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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 -
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NOTEWORTHY EVENTS FROM THE “THE VIETNAM WAR”
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• JFK and Ngo Dinh Diem meet
During the French-Indochina War, Diem left Vietnam for the United States. While there he met influential Catholics like John F. Kennedy. He told them that he opposed both communism and French colonialism and argued that he would make a good leader of Vietnam if the French decided to withdraw. -
Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th paralle
The 17th parallel division between North and South Vietnam was the result of a Chinese proposal at the Geneva Confernce of 1954 which ended the French war in Vietnam. China did not want a strong, unified Vietnam on its southern border and easily convinced the great powers to go along with their proposal. Ho Chi Minh was dependent on Chinese aid and had to go along. Elections were scheduled for 1956, but South Vietnam, which did not sign the Geneva Accord, refused to participate. -
• Massive anti-war demonstrations held in the U.S
to 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. -
• President Johnson declares he will not "lose Vietnam" during a meeting with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Washington.
President Johnson’s aides begin work on a Congressional resolution supporting the President’s war policy in Vietnam. The resolution is shelved temporarily due to lack of support in the Senate, but will later be used as the basis of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution -
• Diem overthrown
On 20 December 1960, under instruction from Hanoi, southern communists established the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in order to overthrow the government of the south -
• Gulf of Tonkin 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[1] and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance bec -
• Operation Rolling Thunder begins
Operation Rolling Thunder begins with more than 100 United States Air Force jet bombers striking an ammunition depot at Xom Bang, 10 miles inside North Vietnam. -
• 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.[2]
