-
Ho Chi Minh is born
Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19, 1890, and he would go on to become a communist leader of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh also went on to lead the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades. -
Vietnam declares independence from France
Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi's Ba Dinh square. -
The Geneva Accords cause Vietnam to be split into North and South.
In July 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed. As part of the agreement, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. -
President Eisenhower declares Domino Theory
In Southeast Asia, the U.S. government used the now-discredited domino theory to justify its involvement in the Vietnam War and its support for a non-communist dictator in South Vietnam. -
The Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu
Concerned about regional instability, the United States became increasingly committed to countering communist nationalists in Indochina. -
Ngo Dinh Diem cancels elections in Vietnam
He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords. In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh apologized for a disastrous land reform program he had initiated in 1955. -
The National Liberation Front is formed
The National Liberation Front was formed on December 29, 1960. It was formally known as the National Front for the Liberation of the South, Vietnamese but later changed. -
A South Vietnamese monk sets himself on fire
Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, burns himself to death on a Saigon street June 11, 1963 to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government -
President Kennedy is assassinated, leading to the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.
If President Kennedy was not assassinated there was a chance that we never got involved in the Vietnam war. After President Kennedy's death, the war escalated when Lyndon B. Johnson took control. -
President Johnson claims a U.S. ship had been fired upon by the North Vietnamese
On August 7, 1964, 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. This resolution became the legal basis for the Johnson and Nixon Administrations prosecution of the Vietnam War. -
The first combat troops arrive in Vietnam
In September 1950, US President Harry Truman sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group to Vietnam to assist the French in the First Indochina War. -
The United States withdraws support of Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam
The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come." America's longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes.
