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Story of war (Continued from Page 26) the U.S. death toll since the start of military aid to 30. By April there were 12,000 U.S. advisers in Vietnam. President Diem said he would like the number cut. A U.S. Defense Department spokes man said the “corner has def initely been turned toward victory.” A series of riots broke out in South Vietnam in May and snowballed through the au tumn; a Buddhist priest dra matized opposition to the Diem regime by setting him self afire in a Saigon street. A new American ambassa dor, Henry Cabot Lodge, ar rived on the scene and began to convey Washington pres sures that Diem must reform his government; specifically, take much of the power out of the hands of Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. On Oct. 31, Gen. Harkins announced that 1,000 Ameri can troops would be with drawn by year’s end. The next day, a military coup led by high-ranking military officers threw out Diem. Both the president and his brother were assassinated. On Nov. 22 in Dallas, Presi dent Kennedy was assassi nated. President Lyndon Johnson, two days later, af firmed continued U.S. sup port for South Vietnam. 1964 A series of government re alignments and struggles weakened Vietnam’s infra structure while Communist terrorism increased. By midyear, the total of U.S. advisers jumped to 21 000. On Aug. 4, the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy were at tacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Johnson or dered retaliatory bombing of ——- — — - — — •_» CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS 10% OFF 3 Big Days THURS.,FRI.,&SAT. 11-23,11-24,11-25 Palazzos Sizes 8-16 ’ll 98 -’ls” ‘ Elephant Legs & Pull-ons. Sizes 8-20, 32-38 $398 . sg9B Ladies’ Dresses NED J. ORIGINALS 8-20 ’2l” - ’26” Other Brand Names 8-20, 14V 2 -24‘/2 sl2“ - *1998 Pant Suits ALL SIZES, Misses & Half sl2“ _ s2l" Tunic & Pant Tops Coscob & Connie $598 _ $998 Remember! Open All Day Thanksgiving Shop & Save 10% Off! Shop Hours 10-6 . . Mon., Tues., Wed., Sat. 10-7 . . 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The year ended with 23,000 American troops in Vietnam and the announcement that 2,000 South Korean troops would be sent to Saigon. 1965 After Viet Cong attacks at Pleiku airfield — killing eight and wounding 109 Americans — President Johnson ordered air attacks on North Vietnam ese military targets. The United States also com menced to bomb Viet Cong concentrations inside South Vietnam with jet aircraft. Two battalions of U.S. Marines were sent to Da Nang. A flurry of peace hints came from Hanoi and on April 7, President Johnson said the United States was ready to begin talks to end the war. He offered a $1 billion aid pro gram for Southeast Asia. U.S. dollar and troop com mitment escalated dramatic ally with the total hitting 180,000 troops by the end of the year. Bombing of the north continued with sporadic halts to assess peace feelers. 1966 In his State of the Unicm message, President Johnson said the United States would remain in Vietnam until the aggression ceased. Later in the same month he requested supplemental funds totaling $12.76 billion for Vietnam war expenses. On March 5, Gen. Maxwell Taylor proposed mining Hai phong harbor — but no such action was taken at that time. In April the United States began to use B-52s to bomb Communist targets in North and South Vietnam. At midyear, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced U.S. troop strength at 215,000 with 20,000 additional forces en route. While attending the Manila conference in October, Presi dent Johnson made a surprise visit to U.S. installations at Cam Ranh Bay. He praised the troops and pledged full support. Although peace feelers con tinued through a variety of channels, the fighting in creased sharply in this year. U.S. troop strength reached 389,000, with American com bat deaths totaling 6,644 and wounded, 37,738. 1967 Fighting in South Vietnam, bombing of the north, jockey ing for peace all continued. Elections were held in South Vietnam, with Nguyen Van Thieu winning the presidency with 35 per cent of the vote. President Johnson an nounced on Aug. 3 that he had authorized the ceiling on U.S. troops in South Vietnam to be raised to 525,000. The Senate Foreign Rela tions Committee held hear ings on U.S. commitment to Vietnam. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach testified that the Gulf of Ton kin resolution gave President Johnson authority to use armed forces, making formal declaration of war unneces sary. Secretary McNamara, in testimoney before a Senate preparedness subcommittee, said there was no reason to believe North Vietnam could be “bombed to the negotiating table” and argued against further expansion of the war. Debate on the bombing in tensified in Washington and in world capitals. 1968 The Tet offensive began on Jan. 30 with Communist at tacks on major South Viet namese cities. In Saigon, the Viet Cong temporarily in vaded the grounds of the U.S. Embassy. After intense fighting and heavy casualties, South Viet namese forces recaptured the palace grounds of the citadel at Hue. Widespread evidence of Communist atrocities was found. On March 31, after more peace attempts, President Johnson announced he had or dered cessation of all air and naval bombardment of North Vietnam except in the area around the DMZ up to the 20th parallel. He also announced that he would neither seek nor accept presidential renomi nation, stressing he would de vote his time toward the search for peace. After a month of contact with North Vietnam, Presi dent Johnson announced in May that the United States had agreed to meet in Paris for preliminary peace talks. Richard M. Nixon received the Republican Party presi dential nomination in August and said he would run on a platform of progressive de- Americanization of the war and an honorable peace. Ten days before the presi dential election in the United States, President Johnson an nounced the United States would cease “all air, naval and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam as of Nov. 1.” President Thieu in Saigon stated that the United States had taken the action unilater ally. There were 543,000 American troops on duty in South Vietnam when Richard M. Nixon was sworn into office as the 37th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 1969. Antiwar pressures were building across the nation and frustrations were mounting among most Americans at home over the prolonged war. Looking on at the Presi dent’s oath-taking were 192 Medal of Honor winners to re mind him and the country of the intensity of the fighting in Southeast Asia. In his inaugural address, Mr. Nixon quoted the hope of Isaiah that the nations “shall beat their swords into plow shares.” An ensuing period of hope fulness was short-lived. A week before the inaugu ration, the long debate over the shape of the negotiating table at the Paris peace talks had finally been resolved; it would be round. A new word — “Vietnami zation” — was introduced to the American public. South Vietnamese Premier Tran Van Huong said he felt confident that his country could carry on with fewer American troops. He pro posed that “gradual, phased withdrawal” of U.S. troops at a rate of 20,000 per month. The bombing of Vietnam had been halted since Nov. 1, 1968. But the Communists were unrelenting on the battlefield and stubborn at the confer ence table. By March, 1969, Mr. Nixon said there is “no prospect for a reduction of American forces in the fore seeable future,” and “the war will be settled in private rather than in public.” On March 29, U.S. dead in Vietnam reached 33,641, ex ceeding the toll of 33,629 in the Korean War. The Nixon years of the Viet nam drama had begun. 1969 In his first television report to the nation, Mr. Nixon in May presented an eight-point Vietnam peace plan calling for mutual withdrawal of most of U.S. and North Viet namese forces and exchange of all prisoners. Training of the South Vietnamese army was improving, the President said, and they could now “take over some of the fight ing fronts.” On June 8, Mr. Nixon met at Midway Island with South Vietnam’s President Nguyen Van Thieu. Mr. Nixon an nounced that 25,000 American troops would be withdrawn by Aug. 1. The Nixon Doctrine for gradual American disengage ment from Asia was outlined in a news conference on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam. The doctrine’s three princi ples were the maintaining of all treaty commitments, pro viding a nuclear shield if a nu clear nation threatened the freedom of an ally, and the expectation that in smaller wars the nation concerned would provide the necessary manpower for its own de fense. A “Vietnam Moratorium Day” in October brought out the largest number of demon strators ever to protest the war, but the President was on record that “under no cir cumstances will I be affected whatsoever and that no gov ernment policy is to be made in the streets.” In a November television appeal for unity, the Presi dent disclosed a summer peace appeal he had made to North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh (Ho died Sept. 3, 1969.) In December, with the year’s 60,000-man pullout completed and the troop level down to 479,500, the President announced that a further 50,000 men would be with drawn from Vietnam by April 15. 1970 “We finally have in sight the just peace we are seek ing,” President Nixon said in an April 20 statement. “We can now say with confidence ... the South Vietnamese can develop the capability for their own defense.” Mr. Nixon also said that he planned to withdraw 150,000 more troops in the following year, which would lower the troop level to 284,000. 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Early in the year the North Vietnamese army swept across the Plain of Jars in Laos and secured control of the area. In the spring, Lt. Gen. Lon Nol led a bloodless coup in Cambodia which ousted neu tralist chief of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The bouncy Cambodian prince took up exile in China but vowed to return. At the end of April, with the situation in Cambodia deteri orating after the Lon Nol coup, President Nixon an nounced a major U.S. and South Vietnamese offensive into Cambodia. The White House described it as “not an invasion” but an “incursion” because of North Vietnamese control of sanctuaries. Protests over the Cambodi an action fueled new domestic protest. Four students were killed and 11 wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University. Senate committee testimo nies revaled that the United States was paying Thailand SSO million a year for the ser vices of a Thai combat divi sion in South Vietnam and that more than $1 billion had been paid to South Korea over five years for that nation’s 50,000-man combat force in South Vietnam. In October the President proposed a five-point peace plan calling for a “cease-fire in place” and the release of all prisoners. Hanoi turned down the plan, calling it “deceit ful.” American concern over the fate of the POWs was re flected in a Nov. 21-22 com mando raid on the Son Tay prisoner camp west of Hanoi. An estimated 400 Air Force and Navy planes hit North Vietnam in the heaviest raids since the 1968 bombing halt to act as diversion for the com mando raid. But, the Ameri can prisoners had been re moved from the camp and the 50 commandos came back empty-handed. On Christmas Eve, North Vietnam released a “final and definitive” list of 339 U.S. Page 27 — Griffin Daily News Wednesday, November 22, 1972 prisoners, plus names of 20 who had reportedly died and 20 who were returned. Ten known prisoner-airmen were not included on the list and none of the 412 missing-in-ac tion was included. 1971 In February, aiming once again at supply base sanctu aries outside South Vietnam’s borders, Saigon troops launched a 21,000-man incur sion into the Laotian pan handle. They were supported by U.S. air, artillery and lo gistics troops from bases in side South Vietnam. By mid-March, the South Vietnamese fought their way back inside their own borders in the face of severe resis tance from North Vietnamese forces. U.S. hopes for a “model democratic exercise” evapor ated when Gen. Duong Van “Big” Minh and Vice Presi dent Nguyen Cao Ky with drew from the South Viet namese presidential race, leaving President Thieu unop posed. In July President Nixon stunned the world with the an nouncement that he intended to visit Peking before the fol lowing May. A later an nouncement of his intent to visit Moscow caused diplo matic ripples throughout the world. In October, the Peoples Re public of China was admitted to the United Nations while presidential adviser Henry Kissinger was in Peking dis cussing the presidential visit plans. The overtures to Peking and continued efforts at the Paris peace talks bore scant results in terms of a winding down of the Communist pressures on the ground in Vietnam. On the day before Christ mas, Air Force and Navy planes began five days of massive raids against a North Vietnamese military buildup. The raids revived domestic criticism of U. S. involvement in the war. 1972 The President, sticking to his timetable, announced that 70,000 more troops would be withdrawn over the next three months, bringing the author ized troop strength to 69,000 by May 1. In a Jan. 25 nationwide ad dress, the President an nounced a secret eight-point peace plan that he had sent to North Vietnam via the Paris talks on Oct. 11,1971. Included in the package was an offer of $7.5 billion for reconstruction in Indochina, with $2.5 billion of that earmarked for North Vietnam. Mr. Nixon also an nounced that Kissinger had held 12 secret meetings in Paris with North Vietnamese diplomats from Aug. 4, 1969, to Aug. 16, 1971,without any notable progress. President Nixon visited China in February and re turned to find the Paris talks stalled by Hanoi. On March 23 the United States suspended the Paris talks indefinitely. North Vietnam’s reply was an open invasion across the demilitarized zone, the big gest attack since 1968. Later the Communists opened two other major fronts in the of fensive. In April large-scale U.S. air support of South Vietnamese defenders was climaxed with raids on the Hanoi area and Haiphong harbor (including laying of mines) against “military targets and fuel de pots.” Moscow protested that a Soviet freighter was dam aged in Haiphong harbor. On April 17 Hanoi asked for a halt in the bombing and a return to the Paris conference table. Secretary of State Wil liam Rogers said there could be no peace negotiations “while this major invasion is under way.” The White House switched signals and reopened the Paris talks on April 27 and al so commenced a fresh round of secret talks with Kissinger scurrying back and forth be tween Paris and Washington in a patter that continued through the November elec tion campaign. With U.S. troop strength dropping further — an Aug. 29 announcement cut a further 12,000 men which would leave only 27,000 Gls in South Viet nam by Dec. 1— the remain ing military options were few. Continued pounding of North Vietnam from the air and continued sealing of North Vietnamese ports were used as levers in hopes Hanoi would come to terms at Paris or in the secret talks. The President has made it unmistakable that he has no intention of abandoning the air war or blockade of harbors until Hanoi budges in the ne gotiations. He told a news conference Aug. 29: “Unless there is progress on the negotiations front which is substantial, there will be no reduction of the bombing of North Vietnam and there will be no lifting of the mining.” In Saigon President Thieu said he would step down after free elections were held but balked at the idea of a coali tion government with the Communists as part of a set tlement. On Oct. 26 Kissinger said “peace is at hand in Viet nam,” and requested one final meeting with Hanoi to work out final details. Kissinger said President Thieu had indicated he would accept a cease-fire and said that remaining difficulties be tween Saigon and Washington could be worked out in three or four days — the same time frame as the last meeting he had with Hanoi. A THANK YOU NOTE ..The Calhoun family wish to thank all of their many friends for their gestures of kindness and generosity at the time of their recent misfortune.