Vietnam Timeline

  • Creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

    Ho Chi Minh declares independence from french. This was vietnam announcing democracy. They also initiated a "correction campaign".
  • Battle of Dien Bien Phu

    a confrontation of the first indochina war. Garrison at Dien Bien Phu in vietnam fell after a 4 month siege. this was led by Ho chi Minh.
  • Creation of the 17th parallel between North and South Vietnam

    This is when a dividing line was created between north vietnam and south. established by the Geneva Conference. It was promised as a "temporary measure."
  • Establishment of the National Liberation Front

    Also called the NLF. This was formed to effect the overthrow of the south vietnamese government and the reunification of north and south vietnam.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution

    Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia.
  • Operation Rolling Thunder

    it was a air/ground battle during the cold war. it was a bombing campaign. Mainly to force Ho Chi Minh to abandon his ambition to take over south vietnam.
  • US combat troops arrive in Vietnam

    550,000 marines arrived in vietnam on this date. There were around 58,000 casualties. President eisenhower was the one that deployed the troops to vietnam.
  • Tet Offensive

    The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. Major attacks happened over 5 cities.
  • My Lai Massacre

    It occurred when Charlie Company was ordered to enter the village for a search and destroy mission. Still stinging from human losses in their unit during the Tet Offensive, Charlie Company vented their rage on the villagers at My Lai.
  • 1968 Democratic National Convention

    Yippie leader Rubin, folk singer Phil Ochs, and other activists held their own presidential nominating convention with their candidate Pigasus, an actual pig.
  • 1968 Presidential Election

    The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • Tinker v. Des Moines

    In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court's majority ruled that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
  • Woodstock 1969

    Woodstock was an opportunity for people to escape into music and spread a message of unity and peace.
  • Kent State University Protest

    On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic.
  • Jackson State College Protest

    On May 15, 1970, the police opened fire shortly after midnight on students (and passersby) in a May 14 protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War at Jackson State College in Mississippi.
  • Pentagon Papers

    The Pentagon Papers revealed that Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson had continued to send American soldiers to fight in a war that could not be won.
  • 1973 Paris Peace Accords

    The Paris Peace Accords End Direct Combat Role of United States in the Vietnam War. In January of 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed after four years of negotiations, with the intent to establish peace in Vietnam and end the war.
  • United States vs. Nixon

    In United States v. Nixon (1974), the Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon was not exempt from a court order that required him to release White House tapes.
  • Watergate

    The watergate scandal was where president nixon was accused of being involved in a burglary at the watergate hotel
  • Fall of Saigon

    During the Second Indochina War (or Vietnam War) in the 1960s and early '70s, Saigon was the headquarters of U.S. military operations. Parts of the city were destroyed by fighting in 1968. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, and the city was subsequently renamed Ho Chi Minh City