ABSTRACT
If one considers the long war in Vietnam dating from 1945 to 1975, naval power and the coalitions that wielded that power had a significant impact on the evolution of the conflict. The naval coalitions went through several phases, including cooperation between France and the United States, then a period after France’s withdrawal that included only the United States and South Vietnam, and finally the widening of the coalition after the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident to include Australia.
