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Vietnam War
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The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel
The Geneva Accords consisted of separate cease-fire arrangements for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam as well as an unsigned final declaration. The most significant provisions temporarily divided Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel, creating a northern zone under DRV authority and a southern region dominated by the French Union. The accords called for all military forces to withdraw to their respective zones within three hundred days. -
JFK and Ngo Dinh Diem meet
Following a meeting between South Vietnam's President Diem and Kennedy, the United States agrees to increase the number of American advisors in Vietnam from 340 to 805. The commitment places the prestige of the Kennedy Adminstration behind the efforts in Vietnam. -
Diem overthrown
The US government realized, in the summer of 1963, that the Diem government was hopeless. It was corrupt, incompetent, and dictatorial; hardly anyone in South Vietnam, even its own officers, liked or respected it very much. If the war against the Communists were to be won, Ngo Dinh Diem would have to go. US officials in Saigon therefore began encouraging ARVN officers to overthrow Diem. Within a few months the officers were ready, and Diem was overthrown and shot. The Americans were distressed. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135 and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin. -
President Johnson declares he will not "lose Vietnam" during a meeting with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Washington
Two days after Kennedy's assasination, new president, JOhnson, declares in a meeting that he will not lose vietnam like what had happened in China. He made this his personal war because he felt that if Vietnam fell, then all of asia would follow like dominoes. -
Operation Rolling Thunder Begins
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from March 2nd, 1965 until November 1st, 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Massive anti-war demonstrations held in the U.S.
By the beginning of 1965, the antiwar movement base had coalesced on campuses and lacked only a catalyst to bring wider public acceptance to its position. That catalyst appeared early in February, when the U.S. began bombing North Vietnam. The pace of protest immediately quickened; its scope broadened. On 17 April 1965, between 15,000 and 25,000 people gathered at the capital, a turnout that surprised even the organizers -
MyLai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of 347–504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, conducted by a unit of the United States Army. All of the victims were civilians and most were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Many of the victims were raped, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated. -
President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia
President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing a U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia in response to continuing Communist gains against Lon Nol's forces. The incursion is and is also intended to weaken overall NVA military strength as a prelude to U.S. departure from Vietnam.
