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.
As the war rages abroad, counterculture rocks America
In 1959, “Leave It to Beaver” was in its second season on TV, the first Barbie dolls hit store shelves and Elvis Presley was on the music charts.
War forced hard choices for those who fought and those who did not
Millions of Americans in the 1960s and early 1970s had to decide what they would do when called to serve in a conflict that had mushroomed into the most polarizing event in the nation’s history since the Civil War.
Vietnam at 50: For those who prepared Vietnam's fallen, a lasting dread
The faces haunt him wherever he goes. Day, night, asleep, awake; the dead are unrelenting. They are young, horrifically burned, maimed, bloated beyond recognition, others just in pieces.
Vietnam at 50: Rolling Thunder escalated US involvement in Vietnam, pulled ground troops into combat
In 1964, Keith Connolly was a young Air Force pilot and was among the first Americans to fly sorties in the F-100 Super Sabre fighter bomber targeting the North Vietnamese communist insurgency.
Vietnam at 50: Soldier who stood firm against Viet Cong captors inspired fellow POWs, earned Medal of Honor
“VIET VICTORY NEAR,” blared a headline across the top of Stars and Stripes’ front page.