Good Morning RallyPoint on this October 5, 2020. Here is your history for the Vietnam War on this day 4 October. Welcome home all Veterans and those that gave their all may you all rest in peace...!

Today, 5 October in Vietnam war History

5 October 1959 - Maya Lin, American architect who designed the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., was born.

5 October 1963 - Three days after Kennedy orders Lodge not to pursue the encouragement of a coup that they though had been canceled, Lodge reports to Kennedy that the coup is on. General Minh, meeting with CIA officer Lucien Conein, asks for assurances that the US will not act to thwart a coup and that economic and military aid will continue. Kennedy approves, cautioning that the United States should avoid getting involved with operational details. Conein keeps in touch with rebel activity through meetings with General Tran Van Don. in the wake of another Buddhist monk’s self-immolation, intensified political repression including the arrest of scores of children and the reaction to it, US officials from Kennedy on down attempt to control US newsmen in Saigon without success. Lodge’s dismissal of Saigon CIA chief John Richardson, who has doubts about the coup, encourages the dissident generals.

5 October 1965 U.S. forces in Saigon, South Vietnam, received permission to use tear gas.

5 October 1969 – 4 December 1969, Operation Saturate, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 54th Regiment clear and search operation, Thừa Thiên Province


Today is Saturday, October 5, 2020
Vietnam War memorial facts
149 Names on the wall were born on 5 October
140 Names on the wall died on 5 October
245 men earned the Medal Of Honor in the Vietnam war and 154 of those men are listed on the wall


Today, 5 October in Vietnam war
Other facts of interest:

Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison – only 1/2 of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. (Westmoreland papers)

Isolated atrocities committed by American soldiers produced torrents of outrage from antiwar critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any attention at all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and schoolteachers. (Nixon Library)

Vietnam veterans’ personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. (McCaffrey Papers)

Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than our non-vet age group. (McCaffrey Papers)

There were about 11,835 U.S helicopters that served in the Vietnam War. The U.S records showing 5,607 helicopter losses

Twenty-one aircraft carriers conducted 86 war cruises and operated 9,178 total days on the line in the Gulf of Tonkin. 532 aircraft were lost in combat and 329 more to operational causes, resulting in the deaths of 401 naval aviators, with 64 airmen reported missing and 179 taken prisoner of war.

All told, the U.S. Air Force flew 5.25 million sorties over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, northern and southern Laos, and Cambodia, losing 2,251 aircraft: 1,737 to hostile action, and 514 in accidents. 2,197 of the losses were fixed-wing, and the remainder rotary-wing. The USAF sustained approximately 0.4 losses per 1,000 sorties during the conflict, which compared favorably with a 2.0 rate in Korea and a 9.7 figure during World War II

U.S. Marine Corps aircraft lost in combat included 193 fixed-wing and 270 rotary-wing aircraft.