1950 September 3

Into the Quagmire: First U.S. Military Assistance Group Arrives in Vietnam

 

When did the Vietnam war begin?

Scholars and others have debated the precise date when American military involvement began in Vietnam. The arrival of the first U.S. Military Assistance Group on this day is a strong candidate, although some would argue that it began as early as 1945.

The Vietnam War created a number of civil liberties crises. They include (1) the lack of a Congressional Declaration of War as required by the Constitution (June 3, 1970); (2) threats to freedom of the press in the Pentagon Papers case (June 30, 1971); (3) spying on the anti-war movement by the CIA (August 15, 1967); (4) threats to freedom of expression, for example high school student protests (February 24, 1969); censorship of television programs (February 25, 1968); (5) and directly and indirectly some of the events that led to the Watergate Scandal and the resignation of President Richard Nixon (May 9, 1969; January 27, 1972).

Read: John Prados, Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975 (2009)

Learn more about the anti-Vietnam War movement: Thomas Powers, The War at Home: Vietnam and the American People, 1964–1968 (1973)

View a timeline of US involvement in Vietnam, 1940s-1975 here

Read first-hand accounts of 1960s-1970s radicals: Clara Bingham, Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost its Mind and Found its Soul (2016)

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