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President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined one of the most famous Cold War phrases when he suggested that the fall of French Indochina to the communists could create a “domino” effect in Southeast Asia. This became known as the “domino theory” and dominated the U.S. thinking about Vietnam. -
The Geneva Accords was a collection of documents relating to Indochina and issued from the Geneva Conference. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” by the communist government of North Vietnam. -
The president of South Vietnam, Diem, was arrested and then assassinated during a military coup to overthrow him. With the support of the United States, the mission was successful. -
President Lyndon B. Johnson first ordered the deployment of troops to Vietnam in 1965 in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. On March 8, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines landed near Da Nang in South Vietnam. -
The Tet Offensive was the largest military operation of the Vietnam War that consisted of simultaneous attacks by 85,000 troops under the North Vietnamese government. The attacks were carried out against five major South Vietnamese cities, dozens of military installations, and towns throughout South Vietnam. -
The My Lai Massacre was the mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by United States troops in Sơn Tịnh District, South Vietnam. It was the most horrific incident of violence committed against civilians during the war. -
President Richard Nixon sent US troops into Cambodia with the special objective of capturing COSVN, "the headquarters of the entire communist military operation in South Vietnam." -
The Kent State shooting was a shooting by the Ohio National Guard that killed four and wounded nine other unarmed Kent State University students. It was caused by a peace rally opposing the expanding involvement of the Vietnam War into Cambodia as well as protesting the National Guard's presence on campus. -
The Hard Hat Riot was an incident in New York City where around 400 construction workers and 800 office workers attacked around 1,000 demonstrators affiliated with the student strike of 1970. -
Nixon's Christmas bombing was an aerial bombing campaign against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The bombings forced the North Vietnamese to make concessions, accept an armistice, and release American POWs. -
Nixon's Vietnamization Policy was a policy to end US involvement in the war through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops". -
The Paris Peace Accord was an agreement signed in Paris by the United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam that ended the war and restored peace in Vietnam. -
The Wars Powers Act was a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the approval of the U.S. Congress. -
The fall of Saigon was when the South Vietnamese forces collapsed and lost their capital city, efficiently ending the war. The US was forced to abandon its embassy and evacuate more than 7,000 US citizens and South Vietnamese by helicopter.