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Presidency
John F. Kennedy is elected president -
Rolling Thunder
U.S. bombing campaign -
Military
As antiwar protests grow, Johnson and American military leaders increase reliance on "search-and-destroy" missions -
Protest
In a protest against changes to the draft policy that threaten some of their deferments, students stage the first "sit-in" at the University of Wisconsin -
Burned Children
Ramparts magazine publishes photographs of Vietnamese children burned by napalm, spurring the involvement of Martin Luther King Jr., who will publicly denounce the war at a speech in New York in April. -
Photographs
Recruiters from Dow visit the Madison campus, where they are confronted by protesters bearing Ramparts photographs. -
No Re-election
American forces kill some 200 civilians in the village of My Lai. Later that month, President Johnson announces that he will not seek re-election. -
Peace
Peace Talks aimed at ending the war begin in Paris -
New President
New president Rochard Nixon begins a secret bombing of Viet Cong strongholds in Cambodia and also initiates a " Vietnamization" of the war, a policy which will lead to a gradual withdrawal of American military forces. -
US Deaths
U.S. deaths in Vietnam surpass the roughly 33,000 lost in the Korean War.