Deborah Kent - The Vietnam War. From Da Nang to Saigon

WHAT ARE WE OVER HERE FIGHTING FOR?

An American soldier asked this question during the Vietnam War. Many other American soldiers and citizens wondered the same thing. The conflict began when the United States sent its armed forces to defend South Vietnam against Communist North Vietnam. It was supposed to be a brief military operation, but it ended as a bloody, twelve-year conflict in which thousands of American soldiers died. Author Deborah Kent examines this tragic and controversial period in American history from the first Marines arriving at Da Nang to the final airlift out of Saigon.

About the Author

Deborah Kent is the author of many fiction and nonfiction books for children, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Woman Knows the Cost of Life for Enslow Publishers, Inc.

On a brisk October afternoon in 1967, I marched through the streets of Washington, D.C., wearing a placard that declared, BRING THE BOYS HOME! I will never forget the thrill of gathering with thousands of others, lifting our voices in the hypnotic chant, Peace now! Peace now! The war in Vietnam hung over the nation like a heavy fog. I felt I was doing my tiny part to bring it to an end. Surely, our voices would be heard! At last, the killing would end, and the sunshine would break through.

Like many college students during the 1960s, I was appalled by the lists of American casualties, the enemy body count, and the stories of atrocities committed by both sides. The war filled us with anger, grief, and a sense of futility. Outraged by the daily news reports, it was hard for us to grasp how the United States became involved in the conflict and why our government sent more and still more troops to faraway Southeast Asia.

Yet other Americans were distressed by the protest movement, which shook the country. Though saddened by the war, they fervently believed that the United States must meet its obligations abroad. If the United States withdrew from Vietnam, it would lose respect throughout the world. Communism was a menace to world peace and freedom, and if America let Vietnam fall, other democracies might collapse as well.

More than a generation later, Americans are still coming to terms with the Vietnam War. With the perspective of time, it is somewhat easier to see how it all began, to examine the conflict objectively, and to seek an understanding of the outcome. The United States was directly involved in the Vietnam War for twelve years, from 1961 to 1973. But for the Vietnamese, the years of American involvement were only one chapter in a far longer struggle. It began as a fight for independence and ended in a bitter civil war that tore the country to pieces.

It has often been said that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. Perhaps for this reason, Americans today look back to the Vietnam War and ask many difficult questions. By learning what occurred and why, perhaps we can work to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

WE ARE NOT ABOUT TO SEND
AMERICAN BOYS NINE OR TEN THOUSAND
MILES FROM HOME TO DO WHAT ASIAN BOYS
OUGHT TO BE DOING FOR THEMSELVES.

The Gulf of Tonkin is one of the most scenic places in all of Vietnam. Magnificent mountains rise almost straight from the sea and disappear in clouds of mist. Fishermen, in boats called junks and sampans, cast their nets among the lush green islands that fringe the shore. Yet for more than two thousand years, the Gulf of Tonkin was one of Vietnams points of vulnerability. For the Chinese, and later the French, the gulf was the gateway to the invasion of a land that seemed endlessly at war.

In 1964, the Vietnamese were fighting once again. Ten years earlier, an international agreement temporarily created two nations, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The two nations had remained separate, and now the Communist-controlled North Vietnamese were embroiled in a fierce civil war with the non-Communist south. North Vietnam had the support of the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China. In its struggle, South Vietnam received aid from the United States. As the fighting intensified, the North Vietnamese set up a series of radar stations along the bays and islands of the Gulf of Tonkin.

A present-day view of fishing boats sailing through the Gulf of Tonkin.

Even by the standards of tropical Vietnam, the night of August 1, 1964, was hot and humid. Aboard the destroyer USS Maddox, clusters of men lounged on deck, trying to catch a cooling breeze. Others had no choice but to work in the airless rooms below. They studied radar screens and searched through radio static, piecing together fragments of information. The Maddox was on a surveillance mission to study North Vietnamese defenses.

Suddenly, early on the morning of August 2, the crew of the Maddox spotted three North Vietnamese patrol boats. The Maddox was twenty-eight miles from the coast, still well within international waters. But the patrol boats were approaching at top speed and seemed poised to attack. As they rushed nearer, Captain John Herrick of the Maddox ordered his men to open fire. To this day, no one is certain which side actually fired first.

The first two torpedoes from the patrol boats missed their target, and the third was a dud, which failed to explode. The Maddox struck back with fire from its five-inch guns. Three needle-nose crusader jets from the nearby carrier USS Ticonderoga sped to the Maddoxs aid and strafed the patrol boats with heavy machine-gun fire. The skirmish was over in twenty minutes. One patrol boat sank, and the others limped back to the safety of the coast. There were no American casualties. The Maddox headed south to the open sea.

Because of the thirteen-hour time difference between Vietnam and Washington, D.C., President Lyndon B. Johnson received the news on the night of August 1. At once, he met with his top advisers to discuss the attack. They concluded that the North Vietnamese may have mistaken the Maddox for a South Vietnamese ship, which bombarded two coastal islands a few days before. Johnson decided to let the incident pass without reprisal. But he ordered the Maddox back to the Gulf of Tonkin immediately.

Accompanied by a second destroyer, the USS Turner Joy, the Maddox returned to the Gulf of Tonkin on August 4. That night, wild storms crashed over the gulf. Braced for trouble, the crewmen imagined enemy fire in each flash of lightning and crack of thunder. Suddenly, radar engineers on the destroyers saw suspicious-looking blips on their screens. The signals appeared to show an advancing enemy ship.