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Public Support
In the beginning of the war the public was for a war in Vietnam with 61% of the people saying that it was not a mistake going to war. This was a big part of the reason why the US pushed so much to win this war and why it escalated so quickly. By the end of the war the percent went down to 44% because they were seeing footage of what is happening in Vietnam and that many people are dying in a war that is not really being won. -
Gulf Of Tonkin Incident
The US for a while before entering the war in Vietnam had advisors in Vietnam training the south vietnamese troops and after the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident it escalated from just advisors in Vietnam to all out war in Vietnam. -
South Vietnam
After the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident the south vietnamese (viet cong) increased their military cont to about 80,000-100,000. -
Bombs Roll In
This was the day the White House authorized operation flaming dart which was a series of targeted bomb runs against the North Vietnamese. later in March they created a new mission called operation Rolling Thunder which was a more intense version o f flaming dart dropping over 864,000 tons of bombs. -
US Troops Arrive
This was the first day that the US sent troops to Vietnam to fight on the ground. This day the United States sent 3,500 to land on "china beach" and marked as the first day the true fighting began. -
American Troops Attack
The US soldiers that had originally arrived had become very mobile and aggressive. The US thought that the original 3,500 troops were not enough and started bringing in more troops. By the end of 1965 the Troop count went from 3,500 to about 180,000. -
Search And Destroy
The United States started using a tactic called Search And Destroy and it was a strategy used to wipe out enemy "active locations". In these missions the US would move their troops to one of the enemy active locations and then they would place mines and ambushes around the area. -
Operation Crimp
This was a mission with Americans and Australians fighting together.This mission involved 8,000 men and their mission was to locate a Viet Cong headquarters and they accomplished this killing a lot of Viet Cong soldiers and with little casualties. -
Zippo Missions
This was where the US soldiers were accusing local villages of aiding the Viet Cong soldiers, and they were burning down houses killing livestock and killing all of their plants. This was a big problem because the media was seeing all of this and the US people were getting mad. -
American Casualties Spike
From 1956-1962 there were only 77 deaths in the Vietnam War and from 1962-1966 there were 8,407 deaths in the war and from 1966-1967 there were 11,153 soldiers dead and this is what really got the US citizens against the war in Vietnam
