Category Archives: Saigon

The Quiet American – Graham Greene: Directed by Phillip Noyce (2002)

Posted on August 1, 2021 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“The mood of wry disillusion that seeps through the screen adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel ‘The Quiet American’ is sounded in the movie’s opening moments by the voice of Michael Caine musing dreamily on the mystique of Saigon in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Movie, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

‘We’re Going to Publish’ An Oral History of the Pentagon Papers

Posted on June 10, 2021 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“On Oct. 1, 1969, Daniel Ellsberg walked out of the RAND Corporation offices, where he worked as a Defense Department consultant, into the temperate evening air of Santa Monica, Calif. In his briefcase was part of a classified government study … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambodia, CIA, Hanoi, Henry Kissinger, Ho Chi Minh, John Kennedy, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Rob. Kennedy, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War, Watergate scandal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nixon’s Vietnam Treachery

Posted on May 26, 2021 by 1960s: Days of Rage

United States President Richard M. Nixon with President Thieu in Saigon on his first visit to South Vietnam, August 1969. “Richard M. Nixon always denied it: to David Frost, to historians and to Lyndon B. Johnson, who had the strongest … Continue reading →

Posted in 1968 DNC, CIA, Henry Kissinger, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” Tells Us Now

Posted on February 1, 2021 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“I first read ‘Slaughterhouse-Five‘ in 1972, three years after it was published and three years before I published my own first novel. I was twenty-five years old. 1972 was the year of inching slowly toward the Paris Peace Accords, which … Continue reading →

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Decent interval

Posted on September 24, 2020 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon discussing the Vietnam situation in Camp David, 1972. “Decent interval is a theory regarding the end of the Vietnam War which argues that from 1971 or 1972, the Nixon Administration abandoned the goal of … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, Books, CIA, Henry Kissinger, Nixon, Paris Peace Accords, Peace talks, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Operation Ranch Hand

Posted on July 7, 2020 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Four-plane defoliant run, part of Operation Ranch Hand “Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (Agent Orange) during the Malayan … Continue reading →

Posted in Agent Orange, CIA, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, Napalm, R. McNamara, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Idiocy of War”

Posted on June 21, 2020 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Chinook helicopter C.J. Hughes – Aug. 2017: “Long, unpopular and ultimately a failure, the Vietnam War remained so controversial after it ended that many veterans were loath to discuss their combat experiences in the conflict for decades—even among close family … Continue reading →

Posted in Draft board, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Lyn. Johnson, Marijuana, R. McNamara, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

South Vietnam Had an Antiwar Movement, Too

Posted on February 7, 2020 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Students marching in an anti-American protest in South Vietnam, in 1965. “The year 1967 was a watershed for antiwar protest in the United States, from bold statements like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Riverside Church speech in April … Continue reading →

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What I Saw in Vietnam – H.d.s. Greenway

Posted on October 10, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“They were burning brush, as they always do in the dry season, when my plane came in over the Vietnamese coast at dusk. Descending into Saigon, I could see fires burning below me, and in my naïveté I thought I … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, Lyn. Johnson, Michael Herr, R. McNamara, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vietnam, Vietnam – Pete Hamill (April 1985)

Posted on September 9, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“Sometimes, in odd places, it all comes back. You are walking a summer beach, stepping around oiled bodies, hearing only the steady growl of the sea. Suddenly, from over the horizon, you hear the phwuk-phwuk-phwuk of rotor blades and for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambodia, CIA, Draft board, Hanoi, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment