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May 1959
North Vietnam begins to build a supply route through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam in an effort to support guerrilla attacks against Diem’s government in the south. The route becomes known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Foreign. -
April 1954
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower says the fall of French Indochina to communists could create a “domino” effect in Southeast Asia. Domestic -
September 1960
Ho Chi Minh is replaced by Le Duan as head of North Vietnam’s ruling communist party. Foreign. -
May 1961
President John F. Kennedy sends helicopters and 400 Green Berets to South Vietnam and authorizes secret operations against the Viet Cong. Domestic. -
November 1963
The United States backs a South Vietnam military coup against the unpopular Diem, which ends in the brutal killing of Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Foreign. -
November 1963
President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president. Domestic. -
March 1965
President Johnson launches a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Operation Rolling Thunder. Foreign. -
April 1967
Huge Vietnam War protests occur in Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco. Domestic. -
March 16, 1968
At the U.S. massacre at Mai Lai, more than 500 civilians are murdered by U.S. forces. The massacre happens during a campaign of U.S. search-and-destroy operations that are intended to find enemy territories, destroy them and then retreat. Foreign -
November 1968
Richard M. Nixon wins the U.S. presidential elections on the campaign promises to restore “law and order” and to end the draft. Domestic. -
December 1969
The U.S. government institutes the first draft lottery since World War II, prompting ever more young American men. Domestic. -
December 1972
President Nixon orders one of the most intense air offensives of the war in Operation Linebacker. The attacks, concentrated between Hanoi and Haiphong, drop roughly 20,000 tons of bombs over densely populated regions. Foreign. -
January 27, 1973
President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese accept a cease-fire. North Vietnamese military officials continue plotting to overtake South Vietnam. Domestic. -
February - April 1973
North Vietnam returns 591 American prisoners of war including John McCane. Domestic. -
July 1975
North and South Vietnam are formally unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under hardline communist rule. Foreign.