-
Korean War
"Then the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, plus the flow of aid from China and the Soviet Union to the Viet Minh, prompted Truman to reexamine Vietnam in a Cold War light." Truman feared that Vietnam would fall to communism, so he "...sent over transport planes and jeeps, along with 35 military advisers, as part of a multimillion-dollar aid package." -
Eisenhower gives $2B in aid to Diem
"...[Eisenhower] also supplied Diem with money and weapons, sending nearly $2 billion in aid from 1955 to 1960 and increasing the number of military advisors to around 1,000." This gave Diem a much greater chance in winning, and proved our support for him. -
Kennedy aids South Vietnam
Kennedy had originally believed that the war was unwinnable for America, but "[o]nce in the White House, Kennedy provided South Vietnam with jet fighters, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, river patrol boats and other tools of war. He also authorized the use of napalm, as well as defoliants such as Agent Orange." -
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
"At the time of Kennedy’s assassination, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War remained fairly limited. But that changed in August 1964, when the so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident prompted Congress to grant expansive war-making powers to newly installed President Lyndon B. Johnson." Two allegedly unprovoked attacks took place by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
This resolution's "...stated purpose was to approve and support the determination of the president, as commander in chief, in taking all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." This gave a lot of power to President Lyndon B. Johnson to escalate the war. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
In 1965, President Johnson "...authorized a massive bombing campaign, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder, that would continue unabated for years." This would clearly show that America was involved in the war. -
First US Troops in Vietnam
"Recognizing that the South Vietnamese government and army were on the verge of collapse, Johnson sent the first U.S. combat troops into battle in early 1965." President Johnson had been the first to put our soldiers into battle, clearly putting America right in between this conflict. -
Operation Starlite
"The first major offensive launched solely by US troops came in August 1965. During Operation Starlite, as it was known, 5,000 American soldiers decimated a 2,000-strong Viet Cong force near Chu Lai, killing or capturing more than one-quarter of them." Americans were heavily involved by now, due to the fact that this operation was only carried out by American troops. -
Search and Destroy Missions
Operation Crimp was a "joint US-Australian mission...that involved 8,000 men" and its objective was to find "a significant Viet Cong headquarters...[troops] cleared the area with minimal losses, killing several dozen of the enemy and locating a complex network of Viet Cong tunnels." Following this were Operation Attleboro, which killed "more than 2,000 Viet Cong and [captured] important supply dumps", and Operation Cedar Falls, "which aimed to drive the Viet Cong out of the ‘Iron Triangle’". -
Tet Offensive
"On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive,...a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam." This caught the US by surprise and we had to quickly fight back. -
Nixon Escalates Conflict
Nixon had been withdrawing American troops in Vietnam, "[y]et he escalated the conflict in other ways, approving secret bombing raids of neighboring Cambodia in 1969, sending ground troops into Cambodia in 1970 and sanctioning a similar invasion of Laos in 1971, all in a largely futile attempt to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines and destroy Viet Cong camps." -
Nixon Orders Air Assault
Although pushing for "Vietnamization", "Nixon also ordered the most intense air assault of the war, pummeling North Vietnamese cities with roughly 36,000 tons of bombs late in 1972." One of these being Operation Linebacker, "a powerful, 11-day bombing campaign".
