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An estimated 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, [97] and approximately 50,000 American servicemen deserted. [98] On January 21, 1977, United States president Jimmy Carter , a day after his assuming office, granted a full and unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era draft dodgers (but not deserters who were on active ...
The Tet Offensive [a] was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.The Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched a surprise attack on 30 January 1968 against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Armed Forces and their allies.
During the Cold War in the 1960s, the United States and South Vietnam began a period of gradual escalation and direct intervention referred to as the "Americanization" of joint warfare in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. At the start of the decade, United States aid to South Vietnam consisted largely of supplies with approximately 900 ...
North Vietnam's General Giáp suggested that the DESOTO patrol had been sent into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam into giving the U.S. an excuse for escalation of the war. [51] Various government officials and men aboard Maddox have suggested similar theories. [51]
[25]: 486 His escalation of the war divided Americans, cost 30,000 American lives by that point and was regarded to have destroyed his presidency. [25]: 486 Refusal to send more troops was seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost. [176] As McNamara said, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead."
On 19 February 1965, USAF B-57s conducted the first jet strikes flown by Americans in support of South Vietnamese ground units. On 24 February 1965, USAF jets struck again, this time breaking up a Viet Cong ambush in the Central Highlands with a massive series of tactical air sorties. Again, this was an escalation in the U.S. use of air power.
The Vietnam War effectively began with the start of the North Vietnamese backed VC insurgency in 1959/60 and the U.S. increased its military aid and advisory support to South Vietnam in response. [1]: 119–20 With the worsening military and political situation in South Vietnam, the U.S. increasingly became directly involved in the conflict.
A map of South Vietnam showing provincial boundaries and names and military zones: I, II, III, and IV Corps. In 1965, the United States rapidly increased its military forces in South Vietnam, prompted by the realization that the South Vietnamese government was losing the Vietnam War as the communist-dominated Viet Cong (VC) gained influence over much of the population in rural areas of the ...