Vietnam Era is a term used by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...

(VA) to classify

veterans A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has ...

of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) 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 officially fought between North Vie ...

. Various departments of federal, state and local governments as well as private employers often give Vietnam Era veterans special consideration regarding employment and sometimes assign extra qualifying points. For VA purposes, in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations Chapter 38 Paragraph 3.2 (f), the Vietnam Era is "The period beginning on February 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975, inclusive, in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period. The period beginning on August 5, 1964, and ending on May 7, 1975, inclusive, in all other cases." The

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, and the Department of Veterans Affairs elected to designate those years as such to accord special privileges to all persons who served the country's armed forces during that time. Similar designations have been made for other periods of war. The date August 5, 1964, is significant because it was the day of the start of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam at the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern ...

. Two days later, on August 7, 1964, Congress passed the

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, , was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. It is of historic significance because it gave U.S. p ...

, giving the Johnson Administration significant powers to make war in Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin battle is seen as the beginning of the dramatic escalation of U.S. operations in Vietnam. The end of the war is noted as May 7, 1975, because

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Gerald R. Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

announced the end of the war on that day.

References

{{reflist Vietnam War Veterans' affairs in the United States