Vietnam War through Tet

By kotte

  • Vietnam Restoration Society

    Vietnam Restoration Society is formed

  • Nghe-Tinh Revolt

  • Vietnam declares independance

    Ho Chi Min declares independance of Vietnam. He also expresses hope that he will retain aide in his anticolonial effort.

  • Free State

    France recognizes Vietnam as a "Free State"

  • French and Ho begin fighting

    The French and Ho fail to negotiate and fighting begins. America is deciding how involved it needs to be. The public did not like the idea of supporting war in a place so far away, or war in general.

  • Korean War

    US is now in full support of the French in Vietnam

  • International Peace Conference in Geneva, Switzerland

    The Geneva Conference is held, the decision is to split Vietnam along the 17th parallel. Breaking the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The North was under communist rule, and the South was under colonial power. The armies were expected to move to their sides and the French forces were supposed to leave. Vietnam was expected to remain this way until the country voted on a new government in 1956.

  • Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

    Created to ensure the security of the nations of Southeast Asia and Oceania that were allies of the US. It contained two parts:
    1) Manila Pact: established military alliance against threats of communism.
    2) Pacific Charter: signatories agreed to promote well-being both socially and physically
    disbanded mutually in 1977

  • U.S. begins direct aide to South Vietnam

    The U.S. supported France and France supported South Vietnam. Thus so did the U.S. The U.S. also did not support communism because of Domino Theory.
    Domino theory was the belief that if one country crumbles under communism so would all the surrounding countries.

  • Eisenhower abandons allied approach

    The US restructured the S. Vietnamese army in the image of thier own. They also prepared them to fight a mid-intensity conventional war against the North.

  • Peace Accord Broken

    Diem refused the vote, for a new government of Vietnam, out of fear that the communists would win.

  • Republic of Vietnam

    The CIA helped Diem remove Bao Dai from power. The State of Vietnam was converted to the Republic of Vietnnam.

  • Major air strikes on Viet Cong

  • Viet Minh Assination Campaigne

    Viet Minh began a Campaigne to assinate village chiefs, in order to destroy Diem's hold on the country.
    In response, Diem started throwing tons of people in jail. He could not tell the communists from anti-communists so he just put them all in jail.

  • Communist Operations in South

    The communist party begins military operations in the South

  • Full Scale Revolt

  • Public Manifesto

    18 national figures issued a public manifesto to protest Diem's "continuous arrests that fill the jails and prisons to the rafters." They demanded free elections. 10 of the people were high up in Diem's government, they were all thrown in jail.

  • John F. Kennedy Innauguration

    Kennedy became the 35th president. He supported the idea that America needed to be able attack the enemy on any level, not just one like the atomic bomb. He created a section of the army that would recieve the best technology, training and men. This section was trained in guerrilla warefare( small forces employ suprise attacks, on large seditary forces.) This was also known as counter-insurgency.

  • "Advisers" sent

    Advisers to the war were first sent under Eisenhower. They were basically just troops, but we were not supposed to have troops staitioned there because that would have gone against the Geneva Conference. So, we called the troops "advisers" instead.

  • Operation Sunrise

  • Coup to assinate Diem begins

    The palace is taken over where Diem and his brother Nhu are, they manage to slip out. One of his advisers then betrays where he went and the two are captured. While they are being driven away in an armoured truck it stops and both are killed.
    *US had agreed that they would not stop coup
    Minh gains controll of SV
    US Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge to Vietnam was encouraged to support the coup but to keep the US out of it. Lodge informs South Vietnamese General Tran Van Don to proceed with the coup

  • JFK assinated

    John F. Kennedy was assinated. Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th president.
  • Period: to

    Span of Fighting

    US employed over 8,700,000 military personnel. They also spent over $140,000,000,000 on war expenses.

  • Coup on General Minh

    Minh was in control of South Vietnam after the assasination of Diem. He was removed from power by General Nguyen Khanh. Khanh became the next ruler of South Vietnam

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Congress passes this bill to give the President the power to take any and all steps necessary in order to prevent unprovoked attacks on the US forces...this was following the attacks on the Maddox and U.S.S.C. Turner Joy. Only one bullet hit the Maddox (attack 1) and then there was believed to be enemies firing at Turner Joy but the enemy was never seen. There were no real attacks, but it was percieved that way. There were also two jets shot down, and the first American prisoner of war was taken

  • Mortar Assualt by Viet Cong

    kills 5 Americans and 2 others, and wounds 100 others. First attack by Viet Cong against Americans

  • Johnson is re-elected

    democratic canidate-wins

  • Reinforcement for Viet Cong

    The soviets and china send 10,000 reinforcements to aide the Viet Cong by way of the Ho Chi Minh Trail

  • Gradual Escalation Policy

    Johnson meets with his cabinet to discuss a policy of gradual escalation

  • Coup on General Minh

    General Khanh leads a coup on Minh and takes control of South Vietnam. *US is loosing its hold and there is more unrest in the South Vietnam government

  • Car bomb

    Viet Cong set off a car bomb by American Officer risidence in Siagon and it is timed to inflict mass casualty- kills 2 and wounds 58 Americans
  • Period: to

    Span of War

  • Period: to

    Span the U.S. Troops were active

  • Attack at Pleiku

    Viet Cong guerrillas attacked the US military compound- kill 8 Americans, wound 126 and destroy 10 aircrafts

  • Operation Flaming Dart

    Johnson is fed up with the direct attacks on American lives, he approves the bombing of a army camp in N. Vietnam. The US navy jets were launched from the carrier Ranger.
    Johnson agrees with his advisers to a sustained bombing campaigne on N. Vietnam

  • N. Vietnamese response to US "aggression"

    The Soviet Prime Minister was pressured to supply the N. Vietnamese with unlimited aide after Operation Flaming Dart that demonstrated US aggression. Surface-to-air missiles are sent immediatley

  • Coup on Khanh

    S. Vietnam removes General Khanh from power, and a military civilian leader comes to power, Dr. Phan Huy Quat.
  • Period: to

    Operation Rolling Thunder

    100 US fighter-bombers target N. Vietnam- was supposed to last 8 weeks but goes on for 3 years
    US drops 8,000,000 tons of bombs= 3 x total used in WWII

  • Napalm Authorized

    Johnson allowed the use of Napalm. Napalm is a type of bomb that upon impact will rain explosive pellets.

  • 1,000 tons of bombs dropped on Viet Cong

  • 3,500 US troops arrive

    First time they are not sent as 'advisers'

  • First Pause

    There were 7 pauses in bombing during the Rolling Thunder Campaigne, each was to give the Viet Cong a chance to negotiate, but they just called in backup and had time to repair/restock supplies

  • Attack on camp in Phuoc Long

    Viet Cong attack a US special forces camp.
    Second Lt. Charles Williams was wounded four times, but still managed to take out a Viet Cong machine-gun and guide rescue helicopers. He recieved the Medal of Honor.

  • Rolling Thunder Resumes

    resumes after 6 days

  • Mortar attack on Da Nang air base

    US lost 3 aircrafts

  • Increase military strength

    number of men is increased to 125,000 men and draft is doubled to 35,000 men/month

  • Johnson asks Congress for $1.7 billion extra for war

  • Period: to

    Operation Starlight

    1st major ground operation- marines are flown in after 1500 Viet Cong are subject to artillery and air bombardment, while planning an assault on an American airfield. US: 45 killed, 120 wounded VC: 614 killed, 9 POW
    *boosts US morale

  • Anti-war rallies

    in 40 major US cities and others internationally...London + Rome + etc.
    response to Johnson's law against burning draft cards that included jail time and $1,000 fine as punishment

  • March supporting war in DC

    25,000 marchec to support US troops and tthey were lead by 5 medal of honor recipients

  • Tet Offensive

    Was the psycological turning point of the war.
  • Period: to

    U.S. invaded Cambodia

    The U.S. invaded Cambodia to destroy enemy supplies