My homeschooling history project was about the Vietnam War. Buckle up, because we are going for a ride in a Huey (the helicopter that was commonly used in Vietnam).
THE U.S. MARINES
Personally, I favor the Marines. My grandfather was a Marine. I also think they are the most useful. I am not saying that the other branches of the military aren’t good or useful, I just think that the Marines are the best. The Marines went to boot camp and trained as riflemen in either San Diego, California or Parris Island, South Carolina. The first American ground forces deployed against the Viet Cong and the NVA where the U.S. Marines. They went to the shore at Da Nang, on the coast of south Vietnam on March 8th, 1965. The following six years of warfare would test the Marines to the limit. The Marine Corps was self-contained with its own artillery, helicopters and aircraft but the infantry was the main focus.
CAUSE OF WAR
The Vietnam War was fought between the communist government of North Vietnam, who were supported by communist China, the Soviet Union and other communist allies. South Vietnam was supported by the anti-communist countries, especially the United States. North Vietnam was trying to unify the whole country under communism. The cause of the Vietnam War revolved around the worry that America had that communism was threatening to expand all over southeast Asia. The U.S. didn’t want to risk an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
MY GRANDFATHER
My grandfather ( all of his grandchildren call him Papa) was in the Vietnam War. That’s a picture of him in the header of this blog sitting on a bomb – he’s the one on the left with the sunglasses. He was in Avionics and worked on plane called EA-6A, or A6 Intruders, electronic warfare aircraft in used in Vietnam that jammed radars. It carried jammers on the wings and it had six wing stations. I interviewed my grandfather for this project and he told me that he would share the station with the Air Force, the South Vietnamese Air Force and the Navy. His job was communications, the electronic warfare systems, radios and navigation gear. He was a Sergeant stationed in Da Nang. He also said there wasn’t much to do so late at night some people got in planes and went to places like Hong Kong and Thailand.
My grandfather, Major Richard Cox, USMC Retired, pictured on the left with an A-6 Intruder which he worked on, pictured on the right with my grandmother, Sumiko Cox
BATTLE – TET OFFENSIVE
The Tet offensive was a series of surprise attacks by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces, on more than one hundred cities throughout South Vietnam. It was considered a turning point in the Vietnam War. It was a military campaign launched by Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War. News coverage of the Tet offensive shocked the American public and they no longer supported the war effort. America eventually had to withdraw from Vietnam.
