The War We Lost

The War We Lost

By: Reginald Boykin

The Vietnam War was a war that originally started as a civil war between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) but soon turned into a war that included many countries, with the United States having the most involvement. The once Civil War between North and South Vietnam interested the United States for many reasons, but a couple of reasons that was most influential in the decision to intervene was explained by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a news conference in April of 1954. The then President of the United States said that not only did the location and important materials made in this area play a role in the US taking interest but also the idea of the “domino theory”. The domino theory was an idea that if one domino falls, soon after others will fall in order which wouldn’t stop until the last domino had fallen. Although the US had interest in the Vietnam War, nothing really materialized in the form of a combat mission, until late 1961 when President John F. Kennedy ordered that South Vietnam receive backing from the US in the form of equipment and over 3,000 military supporters and advisers. On December 11th, 1961 American Helicopters had settled in South Vietnam with four hundred military personnel whose job was to fly these aircrafts. Within the next month the first combat mission and operation for the United States would be started called Operation Chopper.

Operation Chopper was soon followed by Operation Ranch Hand then Operation Rolling Thunder, all of which were aerial operations.

In previous wars that included aerial operations the air power of a country would usually have an enormous amount of impact on that war, however the Vietnam War was an unconventional war that took the impact of airpower away.

In Operation Chopper US helicopters carried over 1,000 South Vietnamese troops into Saigon with one main goal, search and destroy Viet Cong guerillas. With...