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The 10 Focal Points of the Vietnam War
This timeline will feature the 10 most important events that happened in Vietnam from 1955-1975. From protests to battles, this will feature the major and key moments of the 2nd Indochina War. -
The FIrst American Casualty
In July of 1959 the first Americans were killed in Vietnam. The United States had military advisors in Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese President Diem and his military. They were killed by guerilla stikes using the Ho Chi Minh trail. This is the first known use of the trail, which was a major trail linking North and South Vietnam that the VC (Viet Cong) used frequently. This obviously was the main reason for bringing in combat troops. -
Thich Quang Duc Protest
In the summer of 1963 a man named Thich Quang Duc who was a buddhist monk living in North Vietnam died in a protest by having himself engulfed in flames. This is important to the Vietnam War because this was the first event that hit the news nation wide in America involving our pressence in VIetnam. After this Vietnam was covering the news. -
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin were two incedents, but one of those weren't true so we don't need to talk about it. The real story of the Gulf of Tonkin was as follows; The United States had combat submarines and ships on North Vietnamese coasts right inside international waters taunting the NVA with signals and combat training. Once the NVA attacked the US Navy, we used that as leaverage to place more troops in Vietnam to commit to this war. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder is the codename for the series of bombings we did to North Vietnam from 1965 to 1968. During these bombing runs we roughly $400,000,000 in damages, killed 18,000 soldiers, and nearly 150,000 civilians. -
Search and Destroy
The United States begins employing Search and Destroy tactics in their military. These were missions where US troops take over an area such as a village or a hill, and then immediately evacuate. They failed because all the Vietnamese had to do was hide outside the US controlled area and then come back when they leave. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive gets it name from the Vietnamese New Year, Tet. On Tet, the US and North Vietnam called a cease fire to celebrate the ancient holiday. While the US followed the cease fire and had no intentions on breaking it, the Vietnamese launched the largest military campaign in the entire war. The North Vietnamese Army, or the NVA attacked 108 cities, towns, and strategic hamlets all throughout South Vietnam. They even held the US embassy and several airfields for 12 hours. -
Democratic Convention Protest
In the late summer of 1968 the annual Democratic Convention was held. At the convention there was the largest Vietnam protest ever. Several groups of protestors came to the event, totalling to be roughly 10,00 demonstators and they were matched to 23,000 police and National Guard. The protest lasted three days, and resulted in 7 people who were leader of these groups to jail and fines by the court. -
Vietnamization
VIetnamization was the first "attempt" at leaving Vietnam by removing troops from combat and training the South Vietnamese Army. This obviously didn't work, and the whole concept was a failure from the start. It was very conflicted in Congress so preogression was halted the whole time. One strategy we used that ended up failing miserably was strategic hamlets. These were designated huts that were basically booby trapped, and they also made great targets for the NVA. -
Ho Chi Minh Dies
Ho Chi Minh dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 79. This was six years before his country was ruled once again under one leader. Sadly, it wasn't him that gave the order for the Fall of Saigon. Of course, Vietnam was greatly tragic after the death of their belovved leader. -
Operation Frequent Wind
Operation Frequent WInd was the codename for what is now known as the Fall of Saigon. The operation was to to evacuate all American and South Vietnamese pressence in Saigon. There were Black Ops, or rogue missions dedicated to starting evacuation earlier, but April 30th is when Ambassador Graham Martin gave orders for full evacuation. The alert for evacuation was the song White Christmas followed by an announcement that the weather was 105 degrees and rising.
