Battle of Ia Drang Valley

The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam, also referred to as the North Vietnamese Army. It was part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War.

The battle comprised two main engagements, centered on two previously scouted helicopter landing zones. The first engagement, known as LZ X-Ray, took place from November 14–16, 1965. It involved the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment and supporting units under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore. LZ X-Ray was located at the eastern foot of the Chu Pong Massif in the central highlands of Vietnam.

The second engagement, known as LZ Albany, took place on November 17. It involved the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, and supporting units under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDade. LZ Albany was located farther north in the Ia Drang Valley.

The Battle of Ia Drang is notable for several reasons. It was the first large-scale helicopter air assault in the Vietnam War and marked the first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role.

Operation ARC LIGHT

Operation ARC LIGHT was the 1965 deployment of B-52D Stratofortresses as conventional bombers from bases in the US to Guam to support ground combat operations in Vietnam.  By extension, ARC LIGHT, and sometimes Arclight, is the code name and general term for the use of B-52 Stratofortress as a close air support (CAS) platform to support ground tactical operations assisted by ground-control-radar.

Operation MARKET TIME

The Navy established Operation MARKET TIME (March 1965-1972) with the aim of preventing North Vietnamese ships from supplying enemy forces in South Vietnam by sea.

The Coastal Surveillance Force, known as Task Force 115, implemented a system of three barriers to patrol the South Vietnamese coast. The outermost barrier was covered by patrol aircraft, responsible for identifying, photographing, and reporting suspicious vessels. The middle barrier, located forty miles off the coast, involved U.S. Coast Guard cutters that stopped and searched cargo vessels. The inner barriers were patrolled by the South Vietnamese Navy, the Junk Force, and U.S. Navy Patrol Craft Fast (PCF) Swift boats, which cruised the coastal waters.

By 1968, these combined forces had effectively halted almost all seaborne infiltration from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. The blockade forced the North Vietnamese to rely on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville for transporting supplies to the Viet Cong.

Operation ROLLING THUNDER

Operation ROLLING THUNDER was a frequently interrupted bombing campaign that began on 24 February 1965 and lasted until the end of October 1968. During this period U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft engaged in a bombing campaign designed to force Ho Chi Minh to abandon his ambition to take over South Vietnam. The operation began primarily as a diplomatic signal to impress Hanoi with America’s determination, essentially a warning that the violence would escalate until Ho Chi Minh “blinked,” and secondly it was intended to bolster the sagging morale of the South Vietnamese.

Operation STARLITE

Operation STARLITE was the first offensive military action conducted by a purely U.S.military unit during the Vietnam War. The operation was launched based on intelligence provided by Major General Nguyen Chanh Thi, the commander of the South Vietnamese forces in northern I Corps area. Lieutenant General Lewis W. Walt devised a plan to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Viet Cong regiment to nullify the threat on the vital Chu Lai base and ensure its powerful communication tower remained intact.

Anti-War Protests

Protests against the Vietnam War did not start when America declared her open involvement in the war in 1964. America rallied to the call of the commander-in-chief and after the Gulf of Tonkin incident it became very apparent that few would raise protests against the decision to militarily support South Vietnam. America had been through nearly twenty years of the Cold War and they were told by the government that what was happening in South Vietnam would happen elsewhere (the Domino Theory) unless America used her military might to stop it. Involvement in the Vietnam War was very much sold as a patriotic venture so few were prepared to protest. If there was to be a political protest, it never became apparent in Congress where the entire House voted to support Johnson and only two Senators voted against US involvement.

The first protests came in October 1965 when the draft was increased. In February 1965, it had only been 3,000 a month but in October it was increased to 33,000 a month.

Selma March

The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. In March of that year, in an effort to register Black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups. As the world watched, the protesters—under the protection of federalized National Guard troops—finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery, Alabama. The historic march, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s participation in it, raised awareness of the difficulties faced by Black voters, and the need for a national Voting Rights Act.

Space Race

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

That proclamation by President John F. Kennedy before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, set the stage for an astounding time in our nation’s emerging space program. The goal — fueled by competition with the Soviet Union dubbed the “space race” — took what was to become Kennedy Space Center from a testing ground for new rockets to a center successful at launching humans to the moon.

Throughout the course of two years, Project Mercury had six successful launches of solo astronauts aboard Redstone and Atlas rockets. Following closely behind were Project Gemini’s 10 missions, with crews of two, aboard Atlas and Titan launch vehicles. The first crew flew aboard Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965, lifting off on a Titan rocket from Launch Complex 19. The Gemini missions established their own astounding set of firsts, introducing pioneering spacewalks and spacecraft dockings — revolutionary new feats as astronauts were quickly learning to live and work, and even troubleshoot, in space.

Voting Rights Act

Civil rights activists met with fierce resistance to their campaign, which attracted national attention on 7 March 1965, when civil rights workers were brutally attacked by white law enforcement officers on a march from Selma to Montgomery.

Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act that same month, “with the outrage of Selma still fresh”. In just over four months, Congress passed the bill. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to disenfranchise African American voters and gave the federal government the authority to take over voter registration in counties with a pattern of persistent discrimination. “This law covers many pages,” Johnson said before signing the bill, “but the heart of the act is plain. Wherever, by clear and objective standards, States and counties are using regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down”.