Vietnam War Before 1954 - Part Two

[skeeter]

I read with interest on the post earlier titled== Vietnam War Before 1954

I would like to add some thought to the subject..

I was a Lieutenant In the Navy in 1955 stationed aboard the USS Princeton CVS-37, when it was ordered to sail to Thailand to escort and be part of the trip President Dwight Eisenhower on his meeting of the Southeast-Asia Treaty Organization.. This meeting was all about the problems in Vietnam.. The meeting was held in Bangkok on the purpose to solve the problems between French-Viet Ninh's guerillas.

The Vietnam War started in November1946, when the French wanted to reclaim the North and bombarded the port of Haiphong and killed over 6,000 people.

In April 1954, the world's powers met at Geneva to discuss Vietnam. In July 1954, it was decided to divide the country in two at the 17th parallel. Bao Dai was to lead the south and Ho Chi Minh the north.

South Vietnam had a population of 16 million. Its leader was Ngo Dinh Diem who was a fanatical catholic. As communism hated religion, and Diem hated communism, the catholic monks starting setting themselves afire with gasoline to protest the war between the now two countries.

This is why Diem got America's support - he had a poor record on human rights but his rule was in the era of the "Domino Theory" and anybody who was anti-communist received American backing.

And that is why the United States sent "special advisors" to South Vietnam in 1955.. And that came about from the meeting we attended in Bangkok.

From there it went down hill, and you all know the rest of the story.

[travisab1]

Skeeter;
I find your message connecting decades together from the 40's up to the 60's most informative and rewarding. Like you said we know the rest from there on. Lately I've done a lot of research on Vietnam. Even today I still communicate with the Captain of my ship some 40 years ago. He was there in the South China Sea and the Formosa Straights with me and the whole crew of the USS Bausell DD 845 when we did all that shore bombarding. He won't talk about it and I'm not pshing it. Everyone carries on like nothing ever happened. He's went to his 60th Hi-school reunion last year and is still going strong. I haven't seen him at all for the past 40 years comes this June.
I managed to link the Vietnam War back to 1954. I saw more information but didn't proceed any further back than 1954. Can you explain why our Government will not recognize the Veteran's that fought, died, were made disabled or even own up to our Veteran's putting it all on the line in and around Vietnam during this era from 1954 to 1964?
Regards,
Travis

[skeeter]

Travis;

You asked why our Government will not recognize our Vietnam veterans.. Plain and simple,, they cannot claim a victory there, therefore the war could not be posted using our military men.

We had some sorry General's running the show over there. No Gen. McArthur
Gen. Westmoreland (see information below) from 1964-68 was the Chief of the Military Assilance Command in Vietnam.. On the whole, Westmoreland pursured a "conservative" course militarily during the four years of command in Vietnam. He spent most of his time at MACV headquarters in Saigon known as Pentagon East. His strategy was of a "war of attrition".

Gen. Criegton Abrams came in and things didn't get any better.
In fact it went down hill..

Now I will report what I didn't say in my first post above.
After serving 3-1/2 years as a fighter pilot during the "so-called forgotten war" Korean conflict, and one year at Agana, Guam flying P2V Neptune for Tyhoon hunter, I went into CID and was stationed on the Princeton, and that is when I went to Bangkok for the "South-East Treaty" meeting, and was assigned to Navy Intelligence at Bangkok for 9 months.
During those few months in fall 1955, the "special advisiors" arrived to filter into South Vietnam.. The fist 50 that was there, 48 got killed within 6 months. Than more was sent, more got killed, and than came the "special forces" called the Green Berets.

The United States did everthing that allowed them to lose the war there. It was a "no win" from the go.

[travisab1]

Thanks for the clarity and the rest of the story in your reply.

I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of being kept in the dark. I never wanted to see or hear of someone dieing to keep our freedom. I damn sure don't want it covered up when it does happen. I know this is a part of keeping us all free so we can speak our mind. So when it happens I want our Government to let us know.

When my fellow Veteran's get killed or wounded I don't want it swept under the rug or covered up with words like Conflict or Police Action instead of calling it and declaring it a WAR. Too many people have died so Bas..... in those offices on the HILL could give themselves high paying raises while maintaining their secured place so they can keep us little guy's, VETERAN'S toned down and begging for help from them.

I want to know about Area 51, why computers came out so fast they seemed to come from nowhere.

Thanks to the Web it's all going to come out and soon. Here we have the opportunity to do something about it and we will.

I'm going to start a new thread.

Regards,
Travis