-
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Vietnam and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina. The Soviet Union, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and the People’s Republic of China were participants throughout the whole conference while different countries concerned with the two questions were also represented during the discussion of their respective questions, which included -
The French suffer a decisive defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at Geneva -
Kennedy Election
The United States presidential election of 1960 was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. The Republican Party nominated Vice-President Richard Nixon, while the Democratic Party nominated John F. Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed
gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of "conventional'' military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty". This included involving armed forces. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained US 2nd Air Division, US Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968. The operation became the most intense air/ground battle waged during the Cold War period; indeed, it was the most difficult such campaign fought by the U.S. Air Force since the aerial bombardment of Germany during World War II. -
The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam
In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident of August 2 and 4, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, per the authority given to him by Congress in the subsequent Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, decided to escalate the Vietnam Conflict by sending U.S. ground troops to Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines landed near Da Nang in South Vietnam; they are the first U.S. troops arrive in Vietnam -
Tet Offensive launched
during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese launched a massive surprise attack. In this Tet offensive, the guerrilla fighters attacked virtually all American air bases in South Vietnam and most of the South’s major cities and provincial capitals -
Nixon Elected
The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice-President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law and order to the nation's cities, torn by riots and crime -
Ho Chi Minh dies
With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Ho Chi Minh died at 9:47 a.m. on the morning of 2 September 1969 from heart failure at his home in Hanoi, aged 79.News of his death was withheld from the North Vietnamese public for nearly 48 hours because he had died on the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. -
Vietnamization
President Richard Nixon introduced a new strategy called Vietnamization that was aimed at ending American involvement in the Vietnam War by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam's military strength in order to facilitate a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to take responsibility for their own defense against a Communist takeover and allow the U.S. to le -
Nixon announces attacks in Cambodia
President Nixon announces that U.S. troops will attack enemy locations in Cambodia. This news sparks nationwide protests, especially on college campuses. -
Kent State Shooting
Ohio National Guard soldiers, armed with tear gas and rifles, fired on demonstrators without an order to do so. The soldiers killed four students and wounded at least nine others. -
Pentagon Papers are published in The New York Times
The Pentagon Papers, were documents that showed how the US government was hiding things from the US population about what was going on in Vietnam. The papers got leaked to the press somehow and then got published in the New York Times -
26th Amendment passed
the 26th Amendment bars the states and the federal government from setting a voting age higher than eighteen. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell -
North Vietnam crosses DMZ
The North Vietnamese cross the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel to attack South Vietnam. This act becomes known as the Easter Offensive. -
The Paris Peace Accords are signed that provide a cease-fire
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States, along with the Provisional Revolutionary Government that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973. The agreement was not ratified -
War Powers Act
In 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act as a way to re-establish some limits on executive power. The act required the president to inform Congress of any commitment of troops abroad within 48 hours and to withdraw them in 60 to 90 days unless Congress explicitly approved the troop commitment -
South Vietnam surrenderes
When the North Vietnam forces attacked at dawn on April 30, they met little resistance. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace and the war came to an end. North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin accepted the surrender from Gen -
Last of the US troops left Vietnam
The last 10 Marines left the embassy in Saigon and the president of Vietnam announced an unconditional surrender. As US troops had withdrawn almost two years earlier this was a political loss and not a military one. -
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated
The Vietnam War memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C.honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/Southeast Asia, and those servicemembers who were unaccounted for during the War.
