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World powers agree to a divided Vietnam Communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, control the North. The United States eventually supports an anticommunist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem in the South. -
Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces defeat the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, effectively ending the 7 ½-year Indochina War.
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John F. Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the U.S. presidential election; Lyndon B. Johnson is vice president. -
Self immolation of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in Saigon sparks outrage around the world and brings attention to the developing conflict. -
President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered during a coup by dissident generals of the South Vietnamese army.
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Kennedy is assassinated and Johnson is sworn in as president. -
Two supposed incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin lead Johnson to seek congressional approval for direct U.S. involvement in Vietnam. -
First Marines land in Danang. -
Hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters gather for demonstrations in New York’s Central Park and in Washington. -
During the Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops launch surprise attacks against targets throughout South Vietnam. American Homefront support suffers following the attack with the increase in the "Credibility Gap" that is formed. -
Over the course of four hours, American soldiers kill more than 500 unarmed civilians in and around the hamlet of My Lai.
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Johnson announces he will not run for re-election. -
Nixon is elected president, promising to end the war in Vietnam.
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The first Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, a series of mass demonstrations across the United States, take place; a second happens on Nov. 15.
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Nixon goes on television to call for national solidarity on the Vietnam War effort, appealing to a “silent majority” to support his policies. -
Four days after Nixon announced the expansion of the war into Cambodia, four students at Kent State are shot by National Guardsmen during a protest. -
Top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. -
Cease-fire agreement is reached between U.S. and North Vietnam, U.S. POWs begin to return home. -
Last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam.