-
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution athorized the president to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
President Lyndon B. Johnson decides to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers have been contemplating for a year. Called Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign was designed to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. -
Tet Offensive
Some 85,000 Vietcong attacked all major cities in South Vietnam. This was the turning point that showed America that the war wasn't going to be won easily. -
My Lai Massacre
A company of American soldiers brutally killed the majority of the population of the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai in March 1968. It is believed that as many as 500 people including women, children and the elderly were killed in the My Lai Massacre. -
Nixon Wins Election
Eight years after being defeated by John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, Richard Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey and is elected president. For his running mate, he chose governor of Maryland Spiro T. Agnew. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was weakened by internal divisions within his own party. -
Kent State Shootings
On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. -
Pentagon Pepers
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, which subsequently published a series of articles based on the report’s findings.
