Soldiers were permitted six days and six nights of leave during their one year tour of duty. These pictures offer a brief glimpse into life during the Vietnam War . One of the worst problems we had was with how unreliable resupply was. The Selective Service was organized as a random lottery in which men's birthdays were assigned a lottery number between 1 and 365, one for each day of the year. Civilian casualties were common, and many local villages were disrupted, if not outright destroyed, by the arrival of U.S. soldiers, so it's no surprise that locals often viewed American soldiers with distrust and hostility. The show ran from 1964 to 1968 and over time the majority of their outcome focused on the Vietnam War. Answer by Arnold Punaro, Author of On War and Politics: The Battlefield Inside Washington's Beltway, Vietnam War veteran, USMC, former Staff Director of SASC, businessman, on Quora. Laos is a landlocked country, sandwiched between China (north), Cambodia (south), Vietnam (east) and Thailand (west). Vietnam before 1954. Larry Burrows covered Vietnam for Life magazine from 1962 until he was killed there in 1971. Whether in the thick of the jungle or deep in the rice paddies, the landscape was strange to the U.S. soldiers, but it was familiar to the Viet Cong, who expertly hid themselves in the land. Photojournalism One of the most important stories that LIFE Magazine would ever cover was the Vietnam War. But one boy, about the age of me, maybe a little younger came out of nowhere at me with a knife during a firefight, and my instincts and training kicked in. During the Vietnam war, a whole sex industry for U.S. troops. Per History, World War II bred bedlam in Vietnam when Japan wrested the country from French colonizers. September 20, 2020 1960s, life & culture, military, people, portraits, Vietnam, war More than 2.5 million American men served in Vietnam during the war. By 1971, 10-15% of lower-ranking troops were returning home as addicts, and over 1,000 were returning as criminals, having been charged with heroin-related crimes. Due to the rain and mudslides we ended up sliding down to the bottom of a B-52 bomb crater and the troops asked, "Lt., what is that orange color in the water?" On the military's dime, soldiers could fly to any number of exotic locales in search of beaches, bars, and a good time. American troops, with their vastly superior firepower, had the upper hand face to face, but the Viet Cong deliberately avoided large-scale conflicts where they could be outgunned. Next, they had to worry about the jungle wildlife. Even in the midst of an active, bloody war, downtime was a frequent, if not always welcome, occurrence. Vietnam was the first major U.S. war in which black and white soldiers were fully integrated, but fully integrated did not mean fully equal. According to the New York Times, African Americans were drafted at a disproportionately higher rate than whites, representing more than 16% of all draftees and 23% of all combat troops, despite being only 11% of the civilian population in 1967. https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests This book is going to show you in action how he handled tough situations and what decisions he made to become a great leader … During the Vietnam War, the city was home to a major air base that was used by both the South Vietnamese and United States air forces. Veterans encountered unprecedented levels of hostility from a public that had long objected to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In 1945 a French-backed Vietnamese emperor gained power, and Communist honcho Ho Chi Minh mounted an uprising that gave rise to North Vietnam via the First Indochina War.This bloodshed bled into the Vietnam War. He was a great leader who brought the Vietnam's independence from the French colonists. As time went on, civilian casualties continued, American soldiers grew increasingly frustrated with the locals' reluctance to help, and suspicion and mistrust increased on both sides. That idealism faded away as the war progressed, as the U.S. sent more troops, more resources, and more money overseas, as more and more young American men failed to come home in one piece. Life on a Naval Vessel During the Vietnam War in the 1960s. American soldiers stationed in Vietnam were met with an unexpectedly horrific experience. Most all of our chow was C-rations that came in brown cans and ran from horrible to inedible. An emotional rollercoaster ride through the life of a Marine who serves in the Vietnam War. Morale was understandably low during monsoon season, for example, when heavy rains would drench the soldiers and flood the rice paddies for the better part of six months. Black soldiers complained they were unfairly assigned worse details and that they received more frequent punishments and fewer promotions than their white counterparts. From sending photographers to the trenches to covering the stories of draft dodgers and deserters, LIFE Magazines during the 1960s explored every aspect of the most highly televised conflict in history. That, in turn, hastens the move toward more mechanized agriculture. Instead, the military developed long range patrol rations to take their place. They walked with heavy rucksacks, carrying everything they would need to survive in the difficult terrain. Photojournalism. What are some of the things soldiers experienced during the Vietnam War that might not be known? I managed to collect over a hundred, which include Vietnam War photos or faces of those important people who were tied to the war effort at that time; all are shown on my slideshow in chronological order. Moths gathered in bars, where they often entertained the Americans and offered his services. General consequences of the war . Depending on what group or specialty the soldier was, he had different jobs to carry out after his "main day's work" was finished. And after seeing the images of the Vietnam War on television, after seeing the pictures taken by war correspondents, and after hearing accounts of war atrocities, most of the American pubic in the 1960s was inclined to agree. Price of War. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. However, infantrymen whose successes were determined by enemy body count were untrained and ill-equipped to make the cultural advances that would win people over. Prawit, a former commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, said he had never expected to be … But many others were poor or working-class teenagers who enlisted or were drafted … Life as a Soldier in Vietnam "It was hot. Between the rain and the sweat the grunts were never completely dry. Instead of being stationed on the front lines, they might be assigned a support detail on one of the rear bases. During the Vietnam War, the US created a highly classified unit that still influences modern special operations Stavros Atlamazoglou 2021-02-09T14:08:01Z More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. American Navy In Vietnam. But mostly what they did was walk. General consequences of the war . After the war, were born about 50 thousand children of American-Vietnamese origin, who mockingly called bui doi (in translation — “the dirt of life”). By Nhung Nhung, Phong Vinh January 11, 2018 | 09:12 am GMT+7 The famous tunnel network survived intense bombings by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. To make matters worse, you can’t really control the volume on those radios since the dial was on the wearer’s back. … "War is hell" declares the handwritten slogan on a young GI's helmet in one of many famous photos of the Vietnam War. Not only did their lives change, but they became a significant amount more difficult. Upon hearing the news of MLK's death, some white soldiers paraded around the base at Cam Ranh Bay in KKK robes, openly cheering the news. If they weren't miserably wet or miserably hot, they were miserable hacking through the jungle brush and elephant grass with leaves so dense and so sharp they drew blood. This collection of Vietnam War documents has been selected and compiled by Alpha History authors. Somewhat pejoratively called REMFs ("Rear Echelon Mother F*ckers") these soldiers had a comparatively cushy experience in Vietnam. That's not to say the drugs deserved all the blame for the difficulty veterans faced after returning home. The Vietnam War lasted from 1954 to 1975. The soldiers who fought in Vietnam had been trained to fight a conventional World War II-style war not a guerilla war in the jungle and were justifiably very scared and ill-equipped to handle the kind of fighting they were subjected to in Vietnam. June 28, 2016 4 Comments Featured, George Stewart, Guest Blogger, History, News dlg, George Stewart, surface navy, uss england, Vietnam War. Their goal was to locate and defeat the Viet Cong, but often it felt like there was no real goal except providing human bait to provoke the guerrilla fighters into revealing their positions. Some of these men were career military officers. The draft wasn't the only problem. For the Americans, every casualty, every dollar spent, and every anti-war protest back home chipped away at the conviction that this could ever be a winnable war. Dates of the Vietnam War: 1959 -- April 30, 1975 Also Known As: American War in Vietnam, the Vietnam Conflict, Second Indochina War, War … They walked for days and weeks at a time, patrolling the land for Viet Cong guerrilla fighters or members of the North Vietnamese Army. Edict of Emperor Minh Mang against Christians in Vietnam (1833) The suicide … These men had access to all the luxuries of home, including getting to sleep in a bed, eating hot meals, drinking at bars, and shopping at a well-stocked commissary. But they ultimately couldn't defeat the guerrilla fighters. The use of pharmaceuticals to artificially suppress combat trauma may have contributed to the explosion of post-traumatic stress disorder cases among Vietnam veterans after the war. Marijuana was cheap and easy to come by, but commanders were more concerned with the surge of heroin usage among enlisted men, which reached epidemic levels by 1971. Medical professionals could also declare someone "unfit for service" for medical conditions ranging from ulcers to anemia. I had my troops cut holes in the top of their boots so the water would slosh out. If you would like to contribute or suggest a document for inclusion here, please contact Alpha History. Very unsatisfactory. For Roger Michels, a 19-year-old who grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, life was not as rosy. LIFE Magazine would do it’s part to… During the war the north and south of Vietnam fought tirelessly. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/vietnam-a-war-on-civilians The Vietnam War was a war between North and South Vietnam, each of which was backed by numerous other powers, making it a proxy war. Drug use had taken its toll on troops. Two years after the withdrawal of the last United States combat troops, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) tanks and soldiers rolled into Saigon. In what ways does the United States' military need to be changed to match its current global roles. Event Synopsis Overview. The Vietnam War (1959-1975) was bloody, dirty, and very unpopular. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. Most crucially, they carried mosquito repellent and dry socks. Since resupply never had any dry socks, immersion foot, or "jungle rot," became a major problem. One of the most important stories that LIFE Magazine would ever cover was the Vietnam War. The New York Times described heroin addiction as "the Army's last great tragedy in Vietnam." What surprised me about Vietnam was how wet and cold you were all the time due to the monsoon rains. So the grunts kept walking. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In many ways, the hippies of the 1960s descended from an earlier American counterculture: the Beat Generation. Life on a Naval Vessel During the Vietnam War in the 1960s. During the Vietnam War years, rough 9 million people served in the military, compared with the 16 million who served during World War II. Post Views: 292. Sailors and aviators were in a different world too, with perils and problems of their own. He'd been drafted into the Vietnam War. How have national security threats changed in the last 40 years? We finally started using pinches of C-4 plastic explosive to heat our food and coffee, but you had to be really careful with that since it was an explosive. 37 Amazing Snapshots Capture Everyday Life of American Soldiers During Vietnam War . Only 2% of officers were black. By Lan Cao. He was born in Abbeville South Carolina in 1950. Repressing the negative mental effects of combat only worsened their impact when they finally surfaced. Prior to the 19th century, Laos was a jigsaw of regional kingdoms and ethnicities… Centered in bohemian havens like San Franci… As he holds on to hopes of pursuing his dreams of love with one woman and a career as a pilot. However, because of the way the draft was set up, men assigned the lowest numbers were more likely to be drafted than those with higher numbers. I saw no eyes clouded with resentment." Only later did we realize the harmful effects of Agent Orange. ". Life was a mixed bag for the U.S. soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. Much of northern Laos is mountainous, difficult to cross and thinly populated. But after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the racial violence that had been bubbling up in cities across America finally reached Vietnam. As a commander of South Vietnam’s elite airborne troops, my father was regularly away on combat duty for several days or weeks. Hotter than any summer day back home, and the rain seemed to drag on for days." Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of … Upper-class men could afford to stay enrolled in university or get a doctor's note from a hometown physician to obtain a get-out-jail-free card that poorer men couldn't access. In 1954, the US entered a messy war to support South Vietnam against the communist regime in North Vietnam and its allies in southern Vietnam, known … During the Vietnam War, the odds were tremendously stacked against radio operations — and that 5-second life expectancy was, for some, a grim reality. At times, Vietnam resembled "a hated, dreary struggle" that dragged on and on with no end in sight. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies China and Soviet Union, and South Vietnam, supported by … "The land itself could kill you," remembered Tim O'Brien. Still, tensions between black and white soldiers were low at the onset of the war. My unit operated in the Que Son Mountains and it got very cold at night and we did not have warm enough sleeping gear. The draft lottery proved to be unfair in another significant way. The Armed Forces during the war and even today is the most successfully integrated institution in our society." Even worse, there were never any heat tabs to warm up the meals, so you had a cold "meat" dish with all the congealed fat and junk. Tag Archives: life during the Vietnam war Sammy Lewis’s account of life during the Vietnam War. Finding Strange Magic and Unlikely Love During the Vietnam War Lan Cao on the Beginning of Her American Life.