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Vietnam forces defete the French which lead the French to pull out of Vietnam. After the French leave the United States enter.
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Vietminh General and French General sign an agreement to cesse the hostilities in Vietnam. A provisional demarcation line at the 17th parallel, which will divideVietnam until nation wide elections are held in 1956. The United States and the government of the last emperor Bao Dai did not accept the agreement.
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Ngo Dinh Diem rejects the Geneva Accords and refuses the nationwide elections. They did elections in South Vietnam but they were riged, and Diem won and becomes the President of Republic of Vietnam. He also claimed he was the leader even without the riged election. The South seperated from the north and declared they were the Republic of Vietnam. The US try to get him to accept the Accords but he still does not.
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Throughout the whole war many people protest the Vietnam war. On this day Buddhist monks started protesting and starting burning themselves to death at a busy intersection.
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President Ngo Dinh Diem dies during a coup. The U.S. backed up the coup. Diem and his brother were exicuted.
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North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destriyers sitting in international waters. In response the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. It gave President Lyndon B. Johnson aatuhorization to use military force in Southeast Asia, without a formal declaration of war by Congress.
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Operation Rolling Thunder started which was a U.S. areal bombing campaign on North Vietnam. This lasted three years.
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The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
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U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai. The total is not confermend but it is believed that 500 people including women, children, and elderly were killed as well. This was the most horrific incidents of violence against civilians during the War. The American public do not learn of the Mai Lai massacre until Novemeber 1969. This created a further division of the vation over the American presence in Vietnam. Also lowered morale within the GIs.
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President Nixon orders the first of many U.S. troops to withdrawal from Vietnam. This is admitting defeate.
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The Paris Peace Accords are signed that provide a cease-fire. The Pease Accords made all U.S. and all non-Vietnamese troops to withdrawal from Vietnam. This Accord also was going to unifi North and South Vietnam in a peasful way.
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The last of the U.S. troops leave and are withdrawn from Vietnam.
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North Vietnam launches a massice assault on South Vietnam. tis leads to South Vietnam surrendering to the North communists in April.
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Vietnam becomes a unified communist country called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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Vietnam Veterans get the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.
