Library Exhibits

Native Sons Lost: The Vietnam War Dead of Milledgeville  digital exhibit presents research undertaken during the spring 2021 semester by students in a Georgia College Communication Department course titled The Vietnam War in the Media into the nine Milledgeville veterans who died in the Vietnam War. The students uncovered heretofore unknown facts about the men who made the ultimate sacrifice, based on archival research and in some cases on interviews with family members, friends, or comrades in arms. It’s rare that a student class project has a life beyond the classroom, and the students are excited and proud to be contributing to an exhibit.

The 1960s and early-1970s were dominated by the Vietnam War. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict began during the Truman administration after World War II and eventually cost the lives of 58,520 U.S. military personnel and wounded 153,372 more. It also resulted in between one and two million Vietnamese deaths. Approximately 1,600 Georgians lost their lives, including nine from Milledgeville. As a result of the quagmire, Congress enacted the War Powers Act in 1973, requiring the President to receive explicit Congressional approval before committing American forces overseas. In March 1973, the last American combat soldier left Vietnam, and on April 30, 1975 Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, ending the war. To this day, many Americans continue to ask whether the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a blunder, a necessary war, a noble cause, or a failed idealistic effort to defend a country from a totalitarian government.

Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which was receiving financial support from the United States. The Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, defeated the French at the siege of Dien Bien Phu, prompting France to abandon Vietnam. But the country was divided into northern and southern zones. The separation hardened, and two states emerged: Communist North Vietnam led by Ho and a pro-American South Vietnam with a capital in Saigon. In 1956, South Vietnam, with the backing of the United States, refused to hold nationwide elections as called for in the Geneva peace agreement that ended the war with the French. By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese government.

To support the South’s government, the United States sent military advisors, which by 1963 would number 16,300. The military condition continued to deteriorate, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta region to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson escalated the war, committing ground forces and commencing air strikes against North Vietnam.

By 1968, American ground forces in Vietnam had risen to 536,000. In January 1968, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, attacking multiple locations across South Vietnam. The offensive was a major tactical victory for American forces but a moral defeat for the American public, turning many Americans against the war. To initiate the extraction of U.S. forces from Vietnam, President Nixon implemented Vietnamization, which consisted of withdrawing American troops while giving South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon attempted to reduce the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy supply bases in Cambodia. This act was seen as an escalation of the war, which provoked more anti-war protests across the nation.

From 1968 to 1973, diplomatic efforts were made to end the conflict. In March 1972, the North Vietnamese opened a three-pronged attack into South Vietnam known as the Easter Offensive, expecting that a victory on the battlefield would translate into a victory at the negotiating table. In January 1973, an agreement was reached; U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell, South Vietnam surrendered and Vietnam reunited as a Communist-controlled country.