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February 1930
Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party at a meeting in Hong Kong. -
June 1940
Nazi Germany takes control of France. -
August 1945
Japan is defeated by the Allies in World War II, leaving a power vacuum in Indochina. France begins to reassert its authority over Vietnam. -
August 1949
The Soviet Union explodes its first atom bomb in a remote area of Kazakhstan, marking a tense turning point in the Cold War with the United States. -
September 1960
Ho Chi Minh, facing failing health, is replaced by Le Duan as head of North Vietnam’s ruling communist party. -
November 1963
The United States backs a South Vietnam military coup against the unpopular Diem, which ends in the brutal killing of Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Between 1963 and 1965, 12 different governments take the lead in South Vietnam as military coups replace one government after another. -
August 1965
In Operation Starlite, some 5,500 U.S. Marines strike against the First Viet Cong Regiment in the first major ground offensive by U.S. forces in Vietnam. The six-day operation diffuses the Viet Cong regiment, although it would quickly rebuild. -
September 1969
Ho Chi Minh dies of a heart attack in Hanoi. -
January 22, 1973
Former President Johnson dies in Texas at age 64.