Knapic, Bernard Richard, Lt Col

Fallen

Service Photo

Service Details

Last Rank
Lieutenant Colonel

Last Primary AFSC/MOS
1115A-Pilot

Last AFSC Group
Aircrew

Primary Unit
1969-1969, 1115A, 7th Air Force

Service Years
1954 - 1969

Last Photo

Personal Details

Home State

Ohio

Year of Birth
1930

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Casualty Info

Home Town Youngstown	Last Address Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam

Casualty Date Oct 11, 1969
Cause Non Hostile- Died Other Causes	Reason Air Loss, Crash - Land
Location Gia Dinh (Vietnam)	Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery - Arlington, Virginia	Wall/Plot Coordinates 17W 067

Official Badges

Unofficial Badges

Military Associations and Other Affiliations


	1969, Vietnam Veterans Memorial [Verified] - Assoc. Page

Vietnam War
From Month/Year January / 1960	To Month/Year August / 1973
Description Overview of the Vietnam War Vietnam was the longest war in American history and the most unpopular American war of the 20th century. It resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. Even today, many Americans still ask whether the American effort in Vietnam was a sin, a blunder, a necessary war, or whether it was a noble cause, or an idealistic, if failed, effort to protect the South Vietnamese from totalitarian government. Summary: Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in Geneva. As a result of the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam received their independence, and Vietnam was temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold unification elections. By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese government. To support the South's government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisors--a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces--which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war. The next president, Richard Nixon, advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon attempted to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar protests on the nation's college campuses. From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement was reached; U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam, and U.S. prisoners of war were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and Vietnam was reunited. Consequences 1. The Vietnam War cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties. It also resulted in between one and two million Vietnamese deaths. 2. Congress enacted the War Powers Act in 1973, requiring the president to receive explicit Congressional approval before committing American forces overseas.