vietnam war 1| war against US| allies of US| weapons| women & war| witness accounts| north vietnamese & vietcong

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Browse down the page or just click one of these sections....

1. Introduction

2. Background to the US involvement

Geneva 1954 & aftermath | Diem

Kennedy and Vietnam | LBJ and Tonkin

3. The War against the US:

    Events & Key campaigns

Chronologies | Campaigns

The Ho Chi Minh Trail | My Lai Massacre

4. Allies of the USA

Canada | ANZAC

ARVN - South Vietnamese forces

5. Weapons

6. Women at War

7. Veteran and witness accounts

8. North Vietnamese & Viet Cong

9. The Vietnamese viewpoint

also! see our Vietnam War, Part Two for:

             (click a section to go directly there)

   Protest & Opposition

   US Withdrawal

Vietnamization | Peace | Fall of Saigon

MiA and the war dead | Some analysis

   Contagion: Laos & Cambodia

   Photo journalism, Film, Literature & TV

   General Sites

   30 years on...

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Iraq & West

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1. Introduction

See these casahistoria sites for further background:

             Indochina: the French experience in Indochina

           Vietnam War, Part Two: opposition, contagion & US withdrawal

In recent years, there has been an enormous growth in US sites dedicated to the Vietnam conflict. Most are linked to military aspects of the war, however many examine the documentary background to events. There are a number reasons for this: the present Iraq conflict (see casahistoria Iraq & the West site for links), and a greater US military self confidence, release of official archive material and not least the opening up of Vietnam itself to tourism. Welcome as this is, it has served to overwhelm users of the web and cloud key issues. The aim of this page is to focus on those sites of most interest and value to the student of the period and to place them within a (hopefully) clear structure. In addition gamer sites are proliferating - not all are as academically valuable as the French Indochine site.

Vietnamese History: Centuries of Struggling for Independence A general outline history, currently a work in progress but is well worth using for background biographies to the pre European imperial period.

Vietnam Not a history site, but one that gives you a tourist insight into a country opening more and more to tourism. This includes sections on: 'The History of Vietnam', 'Location, Geography and Climate', 'Vietnamese Culture' and 'Vietnamese People'. A full account of current Vietnam can be found at the CIA World Factbook site.

Vietnam: A Television History PBS Transcripts from the US TV series is a 13-part documentary film series produced for public television by WGBH Boston, in cooperation with Central Independent Television/United Kingdom, and Antenne-2/France. Useful especially for first hand interviews, but also:

Who's Who? biographies of the main people involved on all sides.

Maps : hot spots of the Vietnam War during various time periods.

The Language of War terms and acronyms that were unique to the Vietnam War.

Primary Source Material the text of vital US government documents concerning the war in Vietnam.

Bibliography Read more, learn more.

Lessons of the Vietnam War -- A Curriculum from the Center for Social Studies Education. US curriculum guide and materials for High School teachers (and students).

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2. Background to the US involvement

The Pentagon Papers One of the most important sources of information about the war is the collection of documents, with analysis, commonly known as "The Pentagon Papers." Nobody has ever published the whole collection as it was originally compiled inside the Defense Department between 1967 and 1969: a long and detailed history of U.S. policy toward Vietnam from 1945 to about March of 1968, plus about 4,000 pages of the actual texts of some of the most important documents dealing with Vietnam found in Defense Department files. Only partial versions have been released to the public. These are links to several of these original documents in facsimile form.

The United States Advisory Experience, 1954-1965. A University of Richmond course outline but with interesting links to the earliest period of US involvement.

Cold War in the Far East Lecture which gives a brief, but valuable overview of the impact and influence of the Cold war in the Far east and its contribution to conflicts there, of which Vietnam is the last. By Professor Gerhard Rempel, Western New England College.

Geneva, 1954 and its aftermath

Indochina and Vietnam: Causes of French & US involvement, events of each conflict, outcomes. A casahistoria netguide in lecture note format. For more casahistoria netguide revision go to IB/Alevel/K12 revision in the young casahistoria section.

Geneva Conference useful day by day info from the excellent set of detailed chronologies of the Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin

The Geneva Accords in 1954 & The Aftermath of the Geneva Accords (1954-1961) Brief descriptions by Ed Moise. From the electronic version of his The Vietnam Wars. §

Geneva Accords; Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam (July 20, 1954) The actual documents

Chronology 1950-1964 From the Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Also has a Indochina - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos search engine.

The Importance to the U.S. of the Security and Progress of Viet-Nam Address by President Eisenhower, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1959 (Excerpt)

The Second Indochina War 1954-60 from the excellent set of detailed chronologies of the Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin

The Program of the National Liberation Front (1962) translation from Viet Cong by Douglas Pike (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1966). Here ( §) is a fuller version from Vassar College.

Diem

Diem: America's Mandarin Transcript of PBS TV programme: The American Experience

Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem Very thorough article from Vietnam Magazine. By Peter Kross

Perspectives: Impossible to Stay Uninvolved Colonel William Wilson, U.S. Army (ret.) writes in this Vietnam magazine article that U.S. complicity in the overthrow of South Vietnam's president Diem made it impossible to stay uninvolved in the war.

Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam Detailed article looks at emergence of Buddhist issue in south after Geneva. From Vietnam Magazine. By Peter Brush

Kennedy and Vietnam

JFK's Early Indecisions. Peter Kross argues that J F. Kennedy's tentative response to the report by General Maxwell Taylor had unintended consequences for the course of the war. Click for the complete "Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam". It was fundamental to National Security Action Memorandum, approved by JFK on October 5, 1963

Idealism and pragmatism in American foreign policy rhetoric: The case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam From Presidential Studies Quarterly (1994) Denise Bostdorff (Purdue University), Steven Goldzwig (Marquette University)

Was John Kennedy Going to Pull Out of Vietnam? interview done with Robert Kennedy in April, 1964 by the John F. Kennedy Library.

Early Covert Action on the Ho Chi Minh Trail Article about the 1961 and 1962 CIA-trained and -sponsored 1st Observation Group formed to counter Communist operations along the trail. By Ken Conboy and James Morrison. Article from HistoryNet

The Secret War Against Hanoi (Now retitled An account of American terrorism in Vietnam....) Kennedy's and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam, Useful Review article of Richard H. Shultz's book on the World Socialist Web Site.

LBJ and Tonkin

Gulf of Tonkin Notebook the official US Navy notes into the Gulf of Tonkin Incidents

Anti-Communist Credentialism Blaine Taylor argues that ostensibly in response to a North Vietnamese Navy attack, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was really about American domestic politics. Article from HistoryNet. (§ currently put offline by history.net but the article is linked here from the Wayback Archive, but be patient - slow to load! Article can also be accessed here)

LBJ's Disengagement Strategy Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker's charge from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 was to de-escalate the Vietnam conflict without losing the war. He did just that. By Stephen B. Young. Article from HistoryNet

LBJ Goes to War PBS Transcripts from the US TV series Vietnam: A Television History. Useful especially for first hand interviews

30-Year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon looks at another reality behind the headlines of 1964.

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3. The US (Vietnam) War: Events & key campaigns

Chronologies

Advisory American War, 1962-69 a series of very detailed and useful chronologies from the Vietnam War Timetable compiled by Ray Sarlin

Vietnam Timeline A less detailed chronological overview than the Ray Arlin, but gives more of an overview to key phases.

Vietnam Chronology A comprehensive timeline of events from 1945-1975, listing each battle and its length.

Chronology of U.S.-Vietnamese Relations A basic timeline of events from 1930 to the present, but with good links to related areas.

Interactive guide Produced on the 30th anniversary by the UK Guardian, this provides an interactive timeline from the 1920's to 1975.

General

The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare by John M. Gates The College of Wooster, Ohio Published ebook in html or pdf format. Lengthy chapters on: Philippines and Vietnam | Careerists in Uniform | Vietnam: The Debate Goes On | People's War in Vietnam

America Takes Charge PBS Transcripts from the US TV series Vietnam: A Television History. Useful especially for first hand interviews

Battle Streamer: Vietnam Service, 1962-1973 By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia Detailed and well illustrated with maps and images. From the official US Naval Historical Center

Doctors in a War Zone: The Ultimate Training Ground Western doctors who served in Vietnam, whether military or civilian, returned with a deeply altered perspective of their own professions. By Marc Phillip Yablonka. Article from HistoryNet

Specific campaigns

1966: Operation Marauder: Allied Offensive in the Mekong Delta Account of a rare example of an Allied offensive with US Australian and New Zealand combat forces on New Year's Day 1966 By Colonel Thomas E. Faley, U.S. Army (ret.) from Vietnam magazine

1968: First Tet Offensive Spencer C. Tucker shows how the original Tet Offensive in 1789 was a masterpiece of surprise that became the model for the 1968 attack. Article from HistoryNet

1968: Battleground Saigon In the Tet Offensive in 1968, the 7th Infantry Regiment fought a World War II–style urban battle in the South Vietnamese capital. By John C. McManus from Vietnam magazine

1968: VC Assault on the U.S. Embassy An American reporter describes the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the 1968 Tet Offensive By Don North. Article from HistoryNet

The Tet Offensive PBS Transcripts from the US TV series Vietnam: A Television History. Useful especially for first hand interviews

1968: Strategic Crossroads at Khe Sanh Khe Sanh, 1968, was a deadly pas de deux in which General William C. Westmoreland called the tune and General Vo Nguyen Giap paid the piper. Article by James I. Marino. Article from HistoryNet

Siege of Khe Sanh (1968) (powerpoint) Produced for the Military Geology courses of the University of Missouri-Rolla

1968: Withdrawal from Khe Sanh Peter Brush describes the events of the Khe Sanh siege and abondonment by the US in 1968. Article from HistoryNet

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Cu-Chi Tunnels New York Times report on the (now) tourist attractions

Ho Chi Minh Trail and new highway construction. informative article with maps from vietquoc site

The Tunnels of Cu Chi Produced for the Military Geology courses of the University of Missouri-Rolla

My Lai Massacre

Murder in the Name of War--My Lai (BBC)

My Lai Massacre (Article from Melbourne Australia Sunday Observer, 14 December 1969)

The My Lai Courts Martial (Extensive information on the massacre and the trials)

The My Lai Massacre: A Case Study (US Army War College)

CNN - 'Blood and fire' of My Lai remembered 30 years later ...... March 16, 1998

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4. Allies of the US

Vietnam: Australia's Involvement From the very thorough P. L. Duffy Resource Center at Trinity College in Western Australia. Provides numerous links to websites relating to the Australians in the Vietnam War

Vietnam Veterans in Canada website of the VVIC, a group of Vietnam Veterans in Western Canada, made up of Canadians who fought in Vietnam and American Vets who chose to move to this area.

Vietnam Veterans in Canada Looks promising, but is still very much under construction.

Three sites that tell of the New Zealand role:

New Zealand's Entry Into the Vietnam War: May 1965

New Zealand's Vietnam Veterans Organizations

New Zealand Regiment in Vietnam

ARVN - The South Vietnamese forces

History of the ARVN The home page for a project, which is in its very early stages, on the history and culture of the ARVN, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The section on History is a very "commited" one and is now complete. Sections include: The initial formation of the Vietnamese Armed Forces; The disadvantages of the Vietnamese Armed Forces in fighting the war; False representations of the war by unethical reporters; How the ARVN endured the war over twenty five years.

Let the Tigers Fight "With the arrogant, take-charge attitude of many American advisers, too often the South Vietnamese opted to 'sit on a mountain to watch tigers fight." by Bartholomew King. looks at the reasons for the often passive role of the ARVN. (§ be patient - slow to load!!)

"America's Most Loyal Allies" Website dedictated to the The Montagnards, the aboriginal hill tribes of southeast Indochina

Caught in the Crossfire: Montagnard Stories Descriptions of the involvement of the hill tribes in support of the US & South. By Robert E. O'Melia from Vietnam magazine. (§ be patient - slow to load!!)

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5. Weapons

Weapons of War Comprehensive listing from PBS

Agent Orange Website Provides information about the herbicide Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War, and the results of exposure to this herbicide.

Vietnam War Poison A BBC report from 1999 with links to other relevant sites

The Children of Agent Orange a Web photography exhibit of the work of Jan Banning. (click on the menu for this section) Strong, sensitive images

Vietnam War: US Casualty Statistics Very comprehensive data on killed, wounded, missing. Well sourced and referenced.

Enemy Aircraft shot down by Naval Aviators in Southeast Asia From: "United States Naval Aviation, 1910-1980". Washington: Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare)/Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, 1981.

Order of Battle for Carriers and Carrier Based Squadrons in the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) and Vietnam (1964-1975) (also available as a pdf file) Compiled by the Naval Aviation History Branch, US Naval Historical Center.

US Medals: Vietnam Service | Armed Forces Expeditionary | US Medal of Honor Recipients with citations

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6. Women at War

Women in Vietnam A resource dedicated to the thousands of women who served. Includes many stories of individual women.

Australian Civilian Nurses as Vietnam Veterans Site looks at the role played by the women who supported the US 's Australian ally utilizing first-person accounts and photographs. A bibliography is also included.

Vietnamese Women in War Concise but valuable review piece by Dr. Ernest Bolt, University of Richmond. Focus is on key individuals.

Unarmed and Under Fire: An Oral History of Female Vietnam Vets Salon.com has featured an interesting story about female Vietnam Veterans.

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7. Veteran and witness accounts

Individual accounts

The Virtual Wall A digital interactive legacy memorializing the men and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. This extensive site offers veteran profiles, remembrances, chat rooms, reunion postings, name rubbings, custom reports, and much more. A fascinating site and one of the best anywhere on the internet for this type of research.

Reflections From PBS, a collection of first-person accounts from both sides in the conflict.

Vietnam Veterans The website provides "an interactive, on-line forum for Vietnam veterans and their families and friends to exchange information, stories, poems, songs, art, pictures, and experiences in any publishable form."

Images of My War Ron Heller's complete story of his tour of duty - a well written account.

Letters Home from Vietnam A moving collection of ten months of a soldier's letters to his family and family commentary, until his death.

Vietnam Stories The 'Vietnam Stories' site is designed as a gathering place for personal stories and a forum for opinions on the war. The 'Add Your Story' page enables visitors to add their own stories, images, etc. to the vast databank of information on the war. 'The Stories' page contains excerpts of selected stories and is changed regularly. A search engine enables the visitor to investigate all the narratives that have been submitted to 'Vietnam Stories'.

Remembrance: Reflections, Memories and Images of Vietnam Past. The website is a collection of galleries containing stories, poems, songs, maps and narratives about the Vietnam War. The website also contains listings of all US, Australian and New Zealand casualties of the Vietnam War

Recollections of Lieutenant Commander Bobbi Hovis, NC, (Ret.) concerning the coup d'etat on 1 November 1963 that overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem of the Republic of [South] Vietnam

Recollections of Command Anthony R. DeMarco, USNR (Ret.) who served as a combat historian with Naval Forces, Vietnam during 1967-68.

White Shirts and Ties: IBM's Bachelor Computer Experts Account by an ex IBM employee of the work of IBM in the south during the conflict. By Dan Feltham. (§ currently put offline by history.net but the article is linked here from the Wayback Archive, but be patient - slow to load!)

Unorthodox Practice: An American Doctor in Vietnam Lawrence H. Climo, M.D. describes his experiences as a young U.S. Army doctor who tried to strike a balance between clashing cultures and the obligations of his Hippocratic oath. From Vietnam magazine

Prisoners of War - Report Some Experiences Reported by the Crew of the USS Pueblo and American Prisoners of War from Vietnam. Presented at, and to be published in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Psychological Stress and Adjustment in Time of War and Peace, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1975. Very thorough report

Accounts linked to US military units

History Central Vietnam War Links Look at the "Units" section midway down the page for a very comprehensive list of military unit accounts. The "Personal Accounts" Section is also comprehensive.

A-1 Skyraider Combat Journal This site is a journal written by an A1 Skyraider airplane pilot. Information on other aircraft used in the Vietnam War can be found at the (Dayton, Ohio) United States Air Force Museum.

The Vietnam Helicopter Flight Crew Network (VHFCN)is a non profit veterans organization dedicated to the fulfillment of the following purposes: To provide a forum for recreational communications amongst a fraternity of aircrew members who served in Vietnam during the period 1961-75. Topics cover the entire spectrum from Vietnam to reunions and everything in between. This is their website, complete with sound effects...

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8. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong

America's Enemy PBS Transcripts from the US TV series Vietnam: A Television History. Useful especially for first hand interviews

In Viet Cong Country, Villagers Are the Key US reporter writes about live in an VC controlled village (after the US withdrawal in 1973) Jacques Leslie This article appeared in the Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1973 §

Interview with General Vo Nguyen Giap (CNN Cold War) Giap talks of Dien Bien Phu, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, fighting the US. ( § be patient - slow to load!!)

An Officer and a Gentleman: General Vo Nguyen Giap as Military Man and Poet, Cecil B. Currey A little flowery, but looks at another side of the military leader

Click here for biographies of Ho Chi Minh from the casahistoria Indochina site.

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9. The Vietnamese viewpoint

Reflections From PBS, a collection of a dozen first-person accounts from Americans and Vietnamese.

Viet Quoc This is the website of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. This (politicised) website includes a whole range of articles on the Vietnam War including: 'The 1968 Tet offensive', 'The Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces', 'The Forgotten Victims in Vietnam', 'Vietnamese Independence and Ho Chi Minh', 'Unmasking Ho Chi Minh', 'Twenty-Two Years Under Communism' and 'South Vietnamese Disabled Veterans'.

Communist Propaganda from North Vietnam Project (University of Wisconsin)

Children of Vietnam War 1969-70 Background, Oral History Project, Photo Album, & award-winning photographs of the exhibit "Children of Vietnam War", a part of the permanent collection of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

See these casahistoria sites for further related information:

           Vietnam War, Part Two: opposition, contagion & US withdrawal

             Indochina: the French experience in Indochina

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