The Vietnam War

In South Vietnam, President Kennedy felt he had to act. Advisors urged him to commit ground troops, but Kennedy refused. Instead, the President supported a new, flexible, way to confront and contain communism—"limited war." NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Kennedy’s “Limited War” Campaign.

Ho Chi Minh and John F. Kennedy had conflicting visions for how an independent Vietnam should be governed—it boiled down to the difference between communism and democracy. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Kennedy’s “Limited War” Campaign.

In early November 1963, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup. Coordinated attacks by the Viet Cong swept the countryside and the unstable government in Saigon was hit by more coups. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Fallout after the Diem Coup.

By the early 1960s, Ho Chi Minh was still a beloved figure in North Vietnam, but shared power with younger, more impatient, leaders. At the November 1963 Party Plenum in Hanoi, Ho, who favored the new Soviet policy of de-escalating the Cold War, was outmaneuvered by party First Secretary Le Duan, who sided with the Chinese in advocating revolution through violence. From that point forward, Le Duan controlled North Vietnam's war policy. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Both Sides Escalate Their Efforts.

In 1964, President Johnson authorized an increased number of military personnel in Vietnam and widened the scope of bombing, but concealed this from the American public to avoid hurting his chances in the upcoming election. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Both Sides Escalate Their Efforts.

In October 1965, Communist commandos laid seige to the U.S. Special Forces outpost at Plei Mei, in the Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands. Despite reinforcements helicoptered in by the 1st Cavalry, the seige lasted for almost a week. It ended only after American bombs and napalm turned the surrounding terrain into a moonscape. In November, the 1st Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Hal Moore, went looking for the enemy. At Landing Zone X-Ray, at the base of Chu Pong mountain, Moore's force of just over 400 men soon found itself beseiged by 3,000 enemy soldiers. Once again, massive American air power was required to break the seige. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Early War Strategy: Comparisons of US Military Tactics and North Vietnamese Army/Viet Cong Tactics.

American air power and artillery beat back the initial assault on Colonel Hal Moore's forces at Landing Zone X-Ray. The next day, enemy soldiers hurled themselves against the same sector of Moore's Line four more times, and were obliterated by artillery and machine gun fire. After three days and two nights of fighting, the North Vietnamese retreated into the forest. A couple of days later, they ambushed another battalion at Landing Zone Albany and wiped it out. Their tactic this time was to get so close that the Americans couldn't call in artillery and air strikes for fear of killing their own men. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Early War Strategy: Comparisons of US Military Tactics and North Vietnamese Army/Viet Cong Tactics.

The battles in the La Drang Valleywere declared American victories, but privately General Westmoreland and the Johnson Administration were worried. In spite of the Americans' new airborne mobility, the enemy had been able to choose the place and time of battle, and the numbers of North Vietnames forces in the South was vastly greater than had been reported. Defense Secretary McNamara gave President Johnson two options: try to negotiate with Hanoi, or grant Westmorland's request for 200,000 more troops. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Early War Strategy: Comparisons of US Military Tactics and North Vietnamese Army/Viet Cong Tactics.

As they continued to escalate the war, President Johnson and Defense Secretary McNamara were frustrated that American Commanders in Vietnam, who had come of age during World War II and Korea, were having a hard time making sense of what was happening on the ground. Further, Johnson had tried to forge an international coalition to defend South Vietnam, but America's most important allies – Britain, France, and Canada – refused to take part and were calling instead for peace talks. As 1966 began, nearly 200,000 American soldiers were stationed in Vietnam, and more were on the way. Those soldiers quickly discovered that the war they were being asked to fight was not their father's war. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Questioning the Mission.

In early February of 1966, President Johnson got more bad news. His old friend, J. William Fulbright, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, planned to hold hearings on the Vietnam War. And the television networks intended to cover the hearings from gavel-to-gavel. Johnson tried to deflect the tension by announcing he was going to a military conference in Honolulu to meet for the two generals who now headed the Saigon government. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Questioning the Mission.

By early 1966, Viet Cong guerrillas had made substantial gains and were believed to control nearly three-quarters of South Vietnam. But General Westmoreland thought his most urgent task was to destroy the North Vietnamese regular army units Hanoi was sending south. Westmoreland's target was reaching what he called the "crossover point"—the point at which US and ARVN forces were killing more enemy troops than could be replaced. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Trying to Find the Right Formula.

Since there was no front in Vietnam, as there had been in the First and Second World Wars, and no ground was ever permanently won or lost, the American military command fell back on a singly grisly measure of supposed success—body count. General Westmoreland's Binh Dinh offensive was the first of many large-scale U.S. "search and destroy" campaigns. It lasted 42 days, and killed more than 2,000 enemy soldiers. But most of the North Vietnamese regulars managed to escape back into the Central Highlands, and over 100,000 civilians were driven from their homes. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Trying to Find the Right Formula.

When the U.S. Navy blockaded the coastline of South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese sent their supplies overland through Laos and Cambodia by turning 12,000 miles of jungle footpaths into roadways. Dubbed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail," the American military reasoned that if it could be sufficiently damaged, the enemy would be unable to sustain itself. Three million tons of explosives would be dropped on the Laos portion of the trail alone. But as often as the Trail was bombed, it was repaired. As many as 230,000 North Vietnamese teenagers—many of them volunteers and over half of them women—worked to keep the roads open. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Trying to Find the Right Formula.

The military claimed to have killed some 57,000 enemy soldiers in the first six months of 1966. But privately, the Johnson administration worried that General Westmoreland's crossover point—the moment when more enemy soldiers had been killed than could be replaced—seemed no nearer. Despite his concerns about bringing the Soviet Union and China into the war, and increased civilian causualties, Johnson agreed to intensify the bombing campaign called Operation Rolling Thunder. Increased civilian casualties resulted, as he had feared. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Reassessing Rolling Thunder.

Operation Rolling Thunder destroyed most of North Vietnam's oil storage facilities. But the North Vietnamese shifted most of their oil to underground tanks, and more arrived every day from China and the Soviet Union. The bombing was stepped up anyway. Over a million people were said to be working around the clock to undo whatever damage American bombs inflicted. They worked under the slogan "the enemy destroys, we repair." The strategic bombing campaign had little or no impact on the North's resolve, and the American public's doubts about the morality of the war grew. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Reassessing Rolling Thunder.

President Johnson tried to find a middle ground—he expanded the list of bombing targets but refusesd to mine the harbors, and in mid-1967, he agreed to send General Westmoreland only 47,000 more troops. NOTE: This video is part of lesson plans titled Reassessing the Crossover Point and General Westmoreland Promises to End the War.

In April 1967, General Westmoreland addressed a joint session of Congress — the first general ever to be called home from a battlefield by his president to do so. In his address, Westmoreland confidently asserted that the United States would prevail in Vietnam, but behind the scenes, neither he nor the administration were confident. NOTE: This video is part of lesson plans titled Reassessing the Crossover Point and 1967 General Westmoreland Promises to End the War.

The men in the Third Marine Division who were sent to the northernmost I Corps tactical zone called the DMZ the "Dead Marine Zone," because conditions were so bad and the casualty rate was so high. They were outnumbered by the North Vietnamese, who knew the territory. To make matters worse, the enemy carried seemingly indestructable Soviet-made AK-47's, while the Marines had newly-issued M-16 rifles with a potentially fatal design flaw — they needed constant cleaning and often jammed in the middle of firefights. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Theory and Reality of a War Strategy.

South Vietnam had been divided into four tactical zones. By the summer of 1967, American troops were fighting in all four of them. But some of the most intense combat took place in I Corps, made up of the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, where the Marines bore the brunt of the fighting. General Westmoreland insisted they move further north in I Corps and establish bases close to the DMZ. This brought them within close range of highly accurate North Vietnamese artillery and rocket launchers hidden within the DMZ. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Theory and Reality of a War Strategy.

On January 31, 1968, NBC delayed the start of Johnny Carson's late-night talk show for a special news program announcing a surprise assault by Viet Cong commandos on various targets in Saigon, including the U.S. embassy. Known as the Tet Offensive, it broke the ceasefire agreement marking the Lunar New Year. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Tet Offensive: A Media Analysis Activity.

Fighting in Saigon during the Tet Offensive is the focus of press coverage including television news. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Tet Offensive: A Media Analysis Activity.

One photograph would come to define the Tet Offensive for many people. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Tet Offensive: A Media Analysis Activity.

President Johnson insisted the Tet Offensive had been a "devastating defeat for the communists." Militarily, he was right. Of the 84,000 enemy troops estimated to have taken part, more than half—as many as 58,000 men and women—are thought to have been killed, wounded, or captured. But it also showed that even after so many years of war, North Vietnam still had the will and resources to fight. Walter Cronkite came home from covering the Tet Offensive convinced that victory was no longer possible. He told his viewers, "it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out...will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could." NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Tet Offensive: A Media Analysis Activity.

The men who enlisted came from every corner of the country. They were idealists—inspired by the values of "duty, honor, and country"—who believed in what America stood for and wanted to serve their country, as had those who served in World War II. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Who Served and Who Didn't.

By 1954, US tax payers were paying for nearly 80% of France’s war in Vietnam because Eisenhower’s administration thought it was important in the fight against communism. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The US Becomes Further Involved in South Vietnam.

Learn how the United States hoped to encourage the creation of a democratic government in South Vietnam under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the many challenges presented by this goal. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The US Becomes Further Involved in South Vietnam.

President Kennedy instructed Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador to South Vietnam, to tell the renegade generals that, while the United States did not wish to stimulate a coup, it would not thwart one, either. The generals proceeded with their plans and on November 1, 1963, troops loyal to them seized key installations in Saigon. Diem and Nhu surrendered the next day and were murdered shortly thereafter. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Kennedy and the Diem Coup: The Torch Is Passed.

Learn about the Strategic Hamlet Program, which was part of the effort to win the hearts, minds, and loyalty of the Vietnamese people. By the summer of 1962, the results seemed so promising that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara made sure the Pentagon was prepared to implement a plan for a gradual withdrawal of American advisors to be completed by 1965. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Diem Regime and US Misperceptions.

In the tradition of previous wars, most press coverage of Vietnam was upbeat. By 1963, however, a handful of young reporters began to see that from the Vietnamese countryside, things looked very different than they did from the press offices in Washington or Saigon. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Diem Regime and US Misperceptions.

Learn about the regime of South Vietnamese politician Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. By the early 1960s, the Diem regime had become known for corruption and oppression — some said it was not that different from the Communist regime in North Vietnam. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Diem Regime and US Misperceptions.

Learn about the Battle of Ap Bac, a major battle fought in Vietnam on January 2, 1963. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Battle of Ap Bac.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was one of the most controversial and consequential events in American history, and resulted in the escalation of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

On August 4, 1964, American radio operators mistranslated North Vietnamese radio traffic and concluded a new military operation was imminent. The USS Maddox and another destroyer, the USS Turner Joy, braced for a fresh attack. The attack was "probable but not certain," President Johnson was told, and since it had probably occured, the president authorized the first-ever bombing raid on installations in North Vietnam. On August 7, a joint session of Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

On August 7, 1964, by a vote of 88-2, in the Senate passed what came to be called the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. In the House, not a single congressman opposed it. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled The Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

A week after his inauguration, President Johnson was informed that the United States' strategy in Vietnam was not working, and he was given options as to how to move forward. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Operation Rolling Thunder and Widening the War.

In March of 1965, President Johnson sent American ground troops to Vietnam. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled Operation Rolling Thunder and Widening the War.

Conditions in South Vietnam grew steadily worse and the country was near collapse. By the spring of 1965, the North Vietnamese were destroying the equivalent of a South Vietnamese battalion every week. Desperate, General Westmoreland requested tens of thousands more American troops right away. But neither the continued bombing, nor the growing likelihood of full-scale American intervention, seemed to intimidate Hanoi. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled 1965 Troop Escalations.

President Johnson sends 50,000 more troops to General Westmoreland, and pledges another 50,000 by the end of 1965—and still more if they were needed. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled 1965 Troop Escalations.

Vietnam veteran and author Tim O’Brien reads from his book The Things They Carried. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled "The Things They Carried."

Vietnam veteran and author Tim O’Brien reads from his book The Things They Carried. NOTE: This video is part of a lesson plan titled "The Things They Carried."