Officials here this week reckon that only 40% of the people who set out from Vietnam by boat to reach Hong Kong ever make it. A Very British History s2e4: Whatever Happened to the Boat People?
40 years ago the world knew them as the Boat People – refugees who’d fled Vietnam. Some found safety in Britain. But scattered around the country, focusing on their future not their past, the new community became almost invisible. ibid.
In a remote bay of Vietnam locals say that something seriously fishy is going on. They allege that a mysterious creature known as the Tarasque has taken up residence in their waters ... A massive snake-like creature. Destination Truth s2e4, Skyfy 2008
What went swimming by us in Vietnam? ibid.
This American helicopter is flying over communist-held territory to a town under siege. Kontum in the highlands of Vietnam has been cut off for six weeks. And last week when communists attacked in force, 20,000 civilians were still trapped in the town. World in Action: The Siege of Kontum, ITV 1972
Vietnam: Kennedy was still opposed to send combat troops. Kennedy VIII: A Legacy (June 1963 - November 1963), History 2023
The coup in Vietnam had sent Kennedy a message: the chaos in Vietnam had to be dealt with. ibid.
Vietnam: beloved of backpackers and a favourite of foodies, it’s surrounded by sea, and has over two thousand rivers. It’s also become a top choice for cruises. Cruising with Jane McDonald s3e3
A trip into the unknown. From Ho Chi Minh it’s a quick drive to My Tho from where I’ll be sashaying up the Mekong … My final destination – the Temple at Angkor Wat. ibid.
The AmaDara … 302 feet long … She’s got a style all of her own. The are over 50 crew … Balconies: I’ve never seen that on a river cruise … Look at the size of this cabin! … ibid.
The silk excursion is one of the most popular on this trip. ibid.
North Vietnam, July 1967: America is bogged down in a messy ground war in North Vietnam. The body count is rising fast. Over 6,600 US military personnel have died. Seconds from Disaster s3e2: Aircraft Carrier Explosion
Sailing to her first tour of duty in Vietnam is the biggest of them all: USS Forrestal … a crew of 5,400 men. ibid.
The explosives are in poor condition … A flash and a loud bang; jet fuel stills on to the flight deck and spreads rapidly; a massive fire rips through the Skyhawk planes … The world’s biggest aircraft carrier, USS Forrestal, is on fire. ibid.
She lists badly and sailors struggle to fight fire above and below decks … They jettison multi-million-dollar planes and tons of bombs into the ocean … It takes another 16 hours to extinguish the fires below deck … 134 men are dead. ibid.
I didn’t know what a communist was. But I new they were bad, and that they were the enemy of the United States. Turning Point: The Vietnam War I: America Goes to War, comment, Netflix 2025
I cannot think of a more cataclismic event than the Vietnam War. ibid.
The Vietnam War caused a great loss of faith in presidents and their top policy advisors. ibid.
The antiwar movement woke up a lot of other communities. ibid.
We all live under the shadow of Vietnam. We all live with the consequences of Vietnam. ibid.
It’s fair to say it’s not his [Kennedy] best chapter. ibid.
Kennedy inherits a plan to take down Castro. ibid.
By January of ‘61, Kennedy was facing a country that had already lost much of the control of the countryside. And the communists were on the move. ibid.
Mr President, we think you need to put American troops in Vietnam. ibid.
When Kennedy comes to office there are less than 700 US military advisors in South Vietnam. ibid.
I got the sense that the military had no idea what they were doing. ibid.
And one of those turning points is this thing called the credibility gap. That’s a gap between what a government is telling you … ibid.
They [troops] start raiding the pagodas [Buddhists]. They start arresting more people. ibid.
LBJ by his own admission didn’t know what he was doing. ibid.
The American war in Vietnam began in the summer of 1964 with political lies based on false intelligence. ibid.
‘The damn sailors were shooting at flying fish.’ ibid. Johnson re USS Maddox
They [Americans] took people and they beat them for no reason. They murdered people, burned down houses. There was this hatred, but I didn’t know them it was hatred. But I wanted to join the revolution to stop it. Turning Point: The Vietnam War II: Civil War, comment
Ho Chi Minh is a revolutionary unlike any other. ibid.
French Indochina War 1946-1954: We see the first shots fired to eject the French. ibid.
The Geneva Conference officially ended the French military role in Indochina. ibid.
Before the Americans came in, it was a war between North and South. ibid.
Overnight you become a refugee. All the people put in one refugee camp with a little bamboo hut or shack for them to live there. ibid.
It’s just so sad and suffering. ibid.
We were all comrades and considered ourselves one family. ibid.
Setting fire to homes: no-one thought American troops would do that. ibid. Dan Rather
Martha Gellhorn: Real war and the war of words. ibid. article
North Vietnam Bombings Widen the Credibility Gap. ibid.
Any commander in the fireld had to come back with a high body count. So anyone who was killed, men, women, children, everybody, they were all counted as dead communists. ibid. comment
All of these men were being sent to Vietnam, a lot of them back soldiers. But yet their families were still struggling. ibid.
The anti-war movement grew in scale and ferocity. ibid.
The Pentagon Papers: an encyclopaedia of the history of American involvement in Vietnam. ibid.
In 1968 all those progress reports just burst into flames. ibid.
They were kids and we were kids. Turning Point: The Vietnam War III: Life is Cheap, comment
Johnson recognises that the country is turning against the war. ibid.
Cronkite finally said, Well I want to go to Vietnam and see for myself. ibid. Dan Rather
1968: The deadliest chapter in the war in Vietnam. ibid.
Why would you shoot the villagers? ibid. Victim
Massacre Probe ASked: ‘What Did Happen At Village of My Lai?’ ibid. news article
What is common is the damage this was does to participants. ibid. comment
We’re all guilty. All of us. ibid.
The whole world is watching! ibid. protestors beaten by Chicago rozzers
Things were just not right in America. Everything that I admired about our country, everything I associated with the American dream, everything I associated with America, right or wrong, it was just disappearing. Turning Point: The Vietnam War IV: Why Are We Even Here? comment
Nixon decides to deceive the American people. He says that his Vietnamization program will train and equip the South Vietnamese Army to stand on its own. And he will only keep American troops in Vietnam long enough to make South Vietnam capable of standing on its own. ibid.
Frustration Fuels Fanatic Stance of the Weathermen. ibid. newspaper headline
You started wondering, Damn well why are we even here. ibid. comment
Some call it a war between the Lifers and the Grunts. ibid. reporter