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Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu fought from March 13 to May 7, 1954, was a decisive Vietnamese military victory that brought an end to French colonial rule in Vietnam. In its wake came the separation of the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, creating the political framework for continued conflict and, ultimately, the Vietnam War. -
Eisenhower supplying Diem
Eisenhower supplied Diem with money and weapons, sending nearly $2 billion in aid and increasing the number of military advisors to around 1,000. -
Ngo Dinh Diem unfair election
In 1956, South Vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold unification elections -
Terrorist attack
Over 190 terrorist attacks and still rising attacks and clashes between government security forces really started to were down all people in Vietnam -
Viet Cong started really Fighting
By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese government. -
The Start of The Second Indochina War.
By 1959, the Viet Cong, South Vietnamese communist guerillas, and the Viet Minh began a large-scale insurgency in the South that marked the opening of the Second Indochina War. -
Agent Orange
Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The U.S. program, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 20 million gallons of various herbicides over Vietnam. -
Ngo Dinh Diem
Following the overthrow of his government by South Vietnamese military forces the day before, President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers. The death of Diem caused celebration among many people in South Vietnam but also lead to political chaos in the nation. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Maddox and Turner Joy reported that they had been ambushed, with enemy boats firing 22 torpedoes at them. In response, President Johnson ordered air strikes against North Vietnamese bases. He also requested a congressional resolution, known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which passed unanimously in the House and with only two dissenting votes and gave him the power to wage war in Southeast Asia as he saw fit. -
Johnson authorized first of many deployments
February 13, 1965, and continued through the spring of 1967. Johnson also authorized the first of many deployments of regular ground combat troops to Vietnam to fight the Viet Cong in the countryside. -
The Draft
Draft calls soon skyrocketed—along with draft resistance—and by 1967 there were around 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. That same year, large anti-war demonstrations popped up in cities across America. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder marked the first sustained American assault on North Vietnamese territory and represented a major expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.