This post covers blue water operations off the cost of Vietnam. That is the open seas fleet, the gun line, coastal fire support, naval aviation and the logistics of a war halfway around the world in rough seas along Vietnam's 2100 mile coastline.

The most perilous moment in human history. In the words of Thomas Blanton, the head of the National Security Archive, "The lesson is that a guy named Vasily Arkhipov has saved the world."

The North Korean Blitzkrieg caught the US painfully unprepared. But thanks to carrier air strikes, shore bombardment, Marine courage, & uncontested supply routes, the situation stabilized before General MacArthur executed one of the most daring amphibious landings of all time to turn the war around.