Good Morning RallyPoint on this October 19, 2020. Here is your history for the Vietnam War on this day 19 October. Welcome home all Veterans and those that gave their all may you all rest in peace...!

Today, 19 October in Vietnam war History

19 October 1950, The Việt Minh had pushed the French out of its most northerly outposts and the Chinese border area was now under their control. There was panic among French residents of Hanoi and contingency plans were made to evacuate French citizens from the city.

18-19 October 1961, Throughout 1961 Communist infiltration into South Vietnam increases dramatically, and by fall of that year the Viet Cong have grown to approximately 15,000 in number. In early October, President John F. Kennedy charges his military adviser Maxwell D. Taylor with a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in South Vietnam. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Walt Rostow serves as Taylor’s aide, and the mission arrives in Saigon on October 18.

After talking to numerous South Vietnamese civilian and military officials, including President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, the Taylor-Rostow group issues a report to President Kennedy in early November. It recommends an expansion of the alliance with South Vietnam, transforming it into a “limited partnership” in which the United States provides greater material aid, new military equipment, and a greater advisory presence to work with the South Vietnamese Army and security forces. In addition, the Taylor group suggests sending 8,000 U.S. soldiers to Vietnam under the pretext of humanitarian aid for flood damage in the Mekong Delta. President Kennedy declines to send troops, but his increase of direct U.S. involvement through aid and advisers and his insistence on reforms from the Diem administration moves the U.S. closer to taking responsibility for the war and further strains relations with the Diem government.

19 October Operation morning Star, a major South Vietnamese effort to clear Tayninh Province, north of Saigon near the Cambodian border, ends in failure. Five thousand South Vietnamese troops ferried by US helicopters kill 40 Vietcong in eight days and capture two others. One HU-1A attack helicopter is lost. US officials call the operation a waste and disclaim any responsibility for it.

19 October 1963, The New York Times echoed several other publications by urging that the Kennedy Administration not reject the idea of a neutral South Vietnam.

19 October 1965 – 25 October1965, NVA attack Special Forces in a prelude to the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands, 215 miles north of Saigon.
The Siege of Plei Me North Vietnamese troops launched a major assault on US and South Vietnamese Special Forces Camp at Plei Me. A series of assaults by the PAVN on a CIDG camp manned by 12 U.S. Green Berets and ARVN special forces and rangers and 400 Montagnard allies, repelled repeated NVA and Viet Cong attacks. . The tide of the battle turned finally with the arrival of several hundred South Vietnamese reinforcements and numerous Allied air strikes. The siege resulted in 326 PAVN killed and a further 850 estimated killed in the siege and pursuit, 14 CIDG and three U.S. killed. With the camp secured, General William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Saigon, decided to seize the advantage and send in the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) to “find, fix, and defeat the enemy forces” that had threatened Plei Me. This decision would result in November in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley, the war’s bloodiest battle to date.

19 October 1965, Operation Hot Foot 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment search and destroy operation, Bình Dương Province

19 October 1965, Operation Ranger I, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment search and destroy operation, Bình Dương Province

19 October 1966 -December, Operation Atlanta was a road security operation carried out by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment mission to clear and secure lines of communication in three provinces near Saigon and to secure the new Blackhorse Base Campin Đồng Nai Province 13 km south of Xuan Loc. The operation resulted in 161 VC and 15 U.S. killed

19 October 1967, Amy Carter, Pres Carter's daughter and peace activist, was born.

19 October 1968, Operation Maui Peak, a combined regimental-sized operation which began on 6 October, ended 11 miles northwest of An Hoa, Vietnam. More than 300 enemy were killed in the 13-day operation.

19 October 1970 – 13 November 1970, The Tchepone Operation was mounted by the RLA to attack PAVN positions at Tchepone and Muang Phine. The operation failed to secure either objective.

Today is Saturday, October 19, 2020
Vietnam War memorial facts
166 Names on the wall were born on 19 October
81 Names on the wall died on 19 October
245 men earned the Medal Of Honor in the Vietnam war and 160 of those men are listed on the wall

Other facts of interest:

Many people mistakenly believe — much like the comical ‘coalition of the willing’ in Iraq in 2003 — that the Americans acted unilaterally in Vietnam. In fact, New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, Laos and South Korea all contributed significant numbers of troops to the war.

The Vietnam war really should’ve been called the Vietnam Conflict. The Americans became formally involved in the war after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, but never actually declared war. Successive American administrations hoped to avoid nasty debates in Congress, so they never sought a formal declaration. This meant the war was technically a conflict, though neither side actually thought of it this way.

Vietnam war quotes:

19 October 1969, US Vice President Spiro Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters as “an effete corps of impudent snobs."

With 450,000 U.S. troops now in Vietnam, it is time that Congress decided whether or not to declare a state of war exists with North Vietnam. Previous congressional resolutions of support provide only limited authority. Although Congress may decide that the previously approved resolution on Vietnam given President Johnson is sufficient, the issue of a declaration of war should at least be put before the Congress for decision. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, The Washington Post, July 22, 1967

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. HENRY KISSINGER, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 1985

For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., speech at Riverside Church in New York City, "A Time to Break Silence", April 4, 1967