The My Canh floating restaurant, located in Saigon South Vietnam floating on the Saigon river, was a popular place for locals and soldiers to stop and have a bite to eat. On June 25th, 1965 31-32 people were killed and 42 people were injured by the first, time bomb/claymore style explosive. The second charge was smaller and faced away from the restaurant to spray fleeing customers with shrapnel. The 1965 Saigon Bombing was a terrorist act by 3 Viet Cong members. On the night of June 25th, 1965 at approximately 8:15pm the first of two bombs exploded in front of the restaurant. June 25th, 1965 at 8:15pm, an event occurred that changed the streets of Saigon, Vietnam forever. Three Viet Cong terrorists had planted two bombs, one inside the floating My Canh restaurant, and the other outside of the doors of the My Canh restaurant. They strategically did this so that when the first bomb went off inside the restaurant, all of the people dining inside would run outside in panic and pandemonium, and then the second bomb would detonate. sending shrapnel in all directions. This pipe bomb/claymore style explosive caused a very bloody and messy killing. The attack killed forty-two men, women, and children, and wounded eighty-one. …show more content…
The place they bombed was Cheap Charlie’s My Canh floating restaurant not far from the Majestic.
It was quite popular with Americans. That alone made it a good target and therefore a good place to stay away from, but regardless, many locals and tourists, and soldiers filled the restaurant up every evening. Among the dead were 13 Americans, 7 military and 5 civilians. The wounded included 15 U.S. service personnel and 2 civilians, said (Naval History Blog). The Mastermind of the 3 Viet Cong terrorists was an operative named Nguyen Van Sam. He was later apprehended and received consequences for his actions and preparations on June 25th,
1965. Viet Cong terrorist Nguyen Van Sam that was responsible for the planning of the attack, was captured a week later. He was shot and killed by the Saigon police, according to (Fredericksen, Rick). They publicly killed him in the streets by shooting him in the head with a handgun. They did it this way so that the people of Saigon would see the man responsible for the attack given his rightful consequence. The other two Viet Cong members names are still unknown and they were never captured. There are many beliefs still to this day that there was more to the attack, than what we know. There are myths that the Viet Cong planned this attack out very carefully, and that it was the first of many attacks planned. The 1965 Saigon bombing of the My Canh floating restaurant was not a freedom fighter act it was a terrorist act. It`s a terrorist act because, 3 Viet Cong members planted 2 bombs intentionally to hurt people. They were not trying to prove a point, they only wanted to hurt people and cause panic and havoc. The result of the terrorist act was 42 dead, 13 of them Americans. The night of June 25th, 1965, changed the streets of Saigon, Vietnam forever.
I am reading Bomb by Steve Sheinkin. At the beginning of the book, Oppenheimer, who is the main chemical scientist in the novel, sees the effects of the Great Depression on his pupils when they cannot buy chemistry textbooks. During Oppenheimer’s time as a professor, the Nazis discovered the splitting of the uranium atom. When Albert Einstein found out that about the discovery the Nazis did, he informs President Roosevelt about how the Nazis plan to develop atomic weapons. Harry Gold who is a Communist spy, starts to work with the KGB. And starts to steal ideas and projects from the American Uranium Committee.
Introduction The Battle of Hue is one of the longest battles within the realms of the Vietnam War. The United States sent two Army battalions and three under strength US Marine Corps battalions, which together with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) defeated ten North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC). The battle highlighted the challenges the U.S. Marines faced in an urban battlefield. The NVA and VC forces entered the city of Hue under the cover of darkness on January 30, 1968. Under a unified front, they seized most of the city except two strategic locations: ARVN 1st Division Headquarters and the U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) compound.
Another atrocity that occurred during this war was the My Lai Massacre. This was the mass murder of unarmed civilians in South Vietnam during March 16, 1968. Around November 1969, the world saw this and was outraged with the killings of innocent civilians prompting and giving the public more reasons to stop the war. Although the war was very unpopular, men and women were still fighting and dying for America. Heroes such as Captain John W, Ripley of Dong Ha, Medal of Honor recipients, and overall troops that gave the ultimate sacrifice were forgotten for a brief period.
On the thirtieth of January, 1968, as the sun set over South Vietnam, nothing seemed out of place. A cease fire had been declared in observation of the Tet holiday and the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces welcomed the break. The latter half of 1967 had been filled with violent, bloody and perplexing battles for the anti-communist troops. For the last three months the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) were launching regimental sized suicide attacks against remote U.S. outposts near the Cambodian border. The losses for both sides were mounting and morale was dipping due to the perceived stale mate. The peace was exactly what was needed, but it wouldn’t last. Shortly after midnight North Vietnam would launch the largest offensive
The two accounts that I read had many holes and missing parts that I found to be not credible. Account two clearly states that ARVN had forces of over three thousand troops mostly from the Seventh Infantry Division, and the Viet Cong with only two hundred forty soldiers with the help of fifty guerrillas. Later on in account two it says that after the battle the ARVN lost sixty one troops with a hundred or more injured, and the Viet Cong only an estimated twelve. Right off the start this seems completely unrealistic. And here is why the ARVN had nearly ten to one odds with exceptionally superior fire power consisting of helicopters, artillery, and armed vehicles and only manage to kill twelve enemy soldiers. Also what I have learned from the past is that the government often does not give an exact number of people that died suggesting that the numbers came from another source which I found to be not credible. In account two it says “ARVN losses were heavy (sixty-one killed and about one hundred wounded.” The numbers in account two appear to be much too exact. Account two is very much statistical and everything is based on or around statistics which to me looks unbelievable. The second account is seen as a major loss and the ARVN were unable to overrun the out numbered Viet Cong. It seems to me to be a story that was built up very high and had lots of power like a tale of a heroic infantry, and then shot down and demolished into nothing but talk.
Costello, Mary. "Vietnam Aftermath." Editional Research Reports 1974 1 (1974): 1. CQ Researcher Online. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
The political and societal ramifications of Vietnam's Tet Offensive indubitably illustrate the historical oddity of 1968. 1967 had not been a bad year for most Americans. Four years after the profound panic evoked by the assassination of John Kennedy, the general public seemed to be gaining a restored optimism, and even the regularly protested Vietnam War still possessed the semblance of success (Farber and Bailey 34-54). However, three short weeks following the eve of 68, Americans abruptly obtained a radically different outlook. The Tet Offensive, beginning on January 30, 1968, consisted of a series of military incursions during the Vietnam War, coordinated between the National Liberation Front's People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), or "Viet Cong," and the ...
The Iraq war fiercely changed life in Iraq and in its neighboring countries. The war started in March 2003. The united states joined the war because of 9/11: an attack of mass destruction in New York city by a terrorist group named Al-Qaeda, which killed almost Three thousand people. The united states getting involved in the war; made it worse, and withdraw from the war on December 2011. During the war, life was difficult to survive emotionally for the soldiers, especially for those who are new. The historical fiction book Sunrise over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers, is set in Iraq. Robin "Birdy" Perry, a recruit from Harlem, NY, showed that war needs emotional readiness. Throughout Sunrise over Fallujah, the author uses
If these men who did not see the sense in killing innocents were right with their actions, then how come the ones who did partake were all found not guilty in court? The questions can keep going back and forth on this issue, but first, what happened that day must be examined. Captain Earnest Medina was in charge of giving orders to the Charlie Company, and in the early evening of March 15th, a meeting was called. CPT Medina told the company that the next morning they would be moving into My Lai and attacking Vietcong forces there. He told them that all the civilians would be at the market or would have already been moved out by the time that the soldiers arrived to carry out their planned attack.
Brigham, Robert K., and E. Kenneth Hoffman. "Battlefield:Vietnam | History." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.
A day that was supposed to be happy turned in seconds. People were injured or killed. Family members were devastated. The Boston Marathon was supposed to be a fun and exciting day for people watching and for the runners. We shouldn’t take every moment for granted, because you never know when it might be your last day or what we might consider "normal." April 15th 2013, will always be a day remembered in history.
April 4, 1991 four Vietnamese men entered a Sacramento Good Guys electronics store and strategically held forty one people hostage. Within the extended time frame that they were holding those hostages, three of those held were shot. Furthermore, during the negotiation process, these Vietnamese men requested not only bulletproof vests in an exchange for hostages, but also obscure items. These items were “…forty 1,000 year old ginseng plants or roots….ten of the ginseng plants cooked [by the police] to make tea and serve them…$4 million and transportation to Thailand to shoot Viet Chong…forty people capacity helicopter…[and] .45 caliber pistol…” (Poland, 2011, p. 158).
...nd innocent villagers of My Lai, it was a time when American’s questioned their own as being “bad guys” or “good guys”. Were America’s tortuous and cruel acts to be considered patriotic or dishonorable? Some Americans, with bitter feelings for all the American lives lost in the Vietnam War, gave credit to Lieutenant Calley for leading troops in participating in such an atrocious event. History shows that there is still much debate on some facts of the massacre and many stories and opinions, although we will never know the facts exactly, what we do know is that America will never forget this tragic event, it will be talked about in American History for many years to come, and the Vietminh hearts will always fill with sadness when they think of the many lives that were lost on that tragic day in history, their minds will always have unspeakable memories of that day.
Regardless of the guiltless people, the US troops continued to investigate and demolish (American Atrocity: Remembering My Lai). House after house, family after family, the soldiers burned down buildings, beat and raped young girls and women, and murdered basically anyone in sight. Varnado Simpson, a squaddie who was sent to My Lai, indicated in December 1969: “Everyone who went into the village had in mind to kill. We lost a lot of buddies and it was a VC stronghold. We considered them either VC or helping the VC.” Though exact quantities remain hearsay, it is alleged that as many as 500 people comprising of women, children and the elderly were murdered in the My Lai Massacre (American Experience: TV 's Most-watched History Series).
The paranoia and fear of death never left them. The My Lai Massacre occurred in 1968, when the village of My Lai was completely destroyed, although it did not contain a single enemy troop. Over a hundred villagers were slaughtered. It became clearer to Americans how soldiers were losing control, and how there was no easy way to win this war.