Vietnam ground combat operations in 1965, and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000. The US also engaged in a sustained aerial bombing campaign. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with significant material aid and 15,000 combat advisers. Communist forces supplying the Việt Cộng carried supplies along the Hồ Chí Minh trail, which passed through the Kingdom of Laos. The communists attacked South Vietnamese targets during the 1968 Tết Offensive. Although the campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and turned US public opinion against the war. During the offensive, communist troops massacred over 3,000 civilians
The 25 Year War The 25 Year War The 25 Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam () is a book by General Bruce Palmer Jr. about the Vietnam War, and was published in 1984. The book is split into two parts, the first which follows chronologically the events leading to the fall of Saigon in 1975 and mentions Palmer's position in those events. The second part is called 'Assessment' and more broadly calls out what was done right and wrong and also offers an alternate role the US could have played in the conflict: Palmer is critical of covert operations: War involves fighting