Vietnam at 50
1966: Troops and protests increase along with strategy concerns against a determined enemy
It was the year of the reality check, when Americans and their own government began to realize just what they faced in Vietnam — a resourceful and tenacious enemy, quarrelsome allies and an Asian society whose complexity they could barely understand.
The sparks that kindled the flames of war
Viewed through the prism of time, the years after World War II can seem like an idyllic era, with U.S. power supreme, the middle class thriving and families living stable “Ozzie and Harriet” lives after decades of war and economic depression.
Flying solo in 1966 with a thousand missions to come
The day I graduated from the University of Oklahoma, I wrote a note to my father saying, “Dad, thanks a million. Looks like you’ve done all you can. Now it’s up to me!”
Two pilots, once enemies, now friends
Tu De, a 16-year-old from Hanoi, spent most of 1966 learning how to fly fighter planes in the Soviet Union.
Faces of the Wall reaches 20,000 photos as education center gains momentum
Nearly a decade ago, Jim Reece and his brother Tom were talking about a high school friend who had been killed in Vietnam, and they decided to look online to see if there was any information about him on a memorial site.
Vietnam leads to the death of the draft and the rise of the professional soldier
During the dark days of Vietnam, morale was so low hit lists were known to circulate within units, nominating unpopular leaders to be fragged — the military term when soldiers murder one of their own.
Returned photos reveal a father never known, 50-year-old promise kept
Army Pfc. Pierre Mathieu Van Wissem went to Vietnam in 1965, and part of him never came home.