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The Vietnam War
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• The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel
The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh's Communists ceded the North, while Bao Dai's regime is granted the South. The accords also provide fornational elections to be held in all of Vietnam within two years to reunify the country. -
Diem overthrown
the first President of South Vietnam (1955–1963). In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a 1955 plebiscite that was widely considered fraudulent. -
JFK and Ngo Dinh Diem meet
Proclaiming himself the Republic's first President, he demonstrated considerable political skill in the consolidation of his power, and his rule proved authoritarian, elitist, nepotistic, and corrupt. A Roman Catholic, Diệm pursued policies that rankled and oppressed the Republic's Montagnard natives and its Buddhist majority. -
• President Johnson declares he will not "lose Vietnam" during a meeting with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Washington.
did not want to be saddled with the charge of having lost South Vietnam. On the other hand, an expansion of U.S. responsibility for the war against the Vietcong and North Vietnam would divert resources from Johnson's ambitious and expensive domestic program, the Great Society. -
Operation of Rolling Thunder Begins
was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from March 2nd, 1965 until November 1st, 1968, during the Vietnam War. -
Massive anti-war demonstrations held in the U.S.
United States involvement in the Vietnam War is significant because it was the first time that a war was visually shown and depictions of it were accessed by the public in the United States. -
Gulf of Tonkon Resolution
Was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135 and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2. -
MyLai Massacre
was the mass murder of 347–504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, conducted by a unit of the United States Army. All of the victims were civilians and most were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Many of the victims were raped, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated. -
• President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia
President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing a U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia in response to continuing Communist gains against Lon Nol's forces. The incursion is and is also intended to weaken overall NVA military strength as a prelude to U.S. departure from Vietnam
