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The U.S identified the Viet Minh as a communist threat, they step up military help to assist the French. -
Dwight Eisenhower says in a speech that the fall of the French Indochina to communists could create a domino effect in Southeast Asia. They later on called this the Domino Theory. -
They establish North and South Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The accords also stipulates that elections should be held within two years of the accords under one single democratic party. But this never happened. -
The first U.S soldiers were killed in South Vietnam by guerrilla fighters near Saigon. -
President Kennedy sends helicopters with about 400 green berets to South Vietnam and authorizes a secret operations mission. -
U.S aircraft sprayed Agent Orange and other herbicides over rural areas in South Vietnam to kill vegetation that would offer cover and food for guerilla fighters. -
The USS Maddox is allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. 2 days later there is a false report of an attack and President Johnson bombs North Vietnamese patrol boat bases. -
President Johnson launches a 3 year campaign of bombing targets in North Vietnam. U.S Marines also land on the beaches near Da Nang. These were the first American combat troops to enter Vietnam. -
President Johnson sends 50,000 more ground troops to Vietnam which increases the draft size to around 35,000 people per month. -
Nearly 300 Americans are killed and hundreds more injured in the first large battle in the war. The battle took place in South Vietnam's central highlands, where U.S ground troops are dropped onto and withdrawn from the battlefield by helicopter. Both sides declared victory at the end. -
American aircraft attack targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that are among the first attacks on cities in North Vietnam -
More than 500 civilians are murdered by U.S forces. It happens during a campaign of U.S search and destroy missions that were intended to find enemies and kill them.