A. One of the earliest engagements between U. S. combat forces and units of the North Vietnamese Army was the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965. b. Walter Cronkite was a CBS newsman who travelled to Viet Nam after the Tet offensive and determined that the only way for the U. S. to extricate itself from the war would be negotiating with North Viet Nam and the Viet Cong (VC). c. The 3 pillars of U. S. strategy in Viet Nam were: pacification of the Vietnamese populace; training the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN); attrition of enemy forces. d. Four young people died when Ohio National Guardsmen fired on demonstrators on the Campus of Kent State University. e. When in 1970 Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) and U. S. forces launched an "incursion" into North Viet Nam, critics of the war accused President Richard Nixon of expanding the war instead of winding it down.