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The United States sends $15 million dollars in military aid to the French for the war in Indochina. Included in the aid package is a military mission and military advisors.
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Answering to the defeat of the French by the Vietminh at Dienbienphu, President Eisenhower creates the Domino Theory: "You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly."
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Diem defeats Bao Dai in cheats in the election and made himself President of Republic of Vietnam.
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The US Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG) takes responsibility, from French, for training South Vietnamese forces.
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Communist insurgent activity in South Vietnam starts. Guerrillas assassinate more than 400 South Vietnamese officials. Thirty-seven armed companies are organized along the Mekong Delta.
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North Vietnam forms Group 559 to begin smuggle cadres and weapons into South Vietnam using the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Trail became a strategic target for future military attacks.
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The Merry Pranksters filmed and audio taped their bus trips, creating a large multimedia experience that would later be shown to the public in the way of festivals and concerts.
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JFK defeats Nixon in election and becomes the new US president
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Hanoi makes a National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Diem government called them "Vietcong."
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Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield reports back to JFK from Saigon his opinion that Diem had wasted the two billion dollars America had spent there.
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With tacit approval of the United States, operatives within the South Vietnamese military overthrow Diem. He and his brother Nhu are shot and killed in the aftermath
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Kennedy's death meant that the problem of how to proceed in Vietnam fell squarely into the lap of his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
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The US helicopter troops started to spray toxic and chemicals across Vietnamese land.
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Richard Nixon barely beats out Hubert Humphrey for the presidency. Nixon takes just 43.4 percent of the popular vote, compared to 42.7 percent for Humphrey.
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President Lyndon Johnson shocks the nation and announces that he will not be a candidate for re-election
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Minh died at age 79, he died of oldness.
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The last of the battle troops are leaving Vietnam.
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The South Vietnamese Army loses twenty planes in a failed effort to defend Phuoc Long
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Anticipating the fall of Saigon to Communist forces, US President Gerald Ford, speaking in New Orleans, announces that as far as the US is concerned, the Vietnam War is "finished."
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South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh delivers an unconditional surrender to the Communists.
