Good Morning RallyPoint on this October 22, 2020. A little late as I lost internet for about 2 hours. Here is your history for the Vietnam War on this day 22 October. I also have the honor to present another Vietnam medal of honor hero to you today. Welcome home all Veterans and those that gave their all may you all rest in peace...!

Today, 22 October in Vietnam war History

22 October 1954 As a result of the Geneva accords granting Communist control over North Vietnam, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes a crash program to train the South Vietnamese Army.The U.S. Department of State instructed the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Saigon to begin a "program of training that number of Vietnamese armed forces necessary to carry out internal security missions."

22 October 1955, The prototype of the F-105 Thunder Chief made its maiden flight. Republic Aircraft's F-105 Thunderchief, better known as the 'Thud,' was the Air Force's war-horse in Vietnam.

October 1955, Diệm ordered the army to march on the Cao Đài political center in Tây Ninh under the shadow of the Black Virgin Mountain. He forced the Cao Đài pope, Pham Cong Tac, to flee to Cambodia where he died in 1959. Diệm absorbed the Cao Đài army into the fledgling Army of the Republic of Vietnam

22 October 1956, The Diem government issued Ordinance No. 57, a land reform program intended to transfer land from persons owning more than 100 hectares (250 acres) to landless and small landholders. Land reform was described as the most important step the South Vietnamese government could take to counter communist influence. This program expanded an earlier effort at land reform beginning in 1955. The Land reform program, however, was poorly implemented, landlords were able to retain most of their land, and peasants had to pay for the land they were eligible to receive. The provisions of the land reform program probably indicated the growing influence of large landowners rather than being a genuine attempt to re-distribute land to the poor and landless rural dwellers.

22 October, 1957, The U.S. military suffered some its first casualties of the Vietnam War when 13 Americans were wounded in three terrorist bombings in Saigon.

22 October 1963, The Army Attaché Colonel Jones of the U.S. Embassy met with ARVN Colonel Nguyen Khuong. Khuong said that "A small, powerful group of military officers who can control sufficient forces are prepared to launch a coup against the Diệm government. He outlined how they can assassinate Diệm almost at will, replace corrupt/incompetent military, cabinet, and province officials, prosecute the war against the VC, recall political refugees from France/USA and establish a new government. While this group fears Diệm, they especially fear Mr. [Ngô Dinh] Nhu who they consider will surely succeed Diệm and who will seek reunification of North and South Vietnam through neutralist solution.

22 October 1963, The State Department in Washington issued a secret report titled "Statistics on the War Effort in South Vietnam Show Unfavorable Trends." The report said that "since July 1963, the trend in Viet Cong casualties, weapons losses and defections has been downward while the number of Viet Cong armed attacks and other incidents has been upward. A series of telegrams from Ambassador Lodge to President Kennedy was equally pessimistic, stating, that we are "doing little more than holding our own." The Department of Defense was furious that Lodge and the State Department were contradicting previous reports by Generals Taylor and Harkins.

22 October 1964, The U.S. accused Cambodian troops of crossing into South Vietnam and seizing a U.S. officer advising South Vietnamese forces. The officers body was found on October 25.

22 October 1965, Near Phu Cuong, PFC Milton Lee Olive III of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, threw himself on an enemy grenade and saved three soldiers and his platoon leader. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions six months later. (See details below).

22 October 1968 Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon instructed H. R. Haldeman to get intermediaries to persuade South Vietnamese President Thiệu to refuse to participate in the Paris Peace Talks to end the war. Efforts by private citizens to "defeat the measures of United States" were a federal crime, but this interference remained secret for 48 years.

22 October 1969 - 18 January 1970, The 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division and ARVN 1st Division launch Operation Fulton Square in the lowlands of Quảng Trị Province. The operation results in 384 PAVN killed, U.S. losses are 28 killed.

22 October After meeting with Kissinger and despite a letter of support from Nixon, President Thiệu said he would never sign the draft peace agreement with North Vietnam. He demanded that all PAVN soldiers be required to leave South Vietnam.



22 October 1965, Milton Lee Olive III (November 7, 1946 – October 22, 1965) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of America's highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor — for his actions in the Vietnam War. At the age of 18, Olive sacrificed his life to save others by falling on a grenade. He was the first African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Vietnam War.

Olive joined the Army from his birth city of Chicago, Illinois in 1964,[2] and by 1965 was serving as a Private First Class in Company B of the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. On October 22, 1965, while moving through the jungle with four fellow soldiers in Phu Cuong, Olive sacrificed his life by smothering an enemy-thrown grenade with his body. For his actions on that day, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

At a ceremony on the steps of the White House, on April 21, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Olive's Medal of Honor to his father and stepmother. Also in attendance were two of the four men whose lives were saved by Olive's actions.

Olive's body was returned to the United States and buried in West Grove Cemetery at Lexington, Holmes County, Mississippi. Olive was born in Chicago but left as a young boy living in Lexington, Mississippi where he finished high school. PANEL / LINE 2E/131 on the wall.

Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Pfc. Olive was a member of the 3d Platoon of Company B, as it moved through the jungle to find the Viet Cong operating in the area. Although the platoon was subjected to a heavy volume of enemy gunfire and pinned down temporarily, it retaliated by assaulting the Viet Cong positions, causing the enemy to flee. As the platoon pursued the insurgents, Pfc. Olive and 4 other soldiers were moving through the jungle together when a grenade was thrown into their midst. Pfc. Olive saw the grenade, and then saved the lives of his fellow soldiers at the sacrifice of his own by grabbing the grenade in his hand and falling on it to absorb the blast with his body. Through his bravery, unhesitating actions, and complete disregard for his safety, he prevented additional loss of life or injury to the members of his platoon. Pfc. Olive's extraordinary heroism, at the cost of his life above and beyond the call of duty, are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.


Today is October 22, 2020
Vietnam War memorial facts
161 Names on the wall were born on 22 October
125 Names on the wall died on 22 October
245 men earned the Medal Of Honor in the Vietnam war and 160 of those men are listed on the wall

On October 13, 1982, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved the addition of the flag staff and recommended that it be grouped together with the sculpture to enhance the entrance to the memorial site. The American flag (which is 12' x 18') flies from a 60' pole. The flag flies 24 hrs. 7 days a week in honor of the men and women listed on the wall. The pole cost $18,000 excluding base. VVMF paid for the flagpole from contributions it received from the American Legion. At the base of the staff are the seals of the five military services: Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy with the following inscription going around in full circle: THIS FLAG REPRESENTS THE SERVICE RENDERED TO OUR COUNTRY BY THE VETERANS OF THE VIETNAM WAR. THE FLAG AFFIRMS THE PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM FOR WHICH THEY FOUGHT AND THEIR PRIDE IN HAVING SERVED UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES. On special occasions a POW/MIA flag is flown on the same staff underneath the stars and stripes of the United States flag. Those occasions are Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and POW/MIA Recognition Day.


Other facts/items of interest:
The Americans played ghost noises in the jungle
Vietnam has elaborate death rituals, meant to send the deceased to the afterlife in peace. But if the dead person doesn’t get a proper burial, it’s believed they’ll wander around as a ghost to haunt the living. Since many bodies didn’t get proper burials during the war, there would’ve been plenty of upset ghosts. The Americans preyed on this fear by playing ghost noises on hidden speakers in the jungles at night.
Vietnam war quotes:

A quote Kennedy gave Walter Cronkite: “These people who say we ought to withdraw from Vietnam are totally wrong, because if we withdrew from Vietnam, the communists would control… all of Southeast Asia… then India, Burma would be next.”

North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that. RICHARD NIXON, speech, November 3, 1969

This war in Vietnam is, I believe, a war for civilization. Certainly it is not a war of our seeking. It is a war thrust upon us and we cannot yield to tyranny. FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN, speech, 1966

Vietnam was a country where America was trying to make people stop being communists by dropping things on them from airplanes. KURT VONNEGUT, Breakfast of Champions

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” —AP correspondent Peter Arnett quoting a U.S. major on the decision to bomb and shell Ben Tre on February 7, 1968 after Viet Cong forces overran the city in the Mekong Delta forty-five miles south of Saigon during the Tet Offensive.

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

“We seem bent upon saving the Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh, even if we have to kill them and demolish their country to do it. I do not intend to remain silent in the face of what I regard as a policy of madness which, sooner or later, will envelop my son and American youth by the millions for years to come.” —Senator George McGovern (D-SD) speaking on the Senate floor on April 25, 1967.

"I refuse to believe that a little fourth-rate power like North Vietnam doesn’t have a breaking point." —National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger speaking in July 1969 to NSC aides as he charged them with developing a punitive military strategy that would coerce North Vietnam into negotiating on American terms.