In March of 1965, there were two very significant events.

[Stinky The Clown]

The first was the Selma March and the second the dispatching of the first combat battalions to Viet Nam.

Those events were contemporary to my young adulthood. It was two years before my stint in the Navy. I remember all too well the Selma thuggery, and for that matter the burning Greyhound bus, the Freedom Riders, Little Rock, and other significant events related to racial antipathy.

But I really didn't remember the date of the first combat troops into Viet Nam. When I heard it mentioned today on the news I realized that the date never stuck with me. I never placed it in time along side Selma.

Looking back, it seems to me I saw the racial struggles as significant, but I probably didn't see the future of the Viet Nam war. Quite likely, at the time, the fact that two Marine combat battalions were sent to Southeast Asia was at least a below the fold story, if not page two. I just don't remember.

Does anyone else my age recall both events, not from history, but from your own personal contemporary recollection?

Those were turbulent times, to be sure.

Sadly, we have not come very far.

[pinboy3niner]

1. I remember

I had one friend who was KIA in the Ia Drang Valley that year and another friend who sat in our living room teling us about his SF tour--who was KIA later, on a subsequent tour.

[KingCharlemagne]

6. "SF tour" - don't recognize the abbreviation. Can you elaborate? - nt

[pinboy3niner]

7. Howard was a sergeant in Special Forces

His tour (both of them, actually) were with SF. He was a medic with cross-training in communications.

[KingCharlemagne]

10. Ah, got you. Not familiar with all the acronyms in use at the time and now. Thanks! - nt

[uppityperson]

2. I am younger than you, remember my parents talking about it all.

[hfojvt]

3. in March of 1962 there was one very significant event

I was born

The world may never recover.

As such though, I don't remember very much from March 1965.

[Major Hogwash]

4. Kicked and recommended. Good to see you around, Stinky.

50 years ago, those 2 events were both horrifically bad for America.
I hope that in 50 years, the youth of this country remember the Iraq War the same way we remember the Vietnam War, as a colossal mistake.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. I was in the marines in '65.

Due to get out in June. They wanted me to extend my enlistment for 14 months. I told the gunny sergeant making the offer that they could shove it and that I was insulted that they wanted me to kill people so LBJ could burnish his "Tough on Communism" creds.

I got 30 days mess duty for my youthful urge to state my opinions.

Soon after I got out, they stopped asking and just told them they were extended.

[anotojefiremnesuka]

8. The first US Advisors aka troops arrived in Vietnam in 1955

You were about 10 years too late to see the kick off so to speak.

[malaise]

9. Yes

When the mask is removed, those who control America are 'exceptionally cruel' to their own and to others. I think many citizens have changed but the establishment is as greedy as ever and the war machine is very profitable.