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The Sixties: The War in Vietnam

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Vietnam (1959 - 1975)

Beginning in 1955, the United States actively began a relationship with South Vietnam. At first, it was financial aid and political support. For the next twenty years, the United States continued to commit aid and advisers, then combat troops, to defeat the communists of North Vietnam. Our leaders believed that, if Vietnam fell, the rest of Southeast Asia would go communist. North Vietnam saw it as a war of liberation to unite Vietnam. South Vietnam saw it as a civil war. And the winner would be the one who held out the longest. For over a decade (1965-1975), Americans turned on the television and there was Walter Cronkite and other newsmen giving the American people the latest statistic, the latest engagement and all done with pictures and sound. In the history of war, that had never been done before. Until our engagement in Afghanistan, the Vietnam War was the longest war in the history of the United States.

Map of Vietnam

This image is in the public domain. It originally came from the United States Central Intelligence World Factbook.

Events

"We are determined to fight for independence, national unity, democracy and peace." --Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese leader, May 8, 1954

  • 1945. Ho Chi Minh forms the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
  • 1950. First American advisors go to Vietnam.
  • 1954. Viet Minh defeats French at Dien Pien Phu.
  • 1954. Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into North and South.
  • 1955. Ngo Dinh Diem becomes President of South Vietnam.
  • 1959. First two US soldiers killed in Vietnam.
  • 1962. US aircraft begin spraying Agent Orange.
  • 1963. Buddhist monks protest South Vietnamese government.
  • 1963. President Diem assassinated.
  • 1964. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
  • 1965. 1st American combat troops arrive in South Vietnam.
  • 1965. LBJ launches three-year bombing campaign of North Vietnam & Ho Chi Minh Trail
  • 1967. US troops in Vietnam = 500,000.
  • 1968. Tet Offensive
  • 1968. My Lai Massacre.
  • 1970. President Nixon expands the war into Cambodia.
  • 1973. US combat troops leave Vietnam; 591 American POWs released.
  • 1973. Congress cuts off war funds to Southeast Asia.
  • 1973-1975. Civil War between North and South Vietnam.
  • 1975. Saigon falls to North Vietnam.
  • Source: https://www.history.com

Leaders

AMERICAN
SOUTH VIETNAMESE
NORTH VIETNAMESE

Ho Chi Minh, circa 1946 (Public domain)

CAMBODIA

Allies

The United States

  • South Vietnam
  • New Zealand
  • The Philippines
  • Australia
  • Thailand
  • South Korea

North Vietnam

  • Russia
  • China

Military Organizations

  • AATTV, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
  • ARVN, Army of the Republic of (South) Vietnam
  • DRV, Democratic Republic of North Vietnam
  • MAAG, Military Assistance and Advisory Group (active 1950-1962)
  • MACV, Military Assistance Command Vietnam beginning 1962.
  • Montagnard soldiers (mountain people allied with US).
  • NLF, National Liberation Front (political organization opposed to the South Vietnamese govt.)
  • NVA, North Vietnamese Army
  • ROK troops, Republic of Korea soldiers
  • RVN, Republic of South Vietnam
  • US Green Beret Special Forces.
  • VC (Viet Cong) NLF guerillas in the South.

American Strategies

  • "body count" (also known as "counting corpses") as in "Jack up that body count or you're gone, Colonel" (p.356). Statistic by which American commanders measured success.
  • Burning out VC from the water.
  • "crossover point" strategy, Westmoreland strategy to destroy North Vietnamese troops, not Viet Cong)
  • free fire zone, zone where no restrictions on fire power.
  • "grab him by his belt" -Viet Cong and North Vietnamese strategy "to get sp close (to American soldiers) that artillery and air power was useless" (Ward, p. 213).
  • Pineapple, baseball and lemon grenades.
  • Helicopter ("chopper") support.
  • kill ratio, the proportion of casualties against the other side's casualties.
  • Operation Ranch Hand: US Air Force dropping napalm and spraying Agent Orange.
  • Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign of the North.
  • pacification, struggle to gain the support of the rural population
  • The Phoenix Program, CIA co-ordinated program to destroy Viet Cong.
  • Search and destroy missions.
  • spraying the countryside with napalm and Agent Orange
  • Vietnamization, returning the war to the South Vietnam

North Vietnamese Weapons & Strategies

  • Air raid shelters.
  • Bamboo stakes used in booby traps.
  • Bicycle transporting laborers and cargo along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
  • Hanoi Home Guard with weapons to shoot down aircraft.
  • Ho Chi Minh Trail outside both Vietnams.
  • "People's courts", VC trials for disloyal villagers.
  • Postcards used for propaganda.
  • Sulfa drugs to treat infections.
  • Surface to air missiles.
  • Tunnel complexes.
  • Viet Cong guerilla warfare in the South.

G. I. Slang

  • bird, aircraft
  • bird farms, aircraft carrier
  • boonies, back country
  • charlie, Viet Cong
  • charm school, initial orientation in Vietnam
  • chicken plate, wraparound bulletproof vest
  • chopper, helicopter
  • cracker box, a field ambulance
  • dinged, wounded
  • Dodge City, Hanoi
  • dustoff, medical evacuation
  • flak jacket, armored vest
  • FNG, foolish new guy
  • fragging, killing an officer by his own men
  • freedom bird, plane taking soldier home
  • friendlies, South Vietnamese on our side
  • grunt, infantryman
  • Hanoi Hilton, POW camp in North Vietnam
  • immersion foot, trench foot
  • in country, a mission in Vietnam
  • Indian country, hostile area
  • LRRP rations, frieze dried meals for Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols
  • LZ, landing zone.
  • Nam, nickname for Vietnam.
  • number one, number ten, expressions of approval and disapproval
  • one-digit midget, someone due to leave in less than ten days
  • R & R, Rest & Recreation
  • red dollars, scrip issued to soldiers instead of real money.
  • saddle up, put on your gear and get ready to move out.
  • snuff, infantryman
  • Steve Canyons, provided air cover
  • short timers, GIs who had only a short time to leave
  • tunnel rats, soldiers who crawled through unexplored VC tunnels.
  • Vietnamization, Nixon's plan to turn the war over to South Vietnam
  • waxed, kiled
  • zippo, flamethrower shooting out napalm.

Source:  Dewdroppers, waldos, and slackers: a decade-by-decade guide to the vanishing vocabulary of the 20th century by R. Ostler (pp. 119 -144).

Movies about Vietnam

Books

Casualties

  • Over 58,000 Americans killed.
  • Over 153,000 seriously wounded.
  • 591 American POWs returned to US.
  • 2000 Americans missing in action.
  • Approximately 2.64 US personnel served in Vietnam (1960-1973).
  • 7484 women served in Vietnam; 6250 of these women were nurses.
  • Over 8.2 million veterans served around the world during the Vietnam era.
  • Over 3 million Vietnamese died during the Vietnam War.
  • One and a half million refugees left Vietnam after the North defeated the South.
  • 40,000 Vietnamese settled in the US.
  • 300,000 North Vietnamese missing.
  • Unknown number of Viet Cong and NV POWs.
  • Estimated 50,000 children fathered by Americans.

Sources: The Vietnam War: An Intimate History  by Ward, Burns & Novick (pp.576, 585) and Dk Eyewitness Books: Vietnam War by S. Murray (pp. 62-65).

Additional References

Greene, G. (1980). Ways of Escape. London: The Bodley Head.
Murray, S. (2005). Dk Eyewitness Books: Vietnam War. New York: DK Publishing.
Ostler, R. (2005). Dewdroppers, waldos, and slackers: a decade-by-decade guide to the vanishing vocabulary of the 20th century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America, 1954-1974. Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Ward, G. C., Burns, K., & Novick, L. (2017). The Vietnam War an intimate history. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.