Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam

August 1964 – USS Maddox is allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin (the attack is later disputed), leading President Johnson to call for air strikes on North Vietnamese patrol boat bases. March 8, 1965 – The first 3,500 American combat troops arrive in Vietnam.

March 1965 – President Johnson launches a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Operation Rolling Thunder. The same month, U.S. Marines land on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam as the first American combat troops to enter Vietnam. July 1965 – President Johnson calls for 50,000 more ground troops to be sent to Vietnam, increasing the draft to 35,000 each month. December 31, 1965 – U.S. Troops in Vietnam: 184,300 Killed in Action: 1,363 Wounded in Action: 7,645

1967 – U. S. troop numbers stationed in Vietnam increase to 500,000 1967 – U.S. troop numbers stationed in Vietnam increase to 500,000. January 12, 1967 – President Johnson gives the State of Union Address and declaring the “end is not yet.” December 31, 1967 – U.S. Troops in Vietnam: 485,600 Killed in Action: 16,021 Wounded in Action: 99,762   January-April 1968 – A U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam is bombarded with massive artillery by communist forces from the People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN). For 77 days, the marines and South Vietnamese forces fend off the siege.

January 1968 – The Tet Offensive begins, encompassing a combined assault of Viet Minh and North Vietnamese armies. Attacks are carried out in more than 100 cities and outposts across South Vietnam, including Hue and Saigon, and the U.S. Embassy is invaded. The effective, bloody attacks shock U.S. officials and mark a turning point in the war and the beginning of a gradual U.S. withdrawal from the region.   February 11-17, 1968 – This week records the highest number of U.S. soldier deaths during the war, with 543 American deaths.  

March 29, 1968 – President Johnson halts bombing in Vietnam north of the 20th parallel. Facing backlash about the war, Johnson announces he will not run for reelection. November 1968 – Republican Richard M. Nixon wins the U.S. presidential elections on the campaign promises to restore “law and order” and to end the draft. December 31, 1968 – U.S. Troops in Vietnam: 536, 100 Killed in Action: 30,160 Wounded in Action: 192,850

December 1969 – The U.S. government institutes the first draft lottery since World War II, prompting ever more young American men—later disparaged as “draft dodgers”—to flee to Canada. June 8, 1969 – The Nixon administration gradually reduces the number of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, placing more burden on the ground forces of South Vietnam’s Army of the Republican of Vietnam as part of a strategy known as Vietnamization. U.S. troops in Vietnam are reduced from a peak of 549,000 in 1969 to 69,000 in 1972. November 1969 – U.S. public hears about the Mai Lai massacre that occurred in March of 1968, where more than 500 civilians are murdered by U.S. forces. The massacre happens amid a campaign of U.S. search-and-destroy operations that are intended to find enemy territories, destroy them and then retreat.

March 1969-May 1970 – In a series of secret bombings known as “Operation Menu,” U.S. B-52 bombers target suspected communist base camps and supply zones in Cambodia. The bombings are kept under wraps by Nixon and his administration since Cambodia is officially neutral in the war, although The New York Times would reveal the operation on May 9, 1969. December 31, 1969 – U.S. Troops in Vietnam: 475,200 Killed in Action: 40,024 Wounded in Action: 262,796 May 3, 1970 – In a bloody incident known as the Kent State Shooting, National Guardsmen fire on anti-war demonstrators at Ohio’s Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine.

June 1971 – The New York Times publishes a series of articles detailing leaked Defense Department documents about the war, known as the Pentagon Papers. The report reveals the U.S. government had repeatedly and secretly increased U.S. involvement in the war. January 27, 1973 – President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese accept a cease fire. But as U.S. troops depart Vietnam, North Vietnamese military officials continue plotting to overtake South Vietnam. February-April 1973 – North Vietnam returns 591 American prisoners of war (including future U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, John McCain) in what is known as Operation Homecoming.

April 1975 – In the Fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam is seized by communist forces and the government of South Vietnam surrenders. U.S. Marine and Air Force helicopters transport more than 1,000 American civilians and nearly 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon in an 18-hour mass evacuation effort. July 1975 – North and South Vietnam are formally unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under hardline communist rule. The War Dead – By the end of the war, more than 58,000 Americans lose their lives. Vietnam would later release estimates that 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed, up to 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and more than 2 million civilians were killed on both sides of the war.