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The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin incident can be considered as the event that threw us into the Vietnam War in full force. The situation was that the U.S. Maddox had apparently been fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedoes. It is questionable that this truly happened as the Pentagon Papers revealed that it may have just been a misunderstanding. President Johnson used this attack to persuade Congress to allow full scale involvement and gather American support. It was very tough to gather American support for -
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U.S.A. Relations With Vietnam
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U.S. Marines Arrive at Da Nang
The first 3,500 armed U.S. combat soldiers arriving in South Vietnam at Da Nang was the start of an endless stream of soldiers that would pour in for years to come. Their welcome didn't quite depict what they would be facing as they arrived to curious onlookers and women greeting them with leis. Their welcoming was much like the welcoming of President Obama when he came to lift the weapons embargo. The citizens of a country looking to benefit from United States actions. On one side, there are -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a completely unexpected surprise attack launched by the North Vietnamese. Tet is the lunar new year and a very important holiday for the Vietnamese; normally it would be a sort of ceasefire. However, this year the North Vietnamese launched a massive attack in numerous cities on United States and South Vietnamese troops. While the casualties were an issue, the major problem this caused was a further decrease in American support. Due to the massive amount of media that -
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre had a massive impact on American home front support. A military group known as Charlie Company came into the village of My Lai under the orders to destroy the village and Viet Cong. They went in and killed everything they saw: men, women, children, animals. They killed, raped, and mutilated everyone, even if they were unarmed and surrendering. This was a very controversial event where some would say they just followed orders and others claimed they crossed the line. -
U.S. and North Vietnam Sign a Peace Treaty
After a failure to try and Vietnamize the war, the United States realized that a peace treaty would be necessary to prevent any further losses. By signing the peace agreement, we agreed to remove our troops while the North Vietnamese released our POW's. This peace agreement was the first step of many in mending our relationship with Vietnam. It lead to the release of our POW's, it lead to the search of our MIA's, and that lead to us beginning to trust the Vietnamese. -
Last U.S. Troops Withdraw from Vietnam
The withdrawal of the last troops from Vietnam must have felt surreal to the soldiers and everyone involved. After we lost so many lives and spent so many years fighting, it was quite an event. However, this wasn't it just yet. The Vietnamese still had some American POW's and countless lost MIA's. The POW's would soon be accounted for but all the missing soldiers would be a lingering problem. -
Final American POW is Released
A day after the last U.S. troops left Vietnam, the final Prisoner of War was released. At this point, all known soldiers were free to come home. They were released thanks to the peace agreement signed by Vietnam which required them to release all POW's. Their compliance with this request showed that we could improve our status with them and build on it in the future as we did. -
Vietnam Agrees to Help Locate U.S. M.I.A.'S
Talks between Vietnam and the United States about attempting to work together and locate MIA's in Vietnam had been going on since 1982. Almost 10 years later, we set a base in the capital of Vietnam to carry out searches and organize plans to find them. This was a one of the most positive choices we could've made in our relationship with this country because it would benefit them later on. The fact that they were willing to help us showed that we could work together and was one of the prime -
President Clinton Announces the Normalization of Diplomatic Relations with Vietnam
President Clinton's speech on the normalization of diplomatic relations brought up several key points on why we were trying to mend our relationship with Vietnam and how it would be done. For some time, Vietnam had been helping us locate our MIA's and releasing our POW's. Their efforts showed our country that we really could work as one and have a potential future together. He mentions how he also lifted the trade embargo between our countries due to the fact that they have been so helpful. -
Vietnam Weapon Embargo Lifted
In some of the most recent news regarding our relationship with Vietnam, President Obama visited the capital Hanoi. He was greeted with the open arms of the Vietnamese and their President Tran Dai Quang. The reason he was visiting was to officially lift the weapons embargo that was set back in 1975 to prevent the sale of U.S. weapons to their country. Obama felt this was a necessary action as we further normalize our diplomatic relations with Vietnam as President Clinton announced roughly
