• Episode 5: America Goes to War

    Johnson orders air campaign and sends first ground troops to Vietnam

    Color photograph of bombs in air

  • We will fight whatever way the United States wants. - Le Duan, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, 1965

    After winning the Presidential election in a landslide, President Johnson was faced with a deteriorating situation in Vietnam. Pressured by advisers predicting “disastrous defeat,” intent on proving his and America’s “credibility,” fearful of drawing China and the Soviet Union into the conflict, and passionate about maintaining focus on his “Great Society” initiative, he planned a course of gradual escalation he hoped would avoid public scrutiny.   

    In January 1965, after southern Communist forces attacked a U.S. air base, the administration had a pretext to launch Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against the north. An air campaign necessitated an air base, and an air base needed protection, so the first American boots hit the ground  soon after the bombing began. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. combat troops would follow. America was at war.

  • A 1965 policy paper titled “Aggression from the North” portrayed the war as an invasion by the North Vietnamese with Moscow pulling the strings.

    Red and gray poster with photographs, map and red text that reads "Aggression from the North"

    “Aggression from the North” United States Information Agency poster, 1965. Records of the U.S. Information Agency

    View in the National Archives Catalog

  • Bombs fall from an A-4C Skyhawk bomber on the Truong Quang Tin Railroad bridge during an air strike over North Vietnam.

    Color photograph of bombs in air

    Falling bombs, September 16, 1966. General Records of the U.S. Navy

    View in the National Archives Catalog

  • This map shows “red zones” where bombing was prohibited by the White House.

    Color map of Vietnam with red marks showing red zones and typed text with coordinates

    Rolling Thunder 53 strike map, January 1967. Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum

  • Key Dates

    • February 7, 1965: National Liberation Front attack on Pleiku Air Base
    • March 2, 1965: Operation Rolling Thunder
    • March 8, 1965: 3,500 Marines arrive at Danang Harbor
    • March 21, 1965: Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March
    • May 21, 1965: Large teach-in at the University of California at Berkeley
    • August 6, 1965: Johnson signs Voting Rights Act
    • November 14, 1965: Battle of la Drang begins
    • November 27, 1965: Tens of thousands march on Washington against the Vietnam War
    • December, 1965: American forces reach 175,000 
  • Color photograph of bombs in air
    • Red and gray poster with photographs, map and red text that reads "Aggression from the North"
    Color photograph of bombs in air
    Color map of Vietnam with red marks showing red zones and typed text with coordinates
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