The Vietnam War

The longest and costliest of the proxy conflicts for the United States. American involvement grew from advisers in the 1950s to a congressional resolution in August 1964 authorising force, to the commitment of ground formations from March 1965, to a peak of over half a million personnel. North Vietnam was supplied, equipped and advised by the Soviet Union and China, which competed with each other for influence over it, and neither sent combat formations in a way that would have produced a direct clash with American forces. The Tet offensive of early 1968 was a military failure and a political turning point in the United States; the Paris accords of January 1973 covered an American withdrawal; the war ended with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. American deaths exceeded fifty-eight thousand. Vietnamese deaths, military and civilian across all parties, are estimated in the millions, with a wide range between estimates.

Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.