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By 1428 the rebels had driven the Chinese from the country and won independence for Vietnam. Le Loi became the new emperor.
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In 1883 the Vietnamese were forced to grant France complete control of the country.
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In 1940 the Japanese army occupied all of Indochina and threatened the rest of Southeast Asia.
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By 1946 the French and the Vietnamese were once again locked in battle.
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By 1950 the United States was caught up in a bloody ground war, trying to turn back communist North Korea's invasion of South Korea. Meanwhile, Communist-led nationalist revolts rocked Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaya.
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The Vietminh defeated the French and on May 7, 1954, forced their surrender.
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By 1954 the United States was paying much of the cost of France's war effort. Even with massive aid, however, the French suffered defeat after defeat.
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General elections to reunify the country were scheduled for July 1956.
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In 1959 military assistance began flowing from the north to the Vietminh who had stayed in the south.
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As a result, the number of Americans killed or wounded cilmbed from 14 in 1961 to nearly 500 in 1963.
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Henry Cabot Lodge, US embassador to South Vietnam, met with Diem in August 1963.
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In 1964, President B. Johnson appeared on national television. He announced that, that night marked a new stage in US involvement in the war in Vietnam.
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In 1965, for example, African Americans accounted for almost 24 percent of all battle deaths, even though they made up just 11 percent of the US population.
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In March 1965 he launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign against military targets in the North.
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In April 1965 the Selective Service notified 13,700 draftees.
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January 30, 1968, marked the start of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year.
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Early in 1969 Nixon ordered the widespread bombing of Cambodia. The US troop withdrawls began as well,
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On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops that had been sent to control demonstrators shot randomly into a large group of students.
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In response, Congress repealed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in December 1970.
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In 1971 another incident boosted the antiwar movement.
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Hoping to reveal the weaknesses of Nixon's Vietnamization strategy, North Vietnam staged a major invasion of South Vietnam in March 1972.
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On Jan 27, 1973, the negotiators in Paris accounced a cease-fire.
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In Jan, 1975, North Vietnamese troops overran the northern part of South Vietnem.
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On April 30, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally.