*+-This month is the 50th anniversary of US troops arriving in Vietnam to take part in the Vietnam War. While President Lyndon Johnson hadn’t lightly made the decision to send troops to South East Asia, he had the backing of Congress due to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The incident was a battle with US naval forces and North Vietnamese torpedo boats in 1964. Further, a year later the Viet Cong attacked US military advisors. It was after these incidents that Johnson decided to launch Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation launched a three year air attack on the North Vietnamese. General Westmoreland, who was in charge of US forces in Vietnam, requested more protection for the troops on the ground and more US Marines arrived in Da Nang in 1965. The president was confident that the US would be victorious, particularly since the Allies had won just 20 years earlier in World War Two. Unfortunately Johnson was incorrect. The Vietnam War would go on to terminate his presidency, cause public unrest back at home in the US, and alter US foreign policy for decades to come. Many books and accounts of the Vietnam War have been written on the monumental war. The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson is an account of the US military training college, West Point, and its experiences during the Vietnam War years. Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall recalls the French attempt to take on Vietnam 15 years prior to the US
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