The Beginning of the Vietnam War
The Beginning of the Vietnam WarIntroduction
Thankyou for deciding to continue to read. Here I am not trying to be a complete guide to the
Vietnam War, but what I think about this hugely misunderstood war. If you want to know about the
Vietnam war, I highly recomment the book “Nam, The Vietnam Experience 1965-75″It’s an excellent
resource, and after a ling time I am still reading it myself, learning new things and understanding more.
How it Started
A lot is misunderstood by many people about the Vietnam War. There are a lot of politocs behind
the war, but on the military side, the following is quite an accurate account of the immediate effects
which started the war.
It started on the 8 August 1965 when American Troops stormed ashore at Da Nang, South of
Vietnam, ready to fight the bloodiest war known to man. of Vietnam, ready to fight the bloodiest war
known to man. The reason was simple: there was a communist threat and their [The US] job was to
resist it.
In 1960, President John F Kennedy saw that South East Asia was under imminent threat, so decided
to increase aid to South Vietnam. This was received by Lyndon Johnson in November 1963. He
declared that he would not let Vietnam fall the same way as China.
The above lead to more corruption, instead of military success; so consequently the US became
more and moe involved in politics in the South. In January 1964, plans were drawn up for operations
against North Vietnam. These included sabotage and spying for the North, and bombing raids and
Naval attacks for North Vietnam’s coast.
There were attacks on US Naval vessels by the North Vietnamese (NV). Torpedoes were launched
but missed, and no American casualties were suffered. After this, Johnson decided to act. He sent
out vessels. As the two destroyers approached the coast, a terrible storm broke out: They were
convinced that and attack was imminent. Crusaders flew over from. They could see the vessels
zig-zagging about: They were under attack. Sonars detected 22 incoming torpedoa and they air craft
pilots claimed to have hit three enemy craft. As soon as these reports got to Johnson, he ordered air
strikes against coastal targets in the North, and appeared in television commercials announcing his
positive reply.
First Blood
After that, it was all quiet fr the soldiers at Da Nang. They would go out all day, getting hot, sweaty
and bored. Every now and then a monkey would set off the alarms, but no real action was
happening, it was very frustrating. For a full five months after they had swept the beach, nothing had
still happened, until now…
About about 0130 hours (1:30am), a Marine sentry a strange noise outside camp. He threw an
illumation...
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