Vietnam War

By jayrobertson
  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Ho Chi Minh and Communism

    Ho Chi Minh helps find the IndoChinese Communist Party

  • Ho Chi Minh establishes the Viet Minh

  • Japan invades Vietnam

  • FDR dies

  • The Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

    Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam and independent country,

  • First American Dies in Vietnam

    Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey, head of the American O.S.S. mission, is killed by Vietminh troops while driving a Jeep to the airport. Reports will later indicate that his death was due to a case of mistaken identity -- he had been mistaken for a Frenchman.

  • ENIAC, World's First Automatic Digital Computer, Introduced

    was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory. heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain".[6] It had a speed of one thousand times that of electro-mechanical machines. This mathematical power, coupled with general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The inventors promoted the spread of these new ideas by conducting a series of lectures on computer architecture.

  • Jackie Robinson Signs with Brooklyn Dodgers

    April 10: The Brooklyn Dodgers announce the purchase of the contract of Jack Roosevelt Robinson from Montreal. April 15: Jackie makes his big-league debut against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. On this day, Jackie grounds out against Johnny Sain in his first at-bat. He goes 0-3 and scores a run.

  • George Orwell's 1984 Published

  • Vietn Minh establish relationship with China

    The Viet Minh receive military advisors and weapons from China.

  • US helps France with Vietnam

    The United States pledges $15 million worth of military aid to France to help them fight in Vietnam.

  • US pays for 80% of France's war

    Truman and Ike continued to support the French military campaing against the Vietminh by paying for the 1st Indochina War.

  • Vietminh victory at Dien Bien Phu

    Vietnamese forces occupy the French command post at Dien Bien Phu and the French commander orders his troops to cease fire. The battle had lasted 55 days. Three thousand French troops were killed, 8,000 wounded. The Viet Minh suffered much worse, with 8,000 dead and 12,000 wounded, but the Vietnamese victory shattered France's resolve to carry on the war.

  • Geneva Accords is finalized

    The Geneva Accords creates a cease-fire for the peaceful withdrawal of the French from Vietnam and provides a temporary boundary between North and South Vietnam at the 17th parallel. Elections would be held in 1956 to unify the counry.

  • Diem Becomes President of Republic of Vietnam

  • South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam

    Newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem is president.

  • Ho Minh trail is finalized

    A specialized North Vietnamese Army unit, Group 559, is formed to create a supply route from North Vietnam to Vietcong forces in South Vietnam. With the approval of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia, Group 559 develops a primitive route along the Vietnamese/Cambodian border, with offshoots into Vietnam along its entire length.

  • Viet Cong, is established in South Vietnam

    The National Liberation Front (NLF), also called the Viet Cong

  • US begins involvement

    President John F. Kennedy orders more help for the South Vietnamese government in its war against the Vietcong guerrillas. U.S. backing includes new equipment and more than 3,000 military advisors and support personnel.

  • JFK helps South Vietnam

    President John F. Kennedy orders more help for the South Vietnamese government in its war against the Vietcong guerrillas. U.S. backing includes new equipment and more than 3,000 military advisors and support personnel.

  • Operation Ranchhand begins.

    The goal is to clear vegetation alongside highways, making it more difficult for the Vietcong to conceal themselves for ambushes. As the war continues, the scope of Ranchhand increases. Vast tracts of forest are sprayed with "Agent Orange," an herbicide containing the deadly chemical Dioxin. Guerrilla trails and base areas are exposed, and crops that might feed Vietcong units are destroyed.

  • Buddhist monks protest

    In protest against governmental anti-Buddhist policies, crowds gathered to protest after the South Vietnamese government prohibited Buddhists from carrying flags on Buddha's birthday. Government troops opened fire to disperse the dissidents, killing nine people, Diems government blamed the incident on the Vietcong and never admitted responsibility. The Buddhist leadership quickly organized demonstrations that eventually led to seven monks burning themselves to death.

  • Diem is executed

    South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup.

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident).

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions passed

    The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he sees necessary to defend southeast Asia.

  • China has atomic bomb

    China, North Vietnam's neighbor and ally, successfully tests an atomic bomb.

  • Operation Rolling Thunder begins

    A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam.

  • The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.

  • Battle of Chu Lai

    After a deserter from the 1st Vietcong regiment reveals that an attack is imminent against the U.S. Marine base at Chu Lai, the American army launches Operation Starlite. In this, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, the United States scores a resounding victory. Ground forces, artillery from Chu Lai, ships and air support combine to kill nearly 700 Vietcong soldiers. U.S. forces sustain 45 dead and more than 200 wounded.

  • Tet Offensive

    The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking approximately one hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns.

  • Mai Lai Massacre

    U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.

  • MLK is assassinated

    Assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the US, and charged with the crime. On Mar 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Ray later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful.

  • RFK is assassinated

    Took place shortly after midnight, in LA, CA, during the campaign season for the US Presidential election, 1968. After winning the CA and SD primary elections for the Dem nomination for President of the US, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital 26 hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-yr-old Palestinian/Jordanian immigrant, was convicted and is serving a life sentence for the crime.

  • Gen Abrams takes over

    General William Westmoreland, who had been in charge of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, is replaced by General Creighton Abrams.

  • Chicago Democratic Convention riots

    Held on August 26-29th, stands as an important event in the nation's political & cultural history. The divisive politics of the convention, brought about by the Vietnam War policies of Pres Johnson, prompted the Dem party to completely overhaul its rules for selecting presidential delegates -- opening up the political process to millions. The violence between police & anti-Vietnam War protesters in the streets & parks of Chicago gave the city a black eye form which it has yet to recover from.

  • Presidential election of 1968

    The Rep nominee, former VP Nixon, won the election over the Dem nominee, incumbent VP Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law & order to the nation's cities, torn by riots and crime. Analysts have argued the election of '68 is a realigning election as it permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 yrs. Coming 4 years after Dem LBJ won in a history the election saw the incumbent pres forced out of the race.

  • Escalation of US troops

    U.S. troops in Vietnam reaches 540,000.

  • Vietnamization annonunced

    US Pres Nixon introduced a new strategy called Vietnamization that was aimed at ending American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep divisions in US society. Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam's military strength in order to facilitate a gradual withdrawal of US troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to take responsibility for their own.

  • America invasion of Cambodia

    Pres Nixon, at a news conference, defends the US troop movement into Cambodia, saying the operation would provide 6-8 months of time for training South Vietnamese forces and thus would shorten the war for Americans. Nixon reaffirmed his promise to withdraw 150,000 US soldiers by the following spring.The announcement that US and South Vietnamese troops had invaded Cambodia resulted in a firestorm of protests and gave the antiwar movement a new rallying point.

  • Kent State Massacre

    National Guardsmen open fire on a crowd of student antiwar protesters at Ohio's Kent State University, resulting in the death of four students and the wounding of eight others. President Nixon publicly deplores the actions of the Guardsmen, but cautions: "when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy." Several of the protesters had been hurling rocks and empty tear gas canisters at the Guardsmen.

  • 26th Amenment passed

    lowering the voting age in America from 21 to 18 began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their country. In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to regulate the minimum age in federal elections, but not at the state and local level.

  • Pentagon paper published

    The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, revealing a legacy of deception concerning U.S. policy in Vietnam on the part of the military and the executive branch. The Nixon administration, eager to stop leaks of what it considers sensitive information, appeals to the Supreme Court to halt the publication. The Court decides in favor of the Times and the First Amendment right to free speech.

  • President Nixon Wins Reelection

  • Christmas bombings

    Known as Linebacker II, it was the biggest ever bombing campaign by US B-52 aircraft took place over X- mas 40 years ago, when the US dropped at least 20,000 tonnes of explosives on North Vietnam, mostly Hanoi. More than 1,000 Vietnamese died, but some claim the assault may have helped bring about the deal signed a month later that led to an end to US involvement in the war.

  • Cease-fire Signed in Paris

    A cease-fire agreement that, in the words of Richard Nixon, "brings peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia," is signed in Paris by Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. The agreement is to go into effect on January 28th

  • Last American Troops Leave Vietnam

  • War Powers Act passed

    a fed law intended to check the Pres' power to commit the US to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a US Congress joint resolution; this provides that the Pres can send US armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the US, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." It requires the Pres to notify Congress within 48 hrs of committing armed for war.

  • Nixon Impeachment Hearings Begin

    The House Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon. Among the articles of impeachment is a resolution condemning Nixon for the secret bombing of Cambodia.

  • Last Americans Evacuate as Saigon Falls

    South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh delivers an unconditional surrender to the Communists in the early hours of April 30. North Vietnamese colonel Bui Tin accepts the surrender and assures Minh, "...only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy." As the few remaining Americans evacuate Saigon, the last two U.S. servicemen to die in Vietnam are killed when their helicopter crashes.