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Dien Bien Phu
French Commander orders troops to cease fire
French suffer 3,000 dead 8,000 wounded
Viet Minh suffer 8,000 dead 12,000 wounded
French retreat -
Creation of Ho Chi Minh trail
Lond trail that consisted of rivers, tunnels and foot paths
Troops easily hidden beneath canopy
Americans primarily used agent orange to remove foliage but it was to big of a job -
United States becomes activley involved
helicopters flown by U.S. Army pilots take 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers to attack a NLF stronghold near Saigon -
Operation Rangeland
Goal is to clear vegetation from highways making it harder for vietcong to hide -
Gulf of Tonkin attack
South vietnamese commandos attack two north vietnamese islands. The U.S. Destroyer maddox was electronically controlled to simulate an air attack to draw attention away from the commandos -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
This gave President Johnson the power to take what ever action he saw necessary to protect south east asia -
President Johnson commits 60,000 troops to veitnam
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Period: to
Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a demonstration of America’s near total air supremacy during the Vietnam War. It was started to demoralise the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam to govern. Operation Rolling Thunder failed on both accounts. -
U.S. offers peace for econmic aid
The U.S. offered North vietnam economic aid in exchange for peace. It was turned down. troop levels raised to 60,000 -
First major battle for American units in vietnam war
Deserter from the Vietcong warns US troops of impending attack on the U.S. Marine base at Chu Lai. Operation starlite was put into effect and it was a resounding victory for the US -
Operation Juction city
Goal: to destroy veitcong bases and military headquarters in south vietnam. it lasted 72 days. one of the largest helicopter assaults ever staged -
Tet offensive begins
In Hanoi, as Communist forces are building up for the Tet Offensive, 200 senior officials are arrested in a crackdown on opponents of the Tet strategy. -
Khe Sanh attacked by Vietcong
250 americans died
1600 vietcong died
50% of cbs war news shot at this base -
My lai massacre
U.S. Charlie Company kills about two hundred civilians.
This undid the benefit of countless hours of civic action by Army units and individual soldiers -
Nixon takes Office
Promised to achieve peace with honor. -
Operation Menu
authorized by Nixon. allowed the US to drop bombs on vietcong bases in north vietnam and cambodia -
only 133,000 american soldiers remain
Ground warfare is now almost exclusivly south vietnamese with over 1,000,000 men enlisted in the army -
Peace talks break down
Peace talks in paris have halted -
Peace talks Resume
Peace talks resume -
cease fire singed
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Nixon Resigns
President Richard M. Nixon resigns, leaving South Vietnam without its strongest advocate. -
Last casualties for US
Two marines killed in rocket attack at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport. At dawn, the last Marines of the force guarding the U.S. embassy lift off. Only hours later, looters ransack the embassy, and North Vietnamese tanks role into Saigon, ending the war.