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First troops sent over to Vietnam, was to help the french in the First Indochina War. -
North Vietnam let a 300 day window for their citizens to safely migrate to the Pro-Western South Vietnam and for the South Vietnamese citizens to migrate to Pro-Communist North Vietnam. The U.S. carried out Operation Passage to Freedom which successfully transported 310,000 North Vietnamese citizens to South Vietnam -
He deploys the Military Assistance Advisory Group which marks the official start of American involvement in the Vietnamese war. -
After Vice President Lyndon B Johnson visits Vietnam in 1961 Kennedy sends 400 more Special Forces to help to continue to train the South Vietnamese troops. -
The US Military begins tests of "Operation Trail Dust" a herbicidal warfare program which is later responsible for the controversial Agent Orange. -
After successful Vietcong attacks against US troops McNamara realizes they need serious manpower and asks for 200k troops to be sent over to Vietnam not realizing more manpower won't help against guerrilla war. -
In May 1963 a Buddhist monk Thic Quang Duc burned himself alive to protest the anti-buddhist South Vietnamese government. The US newspapers ran the story on June 11th 1963. This brought negative attention to the South Vietnamese government and the US Government as they were backing anti-buddhist governmetns and we're indirectly responsible for his death -
This brings in Vice President Lyndon B Johnson who turns out to be much more hawkish then Kennedy on foreign affairs and especially Vietnam. Some consider this the reason we got into war and Kennedy would have kept us out. -
LBJ decides to send 50k more troops which makes the total 125,000 and doubles the draft call. This begins the escalation of the war. -
Richard Nixon who ran on ending the war announces a gradual withdrawal of troops from Vietnam however during this announcement the amount of troops in the country peaks at 540,000. -
After saying he would in 1970 Nixon begins the Withdrawal of forces possibly to help him in the 1972 Presidential Election. -
On this date the last troops on the ground officially leave Vietnam ending the war. Historians suspect this was an attempt to get the watergate scandal off the news.