Vietnam Timeline

By cwil6652

  • War Powers Act

    This was made to check the presidents power to commit the US to armed conflict without approval of Congress.

  • Dien Bien Phu

    This was a battle fought between Northwest Vietnam and the French. The Vietnamese were fighting for their freedom to remain while the French wanted to reclaim Vietnam as one of their colonies.

  • Geneva Accords

    This document did the following:
    Vietnam would become independent, the former French colonies of Cambodia and Laos will also be given their freedom. Vietnam would be temporarily divided for 2 years.

  • Eisenhower

    He was president during the beginning of the Vietnam war. His move to deploy military assistance advisory groups to Vietnam is the action that officially got the US involved in the war.

  • Kennedy

    He supported France at first but then changed to supporting South Vietnam. He provided them with jet fighters, helicopters, and other tools to aid them in war.

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    This is what officially got the US involved in the Vietnam war. Two unprovoked attacks were made on US ships by North Vietnamese torpedos.

  • Tonkin resolution

    (Southeast Asia Resolution) This resolution authorized President Johnson to take any action he saw fit to retaliate and keep international peace and security.

  • Johnson

    After the Tonkin incident his powers were greatly extended. He authorized a massive bobbing campaign and sent troops to South Vietnam.

  • Fulbright Commission 1966

    This was a hearing called to question the range of experts on the progress of the Vietnam war. This was a televised session, which was unusual for this type of hearing. The main reason for the hearing was Johsons’s decision to resume bombing North Vietnam. Johnson thought that pausing the bombing would only allow more men to position themselves into South Vietnam.

  • Vietnamization

    This was a policy by Richard Nixon to end the US involvement in the Vietnam War. The program was to “Expand, Equip, and Train south Vietnamese forces”. Then they would steadily reduce the number of US troops.

  • Tet Offensive

    This was a series of attacks led by North Vietnamese. It affected over 100 cities in South Vietnam. This attack was mostly to try and cause a rebellion among the south Vietnamese people and to try and get the US to pull back its involvement in the Vietnam war.

  • My Lai Massacre

    This was where a group of American soldiers brutally killed people (women, children, and old men) in the village of My Lai.

  • Nixon

    He campaigned promising to end the war. He also sabotaged peace talk to better his campaign. He gradually withdrew troops under “Vietnamization” and escalated the conflict in many different ways. In 1973 he ended direct US involvement in the war. He claimed that “peace with honor”had been achieved.

  • Invasion of Cambodia

    This was a series of military operations in eastern Cambodia by South Vietnam and the US as an extension of the Vietnam war and the Cambodian Civil War.

  • Daniel Ellsberg

    He is known for leaking papers from the Pentagon. These papers contained top secret information about the US government making decisions in relations to the Vietnam War.

  • Pentagon Papers

    This is documents from the Department of Defense history of the US’s political and military involvement in the Vietnam war. These papers were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg.

  • Christmas Bombing

    (Operation Linebacker II) American Bombers dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on cities of Hanoi and Haiphong . These bombings went from Dec 18th to Dec 29th. This was done to pressure Vietnam into peace talk.

  • Paris Peace Conference

    This was the official ending to the Vietnam war and the beginning of restoring peace in Vietnam.

  • Ford

    He claimed the Vietnam war was over. This was bad for the South Vietnamese which were begin for aid as the North was preparing to take over the south’s capital. Despite his promise to aid the south he did nothing when they needed help. South Vietnam was forced to surrender when the north invaded the capital. This ended the war.

  • Fall of Saigon

    This was the capture of Saigon, which is the capital of South Vietnam. The people’s army of Vietnam were the attackers.