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Ho Chi Minh is born
Ho Chi Minh was an outspoken voice for Vietnamese. He joined the Communist Party and traveled to the Soviet Union. He helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and the League for the Independence of Vietnam. -
Vietnam declares independence from France, but neither France nor the United States recognize Vietnam as a separate nation.
North Vietnam responds with this by Viet Minh launching an attack against the French in Hanoi. Then beginning of the First Indochina War -
The Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu
The French were out of the war, and the U.S had the option to leave, but stayed so we could help out South Vietnam. -
The Geneva Accords cause Vietnam to be split into North and South
The nation was divided by the 17th parallel -
President Eisenhower declares "Domino Theory"
By 1950, makers of U.S. foreign policy had firmly embraced the idea that the fall of Indochina to communism would lead rapidly to the collapse of other nations in Southeast Asia. The National Security Council included the theory in a 1952 report on Indochina, and in April 1954, during the decisive battle between Viet Minh and French forces at Dien Bien Phu, President Dwight D. Eisenhower articulated it as the “falling domino” principle. -
Ngo Dinh Diem cancels elections in Vietnam
He canceled the elections because he consolidated his power as the President of South Vietnam. He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords. -
The National Liberation front is formed
They were also known as the Viet Cong. They occupied South Vietnam -
The United States withdraws support of Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam
Because the US withdrew from supporting Ngo Dinh Diem he was assassinated on November 2, 1963. -
A south Vietnamese monk sets himself on fire
He was a Buddhist monk. He did it because he was attempting to show that to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms. -
President Kennedy is assassinated, leading to the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
If JFK wasn't assassinated he could have very well pulled us out of the war. If he did that we wouldn't have had the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which gave to much power the the president. To much power was given to LBJ, and he just made matters worse for the United States. -
President Johnson claims a U.S ship had been fired upon by the North Vietnamese
The name of the ship was the USS Maddox. The response to the ship being fired at was President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the USS Turner Joy to join the first destroyer on patrol off the North Vietnamese coast. -
The first combat troops arrive in Vietnam
The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam as 3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam. On March 8, 1964
