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The Saigon Military Mission, a covert operation to conduct psychological warfare and paramilitary activities in South Vietnam, is launched under the command of U.S. Air Force Col. Edward Lansdale. This marks the beginning of the Vietnam War. Many of the mission’s ongoing efforts are directed at supporting the regime of South Vietnamese Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
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The Geneva Accords effectively divide Vietnam in two at the 17th parallel. Although the Accords explicitly state that the 17th parallel “should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary,” it is quickly afforded exactly that status.
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Viet Minh troops under Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap overrun the French base at Dien Bien Phu. The stunning victory by Vietnamese forces brings an end to nearly a century of French colonial rule in Indochina.
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Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated by his own generals as part of a coup d’état that is carried out with the tacit support of U.S. officials. Ngo’s autocratic and violent excesses when dealing with South Vietnam’s majority Buddhist population led the U.S. to withdraw its patronage of him. At this point approximately 16,000 U.S. military personnel are in Vietnam, and 200 have been killed.
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After commanders reported a North Vietnamese torpedo boat attack on the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson submits the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to Congress. The resolution authorizes the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.”
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A Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of Vietnam (PROVN), a study commissioned by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Harold K. Johnson, is published. Its findings suggest that the strategy of attrition being pursued by U.S. commander Gen. William Westmoreland is counterproductive, and it recommends that more U.S. effort should be directed at ensuring the security and stability of South Vietnam’s rural population. ARMY PPL HATED IT.
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During the Vietnamese New Year holiday of Tet, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces begin an offensive that will eventually hurl some 85,000 troops against five major cities, dozens of military installations, and scores of towns and villages throughout South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese suffer casualty rates approaching 60 percent. There are approximately 485,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and over 20,000 have been killed.
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As many as 500 unarmed villagers are killed by U.S. Army troops in the hamlet of My Lai. Groups of women, children, and elderly men are shot at close range by elements of Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade. Attempts to cover up the massacre. November 1974 Calley will be released on parole after serving just three and a half years under house arrest.
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Millions of people across the United States take to the streets to protest the continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The antiwar demonstrations represent the largest public protests in U.S. history to date.
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Representatives of South Vietnamese communist forces, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States conclude the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-Nam in Paris. U.S. troops are to be withdrawn within 60 days and the 17th parallel will remain the dividing line until the country can be reunited by “peaceful means.”
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The last U.S. military unit leaves Vietnam. In over a decade of fighting, some 58,000 U.S. troops have been killed. Vietnamese casualties include more than 200,000 South Vietnamese troops and more than 1,000,000 North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong irregulars. Civilian deaths total as many as 2,000,000.