The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965 (The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War).pdf

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T
he
U.S. A
rmy
C
ampaigns of the
V
ietnam
W
ar
1953 –1965
THE
U.S. ARMY
BEFORE
VIETNAM
CMH Pub 76–3
1953 –1965
by
Donald A. Carter
THE
U.S. ARMY
BEFORE
VIETNAM
Center of Military History
United States Army
Washington, D.C., 2015
Introduction
To many Americans, the war in Vietnam was, and remains,
a divisive conflict. Now almost fifty years after the beginning
of major U.S. combat operations in Vietnam, the war has faded
from much of America’s consciousness. Over half of the U.S.
population was born after the war and has no direct memory of
the conflict, yet this does not lessen its importance. The massive
American commitment—political, military, and diplomatic—to
the independence of South Vietnam beginning in the 1950s and
continuing with U.S. direct combat operations in the 1960s and
early 1970s makes it important to remember those who served.
U.S. involvement in this corner of Southeast Asia began after
World War II when Vietnam was fighting for independence from
France. Although generally favoring Vietnamese independence,
the United States supported France because the rebels—or Viet
Minh—were led by Communists and in the days of the Cold
War U.S. officials considered any and all Communists to be little
more than the puppets of Moscow and Beijing. France’s defeat in
1954, the bifurcation of Vietnam into a Communist North and
non-Communist South, and America’s assumption of the job of
training the armed forces of the newly created non-Communist
Republic of Vietnam pulled the United States deeper into the
conflict. Framed primarily as a fight to defend democracy against
the forces of international communism, the United States gradu-
ally committed more troops and materiel to fight Communist-led
Southern guerrillas (or Viet Cong) and the regular military forces
sent to South Vietnam by the politburo in Hanoi.
By the time President Lyndon B. Johnson committed major
combat units in 1965, the United States had already invested
thousands of men and millions of dollars in the fight to build a
secure and stable South Vietnam. That commitment expanded
rapidly until by 1969 the United States had over 365,000 soldiers
in every military region of South Vietnam with thousands of other
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