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Gulf of Tonkin Incident
This event involved one real and one made-up attack by 3 North Vietnamese torpedo ships and U.S.S. Maddox; The US fired 3 warning shots and North Vietnamese responded with torpedos and machine gun fire; There were 0 US casualties and 4 North Vietnamese casualties -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
This gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to take any measures he deemed necessary to maintain peace in South Vietnam. This included potential military action. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
The US created an intense and sustained program of aerial bombardment in Vietnam that lasted more than 3 years.There were a total of 864,000 tons of bombs were dropped and this failed to halt NVA/Viet Cong activities, which was the goal. -
US Troops Arrive
The first U.S. troops arrived in Vietnam because Johnson viewed small military involvement as necessary. There were only around 400 US troops. -
Operation Starlite
The US troops worked in Vietnam for the first time near Chu Lai. US troops were training South Vietnamese soldiers, so they had to fight on their own. They decimated 2000 Viet Cong soldiers. It lasted until 8/24/1965. -
Battle of Ia Drang
This was the first major battle between US military and NVA. It involved first large scale helicopter air assault and first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. There were 1500 NVA dead, 250 US dead. The stress in Vietnam was growing and the US felt it even more necessary to liberate South Vietnam. -
US Troops Grow
The US troops became offensive instead of defensive, so combat troops grew from 3,500 to 180,000 because the President deemed it necessary. This lasted throughout all of 1965. By February of 1966, there were 205,000 US troops in Vietnam. -
Operation Attleboro
This success cleared large area of South Vietnam. The US military killed more than 2000 Viet Cong and captured important supply dumps. This was important because it cut the Viet Cong off from their supplies. -
Operation Cedar Falls
This event aimed to drive Viet Cong out of "Iron Triangle," a large area of South Vietnam that was a stronghold of Viet Cong. This was very successful, a large victory for the US. -
Tet Offensive
This included a series of surprise attacks by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese (about 85,000 troops) on town in South Vietnam. This was a turning point in the war because it contradicted the boastfulness the US gov't had. It took weeks for US and South Vietnamese to recapture the towns that were stolen.