The Vietnam War ~ Lesson 3 The United States enters the War
When Johnson became President he ordered a secret bombing of the North Vietnamese bases and supply trails. He also sent soldiers to Vietnam to fight.
On March 8, 1965, the first official United States combat troops were sent to Vietnam. The war was very hard for the Americans to fight. The North Vietnamese people looked like the South Vietnamese. American soldiers could not tell Vietnamese civilians from Vietcong guerillas. Americans had to fight in the jungles. One of the major events of the war took place on January 30, 1968 when North Vietnam launched an attack on 100 cities in South Vietnam. Throughout the war many innocent Vietnamese people were killed and many American soldiers were killed by what looked like innocent looking Vietnamese civilians. In 1968-1969 over 500,000 American soldiers fought in the war. In the United States, many people felt that Americans should stay out of the war. These people were called doves. They felt the war was a civil war between two groups of Vietnamese. Protests took place across the United States. Some burned American flags and placed Vietcong flags on flagpoles. Protests got stronger and stronger with some college students taking over their colleges and burning papers written about the war. President Johnson decided not to run for another term as President because of these protests. Other groups of people called hawks wanted the United States to fight in order to stop Communism.
Members of the military police keep back protesters during their sit-in at the Mall Entrance to the Pentagon - 1967 |
