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Eisenhower's Administration
President Eisenhower's administration sends the first U.S. advisers to south Vietnam to train the south vietnamese so they can fight and this is significant because its the begining of a major conflict that seems to never end. -
Vietcong Established
The Viet Cong was an army of insurgents who fought with guerrilla warfare tactics in South Vietnam and Cambodia and they are very significant because they fought the United States and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War and are a major part of the reason why the Vietnam war was so unique. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
On August 2, the U.S. ship Maddox was attacked by three North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats about 30 miles off the coast in international waters and The Maddox was able to escape the ships but the outcome of this event is significant because it lead to the gulf of tonkin resolution which was a major turning point. -
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The gulf of tonkin resolution basically gave Johnson the authority to help any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by communism and this resolution was basically a legal justification for finally allowing American involvement in Vietnam. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was the massive and overpowering strategic bombing of key targets in North Vietnam but in reality it was something completly different with almost the opposite effect. This is significant because it started out as a bombing campaign against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which began on March 2, 1965, and was only suposed to last for eight weeks but lasted until November of 1968 and turned into something more complex than it was intended to be. -
The Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a massive victory for the United States Only about 4,500 American troops were killed during the attacks and around 40,000 men were killed for the NLF but the attacks had very bad effects for the American effort in the war because the Americans back home had been told that the war was almost over and the North Vietnamese were about to surrender and the fact that they had been able to launch an attack on such massive scale made Americans unsure about their credibility. -
The My Lai Massacre
A group of soldiers massacred a village of innocent people saying it was a "search and destroy" mission and it is significant because when amercans heard about the war they were sickened that we would do that and turned even more people against the war. -
Kent State Shootings
The Kent States shootings happened because President Nixon announced that he would be invading Cambodia and the college students who were very against the war decided to protest and it got out of control and several guardsmen fired their rifles and four students were killed and nine were wounded and this is significant because the incident brought the anti-Vietnam movement into the mainstream and convinced Americans that the war might not be such a good thing after all. -
The Pentagon Papers
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The Ceasefire
The ceasefire was signed by the U.S., South Vietnam, and North Vietnam which basically stated that the U.S. had to remove all troops and this is significant because it basically ended our combat involvement in the war.