LYCOS RETRIEVER 
South Vietnam: War
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It was only in 1970--five years after the U.S. invasion of South Vietnam--that the anti-war movement seriously pursued a legislative strategy, and it remained focused on a timetable for unilateral withdrawal, not on demanding a compromise political settlement. By then, Nixon had been able to reduce the urgency of the issue of withdrawal by undertaking his own unilateral withdrawal. Congressional support for a timetable for complete withdrawal always fell short of a majority. The McGovern-Hatfield amendment of September 1970, which set a date of the end of 1971 for complete withdrawal, failed 55-39. In June 1971, the same legislation lost by a 55-42 vote.
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In the spring of 1975, Ford did little to help either Cambodia or South Vietnam as they faced the final Communist offensives against their regimes. The fall of Saigon, which led in April to the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy there, allowed Ford to announce that “[the] war is finished as far as America is concerned,†but it left him open to criticism by conservatives for abandoning an ally. They were more supportive of Ford's actions in the Mayaguez crisis that May, when he reacted to the seizure of an American merchant vessel by bombing the Cambodian mainland and launching a successful, though costly, rescue mission by the U.S. Marines. Nevertheless, conservatives broke with the administration over the SALT Treaties that they felt favored the Soviet Union, and with Ford's support of the 1975 Helsinki Accord, which acquiesced in Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.
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In 1967 South Vietnam held its first elections under the new system. Following the elections... it switched back to a presidential system. The military nominated Nguyen Van Thieu as their candidate, and he was elected with a plurality of the popular vote. Thieu quickly consolidated power much to the dismay of those who hoped for an era of more political openness. He was re-elected unopposed in 1971, receiving a suspiciously high 94% of the vote on an 87% turn-out. Thieu ruled until the final days of the war, resigning in 1975.
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AFVN was the U.S. military radio and television network in South Vietnam. It provided broadcasting throughout the Vietnam War. Early in the war when there was only radio it was called AFRS, or American Forces Radio Service. The first television service was provided from the Navy's Blue Eagle airplanes as a part of Project Jenny. AFVN was part of AFRTS, the American Forces Radio and Television Service.
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In early 1965, the Australian Government agreed to dispatch an infantry battalion to South Vietnam. The leading troops of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), landed on 3 June in a chartered Qantas aircraft. This was the first use of Qantas charters to move troops into (and out of) South Vietnam, and ‘skippy flights’, as they came to be known, would continue at regular intervals almost until the end of Australia’s commitment to the war. Another significant event occurred on 8 June, when the transport ship (converted aircraft carrier) HMAS Sydney, with destroyer escort HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Duchess, arrived at Vung Tau on the first of what became regular naval logistical support operations.
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On March 8, 3,500 US marines arrived in South Vietnam. They were the first 'official' US combat troops to be sent to the country. This dramatic escalation of the war was presented to the American public as being a short-term measure and did not cause much criticism at the time. A public opinion poll carried out that year indicated that nearly 80% of the American public supported the bombing raids and the sending of combat troops to Vietnam.
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