Lessons of Vietnam linger for US

Another key difference from 30 years ago, says LeRoy Woodson, editor of MilitaryWeek.com, is the nexus between the global economy and the geopolitics of nascent nationalist countries like China or countries like Israel selling advanced weapons technology to other countries.

The result, he says, is a "cultural clash between the industrialized nations with declining birthrates and developing nations that are producing more children than their infrastructures can sustain." In other words, not only is economic globalization shifting the world's balance of military power in the post-Vietnam era, it is becoming the impetus to cross-border population shifts. Or as Mr. Woodson puts it, "The 747 may eventually replace the AK-47 as the object of choice to deal with revolution and injustice."

On April 30, 1975, US involvement in what Vietnamese called "the American War" ended symbolically when that last helicopter departed what now is called Ho Chi Minh City, panicked Vietnamese dangling from the skids. In an historical coincidence, it was exactly 30 years before that (April 30, 1945), that Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker, ending World War II in Europe.

Such linking of wars and generations can be highly personal for many Americans.

Among the 58,245 names of those inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington are some whose fathers had been killed in World War Two. Today, the children of Vietnam veterans are serving in Iraq. Last weekend, US Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Aaron Kent of Portland, Ore., a medical corpsman serving with the 2nd Marine Division, was killed when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb near Fallujah. His father, Gary Kent, had been a soldier in Vietnam.

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Following is a chronology of some key events in US involvement in the conflict between communist leader Ho Chi Minh and the Republic of Vietnam South Vietnam.

1962 - United States has 12,000 military advisers in South Vietnam. "Strategic hamlet" program forces peasants to regroup in 16,000 fortified villages.

1964 - North Vietnamese patrol boats allegedly attack US destroyer Maddox in Gulf of Tonkin. US starts bombing North Vietnam. Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowing president to take steps "to prevent further aggression."

1965 - Marines land at Danang on March 8, the first US combat troops officially in Vietnam.

1967 - The number of US troops in Vietnam rises to 500,000. Antiwar rallies staged in US cities.

1968 - The Tet Offensive. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong attack US positions across South. Siege of Khe Sanh. My Lai massacre in March. US presence peaks at 549,000 troops. Preliminary peace talks open in Paris. Lyndon Johnson withdraws from presidential race, halts bombing of North.

1969 - President Richard Nixon begins withdrawing US ground troops. Covert bombing of Cambodia starts.

1970 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho begin secret talks in Paris. In June, US Senate repeals Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

1973 - Kissinger and Le Duc Tho sign cease-fire in Paris.

1975 - Southern cities fall one by one until Saigon on April 30.

- Reuters

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