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Japan Occupation of Vietnam
On 22 September 1940 the Japanese troops invaded from China occupying Vietnam. As the French retreated southward, the Japanese encouraged Vietnamese troops to support the invasion. The French protested to the Japanese, however, and a cease-fire was arranged whereby the French forces returned to their posts and promptly put down all insurrection. -
League for the Independence of Vietnam
Viet Minh, in full Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, English League for the Independence of Vietnam, organization that led the struggle for Vietnamese independence from French rule. The Viet Minh was formed in China in May 1941 by Ho Chi Minh. Although led primarily by Communists, the Viet Minh operated as a national front organization open to persons of various political persuasions. -
French defeated at Dien Bien Phu
In northwest Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel at the conference of Geneva. -
National Liberation Front
National Liberation Front, formally National Front of the Liberation of the South, Vietnamese political organization formed on Dec. 20, 1960, to effect the overthrow of the South Vietnamese government and the reunification of North and South Vietnam. An overtly communist party was established in 1962 as a central component of the NLF, but both the military arm, the Viet Cong, and the political organization of the NLF included many noncommunists. -
Ngo Dinh Diem
The brutal murder of the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and his powerful brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu, on November 2, 1963, was a major turning point in the war in Vietnam. Up until the deaths of the Ngo brothers, the United States had been ‘advising the government of South Vietnam in its war against the Viet Cong and their benefactors, the government of North Vietnam. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
On August 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox exchanged shots with North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later, the Maddox and another destroyer reported once again coming under fire. By the end of the day, President Lyndon B. Johnson had ordered retaliatory air strikes, and by late 1965 some 180,000 American troops were on the ground, with more on the way. http://www.history.com/news/the-gulf-of-tonkin-incident-50-years-ago -
Operation Rolling Thunder
During the Vietnam War (1954-75), as part of the strategic bombing campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. 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. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder -
More troops to be sent to Vietnam
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces that 21,000 more U.S. troops are to be sent to Vietnam. He also claimed that it was now known that North Vietnamese regular troops had begun to infiltrate South Vietnam. These forces would soon transition from defensive missions to direct combat operations. As the war escalated, more and more U.S. combat troops were sent to South Vietnam. By 1969, there were over 540,000 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/more-troops-to-be-sent-to-vietnam -
Tet Offensive
On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam, planned the offensive in an attempt both to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its support of the Saigon regime. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive -
My Lai Massacre
On March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War, United States troops under the command of Lt. William L. Calley Jr. carried out a massacre of about 500 unarmed men, women and children in the village of My Lai. Lieutenant Calley gave explicit orders to kill and participated in the execution of unarmed villagers standing in groups and lying in ditches. There were also accounts of soldiers mutilating bodies and raping young women. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/march-16-1968-u-s-soldiers- -
Ho Chi Minh dies
President Ho Chi Minh of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam dies of a heart attack in Hanoi. North Vietnamese officials announced his death the next day. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ho-chi-minh-dies -
Pentagon Papers
As the Vietnam War dragged on and the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam increased to more than 500,000 troops by 1968, the military analyst Daniel Ellsberg came to oppose the war, and decided that the information contained in the Pentagon Papers should be more widely available to the American public. He secretly photocopied the report and in March 1971 gave the copy to The New York Times. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/pentagon-papers -
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords (PPA) was an agreement between the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (PRG), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States to bring an end to the Vietnam War. http://thevietnamwar.info/what-was-paris-peace-accords/ -
Easter Offensive
The Easter Offensive occurred between March 30 and October 22, 1972, and was a later campaign of the Vietnam War. http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/vietnamwar/p/easteroffensive.htm -
South Vietname Surrenders
By dawn, communist forces move into Saigon, where they meet only sporadic resistance. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese. By this time, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon’s earlier promises to rescue Saigon from communist takeover. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/south-vietnam-surrenders
