9781422279014

VIETNAM WAR

STALEMATE: U.S. PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM

STALEMATE: U.S. PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM VIETNAM WAR

STALEMATE: U.S. PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM VIETNAM WAR

MASON CREST

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2018 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder. Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress.

PAGE 2: The shadow cast by this giant C-130 Hercules’ wing gives the troops of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) a brief respite from the Vietnamese sun as they wait to be airlifted from Plei Orong to their home base at An Khe in April 1966. PAGE 3 : Protests against the war in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 1971. RIGHT : A search-and-destroy mission, conducted in Operation Oregon, by an infantry platoon of Troop B, 1st Reconaissance Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), 2 miles (3km) west of Duc Pho, Quang Ngai province. Troops leave an armored UH- 1B helicopter to move out in search of a suspected Viet Cong outpost. April 1967. PAGE 6 : A typical U.S. infantryman, equipped with his M16 rifle in South Vietnam.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3891-2 Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3887-5 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7801-4 ebook series ISBN: 978-1-4222-7897-0 Produced by Regency House Publishing Limited The Manor House

High Street Buntingford Hertfordshire SG9 9AB United Kingdom www.regencyhousepublishing.com Text copyright © 2018 Regency House Publishing Limited/Christopher Chant.

TITLES IN THE VIETNAM WAR SERIES: The Origins of Conflict in the Vietnam War The Escalation of American Involvement in the Vietnam War The U.S. Ground War in Vietnam 1965–1973 Stalemate: U.S. Public Opinion of the War in Vietnam The Fall of Saigon and the End of the Vietnam War

CONTENTS

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall 10 Chapter One: The Build Up in the North and South 12 Chapter Two: The Seige of Khe Sanh 52 Time Line of the Vietnam War 72 Series Glossary of Key Terms 74 Further Reading and Internet Resources 75 Index 76 Further Information 80

KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR:

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout the series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend high-level books and articles in this field.

OPPOSITE : A signaler radios in a situation report, possibly calling for reinforcements or air support.

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Vietnam Veterans Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by Maya Lin, a 21-year-old from Athens, Ohio. It was unveiled with an opening ceremony in 1982 in Washington, D.C. The memorial is dedicated to the men and women in the U.S. military who served in the war zone of Vietnam. The names of the 58,000 Americans who gave their lives and service to their country are etched chronologically in gabbro stone and listed on the two walls which make up the memorial monument. Those who died in action are denoted by a diamond, those who were missing (MIAs, POWs, and others) are denoted with a cross. When the death of one, who was previously missing is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over a cross. The wall consists of two sections, one side points to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. There is a pathway along the base for visitors to walk and reflect, or view the names of their loved ones. When visiting the memorial many take a piece of paper, and using a crayon or soft pencil make a memento of their loved one. This is known as “rubbing.” The shiny wall was designed to reflect a visitor’s face while reading the names of the military personnel who lost their lives. The idea is that symbolically the past and present are represented. The memorial was paid for by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. who raised nearly $9,000,000 to complete it. The memorial site also includes The Three Servicemen statue built in 1984. The statue depicts three soldiers, purposefully identifiable as European American, African American, and Hispanic American. The statue faces the wall with the soldiers looking on in solemn tribute at the names of their fallen comrades.

The Vietnam Women’s Memorial is dedicated to the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War, most of whom were nurses. It serves as a reminder of the importance of women in the conflict.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial can be found to the north of the Lincoln Memorial near the intersection of 22nd St. and Constitution Ave. NW. The memorial is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and receives approximately 5 million visitors each year. It is open 24 hours a day and is free to all visitors.

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VIETNAM WAR

Chapter One THE BUILD UP IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH

T he command, officers and men of the National Liberation Front learned much from their defeat in the Ia Drang and other combats of the same period, and thereafter opted to avoid fighting the type of confrontational ground war of attrition favored by the U.S. forces which played to the strengths of their greater weight of fire, tactical air mobility, and air support at all levels by aircraft ranging in size from the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, with its one

Words to Understand Infantry: Trained soldiers who fight on foot. NLF: National Liberation Front For South Vietnam. “Rolling Thunder”: A strategic bombing campaign during the Vietnam War.

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Stalemate: U.S. Public Opinion of the War in Vietnam

piston engine, to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress with its eight jet engines. The forces of the NLF , therefore, switched back to the type of small- unit irregular operations in which they had been so successful up to the middle of 1965. From a time late in 1964 the North Vietnamese had been dispatching units of their regular army into South Vietnam. At this time some of the politico-military leadership in Hanoi had felt that the time was ripe for an immediate invasion of the south, and this was the reason for the Communist military attempt to split South Vietnam in two with an advance from the Central Highlands east to the sea. This had led to the first major combat operation between North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang valley, and to the subsequent revision of the Communist tactics to reflect the losses suffered by the North Vietnamese. The lesson the U.S. forces drew from the fighting was that the North Vietnamese were not, as they had so wrongly believed, a force of indifferent troops of the light infantry type, little more than irregulars with little discipline and only light weapons, but a force of well disciplined and highly motivated soldiers with good training and excellent weapons. On November 27, 1965 the U.S. Department of Defense revealed that it was now thinking that a successful campaign to defeat the North Vietnamese and NLF forces in South Vietnam would require substantially greater strength than had been thought necessary up to this time: major operations were now accepted as necessary, and this would need an increase in the U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam from the current figure OPPOSITE: Marines conduct a search- and-destroy mission along a Vietnamese hillside in 1966. RIGHT: A sentry on duty with his dog at Da Nang airbase.

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The Build Up in the North and South

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