July 28

This Day in History

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Lead Story
14th Amendment adopted, 1868
American Revolution
Sargent and Hutchinson arrive at Horn's Hook, New York, 1776
Automotive
Tazio Nuvolari triumphs over Germans at the Nurburgring, 1935
Civil War
Battle of Ezra Church begins, 1864
Cold War
U.S. Senate approves United Nations charter, 1945
Crime
A soft drink containing liquid cocaine sickens an unsuspecting drinker, 1990
Disaster
Plane crashes into Empire State Building, 1945
General Interest
Bonus Marchers evicted by U.S. Army, 1932
Worst modern earthquake, 1976
Hollywood
Animal House released, 1978
Literary
Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin elope to France, 1814
Music
Rudy Vallée is born, 1901
Old West
Indian agent James McLaughlin dies, 1923
Presidential
Future first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is born, 1929
Sports
Dennis Martinez pitches perfect game, 1991
Vietnam War
Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam, 1965
CIA reports minor damage done to North Vietnam's dikes, 1972
World War I
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, 1914
World War II
Hamburg suffers a firestorm, 1943

Vietnam War

Jul 28, 1972:

CIA reports minor damage done to North Vietnam's dikes

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In response to Soviet accusations that the United States had conducted a two-month bombing campaign intentionally to destroy the dikes and dams of the Tonkin Delta in North Vietnam, a CIA report is made public by the Nixon administration. The report revealed that U.S. bombing at 12 locations had in fact caused accidental minor damage to North Vietnam's dikes, but the damage was unintentional and the dikes were not the intended targets of the bombings. The nearly 2,000 miles of dikes on the Tonkin plain, and more than 2,000 along the sea, made civilized life possible in the Red River Delta. Had the dikes been intentionally targeted, their destruction would have destroyed centuries of patient work and caused the drowning or starvation of hundreds of thousands of peasants. Bombing the dikes had been advocated by some U.S. strategists since the beginning of U.S. involvement in the war, but had been rejected outright by U.S. presidents sitting during the war as an act of terrorism.

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This Week in History, Jul 28 - Aug 3

Jul 28, 1965
Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam
Jul 28, 1972
CIA reports minor damage done to North Vietnam's dikes
Jul 29, 1965
101st Airborne Division arrives in Vietnam
Jul 29, 1967
Fire ravages U.S. carrier off Vietnam
Jul 29, 1972
Former U.S. Attorney General visits North Vietnam
Jul 30, 1964
South Vietnamese boats raid islands in the Tonkin Gulf
Jul 30, 1969
Nixon visits South Vietnam
Jul 31, 1964
Agreement on conduct of war
Jul 31, 1972
Hanoi claims that U.S. bombers have struck dikes
Aug 01, 1964
North Vietnamese accuse South Vietnam and the United States of attack
Aug 02, 1964
North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack U.S. destroyer
Aug 02, 1971
Nixon administration acknowledges secret army in Laos
Aug 03, 1965
TV news shows Marines burning village
Aug 03, 1966
Marines launch Operation Prairie

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