Obelisk Information - 1959-1964

Select a different year to view:

  • VN - Geneva Accords

    The major provisions of The Geneva Accords 1954 dealt with the cessations of hostilities among Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It delineated:

    1. The disengagement, partition and military regroupment of each country’s armed forces.

    2. Civil regroupment and administration.

    3. Arms Control.

    4. International supervision and control.

    5. Procedural matters.


    The specific dates, places, and the names of the officials who signed the agreement are listed in the accords.

  • VN - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was the beginning of the United States’ formal involvement in the Vietnam War. It authorized the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam.

  • VN - Ho Chi Minh Trail

    Ho Chi Minh Trail, elaborate system of mountain and jungle paths and trails used by North Vietnam to infiltrate troops and supplies into South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War. A map showing bases and supply routes during the Vietnam War. The trail was put into operation beginning in 1959, after the North Vietnamese leadership decided to use revolutionary warfare to reunify South with North Vietnam.

  • VN - Major Dale R. Buis

    Major Dale Richard Buis was born August 29, 1921 and raised in Pender, Nebraska by his parents, Dr. John Buis and wife, Serena. Serving in the US Amry, Major Buis was the second US casualty of the Vietnam War, killed by the Vietcong, His name was the first to be engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Panel 1E, Line 1), Washington, DC.

    Buis attended the Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri and graduated in May 1939. While at Wentworth he was selected in December 1938by the National Patriotic Council of Washington, DC to make a radio speech on Norfolk, NE’s WJAG radio station on three main topics - freedom of the people, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

    Throughout his US Army military career he served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He was injured in July 1945 while serving in Saipan. He sustained a broken arm as an ammunition dump blew up and he fell on the deck of the ship. By June 1959 he was on his last overseas assignment. Buis, however, became part of an eight-man US Military Assistance Advisory Group sent to Vietnam to train South Vietnamese troops.

    On the evening of July 8, 1959 in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon, Major Buis and his comrades were watching a movie on a home projector in the mess hall. While enjoying the first reel of the movie, six Vietcong crept out of the darkness and surrounded the mess hall for an ambush. Two positioned a French MAT submachine gun in the rear window, two pushed gun muzzles through the pantry screen, the remaining two went to the front of the building to cover the Vietnamese guards. Master Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand, in charge of the projector, turned on the lights to change the first movie reel and the Vietcong opened fire spraying him with bullets. Major Buis crawled across the floor but was fatally shot from behind. Buis’ actions startled the attacker whose satchel charge had already been activated, causing an explosion which killed the attacker. The two Vietnamese guards were also killed. The wounded included Captain Howard Boston and the eight-year-old son of the South Vietnamese cook.

    Major Buis, having served 17 years in the Army, anticipated fulfilling a 20-year military service spending the remaining years stateside. He’d been slated to return stateside by November. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Virginia, three young sons; Kurt, Lance and Mark, his mother, two brothers and three sisters. Major Buis and his wife are buried in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, CA.

    During his military service Major Buis received the following commendations and medals; Purple Heart, Bronze Star, American Theatre Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Theatre Campaign Medal, Philippines Liberation Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Army Commendation Medal, American Defense Service Medal, National Defense Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, European, African, Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Combat Infantry Medal, American Presidential Unit Citation.

    ~ Researcher/Content Author: Diane K. Moore

    REFERENCES
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_R._Buis
    • https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/129548283/dale_richard-buis
    • https://www.honorstates.org/dev/profiles/264528/
    • Newpapers.com – The Pender Times (June 2, 1939, - Dec 23, 1938), Norfolk Daily News (Dec 28, 1938)

  • VN - Red Cross

    During the eight years of American combat activity in the war (1965-1972), the Red Cross handled more than 2,168,000 emergency communications between servicemen and their families. Red Cross field directors and chapter staff at home assisted an average of 27,800 servicemen each month with personal and family problems. An average of over 280,000 servicemen a month participated in recreation activities at Red Cross centers and in SRAO programs in Vietnam and neighboring countries.

  • VN - Viet Cong

    The Viet Cong was an armed communist revolutionary organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It fought under the direction of North Vietnam, against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War, eventually emerging on the winning side. It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory the Viet Cong controlled.

    During the war, communist fighters and anti-war activists claimed that the Viet Cong was an insurgency indigenous to the South, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments portrayed the group as a tool of North Vietnam. According to Trần Văn Trà, the Viet Cong’s top commander, and the post-war Vietnamese government’s official history, the Viet Cong followed orders from Hanoi and were part of the People’s Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army.

  • US - Domino Theory

    In a press conference on April 7, U.S. President D. Eisenhower described the situation in Vietnam as a “falling domino” whose loss would lead to rapid and widespread communist victories in neighboring countries. This concept was referred to as the domino effect. Eisenhower’s speech laid the foundation for U.S. steady involvement in Vietnam as part of its containment policy implemented throughout the world.

    Successive U.S. Presidents would use the domino theory to justify their escalation of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. President Kennedy, in his inauguration speech, stated that U.S. security may be lost piece by piece, country by country as a result of the domino effect. As a response, he decided to increase aid and military advisers in South Vietnam. By November 1963, the number of military advisers reached approximately 16,000.

    President Johnson eventually sent troops to Vietnam in 1965, and President Nixon escalated the conflict further to Laos and Cambodia.

  • US - President John F. Kennedy

    Elected in 1960, John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) became the 35th president of the United States. He served from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Despite the warnings of Eisenhower about Laos and Vietnam, the opinion of J.F. Kennedy about Europe and Latin America was much more important than that in Asia. The administration of Kennedy remained crucially devoted to the Cold War foreign policy which was inherited from the administrations of Truman and Eisenhower.

    In 1961, Kennedy had to cope with a series of challenges, including the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the ongoing negotiation between the Pathet Lao communist movement and the pro-Western Lao government. This convergence of crises was seen as a significant challenge for Kennedy’s administration.

    John F. Kennedy believed that another failure to control and prevent the expansion of communism would seriously damage the U.S.’ credibility with allies and his own reputation. Consequently, he made the decision to “draw a line in the sand” and take action to halt the spread of communism in Vietnam.