When was start of vietnam war

How did the US intervene? History Vietnam War. How did World War One end? What do the different coloured poppies mean? The National Trust: a cultural battleground. In Focus.

Book of the week: Black Gold by Jeremy Paxman. In Review. Popular articles. Insulate Britain: what the protesters want. The most extreme weather events of In pictures. The U. By , more than , U. Each side suffered and inflicted huge losses, with the civilian populace suffering horribly.

Based on widely varying estimates, between 1. This photo essay, part one of a three-part series, looks at the earlier stages of U. Be sure to also see part 2 and part 3. Warning: Several of these photographs are graphic in nature. Hovering U. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border, in March of An American officer serving with the South Vietnam forces poses with group of Montagnards in front of one of their provisionary huts in a military camp in central Vietnam on November 17, They were brought in by government troops from a village where they were used as labor force by communist Viet Cong forces.

The Montagnards, dark-skinned tribesmen numbering about ,, live in the highlands of central Vietnam. The government was trying to win their alliance in its war with the Viet Cong. Vietnamese airborne rangers, their two U. Special Forces troops set out to raid a Viet Cong supply base 62 miles northwest of Saigon, on August 6, As the H helicopters hovered six feet from the ground to avoid spikes and wires and under sniper fire, the troops jumped out to attack.

A South Vietnamese Marine, severely wounded in a Viet Cong ambush, is comforted by a comrade in a sugar-cane field at Duc Hoa, about 12 miles from Saigon, on August 5, A platoon of 30 Vietnamese Marines was searching for communist guerrillas when a long burst of automatic fire killed one Marine and wounded four others.

Napalm air strikes raise clouds into gray monsoon skies as houseboats glide down the Perfume River toward Hue in Vietnam on February 28, , where a battle for control of the old Imperial City ended with a Communist defeat. Firebombs were directed against a village on the outskirts of Hue.

Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, burns himself to death on a Saigon street on June 11, , to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. Flying low over the jungle, an A-1 Skyraider drops pound bombs on a Viet Cong position below as smoke rises from a previous pass at the target, on December 26, The guerrilla died in a foxhole following a battle between a battalion of South Vietnamese Marines and a unit of Viet Cong. The "Eagle Flight" choppers were loaded with Vietnamese airborne troops who were dropped in to support ground forces at the first sign of enemy contact.

A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle on March 19, The child was killed as government forces pursued guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border. With the persuasion of a Viet Cong-made spear pressed against his throat, a captured Viet Cong guerrilla decided to talk to interrogators, telling them of a cache of Chinese grenades on March 28, He was captured with 13 other guerrillas and 17 suspects when two Vietnamese battalions overran a Viet Cong camp about 15 miles southwest of Da Nang air force base.

Thousands attend a rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington on April 17, , to hear Ernest Gruening, a Democratic senator from Alaska, and other speakers discuss U. The rally followed picketing of the White House by students demanding an end to Vietnam fighting.

A nurse attempts to comfort a wounded U. The soldier was one of more than who were wounded during Viet Cong attacks on two U. Seven Americans were killed in the attacks. Flag-draped coffins of eight American Servicemen killed in attacks on U. Funeral services were held at the Saigon Airport with U. It was part of the overall Cold War confrontation and the American struggle against the spread of Communism in the world, but did not involve a direct confrontation between the two superpowers.

The US justified its military intervention in Vietnam by the domino theory, which stated that if one country fell under the influence of Communism, the surrounding countries would inevitably follow. The aim was to prevent Communist domination of South-East Asia.

In , President John F. Kennedy, convinced that Communist China was actively supporting North Vietnam, approved a US military campaign in Vietnam to help the nationalist government stave off the Communist rebellion.