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Declaration of an Independent Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh declares an independent Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. His speech was given before a crowd of 500,000. In the speech he paraphrased the United States Declaration of Independence. -
First American killed in Vietnam
Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey was killed by Vietminh troops while driving a jeep to the airport. Reports later indicated that his death was due to a case of mistaken identity. He had been mistaken for a Frenchman. -
Geneva Conference
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle outstanding issues on the Korean peninsula and to unify Vietnam and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina. -
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Geneva Convention
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French Leave Vietnam
A force of 40,000 heavily armed Vietminh lay seige to the French garrison at Dienbienphu. Using Chinese artillery to shell the airstrip, the Vietminh make it impossible for French supplies to arrive by air. -
Insurgency in the South
Communist insurgent activity in South Vietnam begins. Guerrillas assassinate more than 400 South Vietnamese officials. Thirty-seven armed companies are organized along the Mekong Delta. -
First Casualties
Maj. Dale R. Ruis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand become the first Americans killed in the Vietnam War. They were killed in a guerilla strike on a MAAG compound. -
Viet Cong Formed
Hanoi forms the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. The Diem government dubs them Vietcong. -
Kennedy Authorizes Green Berets
President Kennedy authorizes the Green Berets. Green Berets were a Special Forces operation activated at Fort Bragg, NC. They specialized in counterinsurgency. John Rambo. -
Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed. It 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. -
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Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was name for a sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was between the Viet Cong and North Veitnamese against the South Vietnamese and the Americans. It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian commands and control centers throughout South Vietnam. -
Vietnamization
Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard Nixon administration during the Vietnam War to end the U.S. involvement in the war and expand, equip, and train South Vietnam's forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops. -
Start of American Troop Withdrawal
Nixon pulls the first American troops out of Vietnam. -
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American Troop Withdrawal from Vietnam
The first American troops were pulled out of Vietnam by Nixon in July of 1969. The last were finally brought home on March 29th, 1973. -
Kent State Shootings
The Kent State shootings occured at Kent State Universtity in Kent, Ohio. It involved the shooting of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others. -
26th Amendment
The 26th Amendment was a proposal to extend the right to vote to all citizens eighteen years of age and older. The drive to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 grew across the country during the 1960s, driven in large part by the broader student activism movement protesting the Vietnam War. -
War Powers Resolution
The War Powers Resolution is to check the president's power to commit the U.S. to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days. -
South Vietnam Surrenders
South Vietnam surrendered when North Vietnamese soldiers marched into and took over Saigon, South Vietnams capital. This event marked the end of the Vietnam War and led the country to be reformed into a Socialist Republic governed by the Communist Party. -
Vietnam Re-unification
Vietnam is re-unified into a single communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. -
Agent Orange Investigations
fter years of Defense Department denials, the US General Accounting Office releases a report indicating that thousands of US troops were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange. Thousands of veterans had demanded a government investigation into the effect that dioxin, a chemical found in Agent Orange, had on the human immune system. -
Veitnam Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is finished. It was designed by Maya Ying Lin, a 22-year-old Yale architectural student.
