[104], In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were not possible, with the ICC reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had not been heavily involved with policy toward Vietnam;[135][A 10] however, upon becoming president, Johnson immediately focused on the war. More than 3million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam. [215] The fall of Phuoc Binh and the lack of an American response left the South Vietnamese elite demoralized. 11719. [77], Various names have been applied to the conflict. [203] Between 1969 and 1971 the Viet Cong and some PAVN units had reverted to small unit tactics typical of 1967 and prior instead of nationwide grand offensives. Upper figure initial estimate, later thought to be inflated by at least 30% (lower figure), The figures of 58,220 and 303,644 for U.S. deaths and wounded come from the Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD), Defense Manpower Data Center, as well as from a Department of Veterans fact sheet dated May 2010; the total is 153,303 WIA excluding 150,341 persons not requiring hospital care, Shortly after the assassination of Kennedy, when, On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the, A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. It was gradually replaced by the M16 rifle, designed by Eugene Stoner, between 1964 and 1970. [145] Between March 1965 and November 1968, Rolling Thunder deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs. [85]:349351 The U.S. military had long been schooled in offensive warfare. Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment, and frustration the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. [259][260][261], Although a small number of women were assigned to combat zones, they were never allowed directly in the field of battle. [97]:238 Dim staffed his government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics. Two Douglas A-4C Skyhawk fly past the anti-submarine aircraft carrier. Some mines were set only to go off after heavy vehicle passage, causing extensive slaughter aboard packed civilian buses. [40]:116 The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. [346] A detailed demographic study calculated 791,0001,141,000 war-related deaths during the war for all of Vietnam, for both military and civilians. Heightened opposition to the war was one of the major factors in Johnson's decision not to run for re-election in 1968. As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Dim increasingly sought to blame the communists. The Air Force ran many missions of this kind to secure additional funding during budget negotiations, so the tonnage expended does not directly correlate with the resulting damage.
