Vietnam: 50 Years Remembered

The history of the region after World War II that lead up to the war.

After it became clear the South Vietnamese security forces would not provide adequate security for the US Air Force bases in South East Asia, President Lyndon Johnson authorized the beginning of the ground war.

As troop morale declined, US generals began to advocate for a more aggressive strategy to take the war to the National Liberation Front, abandoning the idea that South Vietnam could take back the North without US assistance.

A truce normally marked the Lunar New Year, known as Tet, but in 1968, the NLF broke the truce in order to launch the largest battle of the war.

During the course of the war, the NLF captured thousands of US soldiers, some of whom were never recovered; Nixon's justification for continuing the war.

The Nixon Doctrine called for the bolstering of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in order for them to take over the defense of South Vietnam.

The political costs for the war began to add up for the Nixon Administration, and the South Vietnamese were now on their own; American troops were home, but there was little celebration; the scars of the war would linger in American culture.