Category Archives: Saigon

Fall of Saigon

Posted on May 1, 2024 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A CIA officer helps evacuees up a ladder onto an Air America Bell 204/205 helicopter at 22 Gia Long Street 29 April 1975. “The fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by North Vietnam … Continue reading →

Posted in Vietnam War, ARVN, CIA, Saigon, Ho Chi Minh, Black Power, Paris Peace Accords | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Henry Kissinger and the Vietnam War

Posted on November 30, 2023 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“American diplomat Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) played an important and controversial role in the Vietnam War. Starting out as a supporter, Kissinger came to see it as a drag on American power. In 1968, Kissinger leaked information about the status of the peace talks in … Continue reading →

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1963 South Vietnamese coup d’état

Posted on November 1, 2023 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Rebel tanks are drawn up in front of the presidential palace in Saigon, on Nov. 3, 1963, during coup that brought the downfall and death of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. “In November … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, CIA, Hanoi, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, Mao, NVA, R. McNamara, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers

Posted on June 24, 2023 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A distinguished roster of speakers attend the opening day of the General Conference of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in West Berlin June 16, 1960. “‘The past is a foreign country,’ L.P. Hartley famously wrote as he opened The Go–Between. … Continue reading →

Posted in Berlin Wall, CIA, Cuban Revolution, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Xá Lợi Pagoda raids

Posted on August 24, 2022 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“The Xá Lợi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on 21 August 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of … Continue reading →

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Vietnam War A collection of documents related to Ellsberg’s interest and participation in the Vietnam War.

Posted on July 7, 2022 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“Daniel Ellsberg went to Vietnam for the first time in September 1961 as part of a Pentagon fact-finding task force. He hoped to learn that the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem, with U.S. backing, was defeating the Communist-led … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, CIA, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, R. McNamara, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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 →

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‘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 →

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“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

The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam by Christopher Goscha – review

Posted on September 2, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A destroyed French tank and an aircraft propeller that are still kept as war relics in the Dien Bien Phu valley. “In 40 years, the relationship between the United States and Vietnam has swung about as widely as is possible … Continue reading →

Posted in Agent Orange, Books, Cambodia, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, My Lai, Napalm, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Vietnam Changed Journalism

Posted on June 8, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

The last journalists leaving Saigon in April 1975. “When I first got to Saigon as a journalist, in 1963, I took it for granted that American policy to counter Communist expansion into the southern part of Vietnam was the right … Continue reading →

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Vietnam War haunts are now for dong millionaires

Posted on April 17, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Hotel Continental “The bars of Saigon were home for two generations of war correspondents, the reporters who covered the French and American conflicts. They offered an essential interlude between forays out of the city to the battlefields of Vietnam. Some … Continue reading →

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Vietnam, Through the Eyes of Artists – Holland Cotter

Posted on April 8, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A detail of Leon Golub’s “Vietnam II” (1973), at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Whatever happened to ‘protest art’ — issue-specific, say-no-to-power-and-say-it-loud art? Here we are, embroiled, as a nation, in what many in the art world regard as a … Continue reading →

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The Largest Military Construction Project in History

Posted on March 6, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

American contractors building a bridge across the Saigon River during the Vietnam War. “By late 1967, there were 485,600 American troops in South Vietnam; over the course of the war, nearly 2.6 million American service members would serve in country. … Continue reading →

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Ghosts of war: My journalist father’s Vietnam odyssey, revisited

Posted on February 1, 2019 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Duc Co Special Forces camp, 1965: Wounded soldiers crouch in the dust as a U.S. helicopter takes off from a clearing. This was one of many images taken by photojournalist Tim Page that chronicled the Vietnam conflict. “Chevy Chase, Md., … Continue reading →

Posted in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Michael Herr, Saigon, Tet 1968, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S. General Considered Nuclear Response in Vietnam War, Cables Show

Posted on October 6, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

President Johnson with Gen. William Westmoreland in South Vietnam in 1967. “In one of the darkest moments of the Vietnam War, the top American military commander in Saigon activated a plan in 1968 to move nuclear weapons to South Vietnam … Continue reading →

Posted in CIA, Lyn. Johnson, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On the Trail of Vietnam War Heritage in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Posted on October 4, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“30th April 2015 saw the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, a critical moment in history that ultimately led to the end of the War in Vietnam (or the American War as it is known in Vietnam). Giving any … Continue reading →

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Robert McNamara and the Ghosts of Vietnam

Posted on July 24, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“Not long after dawn, Robert S. McNamara set out on a rapid walk through the half-light of Hanoi. A steamy drizzle soon soaked his dark blue jogging shorts and shirt. He stared intently ahead, barely glancing at the Vietnamese along … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Schell

Posted on June 26, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“Jonathan Edward Schell (August 21, 1943 – March 25, 2014) was an American author and visiting fellow at Yale University, whose work primarily dealt with campaigning against nuclear weapons. His work appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, and TomDispatch. … Continue reading →

Posted in Agent Orange, Books, My Lai, Napalm, No Nukes, Pacifist, Saigon, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Graham Greene’s Saigon

Posted on June 23, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A view from the Bùng Binh Sài Gòn traffic circle in 1955 “The Saigon locations used by British writer Graham Greene in his acclaimed anti-war novel The Quiet American have long been a favourite topic for travel writers. Here by … Continue reading →

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The American Who Predicted Tet

Posted on June 8, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“The Tet offensive, which began 50 years ago today and is remembered as the turning point of the Vietnam War, caught Americans by surprise. One of the few who saw what was coming was Edward Lansdale, the legendary covert operative … Continue reading →

Posted in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Võ Nguyên Giáp

Posted on May 29, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“Võ Nguyên Giáp (Vietnamese: [vɔ̌ˀ ŋʷīən zǎːp]; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general in the Vietnam People’s Army and a politician. Võ Nguyên Giáp is considered one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century. … Continue reading →

Posted in CIA, Hanoi, Henry Kissinger, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Trail, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The First Televised War

Posted on April 7, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Ronald Steinman’s press card, 1972. “I arrived in Saigon in mid-April 1966 as the new NBC bureau chief. My job, simply defined, was to supply NBC News with an endless story of the war. I understood there would be no … Continue reading →

Posted in 1968 DNC, Cronkite, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Served in Vietnam. Here’s My Soundtrack.

Posted on March 26, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Former WRVA News Anchor Paul Bottoms worked with Armed Forces Radio in Saigon. “‘Vietnam.’ The word comes camouflaged in music. Rock ’n’ roll, soul, pop and country. For those who watched the war unfold on the evening news, the music … Continue reading →

Posted in Counterculture, Draft board, Ed Sanders, Grateful Dead, Music, Phil Ochs, Rolling Stones, Saigon, The Beatles, The Fugs, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Photo That Changed the Course of the Vietnam War

Posted on March 23, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the national police chief of South Vietnam, executed a Vietcong fighter, Nguyen Van Lem, in Saigon on Feb. 1, 1968. “Fifty years ago today, the national police chief of South Vietnam calmly approached a prisoner in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Lyn. Johnson, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

15 Photos of Life in Saigon During The Vietnam War

Posted on March 9, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Tran Hung Dao Street, in District 1 “Saigon in the 1960s was the capital of America’s global proxy war to counter the ‘domino effect’ of spreading communism, the focal point of the battle between ideologies. Most of the fighting, however, … Continue reading →

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What Went Wrong in Vietnam – New Yorker

Posted on February 27, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

In Lansdale’s counter-insurgency approach, soldiers were fighters but also salesmen. (Audio) “For almost thirty years, by means financial, military, and diplomatic, the United States tried to prevent Vietnam from becoming a Communist state. Millions died in that struggle. By the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Cambodia, CIA, Cuban Revolution, Hanoi, Henry Kissinger, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Trail, John Kennedy, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, R. McNamara, Rob. Kennedy, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Story of the Tet Offensive

Posted on January 31, 2018 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“At the end of January, the media will commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of one of the Vietnam War’s most pivotal moments: the Tet Offensive. On January 30, 1968, the combined forces of the Viet Cong, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, Cambodia, Cronkite, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, NVA, R. McNamara, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Viet Cong Committed Atrocities, Too

Posted on December 27, 2017 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Survivors covering the bodies of some of the 114 villagers in Dak Son killed by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops in December 1967. “Under the cover of night on Dec. 5, 1967, a coalition of Viet Cong guerrillas … Continue reading →

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The Vietnam War: 1945 – 1975 – New-York Historical Society

Posted on November 12, 2017 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“The New-York Historical Society presents a groundbreaking exhibition on one of the most controversial events of the 20th century: the Vietnam War. Populating a 3,000-square-foot gallery with interpretive displays, digital media, artwork, artifacts, photographs, and documents, the exhibit provides an … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, CIA, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, NVA, Rob. Kennedy, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Vietnam War Is Not Over

Posted on September 27, 2017 by 1960s: Days of Rage

Marines marching in Danang, Vietnam, March 15, 1965 “‘The Vietnam War’ Ken Burns says in a recent interview, ‘was the most important event in American history since World War II.’ But, he explains, it’s also an event that tore the … Continue reading →

Posted in ARVN, Cambodia, Documentary, Henry Kissinger, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Trail, John Kennedy, Laos, Lyn. Johnson, My Lai, Napalm, Nixon, NVA, R. McNamara, Rob. Kennedy, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War, Weather Underground | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Not to ‘Win Hearts and Minds’

Posted on September 26, 2017 by 1960s: Days of Rage

A U.S. infantryman moving Vietnamese civilians from their village northwest of Saigon to protect them during a firefight with Viet Cong snipers. “From the early stages of the Vietnam War, American officials insisted that winning the hearts and minds (yes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Ho Chi Minh Trail, Lyn. Johnson, Nixon, NVA, R. McNamara, Rob. Kennedy, Saigon, Tet 1968, Viet Cong, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Deer Hunter – Michael Cimino (1978)

Posted on August 12, 2017 by 1960s: Days of Rage

“The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steelworkers whose lives are changed forever after they fight in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are … Continue reading →

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