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Dien Bien Phu
Viet Minh troops under Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap overrun the French base at Dien Bien Phu. The stunning victory by Vietnamese forces brings an end to nearly a century of French colonial rule in Indochina. -
Genevea accords
The Geneva Accords effectively divide Vietnam in two at the 17th parallel. Although the Accords explicitly state that the 17th parallel “should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary,” it is quickly afforded exactly that status. -
American Millitary Advisors
In response to that threat, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed in 1955 to prevent Communist expansion. President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. This effort was foundering when John F. Kennedy became president. -
Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated by his own generals as part of a coup d’état that is carried out with the tacit support of U.S. officials. Ngo’s autocratic and violent excesses when dealing with South Vietnam’s majority Buddhist population led the U.S. to withdraw its patronage of him. At this point approximately 16,000 U.S. military personnel are in Vietnam, and 200 have been killed. -
Golf of Tonkin Incident
Commaders reported that a North Vietnamese torpedo ship shot down the US destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tokin -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, resolution put before the U.S. Congress by Pres. Lyndon Johnson assertedly in reaction to two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2 and August 4, respectively. Its stated purpose was to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, in taking all necessary measures to repel any attack on the United States -
The beginning of search and destroy missions
Search and Destroy, Seek and Destroy, or even simply S&D, refers to a military strategy that became a large component of the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. The idea was to insert ground forces into hostile territory, search out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw immediately afterward. -
Operaion Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a demonstration of America's near total air supremacy during the Vietnam War. It was started in an effort to demoralise the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam to govern. Operation Rolling Thunder failed on both accounts. -
First american deployment in vietnam
March 8, 1965 - 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. -
Battle of La Drang
Despite these numbers, senior American officials in Saigon declared the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley a great victory. The battle was extremely important because it was the first significant contact between U.S. troops and North Vietnamese forces
