Kennedy recognized that in the Cold War’s “proxy wars,” Soviet forces and their allies were increasingly turning to guerilla warfare tactics rather than open combat. The flexible response plan was designed to create new American Special Forces units trained in this ambush-focused style of combat.

The Bay of Pigs invasion was one of the biggest military blunders in American history. President Kennedy had hoped to use Cuban exiles to instigate a revolution in Cuba to overthrow its communist leader, Fidel Castro. The combination of bad intelligence and Kennedy’s inexperience in a commanding role led to the ultimate failure of the mission.

Built in 1961, the Berlin Wall served as a physical and ideological barrier between communist East Berlin and free West Berlin. On the East German side of the wall, Soviet-era repression prevented citizens from accessing many economic, technological, and political opportunities that were more readily available to those living on the West German side. This stark contrast would remain a key symbol of the Cold War conflict until the border between East and West Germany was reopened in 1989.

Unlike the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy handled the Cuban Missile Crisis with both poise and resolve. Although the Soviet Union tested Kennedy’s naval blockade by continuing to send ships and equipment to Cuba, the ships ultimately turned around and the missile-related equipment on the island was removed. Not only did Kennedy’s response to the crisis prevent a possible thermonuclear war, it set in motion numerous safeguards (like a direct phone line between the Cold War leaders in Moscow and Washington D.C.) that would help prevent similar standoffs in the future.

Ho Chi Minh was able to fend off occupations by both the Japanese and the French to establish Vietnam as a communist state. Both conflicts would be hard-fought and result in significant casualties, but the military experience gained by the Vietnamese would prove invaluable in their upcoming conflicts.

The divide between North and South Vietnam was originally intended to be temporary. The plan was to allow the Vietnamese to hold elections in 1956 and unify North and South Vietnam; however, the elections never happened. This failure to honor the arrangement put forth in the Geneva Accords would become a root cause of the Vietnam War.

American involvement in Vietnam was a direct result of the belief dating back to the Eisenhower administration that if another Asian nation fell under communist control, the rest would fall one-by-one.

Ultimately, Diem became one of South Vietnam’s biggest liabilities in the fight against the Vietcong. His unwillingness to tackle important economic, political, and cultural issues in South Vietnam made it increasingly difficult for a successful opposition to take root against the North Vietnamese. Diem was assassinated in a South Vietnamese military coup in November of 1963.

Following the assassination of both South Korean leader Ngo Dinh Diem and American President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson ascended to the Presidency amidst a foreign policy nightmare. He personally did not see the value in the continued efforts in Vietnam, however he felt the United States had involved themselves so deeply that there was no easy way out. Johnson would ultimately escalate American involvement even deeper over his term in office.

American troops were not prepared for the complexities of the Vietnam War’s conditions. Terrain was difficult to navigate and there was little answer for dealing with the superior guerrilla tactics employed by the North Vietnamese. Making matters worse, Americans suffered in large numbers from diseases brought about by both chemical weaponry and the unfamiliar environment.

Initially, the Vietnam War created a divide in American public opinion. Younger Americans organized a variety of opposition efforts to protest the war. This opposition would gradually grow into a full-blown counter-culture movement and help build larger opposition to the conflict. The longer the Vietnam War went on, the less popular it became.

The deferment process from the Vietnam War draft became a point of contention for many opposed to the war. While there were exemptions granted to conscientious objectors as well as to those in fields like war industries and farming due to their work’s contribution to the war effort, middle and upper-class Americans were able to more easily secure deferments for reasons that were far less relevant to the war. Full-time college students and those with certain medical diagnoses (whether real or faked) typically got deferments without much resistance.

The Tet offensive was a turning point in the war. The South Vietnamese and their American allies demonstrated the ability to fend off a North Vietnamese surge and successfully defend key bases and territory. Ironically, the victorious defense would lead to even further opposition to the war in America.

President Johnson was facing growing opposition to the Vietnam War on the home front and was not eager to commit more American lives to, what he felt, was a lost cause. Rather than granting General Westmorland’s request for more troops, Johnson called off American bombing raids into North Vietnam. He appealed to the North Vietnamese military leaders to follow suit as a sign of a willingness to negotiate for peace.

Democratic primary candidates Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy had ridden a wave of anti-war momentum that all but guaranteed the Democratic presidential nominee would be a clean break from the war policies of the Johnson administration. However, following the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was able to edge out McCarthy to win the party’s nomination. Anti-war protesters gathered at the Democratic National Convention to protest that their views were not represented in the party’s candidate. The resulting violence on the third night of the convention would prove to be a public relations nightmare for the Humphrey campaign.

Nixon’s primary key to victory was appealing to the group of Americans who had grown tired of the constant unrest in American society brought about by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. He pledged to be the champion of this so-called “silent majority” and ran on a platform of restoring law and order in American society. While Nixon’s campaign did gain support from conservative Southern whites and some anti-war democrats, his appeals to these groups tended to be vague themes rather than outlines of specific policies and agendas.

Nixon took office and immediately began drawing down American involvement in Vietnam. He reformed the selective service system to slow the amount of troops called into service, refocused American efforts on training the South Vietnamese military to take over the majority of combat responsibilities, and began reducing the number of American troops stationed in Vietnam. Behind the scenes, however, Nixon actually stepped up bombing raids on the North Vietnamese and their supply chains.

Congress viewed Nixon’s decision to send American troops into Cambodia as not only an overreach but also potentially unconstitutional. Predictably, the American public was not enthusiastic about American lives being risked in yet another civil war conflict in Southeast Asia.

North Vietnam signed the peace agreement in early 1973, but they were not particularly committed to standing by it. The conflict was not yet over. However, America would use the peace agreement as a means of pulling American troops and American prisoners of war out of Vietnam.

On April 30, 1975, Saigon was captured by the North Vietnamese. South Vietnam was forced to surrender, and all of Vietnam fell under communist rule.