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The Geneva Accords was a conference between France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, Laos, Cambodia, the Vietminh, and anti-communist nationalists from South Vietnam. It was held in Geneva, Switzerland, and its goal was to create a peace agreement. It also temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel.
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South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem, had started to lose popularity by creating a corrupt government and ignoring calls to land reform. Because of the Vietcong, he decided to move people into protected villages, which the people resented. He also started to attack Buddhists by killing them or burning down temples. Monks burned themselves in protest. The U.S. military supported a coup against Diem's regime in order for the South Vietnamese government to become stable.
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An American destroyer called the USS Maddox detected a torpedo fired from a North Vietnamese patrol boat. Two days later, the crew on the destroyer reported that more torpedoes from the enemy were being fired. President Johnson asked Congress for powers to attack against North Vietnam, and the Resolution passed, declaring that Johnson can use the measures necessary to retaliate against North Vietnam in order to protect southeast Asia
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The Vietcong launched a surprise attack on the cities of South Vietnam and several American bases on a holiday called Tet. This offensive lasted for about a month until the U.S. and South Vietnam regained the cities.
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The U.S Military massacred more than 200 innocent Vietnamese civilians in My Lai. Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was searching for Vietcong rebels and commanded that the military gathered the villagers and shot them.
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College students at Kent State University, Ohio, were protesting that Nixon was expanding the war by invading Cambodia. The National Guard intervened and shot 4 unarmed college students, killing them.
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Former Defense Department worker Daniel Ellsburg leaked a 7000-page document revealing that there were other plans about entering the war and that there was no plan to end the war as long as North Vietnam continuied to fight back.
