The First Steps
During World War II, the United States supported Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh in his struggle against the Japanese. But after the war, when he sought assistance from Communist powers to win independence from France, the United States opposed him as an agent of Communist expansion.
A 1954 cease-fire agreement partitioned the country into a Communist north and an anti-Communist south. President Dwight Eisenhower sent hundreds of military advisors and $1 billion to support South Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy increased the number of advisors and tripled U.S. financial support.
The United States found itself propping up a series of corrupt regimes in a fight against the Communist-led Vietcong in South Vietnam and their allies in the North. This force proved to be not Soviet puppets, but Vietnamese nationalists dedicated to reuniting the country under an independent Communist government.
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North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh |
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President John F. Kennedy speaking to the nation, 1961 |
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Secretary McNamara and General Taylor with President Kennedy |
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South Vietnamese premier Nguyen Khanh welcoming U.S. allies |
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U.S. Army advisor and South Vietnamese soldiers |
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U.S. Marine advisor with South Vietnamese soldiers |
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Volunteers and draftees inducted into the U.S. Army |
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Buddhist monk protesting the South Vietnamese Diem regime |
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Escalation
When President Lyndon Johnson sent thousands of air and ground forces to Vietnam in 1965, most Americans supported him. As casualties mounted and the draft expanded, antiwar sentiment grew. In 1968, the Tet Offensive—a widespread Communist assault—deepened disagreements over the war’s conduct and meaning. Even veterans and some in active service questioned America’s involvement.
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Lyndon Johnson is sworn in after Kennedy’s assassination. |
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Defense secretary Robert S. McNamara conducting a briefing |
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General William Westmoreland in Vietnam |
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U.S. Marine conducting a “search and clear” operation |
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U.S. Army nurse at South Vietnamese orphanage |
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Antiwar demonstrator burning his draft card |
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Wounded U.S. Army paratroopers being evacuated |
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U.S. Marine looking for snipers |
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U.S. Navy landing marines at Da Nang |
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U.S. Marine training a special-operations soldier |
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U.S. Navy nurse on a hospital ship |
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U.S. Marine awaiting evacuation from the Ashau Valley |
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U.S. Marine rifleman near Khe Sanh |
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American and Vietnamese river patrol forces |
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Naval bombardment supporting ground troops |
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Medical corpsman awaiting an evacuation helicopter |
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Antiwar demonstration in Madison, Wisconsin |
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U.S. casualties in Saigon on first day of the Tet Offensive |
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Antidraft protest in San Francisco |
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U.S. Army soldier in the muddy waters of the Mekong Delta |
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Army infantryman in Kien Hoa Province calling in air support |
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President Lyndon Johnson listening to news about the war |
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Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. denouncing the war |
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CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite on location in Vietnam |
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South Vietnamese chief of police executing a Vietcong agent |
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Vietnamese civilians killed by U.S. troops at My Lai |
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U.S. Marine clearing vegetation near Da Nang |
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Assassination of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy |
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U.S. Marines south of Khe Sanh evacuating their dead |
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U.S. Navy Skyhawk taking off on a bombing run |
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“When Will It Ever End?”
By 1970, President Richard Nixon began to withdraw American troops, but expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos, resulting in widespread protests at home.
On May 2, 1970, the governor of Ohio dispatched more than 900 National Guardsmen to quell antiwar protests at Kent State University. During a campus confrontation on May 4, twenty-eight guardsmen opened fire: four students were killed and nine wounded. The incident fueled vehement protests and student strikes; hundreds of colleges and universities canceled exams and graduations and sent students home.
As the war dragged on and home-front protests became more widespread, many troops in Vietnam—often unwilling draftees—became increasingly disillusioned with the war. Many modified their uniforms or ignored military regulations; some sported peace signs. And they adopted as their mantra a popular song by the Animals, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place (if it’s the last thing we ever do).”
U.S. forces left Vietnam in 1973 and South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975.
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Vietnam moratorium demonstration in Washington, D.C. |
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Richard M. Nixon taking the oath as thirth-seventh president |
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President Nixon explaining expansion of the war into Cambodia |
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Prowar demonstration in New York City |
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Reaction to Kent State Massacre |
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Police dispersing students at University of Maryland |
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Students at New York University being urged to strike |
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U.S. Air Force F-4 fighters refueling at Phu Cat Air Base |
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U.S. Air Force B-52 bombing Vietcong targets |
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Demonstration after testimony by antiwar veterans |
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GI with a peace-sign medallion |
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"U.S. Army soldiers on the border between South Vietnam and Cambodia near an area know as the 'Parrots Beak' are interviewed by a NBC television news crew shortly after their pullback from Cambodia in May of 1970" |
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South Vietnamese soldiers celebrating on top of an NVA tank |
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President Nixon conferring with advisor Henry Kissinger |
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Civilians fleeing South Vietnamese napalm attack |
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U.S. Navy jet ready to launch in the Gulf of Tonkin |
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Actress Jane Fonda visiting Hanoi to support North Vietnam |
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President Gerald Ford ended U.S. involvement in Vietnam. |
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