Poras, Joseph.

The American military involvement in Vietnam, commonly referred to in the United States as the Vietnam War, was an attempt to prevent the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and to support the South Vietnamese government’s opposition to the National Liberation Front and the Communist-allied North. North Vietnam received military and financial support from Communist allies China and the Soviet Union ; the anti-communist South Vietnam received military and financial support from the United States . 

Initially, there was public support for American involvement in Vietnam, with one poll suggesting an 80% approval rating for the war in February 1965. The number of troops deployed to Vietnam escalated in 1965, and by April 1965, one thousand tons of bombs had been dropped by Americans and South Vietnamese on the Viet Cong in the north. By July 1965, the number of draft calls from the United States was doubled to 35,000 new soldiers drafted each month, and in August of the same year, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law criminalizing the burning of a draft card. As the number of troops (and casualties) in Vietnam increased, anti-war demonstrations become more prevalent, occurring both in American cities as well as internationally. In October 1965, 25,000 Americans marched on Washington, D.C. in support of US intervention in Vietnam . The following month, 35,000 anti-war protestors circle the White House. By April 1967, anti-war protests in New York involved over 200,000 people. Meanwhile, public opinion about the war was still divided, with 70,000 people in New York marching in support of the war the following month.

A turning point in the war occurred on January 31, 1968, as 84,000 Viet Cong guerrillas aided by NVA troops launched the Tet Offensive, attacking a hundred cities and towns throughout South Vietnam . American TV news crews in Vietnam filmed the attack on the US embassy in Saigon, as well as the bloody battle scenes showing American soldiers under fire, along with dead bodies and images of soldiers dying. The graphic footage was shown on the nightly news in the United States, as had never previously been seen before, and heightened the American public’s disapproval of the war.

Anti-war protests in the United States escalated during this time. On April 23, 1968, anti-war protestors at Columbia University seized 5 buildings. Over 200,000 students in New York City refused to go to class on April 27. By August 1968, there had been 221 student protests at 101 US colleges and universities in that year alone. The "Mobilization" peace demonstration on November 15, 1969, drew approximately 250,000 people, making it at the time the largest anti-war protest in American history.

On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese troops had entered Cambodia, sparking another wave of protest in the United States against Nixon and the Vietnam War, particularly at colleges and universities in the days following the announcement. On May 4, 1970, National Guardsmen shot and killed four student protestors at Kent State University in Ohio, and injured an additional 9 others. In response to the killings, over 400 colleges and universities across the United States shut down. Nearly 100,000 protesters surrounded various government buildings including the White House and historical monuments. By March 1970, half of Americans polled believe the war to be "morally wrong." Peace negotiations proceeded in Paris, but were not agreed upon until 1973.

The fighting continued for two more years after the United States left Vietnam . Southern Vietnam was weakened not only in military forces but also economically without the United States troops to support them. Eventually the Viet Minh in North Vietnam over took South Vietnam, establishing a communist government.

From the guide to the Poras Collection of Vietnam War Memorabilia, undated, 1931-2001, (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries)