-
Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu was the last battle between the French which occupied the south and the Viet Minh which occupied the north. After this battle, the french agreed to pull there troops out of south vietnam but the country stayed divided. Ho Chi Minh was given control of the north, and Emperor Bao Dai control of the south. -
U.S. Begins to use Nepalm
The U.S. starts to use Agent Orangem a defoliant that burns the trees and grass allowing troops to see enemys, trails, roads, or rivers that the enemy may have been using. -
Ngo Dinh Diem
Diem was the leader of south Vietnam that we had wanted in place. For a while anyways. After a while, we realized he was becoming a liability. He was a catholic in a buddhist country, and there for was very out of touch with the people of the south. He had called the U.S. asking us to get him out of the country beause of a coux that was plotting to over throw and kill him. We had known about this but said nothing and allowed it to happen. -
JFK Assassination
The JFK assassination caused the U.S. to change presidents in the middle of the Vietnam War. Kennedy sent the most "advisors" over to Vietnam out of all the presidents during the period. He was assassinated in Dallas and most people believed he shouldn't have even went to campaign in Texas because his VP was from there and they had the states votes pretty much rapped up. LBJ took over the presidency after his death. -
Gulf of Tonkin Incedent
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was when Vietnamese attack boats attacked an American destroyer named the Maddox. This incident is what brought on full American participation in the war. Some people believed that the second attack and even this attack might have been falsified so we could increase our involvement in the war. Instead of just advisors, we had started to put soldiers in vietnam also. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was Johnsons way of answering the attack on the maddox. By passing the law, congress gave Johnson the power to take whatever measures needed to defend the U.S. and stop the spread of communism. This also meant he could send troops to Vietnam for longer then 60 days without asking permission from congress. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the U.S. retaliating after an attack by the VietCong. This was a big expense for us and was not even worth any of the money spent on it. The damage done, monetary wise, was not worth the money spent on the bombs. There are not very many big cities in vietnam so the bombing was not very effective. -
Battle of Ia Drang
This was the first battle that was strictly between the Americans and the North Vietnamese. Nobody knows who really won the battle because both sides claim victory, but on official record, the US never lost a battle in the vietnam war. -
Tet Offensive
The tet offensive was simultaneous attacks by the NVA and the Viet Cong on south Vietnamese cities. We thought that since it was Tet, the vietnamese version of New Years day, that they would not try and fight on that day and it would be a relaxing day. We were wrong, Even though they caught us by surprise, it was still an overwhelming defeat of the Communist guerillas. Within weeks, we had recaptured all the cities they had taken over. Public opinion of the war went from 56% for, these people -
Tet Offensive (cont)
were called hawks, to a much lesser support of 40% hawks, and the percentage of the population that was doves went from 26% to 40%. -
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre was when US soldiers went into a suspected encampment of Viet Cong. When they got there, there were no Viet Cong, not even a trace of them ever being there. Instead of just moving the villagers like they had been doing, they raped the women some of the women and killed everybody. They would mow down the inhabitants with automatic machine guns. One soldier said, "if there weren't any Viet Cong here before, there certanly won't be any here now". Between 300-500 vietnamese died. -
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon is the official end of the war completely. The NVA attacked the ARVN and took over the south Vietnamese capital of Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Mihn city after the leader of the North Vietnamese effectivly ending the war for good and uniting the two countries as one communist nation.
