social studies the vietnam war

Vietnam war

The first conflict of the war was in 1964 where two North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, then the president retaliated by bombing North Vietnam. By 1967 America had 500,000 troops in vietnam and 15,058 had been killed and 109,527 had been wounded. By this time the vietnam war was costing america 25 billion. Under the draft system, 40,000 men were being called to service and even more were protesting about the war.


Why new Zealand was there and how long?
Because new Zealand after world war 2, New Zealand signed a treaty with America. New Zealand was there for 15 out of the 20 years. New Zealand sent 548 troops to Vietnam, nine of those men flew helicopters with Australia. By 1971 all our troops were out of combat but helped train south Vietnamese soldiers.

Why we need to remember it?
It was our first war without the queen, people started to realize there is a lot of death, America isn’t sending ground troops anymore and they were more open about it on television.