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President Johnson announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin
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Vietnamese forces occupy the French command post at Dien Bien Phu.The battle had lasted 55 days.
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specialized North Vietnamese Army unit was formed to create a supply route from North Vietnam to Vietcong forces in South Vietnam. Group 559 develop a route along the Vietnamese/ Cambodian border
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President John F. Kennedy orders more help for the South Vietnamese government in its war against the Vietcong guerrillas
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America's first combat missions against the Vietcong
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the Vietcong 514th Battalion and local guerrilla forces ambush the South Vietnamese Army's 7th division. President Kennedy is assassinated
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President Johnson announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
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The U.S. congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he sees necessary to defend southeast Asia.
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Over 200,000 US troops were sent to Vietnam.Bombing raids on North Vietnam lasted for three years. Students at American Universities started to strongly protest the Vietnam war
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Vietcong attack on a base at Pleiku left 7americans dead and more than 100 wounded. Less than 14 hours after the attack, American aircraft assaulted North Vietnam.
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a group of faculty member and students at the University of Michigan abandoned their classes and joined together in a teach-in. They discussed the issues about the war and why they disagreed with it.
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The U.S. offers North Vietnam economic aid in exchange for peace, but the offer is summarily rejected. Two weeks later, President Johnson raises America's combat strength in Vietnam to more than 60,000 troops. Allied forces from Korea and Australia are added as a sign of international support.
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SDS, students for a Democratic society, organized a march on Washington, D.C., it drew more than 20,000 participants.
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General William Westmoreland launches the first purely offensive operation by American ground forces in Vietnam, sweeping into NLF territory just northwest of Saigon.
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More than 6,700 American soldiers had been killed. The notion of a quick and decisive victory grew increasingly remote.
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African Americans accounted for about 20% of American combat deaths, about twice their proportion of the population in the U.S.
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Vietnam was the first “television war”, with footage of combat appearing nightly on the evening news. Americans began to doubt the government reports, and a credibility gap had developed.
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American Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and other generals seized power and executed Diem shortly afterward.
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President Johnson announced on television that he would not be running for a second term.
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The Nation was divided into two camps. The Doves wanted the U.S to withdraw from Vietnam. The Hawks wanted the U.S to stay and fight.
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Nixon announced the withdrawal of 25,000 soldiers, He increased air strikes against North Vietnam and began bombing Vietcong Sanctuaries in neighboring Cambodia.
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The media reported that in the spring of 1968, an American platoon under the command of Lieutenant Williams Calley had killed more than 200 unarmed civilians in the hamlet of My Lai.
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American troops had invaded Cambodia. Many saw that as a widening of the war.
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Ohio National Guard soldiers, at Kent State University, killed 4 student demonstrators and wounded 9 others. Two days later, 2 black student demonstrators were killed by police at Jackson State College in Mississippi.
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An angry Congress repealed the Gulf of Tokin Resolution, because numerous legislators expressed outrage over the presidents failure to notify them of actions
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26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving all citizens age 18 and older the right to vote in all state and federal elections.
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Deniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers. The papers showed where many government officials publicly defending the war while privately questioning it.
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South Vietnam's president, Nguyen Van Thieu, refused to agree to any plan that left North Vietnamese troops in the south.Talks broke off between Kissinger and Thieu.
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The United States and North Vietnam sign an agreement ending the war ans restoring the peace in Vietnam.
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Congress passed the war Powers Act as a way to reestablished some limits on executive power
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North Vietnamese army launched a full-scaled invasion of the south , and peace agreement collapsed.
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North Vietnamese captured Saigon, and united Vietnam under communist rule. They then renamed Saigon Ho Chi Minh City.
