-
In a speech to the American people, he said that allowing communism in Indochina would lead to a domino effect for Communism to take hold over all of southern Asia. This speech scared people about the effects of having a communist Vietnam. This one speech adjusted the American mindset to believe that communism in Vietnam would have drastic and dangerous effects on the rest of the world. This allowed the government to gain public support when joining the war in Vietnam at first.
-
The Geneva Accords was a conference that was held in Geneva Switerlands that was to decided to the fate of post colonial vietanam among other things. They chose to start of with a split country but hold a vote in two year to unify the two sides. The Geneva Accords are important in the Vietnam war timeline because it signifies the splitting of Vietnam into two separate entities. One Communist and one Capitalist. This would only worsen tensions between the two in the years to come. -
The war effort in Vietnam was starting to turn south, and the military needed more troops to continue their campaign against Vietcong. President Richard Nixon instituted a draft lottery to send more firepower overseas to do this. This was an important event for the Vietnam war because what was already an antiwar society grew even larger with this event. People did not like forcing sons overseas to fight in what they believed to be an unnecessary war. -
The United States comes to terms with the North Vietnamese, and they officially end the United States Direct involvement in the conflict as they sign a ceasefire. The United States also is given back all of its prisoners of war that have been taken from them. This signifies the end of the war for the United States and it signs a death sentence for the South Vietnamese as the United States where their only lifeline in the conflict. -
The Vietcong conquers the Capitol of South Vietnam (Saigon), and the south officially surrenders, ending the war. The United States is in a panic evacuating troops and Vietnamese refugees back to the states. This event was important because it was the last battle of the war and the final straw that made the south surrender. It unified both north and south under the communist party and was an embarrassing loss for the United States.
