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In 1941, Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh founded the Viet Minh, or Vietnamese Independence League, in opposition to French and Japanese occupation. By the 1940s Vietnam had struggled against foreign rule for centuries, long before France seized control in the late 1800s. -
a confrontation of the First Indochina War that took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954 fought between the French Union's colonial Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries -
the creation of dividing line between North Vietnam and South Vietnam as established by the 1954 Geneva Conference. The 17th parallel was buffered by a demilitarized zone, or DMZ, between the two countries -
Vietnamese political organization formed December 20, 1960, to help the overthrow of the South Vietnamese government and reunification of North and South Vietnam -
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing President Johnson to take the measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. -
In March 1965 U.S. Marines landed at Da Nang, South Vietnam, and regular troops of the North Vietnamese Army continued to infiltrate. -
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual aerial bombardment campaign by the United States 2nd Air Division, U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968 -
On August 23, 1968, Yippie leader Rubin, folk singer Phil Ochs, and other activists held their own presidential nominating convention with their candidate Pigasus, a real pig. When the Yippies paraded Pigasus at the Civic Center, ten policemen arrested Ochs, Rubin, Pigasus, and six others. -
a catastrophic military failure for the communists. estimated as many as 50,000 communist troops died to gain control of the southern part of the country. The South Vietnamese and American losses totaled a fraction of that number. -
the mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by United States troops in Sơn Tịnh district, South Vietnam. -
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. -
On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine total Kent State students.