This book depicts the United States Navy's contribution to the twenty-five-year American and Vietnamese campaign to defend the Republic of Vietnam. The dimension of that effort is suggested by the fact that two million U.S. naval personnel, more than 2,551 of whom lost their lives, served their country in Southeast Asia. The text and photographs in By Sea, Air, and Land cover all naval aspects of this prolonged campaign, particularly the operations of carrier, surface, amphibious, logistic, riverine, coastal, and mine forces. Assessments of the Navy's overall experience in counterinsurgency, civic action, and the advisory effort are provided. Coverage extends to naval forces assigned to the Seventh Fleet as well as to units based ashore that reported to the Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam. Chapter 1 - The Early Years, 1950-1959 * Passage to Freedom * Development of the Vietnamese Navy * Chapter 2 - The Era of Growing Conflict, 1959-1965 * The Crises in Laos * U.S. Naval Advisors and the Vietnamese Navy * Counterinsurgency and the Navy * U.S. Navy Direct Support * Expanding Operations into North Vietnam and Laos * Gulf of Tonkin Incidents * The Conflict in Transition * Chapter 3 - The Years of Combat, 1965-1968 * The Naval Command in Southeast Asia * The Carrier Force * Rolling Thunder * Amphibious Landings in South Vietnam * Bombardment from the Sea * Coastal Interdiction * The Naval Command in South Vietnam * River Patrol * Riverine Assault Force * The Naval Advisory Effort * Civic Action * The Navy's Logistic Support of the War * Naval Support Activities * Chapter 4 - Winding Down the War, 1968-1973 * The SEALORDS Campaign * Allied Navies on the Offensive * Vietnamization of Naval Operations * Task Force 77 Operations * Allied Surface Warfare * Vietnamization Completed * Countering the Easter Offensive * Linebacker * Withdrawal from the War * Chapter 5 - The Final Curtain, 1973-1975 * Naval Evacuation of i Corps and II Corps * Eagle Pull * The Fall of South Vietnam * Appendixes * A. U.S. Navy Medal of Honor Recipients * B. Secretaries of the Navy and Key U.S. Naval Officers * C. Carrier Deployments to Southeast Asia * D. Aircraft Tailcodes * E. Enemy Aircraft Shot Down by Naval Aviators in Southeast Asia * Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms * Selected Bibliography When many Americans think of the Vietnam War, they visualize Army infantrymen warily inching their way along a jungle trail or slogging through endless rice paddies under a mercilessly hot sun. Troops fighting house to house through the streets of Saigon during the cataclysmic Tet Offensive of 1968 is another scene that comes readily to mind. Others may picture an Air Force attack jet dropping napalm bombs on a Viet Cong position or B-52s releasing strings of bombs high above the clouds. The aim of this illustrated history is to shed light on the significant involvement of the U.S. Navy, over a period of 25 years, in the struggle for Southeast Asia. The Navy was there from 1950, when the French Union Forces battling the Viet Minh were supplied with American aircraft and naval vessels, to 1975, when helicopters and ships of the Seventh Fleet evacuated the last Americans from Saigon. During the years from 1964 to 1973 alone, 2,636,000 sailors and Marines served in the Southeast Asian operational theater. Even before 1965, when substantial U.S. ground and air forces deployed to Southeast Asia, the fleet maintained a powerful presence in the waters off troubled Indochina. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations repeatedly brandished the fleet weapon to deter Chinese and North Vietnamese military activism and to influence the political-military struggle ashore.