Vietnam War Timeline

  • Domino Theory coined- Eisenhower - in-light of Vietnam

    Domino Theory coined- Eisenhower - in-light of Vietnam
    The Domino Theory refers to process where a country, neighboring communism, falls, it would then resort itself to communism.
  • Geneva Accords

    Geneva Accords
    In this document, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to solidify a government and elect officials.
  • Assassination of Diem

    Assassination of Diem
    Assassinated in Ho Chi Minh, Diem was deemed to be inefficient, his eradication would suffice for the time being.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
    This authorized President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace.
  • LBJ ordered 1st troops to Vietnam

    LBJ ordered 1st troops to Vietnam
    This marked the first deployment of troops into Vietnam and arguably kicked the war off.
  • Period: to

    Tet Offensive

    The Tet Offensive consisted of multiple attacks by the North Vietnamese government. The attacks were carried out at South Vietnamese cities, military installations, and villages throughout South Vietnam.
  • My Lai Massacre

    My Lai Massacre
    A group of American soldiers killed majority of villagers in the Sơn Tịnh District.
  • Nixon sends troops into Cambodia

    Nixon sends troops into Cambodia
    Nixon believed that the plan was necessary as a pre-emptive strike to hold off North Vietnamese attacks from South Vietnam.
  • Kent State Shooting

    Kent State Shooting
    This was the shooting of unarmed college students who where protesting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. When protests turned to riots, there was bloodshed.
  • Hard Hat Riot

    Hard Hat Riot
    Many were protesting the May 4 Kent State shootings and the Vietnam War as a whole, following announcement of the U.S. invasion in neutral Cambodia. Some construction workers carried U.S. flags and took to the streets.
  • Nixon’s Christmas bombing

    Nixon’s Christmas bombing
    Richard Nixon was highly criticized for bombing a foreign country on a the most commonly celebrated holiday when focused on peace and selflessness.
  • War Powers Act

    War Powers Act
    In the War Powers Act of 1973, congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973, intending to limit the President's authority to wage war and reasserted its authority over foreign wars.
  • Paris Peace Accords

    Paris Peace Accords
    the Paris Peace Accords were intended to finally end the Vietnam War, which had meaninglessly claimed thousands of American soldier's lives.
  • Saigon Falls

    Saigon Falls
    This became a symbol of the war's futility. The US was forced to abandon its embassy in the city and evacuate more than 7,000 US citizens because of the Vietcong's ambush of South Vietnam.
  • Nixon’s Vietnamization policy

    Nixon’s Vietnamization policy
    Vietnamization was a way to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War by creating a program to expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese soldiers and assign to them their own combat role, while simultaneously shaving the number of U.S. soldiers down.