Existing comment:
POW life.
Vietnam
Vietnam:
In the 1950s, communist-ruled North Vietnam began making hostile overtures to South. From the American perspective, an entirely communist Vietnam was not only undesirable itself, but also could lead to bigger problems. As President Dwight Eisenhower explained it, Vietnam's fall to communism could cause nearby countries to fall: the "domino theory."
American involvement in Vietnam began in the early 1960s, gained momentum in the mid-1960s, and ended in 1973. Throughout the war, the United States Navy provided sea lift, warships, aircraft, Marines, and logistic support.
Tonkin Gulf:
In August 1964, three North Vietnamese, Soviet-built torpedo boats attacked American destroyers in international waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. President Lyndon Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes and asked Congress for full authority to "resist aggression."
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution easily passed Congress, fully committing the United States to saving South Vietnam from communist domination. The number of Americans in Southeast Asia leaped from 23,000 in late 1964 to 250,000 in 1965, and to 550,000 in 1968.
At Sea:
Every type of combat ship was used in Vietnam: carriers, the battleship New Jersey, cruisers, destroyers, landing ships, supply and ammunition ships, mine craft, repair ships, tenders, patrol boats, river boats, Coast Guard cutters, and even air cushioned vehicles.
These ships engaged in gunfire support, plane guarding, surveillance, interdiction, and blockade operations. In addition, 98 percent of the materials sent to Vietnam went by sea. The tonnage sent to Vietnam equaled all other American exports combined.
The Navy would have had a difficult time staying on station off the coast of Vietnam had it not been for the fleet's supply ships. Food, fuel, ammunition and even movies were regularly brought to the Gulf of Tonkin and distributed to the ships.
USS New Jersey:
The battleship New Jersey was commissioned for the third time on 8 April 1968, this time for service off Vietnam. On 30 September, the battleship fired her 16 inch guns in combat for the first time since the Korean War. Within two months, she fired more than 3,000 rounds.
The warship departed Vietnam at the end of March 1969 and returned to the United States to prepare for another deployment. Before the New Jersey was ready, the veteran battleship was again retired.
On Rivers:
Riverine warfare, common in Vietnam, was not new to the United States Navy. It had been used in the Civil War, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and China. The Navy converted various small craft such as landing craft into armored "monitors" in order to control movement along the waterways and to transport and support Army and Marine troops.
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong relied on rivers and the sea to transport arms and supplies to their troops in the south. Small patrol boats from the Coast Guard and Navy such as the "Swift" boat, stopped and inspected hundreds of thousands of watercraft in an attempt to cut the flow.
On the Ground:
In March 1965, the Marine Corps provided the first American ground forces in Vietnam when it landed two battalions at Danang. At its peak strength in 1968, the Marine Corps had 85,755 men and women in Vietnam.
There were no fixed front lines in Vietnam; the enemy was all around. This fundamental problem was painfully evident with the Tet Offensive in 1968. North Vietnam launched a series of coordinated attacks on cities across South Vietnam.
In January 1968, North Vietnamese regular troops and the Vietcong launched an all-out drive to capture the main cities of the South. In the old capital of Hue, they came up against the determined resistance of the Marines. In bloody and desperate action, the Marines repulsed the attackers.
William P. Lawrence (1930-2005) USNA 1951:
Lawrence was a skilled Naval pilot, the first to fly at twice the speed of sound. He was on a combat mission in Vietnam when his plane was shot down in 1967. He was captured and held captive for nearly six years. Prisoners relied on many tactics to fill their time and occupy their minds. Lawrence wrote poetry. This one, dedicated to his home state, was adopted as the official state poem.
Lawrence went onto [sic] serve as Superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1978 to 1981. His daughter, Wendy, was in the second Academy graduating class to include women.
John M. McGrath (1939- ) USNA 1962:
On 30 June 1967, Lieutenant McGrath took off from the carrier Constellation in an A-4 Skyhawk on his 167th mission over Vietnam. He would not return home for six years. He kept a record of his time as a prisoner-of-war in North Vietnam. His simple and powerful sketches of torture and deprivation were published after his release.
Lessons Learned:
The Tet Offensive of 1968 proved to be a turning point in the Vietnam War. Although it took years for enemy forces to recover the losses they sustained during the offensive, the American public was shocked by the brutal and seemingly endless fighting. Support for the war waned.
When President Richard M Nixon took office in January 1969, he began to withdraw American troops. The war cost nearly 60,000 American and two million Vietnamese lives. While it discredited the policy of containment and Eisenhower's domino theory, the war shaped American military thinking for a generation.
In 1973, North Vietnamese and American envoys arranged for the release of prisoners and withdrawal of American forces. However, a cease-fire did not hold, and in 1974 the North Vietnamese began a drive on the South and captured Saigon. The last Americans in the embassy were evacuated by helicopter. |