Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam War. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Wednesday, January 8, 1975. Campaign 275.
Party First Secretary Lê Duẩn who approved Campaign 275.
The politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party, noting a lack of US reaction to the fall of Bình Phước province, approved Campaign 275 to conquered South Vietnam. The campaign called for the first offensive to be in the Central Highlands, with the objectives of Buôn Ma Thuột, Tuy Hòa, Qui Nhơn, Huế and Da Nang.
Ella Grasso became the first woman governor in the United States who had not succeeded her husband when she was sworn in as Governor of Connecticut.
Firearms designer David Marshall Williams, aka "Carbine" Williams, died at age 74. He's best known for the M1 Carbine, which was for many years the most mass produced US firearm of all time. It likely no longer is, with variants of the AR15 likely taking that spot.
Williams started designing firearms while in prison for murder, although he had been out for many years by the time he designed the M1 Carbine.
Last edition:
Tuesday, January 7, 1975. The fall of Bình Phước province
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Tuesday, January 7, 1975. The fall of Bình Phước province
Bình Phước province fell to the NVA/Viet Cong. Only 850 of 5,400 ARVN troops who resisted the largescale invasion of the province survived. Local South Vietnamese officials were executed.
The province borders Cambodia.
Henry Kissinger, who no doubt knew what the US reaction would be, later stated, "Phuoc Binh was the test case. If the United States reacted, there was still a chance for Hanoi to withdraw from the brink."
The US didn't react, to its lasting shame.
By TUBS - This SVG map includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this map:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17124066
Or could we have even realistically done anything?
By 1975 the US had gone to an all volunteer military in an attempt to repair the massive morale damage done to the Army and Navy during the war. The Navy had never used conscripts in the war (it only used conscripts in the later stages of World War Two, and very few), but it had reduced recruiting standards due to the recruiting problems the Navy had experienced and it had sustained two mutinies at the end of the war, although it refused to call them that.
The Army had effectively been destroyed as a fighting force due to the war. Shedding conscript soldiers was helping to address that, but even at that the last draft had occurred on June 30, 1973, and conscript troops remained in the service.
Any intervention, therefore, could not really have been a largescale ground action, but an Naval air one, or an Air Force one out of Thailand, could have been mounted. The American public, however, would have reacted negatively, and massively.
Last edition:
Monday, January 6, 1975. The Vietnam War resumes in earnest.
Monday, January 6, 2025
Equipment of the Vietnam War, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois Wyoming.
A reader might feel that today must be Vietnam War Day here on this blog, and not without good reason.
For one thing, we've started what will undoubtedly be a series of posts of the closing months of the Vietnam War, with this daily entry:
Monday, January 6, 1975. The Vietnam War resumes in earnest.
For another, I bumped up this old item, or reran it:
And now, of course, the following from my visit to the National Museum of Military Vehilces.
UH-1 "Huey", a helicopter synonymous with the Vietnam War.
Hueys came into use in a major way during the war, and remained in use for many years thereafter. They were still the predominant helicopter when I was a National Guardsmen in the 1980s, and even now I'll occasionally see an Air Force example in Cheyenne in operation.
They remain one of the greatest helicopters of all time.
I wasn't even aware of the M-422's existence as a actual service item. I've seen them on a television series from the 60s and assumed they were just a studio item substituting for a real Jeep. Offhand, I think that was from The Lieutenant which only had one run, that being in 1963.
The "Gamma Goat", an incredibly unstable vehicle. One of the guys I was in basic training with was latter killed in a Gamma Goat roll over.
The M151 Jeep. Also very unstable, but long serving. It was the last 1/4 general purpose truck of the US Army used on a widescale basis.
M109 howitzer. I trained on one of these at Ft. Sill, where I had the "No 1" position on the gun. A much updated version is still in service.
Last edition:
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