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Japanese troops occupied part of French Indochina, but Vietnam has a 2,000 year history of resisting foreign rule. Ho Chi Minh drew on that history to stir up nationalist feelings.
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Vietnam was part of French Indochina from 1880 to World War II.
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Japan formally surrendered and Vietnam declared its independence.
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French warships opened fire on the port city of Haiphong and killed 6,000 Vietnamese civilians. The next month Viet Minh attacked French ground forces.
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Thousands of U.S. soldiers had already died in Korea trying to halt the spread of communism.
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Viet Minh launched a surprise attack on a large French military base at Down Bien Phu
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The French and Viet Minh signed it. It stopped the fighting and Vietnam was split temporarily along the 17th parallel.
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Eisenhower warned that if Vietnam falls to communism, then the rest of Southeast Asia would follow.
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Viet Minh finally overran the French base, shattered French morale.
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The Viet Minh formed a group called the National Liberation Front And invites all opponents of Diem to join. Vietnamese communists.
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At a Buddhist rally opposing Diem’s policies, South Vietnamese police killed nine demonstrators. Many Buddhist monks protested by setting themselves on fire.
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The president asked the military to begin planing for the bombing of North Vietnam.
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Johnson approved attacks on radar stations along North Vietnamese’s coast. The CIA planned the operation, south Vietnamese carried out the raids in speedboats.
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They Fired machine guns and torpedoes At The U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin. The ship was not damaged.
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The landing of the first combat forces. The United States took over the main responsibility for fighting the war.
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3,500 marines waded ashore ata beach near Da Nang South Vietnam. It was the first time U.S. combat troops set foot in Vietnam.
