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The French suffer from a major defeat
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The Geneva Accords creates a cease-fire for the peaceful withdrawal of the French from Vietnam and provides a temporary boundary between North and South Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
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South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam, with newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem as president.
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The NFL also known as the Viet Cong is established in South Vietnam
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South Vietnamese Presedent executed during a coup.
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From the 2nd to the 4th North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident).
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In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
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A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder).
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The first US combat troops arrive in Vietnam
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The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking approximately one hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns.
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U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.
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General William Westmoreland, who had been in charge of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, is replaced by General Creighton Abrams.
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U.S. troops in Vietnam reaches 540,000
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President Nixon orders the first of many U.S. troops withdrawl from Vietnam.
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Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79.
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The American public learns of the Mai Lai massacre.
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President Nixon announces that U.S. troops will attack enemy locations in Cambodia. This news sparks nationwide protests, especially on college campuses.
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South Vietnam surrenders to the communists.
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Vietnam is unified as a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
