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French military outpost overrun by Vietminh resulting in the driving out of the French
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The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The Communists and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, controlled North Vietnam from the capital of Hanoi. The anticommu- nist nationalists controlled South Vietnam from the capital and southern port city of Saigon.
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By 1957, a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the
Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem government, assassinating thousands of South Vietnamese government officials. -
Ho Chi Minh supported the group, and in 1959 began supplying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the borders of North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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President Kennedy increased financial aid to Diem’s teetering regime and sent thousands of military advisers to help train South Vietnamese troops. By the end of 1963, 16,000 U.S. military personnel were in South Vietnam.
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In 1964, the Free Speech Movement (FSM) gained prominence at the University of California at Berkeley. The FSM grew out of a clash between students and administrators over free speech on campus. Led by Mario Savio, a philosophy student, the FSM focused its criticism on what it called the American “machine,”
the nation’s faceless and powerful business and government institutions. -
Johnson asked Congress for powers to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Congress approved Johnson’s request, with only two senators voting against it
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U.S. soldiers conducted search-and-destroy missions, uprooting civilians with suspected ties to the Vietcong, killing their livestock, and burning villages. Many villagers fled into the cities or refugee camps, creating by 1967 more than 3 million refugees in the South.
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On April 4, 1968 America was rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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On June 4, Kennedy wonthe crucial California primary. Just after midnight of June 5, he gave a victory speech at a Los Angeles hotel. On his way out he passed through the hotel’s kitchen, where a young Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan, was hiding with a gun. Sirhan, who later said he was angered by Kennedy’s support of Israel, fatally shot the senator.
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Vietnamization, called for the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops in order for the South Vietnamese to take on a more active combat role in the war. By August of 1969, the first 25,000 U.S. troops had returned home from Vietnam. Over the next three years, the number of American troops in Vietnam dropped from more than 500,000 to less than 25,000.
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In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which stipulated that a president must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending forces into a hostile area without a declaration of war. In addition, the troops may remain there no longer than 90 days unless Congress approves the president’s actions or declares war.
