From 1965 to 1968, the United States conducted a series of bombing runs, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, on North Vietnamese targets. The strikes were intended to both demonstrate the U.S. resolve to win the Vietnam War and to force North Vietnam into peace talks. The campaign, which Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara later cited as ultimately unsuccessful, contributed to a decline in domestic support for the war and Lyndon B. Johnson's popularity....

President Johnson awards first Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War.

After the end of the Vietnam War, many former servicemen joined organizations that argued for increased services for veterans. Several veterans service organizations called for additional health services for soldiers who had been exposed to Agent Orange, an extremely flammable toxic chemical, during the war.

The national Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated in 1982. The design, completed by architecture student Maya Lin, featured a long black marble wall that listed the names of every U.S. solider who died in the war.

During the 1980s, many veterans of the Vietnam War began demanding that the government offer increased health care and other services to those who were exposed to Agent Orange during the war. Agent Orange was a toxic chemical compound that included materials known to cause cancer, and it was sprayed by U.S. forces over jungles in Vietnam in an attempt to kill foliage that provided cover to North Vietnamese troops. The Veterans Administration at the...

This classic episode of the U.S. Army's The Big Picture series is a Department of Defense (DoD) progress report on the goals and military posture of the U.S. Armed Forces. Featuring footage from the National Archives and Records Administration, this documentary features Secretary Robert S. McNamara as he reports on the Vietnam War buildup, DoD savings in defense expenditures in 1965, and increases in military effectiveness. Note: this historical recording...

"A comprehensive look at the Vietnam War"-- More than forty years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. This volume draws on hundreds of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level...

During the 1950s, products of the cold war such as the House Un-American Activities Committee Investigations fed public fears of a communist take over. Initially, the American public supported the Vietnam War, which the Johnson administration portrayed as essential to curtailing the spread of communism.

Despite the prevalence of images of anti-Vietnam War protests in the media, a Gallup Poll in the mid-1960s showed the country equally divided against and for the war. Supporters of the war were concerned the withdrawal of troops in Vietnam would allow communism to flourish.