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Ho Chi Minh is born.
He was born on May 19, 1890 and was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader. Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist ruled democratic republic of Vietnam in 1954 and defeating the French Union. -
Vietnam declares independence from France, but neither France not the United States recognize Vietnam as a serparate nation.
The North Vietnamese do not respond well to this because they think they are being treated unfairly and that the French and the United States has no respect for Vietnam as a nation. -
President Eisenhower declares "Domino Theory"
The idea behind the Domino Theory is that Vietnam was going to become a communist nation and the U.S was against communism and did not want it to be spread because of the Domino Theory this would mean that if one nation becomes communist all of them will follow. -
The Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu
In 1954, the Viet Minh army, under General Vo Nguyen Giap, moved against Dien Bien Phu and in March encircled it with 40,000 Communist troops and heavy artillery toward the French position they gave a good fight but not long after the 13,000 French forces collapsed.The United States responded by increasing military aid to South Vietnam and sending the first U.S military advisers to the country in 1959 -
The Geneva Accords cause Vietnam to be split into North and South.
At the 17th parallel North and South Vietnam was divided -
Ngo Dinh Diem cancels election in Vietnam
He did this because he knew he was going to lose the election so he decided to cancel it altogether. What was being voted on was for Vietnam to remove its border and become one whole nation, not North and South. -
The National Liberation Front is formed.
The National Liberation Front is the Viet Cong and they were a mass political organization in South Vietnam. They fought the United States and the South Vietnam government in the Vietnam War. -
A South Vietnamese monk sets himself on fire
This man was a Buddhist and he did this because Ngo Dinh Diem was a Christian so anyone who wasn't a Christain would be killed because he thought that any other religion was wrong so this monk set himself on fire to protest freedom of religion. -
The United States withdraws support of Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam
Diem would refuse to make any meaningful concessions or institute any significant new reforms which caused the withdraw of support from the United States. Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated shortly after that. -
President Kennedy is assassinated, leading to the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
The situation in Vietnam would have been completely different i think if JFK had lived because i think he was going to pull U.S troops out of Vietnam because it seemed to him they were just having a civil war and the U.S did not need to get involved. So yes i think it would of been different if JFK did live. -
President Johnson claims a U.S ship had been fired upon by North Vietnamese
The U.S.S Maddox was fired upon from 3 north Vietnamese boats but the Maddox took hardly any damage but one Vietnamese boat sank and the other two were crippled. This gave the U.S a reason to enter the war of Vietnam which is what Lyndon B. Johnson wanted because he knew the citizens of the U.S would not support the war so he needed a reason to declare war on Vietnam. -
The first combat troops arrive in Vietnam
The U.S first sent Military Advisors to Vietnam around September 1950 these people weren't actually troops that would fight these are just advisors for the United States military troops won't be brought in till later.
