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Ho Chin Mihn declares Vietnam's Independence
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Negotiations between French leaders and Ho Chi Minh break down. France refuses to grant Vietnamese independence and declares the southern region of Vietnam a French colony. Ho Chi Minh returns to Hanoi disenchanted.
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Under President Harry S. Truman, the United States begins to contribute money and supplies to the French war effort in Vietnam.
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President Harry S. Truman is elected to a second term.
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France and Ho Chi Minh sign the Geneva Accords, in which Vietnam is to be divided at the seventeenth parallel until elections can be held in 1956 to reunify the country. The South Vietnamese government and the United States refuse to sign, though both promise to abide by the agreement
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Some 850,000 North Vietnamese, mostly Catholics, emigrate to South Vietnam; 80,000 residents of the South, primarily Viet Minh sympathizers, move to the North.
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Ex-Viet Minh forces in the South organize and, with the support of Ho Chi Minh, begin a campaign of guerrilla warfare against Diem's administration.
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The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, also known as the National Liberation Front (NLF) is formed to crush Diem's regime. The insurgent organization and its military wing—the Viet Cong (VC)—will be funded by the North Vietnamese government, and staffed by Ex-Viet Minh guerilla soldiers from the South
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An American serviceman dies in Vietnam, the first combat death reported. For many Americans, the death will mark the beginning of the Vietnam War.
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South Vietnamese police fire shots into a crowd of Buddhist monks demonstrating against President Diem's regime. The event will inspire others to protest
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With U.S. encouragement, South Vietnamese General Duong Van Minh overthrows the Diem regime, and the following day he orders the execution of Diem and his brother. General Duong's military rule is recognized by the United States
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The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gives President Lyndon Johnson the power to take whatever actions he sees necessary to defend South Vietnam against Viet Cong forces.
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In the U.S., the first mass public demonstrations against American involvement in the war in Vietnam take place.
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Student David O'Brien and three friends burn their draft cards on the steps of the South Boston Courthouse in protest of the war in Vietnam
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At the age of 79, six years before his armies seize Saigon, Ho Chi Minh dies. Rather than cremate his body, as Minh had specified in his will, Minh's family has the leader embalmed and put on display in a mausoleum
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Some 200,000 people march in Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Vietnam.
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The North Vietnamese take Saigon; the war in Vietnam ends
