1955–1975
Guerrilla warfare, political fracture, and the limits of American power.
In December 1972, Nixon ordered the largest B-52 offensive since World War II. Fifteen aircraft were shot down and 93 crew members killed or captured, but North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords six weeks later.
Apr 21, 2026
Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed 19 million gallons of herbicide over South Vietnam. The program's own pilots flew under the motto 'Only We Can Prevent Forests.' The consequences lasted generations.
Apr 20, 2026
In the autumn of 1967, American and North Vietnamese forces fought a brutal four-week engagement in the hills of Kontum Province. The battle consumed a U.S. airborne battalion — and was exactly what Giap wanted.
Apr 20, 2026
The battle for Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive lasted 26 days, killed over 500 Americans and South Vietnamese troops, and changed how the US military thought about urban warfare. It has never gotten the attention it deserves.
Apr 19, 2026
On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks rolled through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon. The images of helicopters evacuating the US Embassy became the defining photographs of American defeat in the twentieth century.
Apr 4, 2026
From 1965 to 1968, the United States dropped more bombs on North Vietnam than were dropped in the entire Pacific theater of World War II. North Vietnam kept fighting. Rolling Thunder is the definitive case study in the limits of strategic air power.
Apr 3, 2026
In November 1965, the 1st Cavalry Division air-assaulted into the Ia Drang Valley and found itself fighting North Vietnamese regulars who were better prepared than anyone expected. Two battles in three days changed everything American commanders thought they knew.
Apr 1, 2026
