Anti Communist Forces in the Vietnam War

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
Surnames/tags: Vietnam War Chiến tranh Việt Nam Military_and_War

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Anti Communist Forces in the Vietnam War

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PLEASE WATCH THIS: Vets of Afganistan, Irac help honor Vietnam Veterans

The Vietnam War may have been the only war with so many songs written and recorded about this war

• Vietnam song, Country Joe McDonald & the Fish

• Vietnam Wall of Faces

A Reflection of the war: by Robin Williams

• Good Morning, Vietnam Robin Williams

• Born in the USA - Vietnam War

• Vietnam Song Country Joe and the Fish, Woodstock

The Vietnam War was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on 30 April, 1975.

During the Eisenhower administration the communist part of Vietnam became North Vietnam. The southern part of the country became known as South Vietnam. This was mostly aligned with anti-communism. The United Nations forces thus aligned themselves accordingly.

• YouTube-Riders on the Storm

When John F Kennedy was elected president and assumed office, he stated he did not want South Vietnam to fall to communism.

• Where have the Flowers Gone

• Good Morning Vietnam
• The House of the Rising Sun

• We Got to Get Out of this Place
• Born to Be Wild

• Vietnam Song Country Joe Woodstock 1969

• Video: Run Through the Jungle

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Country Joe & the Fish - VietNam Song - Live Woodstock 1969 South Vietnam - Ngô Đình Diệm', Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, 'Cao Văn Viên

[[1]] United States - John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Creighton Abrams

South Korea - Park Chung-hee

Thailand - Thanom Kittikachorn

Australia - Robert Menzies, Harold Holt, John McEwen, William McMahon

Other Anti-communist forces

Ho Chi Minh Trail.

New Zealand

Khmer Republic

Kingdom of Laos

Philippines

Supported by

Canada

West Germany

United Kingdom

Iran

Spain

Malaysia

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Lyndon Baines Johnson: A man can fight if he can see daylight ... but there ain't no daylight in Vietnam

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DRAFT- The United States of America had a draft in place since World War II, to obtain sufficient men in times of war. At the age of 18, men registered. If they were in college they were given a deferral. Once college was completed, the military drafted them. Many young men were drafted who did not go to college.

This was an unpopular war in the United States. Many college students staged protests. Some young men burned their draft cards in protests.

burning draft card.

Some became objectors, due to religion, etc. and were given alternate jobs to do.

Others dodged the draft by fleeing to Canada, staged protests, such as Kent State U, took concoctions so they would not pass the draft exam, or fled to hippy communes to hide from the draft such as East coast students who formed a commune, "'Libre"' high in the mountains of Colorado, United States.Libre

• images of Libre commune
• Libre images
• another Libre article

• Australia established conscription (similar to the draft). See: " conscription for service in Vietnam of Australian men

This war was also unpopular in Australia. Returning veterans from Vietnam encountered the same animosity toward them which the veterans of the United States experienced.

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• South Vietnam requested the United States spray defoliant in both in South Vietnam and Laos, to clear some forest area. The defoliant was known as Agent Orange.

Huey spraying defoliant.

ENDURANCE and INFECTION:

The Anti-communist forces endured much during this war. Not only were they either shot, burned or killed they had to walk through bog, forests, and waterways. United States troops and the other anti communists had to endure 120-degree temperatures while walking and sitting in swamps. This hot wet terrain was conducive to simple infections as ringworm and many parasitic infestations from the waterways. (The waterways in southeast Asia contain parasites).

TUNNELS:

• Cu Chi Tunnels
• SEE: video: Cu Chi Tunnels

Australian in VC tunnel, Operation Crimp.

Australian finds tunnel.

"'TUNNEL RATS'"

"tunnel rat" about to enter.

RIVER PATROLS The United States Navy recognized that it would be in more command of the war if it could control the rivers, klongs, and waterways, such as the Mekong Delta. This Mekong Delta was south of Saigon. The navy revamped the PBR's so they served as floating bases with a helicopter detachment. Navy crews had many medals for bravery.

• UTUBE: River Patrol, 1967

• River Patrol

SOME of the BATTLES:

• 1962 - Battle of AP VAC

• Oct 26 – Nov 27, 1965 - BATTLE OF LA DRANG VALLEY

• SAIGON -

• Battle of GANG TOI

• OPERATION PRAIRIE In July-August, Operation Hastings was successful. Fold 3 Operation Hastings. The US and other forces built bases south of the DMZ to prevent the NVA from invading Quang Tri Provence by crossing the DMZ. On Aug 3, 1966 the US began a (6) -month offensive, including battles in the Con Thien and Gio Linh near the (DMZ) Demilitarized ZoneThe operation separating North and South Vietnam. Marines provided the Ground Forces with air support of MAG-16 and the Army 220th Aviation Company. Aug 6, 1966, the Marines placed a 5-man reconnaissance team north of a solid rock mountain with 700 ft cliffs called the Rockpile to be a military base and observation post. A Marine group attempted to take NVA prisoners but came under heavy attack.

The Marines found a cave dotted area where the NVA hid, to fire on the the Rockpile, called the Razorback, while silencing a machine gun from firing on the Rockpile. By 1967 Operation Prairie ceased, the troops did prevent the NVA from establishing a major base.. This caused 200 deaths of Marines, and 1,000 wounded with over 1,000 North Vietnamese deaths.

Operation Prairie

• ATTACK on CAMP HOLLOWAY - 7 Feb 1965, near Pleiku

• OPERATION CRIMP - 1966 Cu Chi

• BATTLE DAK TO - and CHARLIE COMPANY

During intense motor and gunfire in this Battle, in 1967 Army Maj. Chaplain Charles Watters, (Roman Catholic) was rescuing the wounded and ministering to them, when he himself was wounded fatally. A 500 pound bomb was dropped near the triage station where he was with one of the men. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to his two brothers Nov 4, 1969. Watters was listed among the 9 chaplains to receive the medal of Honor. He is buried in Section 2-E of Arlington National Cemetery.^[1][2]

See UTube Video Dak To, Charlie Company

• Battle of SUOI BONG TRANG -Feb, 1966 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Suoi_Bong_Trang
• Battle of Long Tan - 1966 Australian company near a rubber plantation were attacked by >2,500 Viet Cong, The majority of the 2500 Viet Cong were killed and 18 Australians..

• OPERATION BRIBIE - Feb, 1967

• Battle of CON THIEN ( 2 miles south of the DMV near the top of South Vietnam) Enemy 1967-68 "Hill of Angels") was a United States Marine Corps combat base located near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone about 3 km from North Vietnam in Gio Linh District, Quảng Trị Province. It was the site of fierce fighting from February 1967 through February 1968.

Video: Con Thien

• QUI NHON attack, Feb 11, 1965

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• War Zone C, north of Saigon.

• KHE-SANH BATTLE 77 days under siege

See: Bloody siege Khe Sanh The bloody battle of Khe Sanh: 77 days under siege.

1965 Battle of Ia Drang, UH-1 Huey infantry, Rangers defending Saigon in 1968, Battle of Saigon,1968 Hue Massacre, Skyhawks strikes-N Vietnamese PT-boat bases 1964, 1972 Battle of Quang Tri.

• DA NANG

• LONG BINH- was United States Army Vietnam HQ Command (USARV) post, on Đồng Nai river. This housed the 44th Medical Brigade and the 93rd & 24th Evacuation Hospitals. The Viet Cong attacked and blew up the munitions dump, destroying a large amount of munitions, Feb, 1967.

Utube Bob Hope in Long Binh

U Tube Attack on Long Binh

U Tube Long Binh

• PLEIKU , U.S. military base where helicopters were maintained. This was attacked 1965, 1966, 1968. In an ambush, 305 Americans died. One ambush off an American convoy of trucks by the Viet Cong caused a change in operations for conducting the war. This convoy became separated from the rest of the convoy (a 1/2 mile long zone) where some soldiers had not been trained for ambushes. The soldiers used up the supply of ammunition. The sandbags for protection became rain-soaked. So precut steel-plate armor were sent for the trucks. This provided three submachine guns mountaineer with armory around the sides. PLEIKU - an ambush

helicopter, Mars Hill.

• PLEIKU - an ambush of an American convoy of trucks. This ambush by Viet Cong caused a change in the operations of conducting the war. The convoy had become separated, when they were struck in a zone 1/2 mile long. Some soldiers had not been trained for ambushes, thus they used up their ammunition. Rather than using sandbags for protection which became rain-soaked, precut steel-plate armor were sent for the trucks. A result the trucks had at least 3 submachine guns mounted with armory around the sides. In an ambush, 305 Americans died.

1968 INVASION of Pleiku Memory of a pilot who flew a C-130 plain to bring pallets of shells, guns, sheets of armor from a Thailand AFB to Pleiku. Since the runway was under attack at the time, when he arrived at Pleiku, he did a "touchdown, turn around", and his crew shoved the pallets of supplies out the back of the C-130 as the plane took off. ^[3]

• Battle of CORAL-BALMORAL - May 1967-68, Australians

• OPERATION COBURG - 3 months in 1968

• LA DRANG -NVA troops killed large amount of American troops.

• BATTLE OF HUE: During the Battle of Hue, 500 Communist soldiers were killed by American bombings, via air. Also killed were 150 US marines and 400 South Vietnamese troops in the same battle. Many men, women, children were killed. Many were beaten while bound, then killed.

• VINH LONG, VIETNAM BATTLES

83rd Medical Detachment, Vinh Long

Marine Corps Gazette article: Hue City, 1968: Winning a Battle While Losing a War

HISTORYNET Article: TET - What Really Happened at HUE

• TET OFFENSIVE, 1968 - In earlier years, Tet, the lunar new year holiday was a cease fire. North Vietnamise war efforts were intensified by the late 1967-68's. In Jan., 1968 the South Vietnamese declared the cease fire for the holiday as it had done in previoius years.

Phantom F-4 destroyed Tan Son Nhut, TET offensive

S Vietnamese deserted army, flew his plane to bomb presidential palace.

The North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong (70,000 ) did not stop for the holiday in 1968 on the lunar new year holiday, Tet. Instead the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong made many unexpected strikes on Saigon and other areas. In fact as mentioned in Tet Offensive page, the Battle of Hue was intended to be a diversion. After which, the strikes on Saigon began. The North Vietnamese had the intention to completely defeat South Vietnam and capture Saigon that day. These attacks were called the Tet offensive. They began their strikes, attacks on anticommunist forces and Saigon intensively. The Headquarters of the United States Embassy and the RVN Navy Headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Airbase were bombed.

Damage to US Embassy.

Rat Hole.

MP's defend US Embassy.

This war became a no win for the Americans to turn the tide. Militarily the North Vietnamese attacks were not sufficient. They kept hammering away at South Vietnam.. But North Vietnam succeeded in a psychological WIN. This damaged the morale in the South Vietnam and its anti-communist force support ( the United States and Australia).

The United States already had too many public objectors in the United States. The country was enduring riots, and anti -War protests. The returning forces from Vietnam then faced negative opinions from the American public. Not only were there draft objectors, but student demonstrations on each University campus.

All American Forces leaves were cancelled in the Pacific theater, during this TET OFFENSIV

Map of Tet air strikes.

See video of the Tet Offensive:

• Tet Offensive courtesy of history.com

REGIMENTS/DIVISIONS:

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*Military Divisional Patches of Vietnam War

American forces:

• 8,744,000 United States Troops served worldwide during the Vietnam War
• 2,594,000 troops served in South Vietnam
• 2,646 American servicemen listed as POW/MIA at the end of the war
• April 15, 2015 there were still 1,627 soldiers unaccounted for
• 58,220 Deaths in Theatre

9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, 1st Signal Brigade

1st Air Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), 11th Air Assault

Military Advisory Command "MAC V"

Medical Service Corps, United States Army- college, medical school graduates, and corpsmen.

406th Medical Lab, support, Sagamiono, Japan and other support hospitals

4th Infantry Division

11th Armor Cavalry Regiment

101st Airborne Division (AIRMOBILE)

199th Light Infantry Brigade

Seabees

Seal Teams

Mobile Guerrilla Forces -Known as Blackjack Missions.

Special Forces

Seventh Fleet and USS Enterprise

USS Blue Ridge (command ship)

USS Okinawa - Movement Transport Group Alpha), USS Vancouver - Movement Transport Group Alpha), USS Thomaston - Movement Transport Group Alpha), USS Peoria - Movement Transport Group Alpha)

USS Dubuque - Transport Group Bravo, USS Durham - Transport Group Bravo, USS Frederick - Transport Group Bravo, USS Anchorage - Transport Group Bravo, USS Denver - Transport Group Bravo, USS Duluth - Transport Group Bravo, USS Mobile - Transport Group Bravo

USS Hancock, USS Midway

Seventh Fleet flagship USS Oklahoma City.

USS Mount Vernon, USS Barbour County, USS Tuscaloosa, USS Worden - missile ship

USS Richard B. Anderson - destroyer, USS Cochrane - destroyer, USS Kirk - destroyer, :USS Gurke - destroyer, USS Rowan - destroyer

USS Bausell (DD-845)

USS Coral Sea carrier

9th Marine Amphibious Brigade, 2nd Battalion Marines, 9th Marines, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines

Helicopter squadrons: - HMH-462, HMH-463, HMM-165

Chitose Maru, Haruma, Osceola, Shibaura Maru

SS American Challenger - transport ship, SS Boo Heung Pioneer - transport ship, SS Green Forest - transport ship, SS Green Port - transport ship

USNS Greenville Victory - transport ship

AUSTRALIAN FORCES:

• Australia forces were Dead - 500, 3,129 wounded

"Australia began the withdrawal of its forces Nov, 1970. Both Australla and New Zealand withdrawal continued in 1971".

Australian bomber.

2, 9, 35 Squadron RAAF

Skippy Squadron

1 Armoured Personnel Carrier Squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment

3 Cavalry Regiment

101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108 Field Battery

131 Divisional Locating Battery

A Battery, Royal Australian Artillery

161 (Independant) Reconnaissance Flight

Australian Army Training Team Vietnam

1, 3, 5, 7, 8 , and 9 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiments

1 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment

2 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment - New Zealand (ANZAC)

2, 3 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment

4 Battalion, 6 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment - New Zealand (ANZAC)

• Easter Offensive into South Vietnam, March 1972.

The U.S. was beginning to remove forces from Vietnam and the Vietnam War when North Vietnam began its Easter offensive.. The US Airforce and Navy in return began Operation Linebacker.

• May 8, 1972 President Nixon ordered the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft to begin mining attacks from American aircraft carriers.. During the next few months, 1000's of mines were dropped in North Vietnamese waters, known as Operation Pocket Money mining against Haiphong and other North Vietnamese ports.

• Paris Peace Accord, 1973

This war was still a no win for the Americans to turn the tide. Americans at home wanted the war to end.

27 Jan, 1973 North Vietnam and the United States negotiated an end to the war. The Paris Peace Accords, were signed, calling for Cease Fire.. Only the United States honored the cease fire.

• State Department and end of War
• Vietnam War events

• The Hague Convention, 1907 called for the armed forces to remove previously dropped mine. Task Force 88 used 10 ocean minesweepers (MSOs) to sweep deep-water approaches to North Vietnamese ports and inland waterways and to serve as helicopter control vessels. In addition, the tank landing ship USS Washtenaw County (LST-1166) was modified in Japan to serve in End Sweep. Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 (HM-12) were assigned, which used a special buoyant, magnetized pipe filled with styrofoam (easy to tow) Magnetic Orange Pipe

Fall of Saigon and Evacuation, April 27- 30, 1975

N.Vietnamese Army enter Saigon, capture presidential palace, city and country.

• Air America was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) proprietary company. This agency gathered data, oversaw tactics, and in the end organized the evacuation.

April 27, 1975, Three NVA rockets bombed Saigon (40 months bombing free).

28 April, 1975 The Air Base and Tan Son Nhut Airport were bombed heavily with ground artillery fire also by bombers of the (North) Vietnamese People's Air Force. Evacuation began via fixed wing airplanes from Tan Son Nhut Airport.

Fixed-wing airplane evacuation - 50,493 people

April 28, 1975, (3) VNAF pilots (S. Vietnamese) defectors dropped (6) 250 lb bombs on Tan Son Nhut Air Base, which destroyed the aircraft and the runways." Ambassador Martin intended to continue trying to use the runways. C-130's had to resume the evacuation until 20:00 April 28. Operation airlift of Vietnamese Orphans was completed along with many other people. A C-130E plane, of the 314th Tactical Airlift Wing, was evacuating some military and non-military. The plane was destroyed by a rocket while taxiing to pick up evacuees at Tan Son Nhut. The crew evacuated the plane, and caught a ride on another C-130. The wreckage of the plane and runways led Gen. Homer D Smith, attache, to tell Ambassador Martin they could not do any more evacuation by planes.

Sikorski, Tan son Nhut.

(Many servicemen had already been rotated out of Vietnam. Some marines had to get out another way.)

Evacuation via fixed wing airplanes stopped and Operation Frequent Wind began (the next step in evacuation plans).

Operation Frequent Wind: According to prearranged plans this was to start from the Defense Attache' Office. This Operation Frequent Wind started at 2:00 in the afternoon of April 29, 1975.

DAO landing zones, Op Frequent Wind.

Frequent Wind stopped at night with some damage to the helicopters. The helicopters were overwhelmed by the numbers of desperate South Vietnamese.  :This pushed back the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy staff which was supposed to be the phase 2. Embassy was overwhelmed with desperate South Vietnamese asking for help. The final evacuation of embassy staff ended at 07:53 on April 30. [2]

Vietnamese airlifted.

Air V.Marshal Ky- USS Midway.

The EMERGENCY BACK-UP plan via HELICOPTERS, 10:38 AM with the coded message on the Armed Forces Radio playing the song "White Christmas". This was the signal to all personnel to move quickly to evacuate. The Ch-53 and CH-46 helicopters evacuated Americans, and Vietnamese to the 7th Fleet.

Evacuees on USS midway.

By evening 395 Americans and 4,000 Vietnamese were out of Saigon.

The U.S. Marines who were providing security for this had to withdraw. They were sent to demolish the DAO office, equipment and secret documents. Air America UH-1's helped.

Operation Frequent Wind, Defense Attaché Office.

• • The last 2 men of the American ground casualties killed in Vietnam were 2 Marine Corporals guarding the DAO compound. They were killed at 03:30 on April 29 by a PAVN rocket.

Clearing ship for Evacuees from DAO.

Plans originally did not call for so many to be airlifted by helicopter. They were supposed to take everyone from the embassy to DAO office. 1000 people were stranded at embassy.

Pres. Ford, Kissinger, Rockefeller, Evacuation of Saigon.

03:45 April 30, 1975 -The evacuation of all had to be stopped.

President Ford ordered Ambassador Martin to board a helicopter ("LADY ACE 09" ) in no uncertain terms. The pilot had direct orders by the president "to load that ambassador". (Ambassador Martin did not know there were also orders to the marines to arrest him and physically load him on the helicopter). Out on the ship, USS Blue Ridge, again Martin pleaded for helicopters to return for more people. President Ford overruled that.

More arrived via boats while the Seventh Fleet were still in place.

7th fleet waiting for evacuees

USS_Enterprise Returns from Saigon evacuation.

• UTube: [3]

THE CHAPTER OF AMERICA, Australia and the Anti communist forces in Vietnam was over.

• UTube: Where have the Flowers gone

EVACUATED From Tan Son Nhut Airfield:

Fixed-wing airplane evacuation - 50,493 people

2,678 Vietnamese orphans were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut by Fixed Wing.

Operation Frequent Wind evacuated 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals via helicopter.

Refugees that entered the United States of America were 138,869

Ex-VNAF A-37s flew to Thailand, and were transported in May to Guam on the USS Midway.

MEDIA: Vietnam WAR videos and UTube videos"- Some have music...

• Thank you to Vietnam Veterans PLEASE WATCH THIS

• Video:John F Kennedy, House of the Rising Sun

• Cu Chi Tunnels

• SEE: video Cu Chi Tunnels

• UTube: The Eagle Cried

• UTube: Vietnam and "Eve of Destruction

• See video on the Tet Offensive: Tet Offensive courtesy of history.com

• UTube: the last days in Vietnam

• SEE video on Evacuation of Saigon: Evacution of Saigon courtesy CNN and Encyclopedia Britannica Films

• UTube: Where have the Flowers gone

• U Tube: Good Morning Vietnam by Robin Williams Good Morning Vietnam

• • Hanoi Hannah was a radio broadcaster named Trịnh Thị Ngọ (b 1931). She made broadcasts for North Vietnam in English that were directly aimed at the morale of the U.S. troops. Her diatribe usually began with QUOTE: "How are you, GI Joe?"

• U Tube: Born in the U.S.S. Lyrics by Bruce Springsteen written for the Veterans returning from Vietnam.

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The Wall.

the Wall.

RESOURCES:

1. ↑ http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cwatters.htm
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Watters
3. ↑ Memory of a pilot shared with ~~~~

• The Wall - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

• Tet Offensive, 1968

• Australian conscription

• Huerfano Libre commune

• 1965-1973

• Battles, timeline, Vietnam War

• Fall of Saigon

• Marine Corps Gazette article: Hue City, 1968: Winning a Battle While Losing a War

• HISTORYNET Article: Tet - What Really Happened at Hue

• Battle for Saigon

• Marine Corps Gazette article: Hue City, 1968: Winning a Battle While Losing a War

• HISTORYNET Article: Tet - What Really Happened at Hue

• Military History of Australia in the Vietnam War Wikipedia

• River Patrols

• Evacuation

• USS Blue Ridge

• Invasion of US Embassy, TET
• Final Evacuation plans for Saigon

• Operation Babylift

• Hanoi Hannah

• The Search for Hanoi Hannah by North, Don (1991). Sixties Project (Tucson, Arizona: Viet Nam Generation, Inc.). Retrieved January 28, 2002.

• Helicoptor Pilots, Vietnam

• Pleiku, Hamburger Hill
• Evacuation of Saigon

• Operation Frequent Wind, 2nd stage of evacuation

SOURCES TO SEARCH for VIETNAM VETERANS

• Archival Database searchable

• Records

• (FamilySsearch_Historical_Records) FamilySearch United States Casualties of the War in Vietnam

• Vietnam War Records

• Family Search

• Legacy.com - Vietnam War Memorial Site: Notable Deaths & Obituaries