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French troops suffer a humiliating defeat by Viet Minh forces at Dien Bien Phu resulting in the end of French rule in Indochina(Vietnam).
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President Eisenhower announces that the fall of French Indochina to communists has the ability to create a domino effect in Southeast Asia, which guides the US opinion of Vietnam for the next decade.
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North Vietnam backs the formation of The National Liberation Front (NLF) as the political wing of the antigovernment in South Vietnam. This leads to the US viewing the NLF as communist Vietnam.
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The assassination of President Kennedy leads to Lyndon B. Johnson becoming president.
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While the US backed a South Vietnam military coup against Diem, killing both him and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. This caused South Vietnam to have one military coup replace one government after another with a total of 12 different governments taking lead from 1963-1965.
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When President Johnson calls for 50,000 more ground troops in Vietnam, there is an increasing the draft to 35,000 each month.
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There were nearly 300 Americans killed and hundreds injured in the first large-scale battle of the war. In this battle, Us troops were dropped from a helicopter and picked back up on the battlefield in what later became a common strategy. Both sides declared this a victory.
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There are lots of Vietnam War protests that occurred in Washington D.C., New York City, and San Fransico.
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Richard M. Nixon is the newly nominated US president, who promised in his campaign to restore "law and order" as well as to end the draft.
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"US B-52 bombers target suspected communist base camps and supply zones in Cambodia"-History.com, in a series of secret bombings known as Operation Menu kept under wraps by President Nixon because Cambodia is a neutral area in the war although the New York Times later reveals the operation.
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The US government issues the first draft since WWII. This causes many young men to flee to Canada, resulting in the name "draft dodgers".
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When President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, direct US involvement in the Vietnam War comes to a halt.
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President Nixon could see the writing on the wall and understood that if he didn't resign, he would most likely be impeached after the Watergate Scandal (a break-in in 1972 that led to an investigation that revealed the multiple abuses of power that the Nixon administration committed) was revealed to the public. Therefore Gerald R. Ford becomes the next president.
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Soon after President Ford's election to presidency, he rules out any further US military involvement in Vietnam.
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The government of South Vietnam surrenders when their capital is seized by communist forces. In an 18-hour time span, US Marine and Air Force helicopters transport over 1,000 American civilians and about 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees out of Saigon in a mass evacuation effort.
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