Through much of November, in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, U.S. and North Vietnamese forces engaged each other in heavy combat for the first time.Marines wade ashore with heavy equipment at first light at Red Beach near Da Nang in Saigon on April 10, 1965.The Americans ultimately forced the NVA out of the valley and killed ten times as many enemy soldiers as they lost. In October, he easily ousted Bao Dai and became President of the new Republic of Vietnam (ROV).Nevertheless, Diem’s political repression and attacks on Buddhist community made him more and more unpopular among ordinary South Vietnamese people. Corruption, factionalism, and continued Buddhist protests plagued the Thieu‐Ky government.Despite incredible losses, the Vietcong still controlled many areas. Risks of a wider war with China and the Soviet Union meant that the United States would not go all out to annihilate North Vietnam. Realizing the increasingly unpopularity of Diem regime, Hanoi established the National Liberation Front (NLF), better known as the Viet Cong, on December 20, 1960, which consisted of all anti-government activists – both communists and non-communists, as a common front to fight against Diem.Vietnamese airborne rangers, their two U.S. advisers, and a team of 12 U.S. Special Forces troops set out to raid a Viet Cong supply base 62 miles northwest of Saigon, on August 6, 1963.
The Marines landed, and the US first major air mobile battle occurred at Ia Drang. Units of the division were battling to hold their lines against what was estimated to be a regiment of North Vietnamese soldiers.
USAF tactical bombers and even huge B‐52 strategic bombers attacked enemy positions. While MACV was getting men and munitions in place for large‐unit search and destroy operations, army and marine units conducted smaller operations.
In a letter to Ngo Dinh Diem – the new Prime Minister of the Bao Dai government on October 23, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower promised American support to his government to ensure a non-communist Vietnam. Under U.S. guidance, the Diem government also began construction of “strategic hamlets.” These fortified villages were intended to insulate rural Vietnamese from Vietcong intimidation and propaganda.U.S. President Nixon believed his Vietnamization From air power to infantry to chemicals, the weapons used in the Vietnam War were more devastating than those of any previous conflict.
Within eight-short years, the war in Vietnam not only affected the U.S. militarily but also changed its politics and shaped its society in a … Continue reading From 1965 to 1973: The United States in Vietnam by Year → In June, Marine and army units began offensive unit operations—“search and destroy” missions. Consequently, he relied on other means. As Senate majority leader in the 1950s and as vice‐president, he had supported Eisenhower’s and Kennedy’s decisions to aid South Vietnam. The Montagnards, dark-skinned tribesmen numbering about 700,000, live in the highlands of central Vietnam. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) favored a massive bombing campaign, but civilians in the State and Defense Departments preferred a gradual escalation.Using as a pretext a Vietcong attack on 7 February 1965 at Pleiku that killed eight American soldiers, Johnson ordered retaliatory bombing north of the Demilitarized Zone along the 17th parallel that divided North and South Vietnam. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) did not interfere as a group of ARVN officers plotted a coup.On 1 November 1963, the generals seized power, and Diem and his unpopular brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were murdered. From the first U.S. troops arrived in 1965 to the last ones withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the United States went through one of the most turbulent eras in its history. From February through April, Operation Junction City was an even larger attack on nearby War Zone C. There was major fighting in the Central Highlands, climaxing in the battle of Dak To in November 1967.With the persuasion of a Viet Cong-made spear pressed against his throat, a captured Viet Cong guerrilla decided to talk to interrogators, telling them of a cache of Chinese grenades on March 28, 1965.
Vietnam at 50: 1969 When Richard Nixon entered the White House on Jan. 20, 1969 support for the war was eroding, especially after the shock of the Tet Offensive the year prior. At least two Americans and several Vietnamese were killed in the bombing.Four “Ranch Hand” C-123 aircraft spray liquid defoliant on a suspected Viet Cong position in South Vietnam in September of 1965. forces killed many enemy soldiers and destroyed large amounts of supplies. The “Buddhist crisis” and dissatisfaction with Diem by top Vietnamese Army leaders made U.S. officials receptive to the idea of a change in South Vietnam’s leadership.
On the night of 2 August, North Vietnamese gunboats fired on the USS Maddox, a destroyer on an intelligence‐collecting mission, in the same area of the Gulf of Tonkin where South Vietnamese commandos were conducting raids against the North Vietnamese coast.