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Following World War I, a young Vietnamese patriot named Nguyen That Thanh (later known as Ho Chi Minh) arrives at the Paris Peace Conference. Responding to American President Woodrow Wilson's promise of "self-determination" for nations, Thanh hopes to free Vietnam from French colonial rule. But Thanh, like many other advocates of colonial independence who descend upon the Paris peace talks, is ignored.
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The Viet Minh—the League for the Independence of Vietnam—is founded.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. With the death of President Roosevelt, Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb—the first to be used in warfare—on Hiroshima, killing 75,000 people instantly, and injuring more than 100,000.
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A second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
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The subsequent treaty signed in July 1954 at a Geneva conference split Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th Parallel with Ho in control in the North and Bao in the South. The treaty also called for nationwide elections for reunification to be held in 1956
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The war started and more than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians.
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In December 1960, Diem’s many opponents within South Vietnam—both communist and non-communist—formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime.
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In March 1965, Johnson made the decision—with solid support from the American public—to send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam.
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By the end of 1967, Hanoi’s communist leadership was growing impatient as well, and sought to strike a decisive blow aimed at forcing the better-supplied United States to give up hopes of success.
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In 1970, a joint U.S-South Vietnamese operation invaded Cambodia, hoping to wipe out DRV supply bases there.
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The Ohio National Guard attempts to disperse the growing crowd on the fourth day of anti-war protests at Kent State University. When demonstrators refuse to follow orders, chaos ensues. Members of the Guard shoot into the crowd, killing four and wounding nine; one student is paralyzed for life. Of the four killed, two had been protesting while the other two had been walking to class.
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Just days after the government of South Vietnam surrendered to the VC and North Vietnamese armies, Ho Chi Minh appears on the cover of Time magazine, this time with the heading, "The Victor."
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In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia.
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In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.
