Brotherhood.
- February 5 - Laker Airways collapses, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded and with debts of £270 million.
- February 15 - The oil platform Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 rig workers.
- February 19 - The DeLorean Car factory in Belfast is put into receivership.
- February 24 - Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scores his 77th goal of the National Hockey League season, breaking the previous record of 76. He would go on to score 92 goals that season, which remains the record.

March


- March 1 - Jimmy Page's soundtrack album Death Wish II is released by Swan Song Records
- March 10 - The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support of terrorist groups.
- March 10 - Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun.
- March 18 - An Argentinean scrap metal dealer raises the Argentinean flag in South Georgia
- March 19 - Falklands War approaches: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
- March 26 - A ground breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC
- March 29 - Royal Assent in London to the Canada Act 1982 sets the stage for the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution (see April 17 below).
- March 30 - Pakistan in Karachi Adeel Mansoor is born.

April


- April 2 - Falklands War begins: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
- April 4 - Falklands War: the British Falkland Islands government surrenders, placing the islands in Argentinean control
- April 6 - A blizzard unprecedented in size for April dumps 1-2 feet of snow on the northeastern U.S., closing schools and businesses, snarling traffic, and canceling several major league baseball games.
- April 17 - By Proclamation of the Queen of Canada on Parliament Hill, Canada repatriates its constitution, granting full political independence from the United Kingdom; included is the country's first entrenched bill of rights, called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- April 23 - Dennis Wardlow, Mayor of Key West, Florida, declares the independent Conch Republic for a day.
- April 25 - Israel completes withdrawing from the Sinai peninsula per the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

May


- May 1 - Falklands War: A Royal Air Force Vulcan bomber takes off from Ascension Island and bombs Stanley Airport.
- May 2 - Falklands War: Nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano.
- The Weather Channel airs on cable television for the first time.
- May 5 - Unabomber bomb explodes in the computer science department at Vanderbilt University; secretary Janet Smith is injured.
- May 12 - Spanish priest Juan Hernandes tries to stab Pope John Paul II with a bayonet during the latter's pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine.
- May 21 - Falklands War: Royal Marines and paratroopers from the British Task Force land at San Carlos Bay on the Falkland Islands and raise the Union Jack.
- May 23 - Falklands War - HMS Antelope of the Royal Navy explodes.
- May 24 - Iranian troops retake Khorramshahr.
- May 26 - Kielder Water, artificial lake in Northumbria, opened.
- May 28 - British troops reach Darwin in the Falkland Islands
- May 29 - Falklands War: In the Battle of Goose Green, British Paratroopers defeat a larger force of Argentine troops in the first land battle of the war.
- May 30 - Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO and the first nation to enter the alliance since West Germany's admission in 1955.
- May 31 - Falklands War: Battle of Stanley.

June


- June 6 - 1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
- June 6 - United Nations Security Council votes to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Lebanon
- June 8 - President Reagan became the first American chief executive to address a joint session of the British Parliament.
- June 12 - 750,000 people rally against nuclear weapons in New York City's Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt are in attendance
- June 13 - In Alberta, Canada 15 members of the Black Leopards Karate Club demolish a house with bare hands and feet with owner's consent
- June 13 - Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
- June 14 - Falklands War ends: British forces reach the outskirts of Stanley after "yomping" across East Falkland from San Carlos Bay. They arrive to find the Argentine forces flying white flags of surrender. A formal surrender is agreed that day.
- June 19 - The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
- J