1975: The Fall of Saigon

  • Mao Zedong and Communists had taken over China

  • Period: to

    The Fall of Saigon

  • U.S. gradually becomes involved in the Vietnam War

  • Domino Theory

  • President Kennedy took office

  • Protests of over 20,000 people in Washington

  • Full scale military intervention

  • North Vietnam and Vietcong launch Tet Offensive

  • Paris Peace Accords called for an end to the fighting

  • Communist forces overran the South; Saigon falls

  • Evacuation in Saigon

  • Party leaders followed China and instituted free-market reforms

  • President Bill Clinton lifted the U.S. trade embargo

  • Vietnam economy boosted

  • U.S. Navy ship made a goodwill visit to Vietnam

  • Vietnam still has an authoritarian Communist government