On November 22, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy was visiting Dallas, Texas.A sniper was hiding in a seven-storey building on his route.He was holding a Carcano rifle with a telescope mounted on it.The gunman was an ex-US Marine...
and he was an expert in hitting the target.
At 12:30 the motorcade of President J.F Kennedy passed through the road in front of the building.The sniper took aim and fired.
The President's car had gone a little further from the building.
The first bullet hit his neck from behind and exited in front of the neck.
The second bullet hit President Kennedy in the head and shattered the skull.
He collapsed in the car.
He was taken to the nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital with serious injuries.
The injuries were fatal and doctors could not save his life.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, the doctors declared the president dead.
John F. Kennedy was the fourth US president to be assassinated.
But the timing of his assassination was crucial.
Because a few days ago, the President of an important US ally was also killed.
Were these two incidents part of the same conspiracy?
What war crimes did America commit in Vietnam?
How did America get its first defeat in history?
John F. Kennedy was assassinated at a crucial juncture of the Cold War.
This was the time when America was preparing to invade Vietnam.
Vietnam was located in the region of Southeast Asia called Indochina.
It shared borders with Cambodia, Laos and China.
Vietnam gained independence from France after World War II.
But during the war of independence, it was divided into North and South Vietnam.
Communist leader Ho Chi Minh had the government in North Vietnam.
His capital was Hanoi.
While the capital of South Vietnam was Saigon and there was the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem.
President Ngo Dinh Diem was an ally of the United States.
The situation was now that North Vietnam wanted to annex its southern part to form a United Vietnam.
In this plan, North Vietnam had strong support from China and Russia.
These states believed a united Vietnam to be good for their communist bloc.
The US, on the other hand, believed...
...that as a leader of the so-called Free World, it was its duty...
...to desist South Vietnam to be a part of the Communist Bloc; anti-free world.
So, a proxy war of America with Soviet Russia and China started in Vietnam.
The war was fought by communist guerrillas on-ground who carried out raids against South Vietnamese forces.
Because they lived in South Vietnam but they were actually allies of North Vietnam.
And these communists were working for the revolution.
Keep in mind that apart from the Vietcong in North Vietnam, there...
...was a whole separate army may be called the Army of North Vietnam.
These fighters, Vietcongs had military support from China and Soviet Russia.
To counter them, the US supported the South Vietnamese forces with advanced weapons and military advisors.
By 1963, 70,000 US military advisors had landed in Vietnam.
They had also established their military bases there.
But they were not directly involved in the war yet.
They only trained South Vietnamese forces.
But the fact was that by the end of 1963...
despite the American support, South Vietnam was clearly losing ground.
As President Ngo Dinh Diem oppressed people besides crushing guerrillas.
Therefore people began to join the Vietcongs against him.
This situation became a threat to the American cause.
Under these circumstances, American commanders advised President Kennedy to remove President Ngo Dinh from power...
...and allow American troops to fight in Vietnam.
President Kennedy agreed to remove President Ngo Dinh...
...but refused to fight directly in Vietnam.
On November 2, 1963, the American CIA staged a military coup in South Vietnam.
President Ngo Dinh was assassinated...
...and was replaced by General Duon Van Minh as ruler.
Just 20 days later, President Kennedy was also killed in broad daylight in Texas.
His killer Lee Harvey Oswald was caught.
He was arrested, but he never disclosed the story behind the murder.
Because before he could reveal that, he was, before cameras at point blank,...
...shot by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner.
Later, Jack Ruby also died in prison in 1966, four years later.
Thus, the assassination of President Kennedy remained a mystery.
Even today, some Americans believe that President Kennedy was assassinated...
...because he was opposed to sending troops to Vietnam.
So now whether it was a conspiracy or not, we can't say, but the fact is...
...that within two years of the assassination of President Kennedy,...
...direct US military intervention in Vietnam began.
The army was sent.
President Kennedy was succeeded by Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, was elevated as the President.
Unlike his president, he was eager to land troops in North Vietnam.
However, there was an election in 1964.
So, President Johnson did not want to lose public support by starting a new war.
He didn't want to waste the element of sympathy that his party had gained.
While America was in the polls bustle, its tensions with North Vietnam increased.
On August 2, the US Navy clashed with the Vietnamese off the Vietnamese coast.
An American plane and three Vietnamese boats were damaged in it.
On August 4, US President Johnson claimed that there had been another attack on American ships.
But tell you that was a false claim.
There were no attacks on American ships.
But using this alleged attack as a basis, President Johnson launched airstrikes on military bases in North Vietnam.
At least 25 Vietnamese boats were destroyed in these attacks.
Apart from this, oil depots and military bases were also targeted.
After that, Lyndon B. Johnson got Congress to pass a resolution.
The resolution authorized the US President.to take action to thwart attacks against US forces or prevent further aggression.
Now President Johnson had the legal authority to trigger a war.
Now he was just waiting for the election in November.
Voting was held on November 3, 1964.
Sympathy votes from the killing of John F. Kennedy went to President Johnson...
He won 44 out of 50 US states.
On January 20, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President.
Now he was ready for action in Vietnam.
But before the US could attack..the Vietcongs launched an attack that baffled the Americans.
This vast military base you see.was the US base in Vietnam called Camp Holloway. where their military advisors stayed.
On February 7 morning, the Vietcongs launched a surprise attack on the base.
In this battle, seven American soldiers were killed and 80,000 were wounded.
Vietnamese guerrillas destroyed 15 US planes and helicopters at the base.
The Vietcong soldiers retreated without suffering many casualties.
When President Johnson knew it, he lost his temper.
He was already authorized by the Congress to start the war.
Using this power, President Johnson ordered counterattacks on the Vietcongs.
That is, the Vietnam War began.
The first major operation of this war was the Flaming Dart.
US planes heavily bombed the Vietcong guerrillas in the border areas.of South Vietnam and North Vietnam.
The Vietnamese also shot down a few American planes.
In the next month of March, the US under the name of Operation Rolling Thunder.began to heavily bomb North Vietnam.
On the first day, 160 planes hit two bases in North Vietnam.
Six American planes were also destroyed in this attack.
After that, on March 8, 3500 US Marines.landed on the coast of South Vietnam and the ground war also formally started.
In the first 3 years of the Vietnam War, the United States had a favourable tilt.
The Americans bombarded both South and North Vietnam heavily.
In North Vietnam military bases, and even civilians and refugee camps were hit.
The US Army and the South Vietnamese Army also conducted extensive....
...ground operations against the Vietcong in the jungles of Vietnam.
One of the important operations was Junction City.
This operation was done in Vietnamese territory along the Cambodian border...
...involving 30,000 American troops.
Tanks and paratroopers were also used in this battle.
3000 Vietnamese guerrillas died in this operation from February to May 1967.
These successes deluded US commanders as they were winning war.
US General William Westmoreland in Vietnam told reporters in 1967 that in the next two years, the phased withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam would begin.
He would openly say that victory is in our hands.
At the time when the American commander was making tall claims at the same time
the Communists of South Vietnam i.e. Vietcong guerrillas and
the soldiers of North Vietnam were secretly preparing for a big attack.
Thousands of Vietcong insurgents, in plain clothes, got mixed up with civilians and entered major cities.
These Vietnamese used many secret methods to transport weapons.
For example, fake funerals were carried out in which weapons were placed inside the coffins instead of bodies.
These coffins were buried near important urban areas and military locations
so that they can be taken out and used when needed.
Explosives were also carried in baskets of rice and tomatoes.
Geography was also helping the Vietnamese in such endeavours.
They were such that most of Vietnam was covered by dense jungles...
which were very easy to advance in stealth.
In addition, the Vietnamese, who were fighting the Americans
in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia's border coastal areas inside South Vietnam also dug long tunnels.
Through the tunnels, rivers, and jungle routes, large quantities of weapons were transported to South Vietnam, where the US forces were stationed.
All these secret routes were collectively called the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail
That is, it was named after the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
With all these preparations the guerrillas were now ready for the Tat Offensive.
The Tet Offensive was a huge surprise in store for Americans on foreign soil.
According to the Vietnamese local calendar, their new year begins in spring.
The first day of the new year is called 'Tet which means 'first day celebration' in Vietnamese.
This day is a holiday in Vietnam.
People decorate houses, delicious dishes are prepared and feasts are held.
In 1968, this festival was to be held on the 20th of January.
That day was a holiday in South Vietnam...
and the US soldiers with the Vietnamese were relaxed that no fighting today.
But the same day Vietcong and North Vietnam Army launched a surprise attack.
This attack is called the Tet Offensive for happening at the festival.
Vietnamese guerrillas attacked at least 100 targets simultaneously including major cities, US and South Vietnamese army bases.
Important areas from the border of North Vietnam to South Vietnam were attacked.
Even Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, became a battlefield.
19 Vietnamese guerrillas blew up the outer wall of the American Embassy.
Then they entered and started beating the security guards.
The US Marines inside the embassy and the attackers fought for six hours.
The Americans also used gunship helicopters.
All guerrillas and two American soldiers were killed in the attack.
The marks of the attack on the outer wall of the embassy were very visible.
The most important target of the Vietnamese in the Tet Offensive was the American Khe Sanh Combat Base located near the Laos border.
6000 American and South Vietnamese soldiers were stationed in this base.
15 to 20 thousand North Vietnamese regulars surrounded the base.
These men hid in the thick forest around the base and started heavy bombardment on the American base.
The US could now deliver food and weapons to the base only by air.
To save its besieged soldiers, the US launched intense airstrikes around the base.
B-52 planes were also used in the bombing.
The Americans dropped over 100,000 tons of shells around the base in two months.
The Vietnamese also destroyed several aircraft at the base.
In April, American forces from other areas of Vietnam broke the siege of the base.
The siege was broken but the Americans from this surprise attack and losses, felt so insecure that they evacuated the base in June.
At least 200 Marines were killed and 1600 wounded in the Battle of Khe Sanh Base.
In comparison, Vietnamese casualties are estimated in the thousands.
A dangerous result of the mounting losses of the US Army in the Tet Offensive was that American soldiers took revenge on ordinary Vietnamese.
They committed a war crime that should shame the American conscience.
What was this crime and how were those responsible for it saved?
In South Vietnam, there was a small village called My Lai.
On the night of March 15, 1968, the American troops received an order to kill everyone in the village.
Men, women and children too.
The massacring army was repeatedly asked by signals whether it had killed all?
Did everyone kill? No one survived?
By evening, the village of My Lai had dead bodies everywhere.
The bodes were numbered around four to five hundred.
The Americans also set fire to the houses and corpses in the village.
These pictures of the genocide were taken by US Army photographer Ron Haeberle.
The killing of the Vietnamese was reported to Sr.US American commanders.
The senior commanders did not take any action against the soldiers who had perpetrated this genocide.
On the contrary, the American military magazine Stars and Stripes claimed that 128 communist soldiers had been killed in My Lai.
The US Centcom, Gen Westmoreland, greeted Charlie Company on its outstanding action.
The My Lai Massacre may never be known to the American public.
But a year later, the famous American journalist Seymour Hirsch got a clue to it.
In an article, he told the world about the heinous crime of the US military, genocide.
Despite the news being public, no culprit was punished.
Commander of the US forces, William Kelly, on who had ordered the massacre was sentenced to life imprisonment.
But this sentence was also reduced after some time and he was released from jail and allowed to serve his sentence at home.
This killer of hundreds of citizens and children was released on parole in 1975.
A memorial was later erected on the site of the My Lai Massacre where Vietnamese civilians tend to their dead and wounded relatives.
William Kelly apologized almost 40 years after the massacre. Maybe, he wanted to spare his future generations some embarrassment otherwise, there was no need for it at all.
By September 1968, US forces had defeated the Tet Offensive.
The guerrilla forces failed to drive the US forces out of South Vietnam.
The defeated Vietnamese guerrillas hid in jungles and carried out raids.
The war is not over.
Rather, the Tet Offensive led to a significant victory for the Vietnamese.
The constant flow of bodies from Vietnam turned the Americans against the war.
Large-scale anti-war demonstrations took place in the United States. Rather,in 1965, when the US army entered Vietnam, from that time an anti-war movement had been going on in the US.
This movement was mostly led by the students of the universities.
Anti-war Americans held demonstrations across the country.
The largest demonstration took place in April 1967 outside the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.
100,000 people participated in it.
The protests got so intense that sometimes the army was called in to quell.
The students used to respond to it very well.
Students would present flowers to the soldiers or put them on their bayonets.
It was one of the best forms of non-violent movement.
Another target of the anti-war movement was the American draft law.
Under this law, the government could also recruit people for war.
Opponents of the war started a campaign against the draft law.
They held protests against this law and refused to be recruited.
Many fled to Canada to avoid joining.
But there was an American who believed more in fighting than escaping.
His name was Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali was also called to join the army in 1967.
However, he flatly refused to be recruited.
He said that my conscience does not allow that...
for the sake of a great powerful America to fire shots on my brother,a black person or a starving person and a poor.
Why should I beat them, they never insulted me for being black.
I can not shoot at these poor people. No matter if you put me in jail.
Like boxer Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, the hero of the Civil Rights Movement in America, was also strongly opposed to the draft law.
The US establishment severely punished Muhammad Ali the boxer for refusing the draft.
He was jailed for 5 years, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for 3 years.
He was also stripped off the heavyweight champion title.
How did Muhammad Ali finally survive this sentence and win his title again?
You can see this in detail in his biography. Here is the link button.
The growing opposition to the war by the Americans and US casualties in the Tet Offensive put President Lyndon B. Johnson on the back foot.
He became so unpopular that in the Presidential election of 1968 he anticipated a sure defeat.
He announced that he will not be a presidential candidate in this election.
As the election neared later in the year, the biggest issue was the Vietnam War.
Republican candidate Richard Nixon took full advantage of this situation.
He vowed that elected as President he would bring peace to Vietnam while saving American dignity.
That is peace with dignity.
He promised this to the American people.
In the November 68 elections, Richard Nixon won 32 out of 50 states and was elected president of America.
Nixon became the president.but he did not fulfil the promise of a cease-fire in Vietnam but tried to further fan the fire of war.
He wanted to end the war not in American defeat but in victory.
Sometimes he announced reducing troops in Vietnam and sometimes starting a new operation.
He also introduced the draft lottery system to induct more civilians into the army.
In this system, the US youth were assigned numbers based on their date of birth.
These numbers were put into a box or a machine and mixed up and then some numbers were taken out and the respective youths were called.
However, President Nixon realized that if he did not withdraw from the Vietnam War, his voters would be angry.
So he devised a policy known as the Nixon Doctrine.
Under this doctrine, the Americans gradually shifted control of South Vietnam's security to the local military.
After that, the Americans were to withdraw from Vietnam in stages.
On April 20, 1970, President Nixon announced that within a year, he
would withdraw at least 150,000 American troops from Vietnam.
This announcement was good, but a few days after the withdrawal announcement he also announced to attack Vietnam's neighbour, Cambodia.
That is, instead of ending the war, he expanded it.
On April 30, 1970, President Nixon addressed the nation on TV.
He explained through a map about the Vietnamese guerrilla's' hideouts inside the Cambodian border.
If these bases are not dismantled the security of South Vietnam as well as Cambodia will be at stake.
He said, "People say that if I attack Cambodia, I will lose the next election."
I will remain the president for only one term.
But I don't want that for the sake of the second presidential term make America a second-rate world power and see it concede defeat for the first time in its 190-year history.
On President Nixon's order, US troops entered Cambodia from South Vietnam.
32000 US and 48000 South Vietnamese soldiers participated in this operation.
This battle lasted for about three months.
However, American and South Vietnamese forces failed to eliminate the enemy.
They came back to South Vietnam with heavy casualties.
After this battle, 338 coffins came to America which had the bodies of American soldiers.
The American forces were being defeated here while the students in America expedited their anti-war demonstrations.
Even President Nixon called in the army to crush these protests.
Then a great tragedy came about.
On May 4, US soldiers opened fire on students at Kent State University in Ohio.
Four students including two female students were killed and eight injured.
Millions of students took to the streets in response to this state violence.
There was a strike in 200 American colleges.
The protests and clashes spread across the country.
It was a time in America when pro-war groups came to fight anti-war protesters.
That is, those who wanted to return victorious from Vietnam.
Their largest group was construction workers who wore round helmets.
These helmets were called hard hats hence the group was named the Hard Hats.
They raised the slogan that peace would be with victory in Vietnam.
Victory, then peace.
That is, the army should not be recalled before victory.
These people also took out huge processions against the anti-war and asked them to 'Love America or Leave it'.
The group also attacked a student demonstration in New York on May 8.
They beat students and maltreated journalists.
Many journalists and students were also injured due to their violence.
During it, New York's Pace University and City Hall were also attacked.
Police managed to control the situation with great difficulty.
After it, President Nixon called the leaders of the Hard Hats to Washington DC.
He praised their patriotism.
Union leaders also presented the president with some helmets,and one had written Nixon's name on it.
The growing protests in America and the deaths of soldiers in Vietnam eventually forced President Nixon to think that he had to stop killing the Vietnamese and get out of the war.
But before evacuating Vietnam,President Nixon took a decision known as a major policy U-turn in US history.
The decision was to make Communist China a friend distancing it from Russia.
For this, Uncle Sam was to sacrifice two of his friends.
Whis were these two friends?
It did not prove too difficult for President Nixon to befriend China.
This was because China was already moving away from Russia.
In March 1969, two countries had skirmishes on the Russia-China border.
Russia told America to eliminate China through an atomic bomb attack.
And you (the US) only pose neutrality.
President Nixon replied that if an atomic bomb was dropped on China the United States would also fire nuclear missiles at 130 cities in Russia.
After this warning, Russia did not talk of a nuclear attack on China.
Secret talks or backdoor diplomacy also started between China and America.
In these talks, Pakistan's role was fundamental because Pakistan was the closest to China among US allies.
This backdoor diplomacy was successful.
In July 1971, a plane flew from Pakistan and reached China.
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was on board this plane.
He met the Chinese official authorities.
He returned and 3 months later on October 71, the permanent membership in the "UN Security Council was shifted from Taiwan to the Chinese Communist government, the mainline China.
Thus, China also got the right to veto in the Security Council.
Obviously, all this happened at the behest of America.
The US for which the Taiwan government previously represented China now recognized the Communist China.
It was a huge U-turn.
There was a strong reaction against America in Taiwan.
Taiwanese citizens protested outside the US Embassy.
But obviously, the US had its own interests dearer than Taiwan.
It did not care about the protests.
In the next year, in 1972, President Nixon also visited China.
For the first visit of a US president to China since the Communist Revolution.
President Nixon also met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong and thus began a new era of relations between the two countries.
However, this visit was marked by a little problem.
That was, the Chinese gave the American president, during the meal chopsticks instead of a knife and a fork, the Americans were used to.
President Nixon took small morsels of food with the chopsticks and patiently ate as much as he could with them.
With the friendship with China, the US interests in Vietnam almost ended.
However, America needed some face-saving to get out of Vietnam.
It had that face-saving in January 1973
A cease-fire between South and North Vietnam was agreed in Paris.
After that, the US forces in Vietnam lowered their flags on their bases and headed home.
Americans were so anxious that all combat soldiers were back home in within two months of the ceasefire agreement.
However, some forces were left in Saigon to protect the US Embassy.
In addition, American aircraft carriers also stayed back in the sea near Vietnam.
In 1975, just two years after the US withdrawal,North Vietnam ignored the agreement and occupied South Vietnam.
Millions of South Vietnamese fled to avoid reprisals by communist forces.
A large number of helicopters from American aircraft carriers reached Vietnam and helped evacuate civilians and embassy staff.
Thousands of Vietnamese civilians were also transferred to aircraft carriers in American helicopters.
The number of Vietnamese refugees was so high that the Americans threw several helicopters into the sea to make room for them.
Thus, many helicopters while making emergency landings, drowned in the sea.
Despite all this, the arrival of Vietnamese refugees was not over.
In the end, the Vietnamese citizens were so desperate that they risked hanging on to the American helicopters to leave the country.
A total of 725,000 Vietnamese citizens took refuge in the US in the postwar.
On April 29, 1973, the last American helicopter in Saigon flew off the roof of the US Embassy carrying some civilians.
South Vietnam, the US friend after Taiwan, had also been sacrificed.
And these were the friends that America lost to build relations with China.
The popularity of President Nixon peaked after the US was out of the Vietnam War.
In the presidential election of 1972, he won a historic victory and became the president for the second term.
He won 49 out of 50 US states.It was the largest record in US election history.
But before the election, he made a serious mistake that proved disastrous for his second term.
It was a mistake to spy on the opposing party.
On June 17, 1972, five men tried to break into the "Watergate" building in Washington, DC, which was the headquarters of the Democrats.
These people worked for President Nixon's election campaign.
Their mission was to install spying equipment at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.
But they were nabbed before they could do so.
This is called the Watergate Scandal after the name of the same building.
So when the case of the arrest of five persons became public the President began to be discredited, so he addressed the nation.
He swore that the White House had no link with this alleged espionage case.
He was not involved in it.
That is, he did not send the persons caught at the Democrats' headquarters.
The Americans believed him, after which he won the election for another term.
But the FBI continued to investigate the Scandal.
President Nixon also made the mistake of interfering in the inquiry to save his name.
He paid millions to the accused so that they would not open their mouth.
He also tried to impede the inquiry by using the CIA.
From what seemed clear, the President's hand in the Watergate Scandal.
A government source called 'Deep Throat' revealed this whole secret to the media.
White House counsel John Dean also exposed the President's involvement in it before the Senate Watergate Committee.
Some people close to the president also made such revelations.
After that, there was chaos in America.
The President was accused of lying about the spying and obstructing justice.
Due to public pressure, the Senate started impeachment of the President.
Protests began outside the White House to impeach the President.
President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, to avoid impeachment.
Nixon, who won the historic election, was the first president in US history to resign.
In his place, Vice President Gerald Ford became the new President.
He granted a presidential pardon to former President Nixon in the Watergate scandal.
Thus the matter came to an end.
58,220 American soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War.
More than 300,000 were injured and many were disabled for life.
The United States lost 150 billion dollars in this war which is estimated to be around 800 billion dollars in today's currency rate.
More than a million North Vietnamese soldiers and guerrillas were killed.
In addition, at least one million Vietnamese civilians were killed.
200,000 South Vietnamese soldiers also lost their lives.
2.2 Vietnamese were killed on both sides of North and South Vietnam.
However, some estimates say over three million Vietnamese were killed in the war.
Every tenth civilian in Vietnam was killed or wounded in the war.
The US dropped over 700,000 bombs on Vietnam and its surrounding countries.
These bombs are 300 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The US also used napalm bombs extensively to destroy Vietnamese forests.
You must have seen this picture.It shows a Vietnamese girl being burned by a napalm bomb.
Such images played an important role in turning the Americans against the war.
Apart from napalm, chemical weapons were also used by planes on forests.
The failure in Vietnam was America's first military defeat.
It was unable to save South Vietnam from falling under communist control.
But it got some political advantage from this war anyway.
America had separated China from the Communist bloc.
As an advantage, China did not militarily help any country in its war against the US.
The US also changed its military doctrine after learning from the defeat in Vietnam.
By abolishing the draft law, the conscription of civilians was stopped.
Today when America goes into a country it hides its soldiers behind strong concrete walls.
Builds strong military vehicles to protect them.
In many places, drones and missile strikes are used instead of sending troops.
All this is because of Vietnam lessons.
Now the US avoids hostile public opinion by saving its regular soldiers.
It cannot afford the public gaze of the images of body bags of soldiers from war.
America had come out of the Vietnam War.
It also got China out of the Communist bloc. But the greatest rival, Russia, was still a major threat to the American global order.
America wanted to avenge the defeat of Soviet Russia in Vietnam and to end its superpower status.
It was also looking for a Vietnam for Russia.
This Vietnam it got soon in the form of Afghanistan and a partner like Pakistan readily gave full support to America in this war.
So how did America tame the Russian bear in this war?
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