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Vietcong established
Established to overthrow the government in south vietnam in order for unification of vietnam to occur, the viet cong were south vietnamese supporters of the communist national liberation front. The united states, who do not support communism, supported the south vietnamese government which the viet cong was against. By 1964 numbers reached 100,000, after the group "won the hearts and minds" of vietnamese peasants. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
this resolution authorized that president johnson could take any measure he believed necessary to retaliate and promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast asia. -
Lyndon Johnson's victory in the election
the "catalyst" for the US escalation in Vietnam because Johnson interpreted his easy victory as an extraordinary mandate to basically do whatever he wanted. in foreign policy, johnson escalated us involvement in the war with documents such as the gulf of tonkin resolution. -
US combat troops begin arriving in Vietnam
members of the 9th us marine expeditionary force were assigned to "beef up" the defense force of an air base. these were the first us combat troops to arrive in vietnam, deepening the us's involvement in vietnam. -
Operation Starlite
5,000 american soldiers decimated a viet cong force near chu lai which was 2000 viet cong "soldiers" strong. the us killed or captured more than a quarter of them. this was the first major offensive launched solely by us troops in vietnam. -
US vs NVA
american soldiers had their first major engagement against the regular north vietnamese army in the drang river valley in central vietnam. around 1500 nva troops were killed while only 250 american soldiers died. this marked further escalation of american forces in vietnam when the focus was not just on the viet cong army, more soldiers would be needed to fight... so they were sent to vietnam. -
White House authorised Operation Flaming Dart
this operation was a series of targeted bombings against the north, in response to the viet cong attacks. johnson ordered this operation as a way to warn off the government in north vietnam. it targeted north vietnamese army bases near dong hoi in the first part, and resulted in major escalation of us involvement in the war. -
Operation Rolling Thunder was established
this was a more intensive and sustained program of aerial bombing conducted by the us second air division, us navy, and republic of vietnam air force. johnson described there attacks as a "continued aggression" after the second part of flaming dart resulted in the bomb attacks in qui nhon, which resulted in the deaths of 23 american personnel. -
3,500 Marines landed at China Beach
these arrivals would continue regularly, and they were tasked with defending US and South Vietnamese bases. 3500 marines landed on china beach to join 23,000 american military advisors already in vietnam. -
Operation Crimp
a joint us- australian mission in binh duong involving 8000 men. the objective was to locate a significant viet cong headquarters which was later found by the us in cu chi, but was not completely destroyed and remained a key communist transit and supply base for the viet cong. -
Rolling thunder end
during the operations timespan the US dropped 864,000 tons of bombs and is estimated to have killed 80,000-120,000 north vietnamese. it failed to halt viet cong attacks.
