US Air Force Participation in the Vietnam War | USAF Documentary | 1963

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This short film – originally titled as "USAF Participation in Southeast Asia: July-December 1963" – is a USAF documentary about the United States Air Force activities in Vietnam and Thailand during the latter half of 1963. It was released in 1964.

It chronicles US Air Force assistance, training and augmentation of the South Vietnam Air Force in its bitter struggles against the Vietcong. Also noted briefly USAF activities in Thailand. The reporting period was marked by many events which influenced USAF’s role in Southeast Asia. The most important event was the South Vietnamese coup in November 1963. Another notable event was the December visit of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to appraise the overall situation under the direction of the new leadership in South Vietnam which took over during the November coup. Also important in the mentioned reporting period was a military exercise held in Thailand in the month of October. In this exercise, known as Tidal Wave, units from 8 SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) countries sharpened their techniques on air warfare in problems associated with counterinsurgency operations. But it is USAF's direct participation in the Vietnam War with which this film is mainly concerned.

The following aircraft are shown in the film:
Douglas A-26 Invader (designated B-26 between 1948 and 1965), North American T-28 Trojan, Fairchild C-123 Provider, McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, De Havilland CV-2B Caribou, Bristol Type 170 Freighter, Martin B-57 Canberra, Douglas C-47 Skytrain, and Fairchild C-123 Provider.


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT

The Vietnam War (aka the Second Indochina War) was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was fought between North Vietnam - supported by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China - and the government of South Vietnam - supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. The communist Viet Cong, a South Vietnamese political organization and army aided by North Vietnam, fought a guerrilla war against the United States and the South Vietnamese forces. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle.

The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. The U.S. government viewed American involvement in the Vietnam conflict as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam with the aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962.

The defeat of the South Vietnamese Army in the Battle of Ap Bac in January 1963 set off a furious debate in the United States on the progress being made in the war against the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. Assessments of the war flowing into the higher levels of the U.S. government in Washington were wildly inconsistent, some citing an early victory over the Viet Cong, others a rapidly deteriorating military situation. Some senior U.S. military officers and White House officials were optimistic; civilians of the Department of State and the CIA, junior military officers, and the media were decidedly less so. Near the end of the year, U.S. leaders became more pessimistic about progress in the war.

Although the U.S. denied that it had combat soldiers in South Vietnam, U.S. soldiers routinely participated in combat operations against the Viet Cong. The number of U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam rose to more than 16,000 by year's end.

In November 1963, the President of South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm was overthrown in a coup d'état by his military, with the tacit acquiescence of the United States. A military junta headed by General Dương Văn Minh replaced Diệm. United States President John F. Kennedy was assassinated three weeks later. Lyndon Johnson became President of the United States. Johnson did not make any major changes in Kennedy's policies or team of policy advisers on Vietnam.


US Air Force Participation in the Vietnam War | USAF Documentary | 1963

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NOTE: THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS HISTORICAL EVENTS. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!