Magazine Archives:Vietnam

Vietnam magazine’s firsthand accounts put you in the thick of the fight with grunts on the ground, in the pilot’s seat on dangerous missions over North Vietnam, and aboard gunboats speeding through the Mekong Delta. Insightful articles by military historians help you understand a hard-to-understand war, and we tackle the war’s most controversial questions. And each issue is packed with stunning photos that transport you back to the war years like nothing else can.

Facebook | Twitter

Photo of South Vietnam: Failed Coup In Saigon Against President Ngo Dinh Diem. Saigon- 17 novembre 1960- Lors du coup d'état manqué contre le président NGO DINH DIEM, des jeunes gens (révolutionnaires) accourent dans une rue, lâchant leur bicyclette pour se protéger de coups de feu, un camion militaire derrièer eux dans une rue, une demeure en arrière-plan.

The First Coup: President Diem’s Own Paratroopers Attempted to Overthrow His Regime

by John D. Howard3/21/20233/21/2023

Photo of Operation Linebacker was the title of a U. S. Seventh Air Force and U. S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial interdiction campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 9 May to 23 October 1972, during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to halt or slow the transportation of supplies and materials for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), an invasion of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), that had been launched on 30 March. Linebacker was the first continuous bombing effort conducted against North Vietnam since the bombing halt instituted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1968.

Army and Navy Pilots Joined Together in a Day of Duels Over Vietnam

by Jon Guttman3/15/20234/14/2023

The Elephant in the Room

by Guy Aceto3/14/20233/14/2023

Illustration of Viet Cong tunnel network in Vietnam.

How “Tunnel Rats” Fought the Viet Cong in Underground Tunnels in Vietnam

by William P. Head3/6/20233/7/2023

Photo of defused UXO outside a house in Xieng Khouang. Over 30% of the bombs dropped on Laos by the US failed to explode - leaving literally millions of items of ordinance (many of them tiny mine bomblets from cluster bombs) sitting in villages, buried in rice padddies, and scattered over the hillsides. Casualties from UXO are estimated at 12,000 since 1973. A substantial industry in scrap metal has arisen from the abundance of recoverable (but still fused) bombs, both due to its relative lucrativeness (compared with growning rice), and also out of desperation, as thousands of hectares of land has been rendered unfarmable until cleared of UXO. Once defused, much of this war scrap is also put to practical use; cluster bomb casings are used as planters and house stilts, bomb cases for fencing and jettisoned fuel tanks converted into fishing boats.

A Look at the Damage from the ‘Secret’ War in Laos

by Zita Ballinger Fletcher3/2/20236/28/2023

Photo of American servicemen, former prisoners of war, are cheering as their aircraft takes off from an airfield near Hanoi as part of Operation Homecoming.

How Operation Homecoming Was Sprung into Action to Repatriate American POWs

by J. Keith Saliba2/28/20232/28/2023

Photo of Jim Liles

The Viet Cong Were Shooting Down Americans From a Cave Until This GI Stopped Them

by Jim Liles2/24/20232/24/2023

Illustration of a M1911A1 pistol

The M1911/1911A1 Served as America’s Military Sidearm From 1911 to 1984

by Carl O. Schuster2/17/20232/17/2023

The Army Promised Her a Grave Beside Her Husband—But Buried Someone Else There

by Larry Porges2/16/20232/16/2023

Photo of Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. David T. Zabecki is Vietnam magazine’s editor emeritus.

How the ‘Galloping Major’ of Australia Earned Both a Silver Star and a Victoria Cross

by David T. Zabecki2/15/20232/15/2023