The Strategic Hamlet Program was a plan by the government of South Vietnam in conjunction with the US government and ARPA during the Vietnam War to combat the communist insurgency by pacifying the countryside and reducing the influence of the communists among the rural population.
A strategic hamlet in South Vietnam, c. 1964
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was a major conflict of the Cold War. While the war was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states, while the south was supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies, making the war a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. military involvement ending in 1973. The conflict also spilled over into neighboring states, exacerbating the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries officially becoming communist states by 1976.
Image: U.S. Army UH 1H Hueys insert ARVN troops at Khâm Đức, Vietnam, 12 July 1970 (79431435)
Image: Pavnbattle
Image: Hue Massacre Interment
Image: A 4C Skyhawks of VA 146 fly past USS Kearsarge (CVS 33) in the South China Sea on 12 August 1964 (USN 1107965)