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douglas9

(4,358 posts)
Tue Mar 31, 2015, 08:24 AM Mar 2015

The Vietnam War, Part I: Early Years and Escalation

Fifty years ago, in March 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines landed in South Vietnam. They were the first American combat troops on the ground in a conflict that had been building for decades. The communist government of North Vietnam (backed by the Soviet Union and China) was locked in a battle with South Vietnam (supported by the United States) in a Cold War proxy fight. The U.S. had been providing aid and advisors to the South since the 1950s, slowly escalating operations to include bombing runs and ground troops. By 1968, more than 500,000 U.S. troops were in the country, fighting alongside South Vietnamese soldiers as they faced both a conventional army and a guerrilla force in unforgiving terrain. Each side suffered and inflicted huge losses, with the civilian populace suffering horribly. Based on widely varying estimates, between 1.5 and 3.6 million people were killed in the war. This photo essay, part one of a three-part series, looks at the earlier stages of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as the growing protest movement, between the years 1962 and 1967. Tomorrow, a look at the later years as the war wound down.Warning: Several of these photographs are graphic in nature.

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/the-vietnam-war-part-i-early-years-and-escalation/389054/

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The Vietnam War, Part I: Early Years and Escalation (Original Post) douglas9 Mar 2015 OP
The Vietnam War, Part II: Losses and Withdrawal douglas9 Apr 2015 #1
Some great work white cloud Apr 2015 #2
Part III is up: Hands of a Nation pinboy3niner Apr 2015 #3

pinboy3niner

(53,339 posts)
3. Part III is up: Hands of a Nation
Sun Apr 5, 2015, 11:04 PM
Apr 2015
http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/04/the-vietnam-war-part-iii-hands-of-a-nation/389309/

All of the parts have great photos, many of which I've never seen before.

I have to admit that that I held off on viewing them because they can be triggers for all that old grief and loss and pain. But these photos are well worth viewing.

Welcome home to all.
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