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Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon was the 37th U.S. president and was the only president to ever resign from office. Nixon stepped down halfway through his second term, instead of facing impeachment over his efforts to cover up the illegal activities by his administration members in the Watergate scandal. As president, Nixon’s achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union, and withdrawing U.S. troops from the war in Vietnam. -
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Vietnam War
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The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly-armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and the Vietcong against South Vietnam and its principal ally United States. This war began in 1954 and over 3 million people including the 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War, more than half were the Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war i -
Agent Orange
The Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops, as well as crops to help feed them. The U.S. sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam. Agent Orange contained the chemical dioxin and was later revealed to cause serious health issues including tumors, birth defects, rashes, and cancer. -
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and became the youngest man to hold office. Kennedy had a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for Senate in 1952. He led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. Kennedy was assassinated near the end of his third term in office. -
William Westmoreland
William Westmoreland, a veteran of World War 2 and the Korean War, was chose by President Lyndon Johnson to command the U.S Military Assistance Command in Vietnam in June 1964. He spent the next four years directing the U.S Military strategy during the Vietnam War, spearheading the build up of American troops from 16,000 to 500,000. Westmoreland’s strategy of attrition aimed to inflict losses on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces using superior U.S firepower, but in the end it only resulted i -
Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution marked the beginning of the Vietnam War, authorizing American military intervention to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in South East Asia.The military escalation that followed the approval of the resolution led America into its longest armed conflict.During spring 1964, military planners developed a detailed design for major attacks on the north but President Lyndon Johnson feared the public wouldn't support the extension of the war. -
Vietnamization
Nixon introduced this new strategy that was war aimed at ending the American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibility to the South Vietnam. These strategies involved building up South Vietnams military strength to facilitate a gradual withdrawal of U.S troops so South Vietnam would take responsibility for their own defense against a communist takeover and allow U.S to leave the conflict. In 1973 the U.S and North Vietnamese negotiated a treaty withdrew American -
Operation Rolling Thunder
As part of the strategic bombing campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. This massive bombardment was designed to force Ho Chi Minh to abandon his ambition to take over South Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder marked the first sustained American assault on North Vietnamese territory and represented a big expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. -
Vietnam War Protest
The Vietnam War protest started with small peace activists and leftist intellectuals on collage campuses, but gained national prominence in 1965 after U.S bombed North Vietnam in earnest. Anti-war marches and other protests organized by students for a Democratic society attracted a widening base of support for over 3 years. -
The Tet Offensive
