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Lyndon B Johnson was the first to introduce this resolution as a response to Northern Vietnamese attacks on the U.S. Seventh Fleet destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. This allowed for Johnson, and following presidents, to intervene in the war with more freedom. Moreover, the Northern Vietnamese powers saw this as an act of aggression. -
Chemical Weapons, such as Agent Orange, were used throughout the war in order to destroy and reveal transportation routes of the Vietcong and poison threatening areas.
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President Lyndon B Johnson - this campaign first began on March 2, 1965, and aimed to pressure the North Vietnamese into surrendering. John Correll notes in Air Force Magazine that "More bombs would be dropped on Vietnam than were dropped on all of Europe in World War II"! However, the campaign failed to do its job and is remembered "as the classic example of airpower failure" (Tilford "The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War") -
President Lyndon B Johnson ordered US marines into Vietnam following the advent of Operation Rolling Thunder. At first 3,500 Marines entered Vietnam. Eventually, this number would rise to hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers occupying Vietnam. -
During Tet (Vietnamese New Year), in a time of declared truce, the Northern Vietnamese organized a sneak attack in rebellion of South Vietnamese soldiers. As a result, support for President Lyndon B Johnson's involvement in the war waned. It was a hard hit on the American public's opinion of the war and their confidence in the war (even though the South Vietnamese defeated the Vietcong). -
Hundreds were slaughtered in the My Lai Massacre - children, women, elders, vastly unarmed. The press revealed the atrocious news to the public after the Johnson Administration's fruitless attempt to hide the situation. -
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Under the Nixon Administration, Nixon created "Vietnamization" - an attempt to withdraw troops from Vietnam. The United States provided resources and training to new South Vietnamese soldiers; however, the South Vietnamese viewed this as abandonment from their allies. -
During Nixon's presidency, the Selective Service National Headquarters held lotteries to determine the draft. In the first draft 366 dates (birthdays) were placed in a capsule to determine who was called to service. In between the years birthyears 1944 and 1950, if your birthday was called, you were ordered for service. Presently, men who are born during or after 1960 are required to register even though there is not a current draft. -
On live television, Nixon revealed his rationale behind invading Cambodia: disrupting Vietcong supply transportation and destroy North Vietnamese camps residing near the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Before this, the Nixon Administration had been bombing Cambodia covertly. United States citizens felt betrayed because there had been promised Vietnamization and decreased interaction in the war. -
After researchers were commissioned to gather classified information on the actions of the United States in the Vietnam conflict from the end of the second World War to 1967, one researcher, Daniel Ellsberg, diverged and leaked the papers to Times Magazine. Times published and criticized the pentagon papers (with attempted cover-ups from the Nixon Administration). Ellsberg felt that the US should not be involved in the war and wanted to bring the information to the public eye. -
President Nixon ended US involvement in the Vietnam War by signing the Paris Peace Accords. Air forces, Marines, and all United States soldiers were withdrawn from Vietnam. -
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On April 30, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to Vietcong. The South Vietnamese president at the time had retired and the vice president fled the city as Vietcong forces moved in on Saigon. Ford could not convince congress to provide aid in this emergency situation and Vietcong was able to quickly advance into Saigon and defeat South Vietnam.