The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Early in the 1950s, the United States was concerned about the spread of communism and had developed the Domino Theory, the doctrine that a communist victory in one country would lead to a chain of takeovers in countries in the region.

After 100 years of colonial rule, the French were forced out of Vietnam in 1956.  Vietnam, like Korea would be split in half, with communists running the northern section of the country and a non-communist government in the south.  The United States was concerned about the spread of communism and sent advisers to train South Vietnamese troops, starting in 1956.

Eric & I see the wall of
the Vietnam Veterans 
Memorial from a
distance.






As the years went on, more and more U.S. assistance was sent to Vietnam.

We pass by three soldiers,

forever on patrol.

The Vietnam War loomed large in my childhood.  I remember the first time I saw a body count report on the evening news when I was eight years old. 

Visitors walk past the
wall & read the names
of the dead.







I remember the Tet Offensive on January 31, 1968.

We see our reflections

in the highly polished

walls.

I remember reports on the peace talks in Paris, starting in 1967.

58,000 Americans
died in Vietnam
from 1959 to 1975.

.

I remember news coverage of anti-war protests in the late 1960s.  Besides the costs of equipping an army to fight, caskets with dead soldiers were coming home, regularly.

Someone left a bouquet

of flowers.

I remember the news reports of the My Lai Massacre in 1969.







Someone left a U.S.flag
in remembrance....

I remember The Draft.  The first numbers were drawn on December 1, 1969.

The wall of names of the

dead is getting shorter.

I remember pictures of young men burning their draft cards on the news in the early 1970s.

I remember the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 and the anguished looks on the faces of  the Vietnamese who were left behind at the U.S. Embassy.






The Vietnam Women's
Veteran Memorial honors
the thousands of women
who went to Vietnam to
care for the wounded.





While visiting the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I learned of Martha Raye's service in Vietnam.