Precise figures are not available for Hispanic participation in Vietnam.
• Prior to the full-scale escalation of the Vietnam War, Special Forces Advisor, Sergeant First Class Isaac Camacho's fire base was overrun by Viet Cong in November 1963. After an intense firefight, Camacho was taken prisoner. He is most likely the first Hispanic POW of the Vietnam era. Remarkably, Camacho escaped his captors after 20 months and made his way to freedom. He was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars in September 1965 and later promoted to Captain, U.S. Army.
• Lieutenant Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr. (then Lieutenant JG) was the first American pilot taken as a prisoner of war and remained a prisoner longer than anyone else, eight and a half years.
• On April 30, 1975, Master Sergeant Juan J. Valdez climbed aboard the last U.S. helicopter to depart the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. The U.S. presence in Vietnam, which spanned 18 years, ended. Valdez' presence gave credence to the Hispanic theme of participation in America's wars: "First in...last to leave."
The Post-Vietnam Era
• Approximately 80,000 Hispanics served in the Vietnam theater of operations and 13 won the Medal of Honor, 6 of them Marines. This is not unusual. Hispanics have received the highest honors to date in the U.S. Navy. As of 1990, six ships and three active submarines have been named for Hispanics, including the nuclear- powered 688 class fast attack submarine, USS San Juan, named after the capital city of Puerto Rico.
The years 1961 to 1972 saw the American involvement in Vietnam. For a little over ten years, America sent its sons off to fight for an unknown cause in a country they knew little about. When the United States finally pulled out of Southeast Asia, many were left scratching their heads. Over 58,000 young men died without really knowing why. Although it is a work of fiction, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato expresses the views of those who spent their lives in the jungles of Vietnam.
Made famous by Theodore Roosevelt’s volunteer Rough Rider’s and the Buffalo Soldiers, the Battle of San Juan Hill (July 1, 1898), also known as The Battle of San Juan Heights, was the bloodiest battle of the Spanish American War. After landing on the beachhead, the US V Corps under the command of Major General William Shafter fought their way west toward the port town of Santiago. After an indecisive clash at Las Guasimas on June 24, Shafter readied his men to take the strategic heights around the city, while Cuban insurgents blocked any Spanish reinforcements arriving on the roads to the north, in what would be one of the most decisive battles of America’s “Splendid Little War.” 1
He was then drafted into the U.S. Army where he was refused admission to the Officer Candidate School. He fought this until he was finally accepted and graduated as a first lieutenant. He was in the Army from 1941 until 1944 and was stationed in Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas. While stationed in Kansas he worked with a boxer named Joe Louis in order to fight unfair treatment towards African-Americans in the military and when training in Fort Hood, Texas he refused to go to the back of the public bus and was court-martialed for insubordination. Because of this he never made it to Europe with his unit and in 1944 he received an honorable discharge.
During the time of World War II, there was a dramatic change in the society of America and its way of life. Men were needed at war and the women were left at home. People were mistrusted and were falsely accused of something they didn’t do. Some people were even pushed away because they were different. These people were the minorities of America. Some of the minorities it affected the most were the African Americans, women, Japanese Americans, and even young adults. What is a minority? A minority, in this case, is a person or group of people who are discriminated against because there is something about them that makes them different. Some of these reasons why they are different are things like race, gender, and even age. However, the real question is how were the roles of American minorities change after World War II?
THESIS : “ The United States didn’t want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba.”
During the last years of the nineteenth century, the United States would find itself involved in what John Jay, the American secretary of state, later referred to as a "splendid little war; begun with highest motives, carried on with magnificent intelligence and spirit, favored by that fortune which loves the brave." From an American standpoint, because there were few negative results, and so many significantly positive consequences, John Jay was correct in calling the Spanish-American War a "splendid little war." The defeat of the Spanish forces marked the end of their rule in the Americas and also marked the rise of the United States as a global military power. The Spanish-American War affected the United States in a number of other ways. It helped speed the construction of the Panama Canal and also resulted in the U.S.'s acquisition of foreign territories. There were also many other minor positive outcomes to the war as opposed to the few negative consequences that resulted.
Brigham, Robert K., and E. Kenneth Hoffman. "Battlefield:Vietnam | History." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.
Hi I'm doing my report on the Spanish American War. In the following pages I will be giving information on how and why the war started, major battles, and the results of the war. I will also include stories from people on the battleship Maine.
As one of America's great white fleet ships lay on the bay of Havana Cuba, people started questioning the reason of the explosion. After a couple of days, the Press was informed of the tragic accident, that could have been an attack on the United States. Once the Press was involve there was no doubt it was in accident as the Yellow Press claimed it was an attack. The sinking of the U.S.S. Maine not only claimed one of the Great White Fleet, it also caused over 250 casualties. Although the tragedy of the maine could have sparked the war, there was more reasons why the U.S. declared war. America disapproved of spain and everything they were doing in territories controlled by Spain. Not only was Spain destroying the territories that they controlled, they contravene the Monroe Doctrine. It wasn’t always the bad things that caused the United States to invade Cuba, they also wanted to help them and even govern Cuba to an extent.
During World War II Mexicans enrolled in the U.S. military to fight in the war. Mexicans fought bravely and hard in the war earning 17 Medals ...
In 1961 John F. Kennedy secretly sent in 400 Special Operations Force trained soldiers – known as Green Berets -- taught South Vietnamese how to fight against the communist Guerillas in South Vietnam. On September 2, 1963, in an interview Kennedy said, “We need to send our men as advisors, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam against the Communist, we’re prepared to continue to assist them.” After Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johns...
The Mexican-American war determined the destiny of the United States of America, it determined whether or not it would become a world power and it established the size of the United States of America. Perhaps the war was inevitable due to the idea of Manifest Destiny - Americans thought they had the divine right to extend their territory. The Mexican-American War started mainly because of the annexation of the Republic of Texas (established in 1836 after breaking away from Mexico). The United States and Mexico still had conflicts on what the borders of Texas was, the United States claimed that the Texas border with Mexico was the Rio Grande, but the Mexicans said that it was the Nueces River, so the land in between were disputed and claimed by both the United States and Mexico.
The book, We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, begins at a pivotal point in American history. The year was 1965; the year America began to directly interfere with the Vietnam affairs and send our young men to defend the notion of "freedom." During this year, Vietnam interested and concerned only a few Americans. In fact, the controversy of American involvement in Vietnam had hardly begun. But this all changed in November 1965 at the Ia Drang Valley in distant Vietnam. The Battle at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany was the first major battle of the Vietnam conflict; a conflict that lasted decade and caused American turmoil for many more years.
After the Texas independence war, Mexico doesn’t recognize Texas’s independence because their president, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was captured during the Texas independence war. Although we didn’t get to annex Texas because it would be a slave state and an unbalanced between free and slave states. Texas finally got annexed in 1845 which was one of the causes that started the Mexican American War. The other cause is that President James Polk wanted California, so he offered Mexico $30,000,000 dollars for New Mexico, California and to have the border of Texas at the Rio Grande. He sent an American diplomat, John Slidell, to Mexico City. When John Slidell came to Mexico City, Mexico refused to even to see or talk to him. Polk was determined to get that territory from Mexico. So James Polk knew he was going to war with Mexico but he needed to get the country on his side, so Polk had to get Mexico to attack first. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to build a fort on distributed territory on January 1846 to drag Mexico to attack. On April 25th, 1846 Mexican cavalry attacked the fort, and the United States army won on the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Polk’s plan was planned out perfect. He went to Congress on May 11th and told them Mexico attacked us on our soil. On May 13th, 1846 Congress declared war on Mexico.