-
Pre military involvement
In the the start of 1950's the French requested American support to protect their colonies in South VIetnam. This ultimately was the first step leading to the Vietnam war. After the French were beat America began to call South VIetnam a non-communist state and the north a communist state. We began to roll money into South Vietnam in order to help them with their cause. # 15 (Background on U.S. involvement in Vietnam War) -
Start of civil right protests
While we were just starting to send troops and fight in North VIetnam in the mid 60's, protests started in the south of the U.S. for civil rights. The largest walk/rally happened in 1963 where thousands of African americans and whites marched together to Washington DC. This is where the iconic "I had a dream" speeched occured and really began to shed light on the civil rights issue at home. #20 (phases of modern civil rights movement) -
U.S, Advisors sent to South Vietnam
In May of 1961 President Kennedy had 400 army advisors sent to South Vietnam to hopefully train the South Vietnamese army on how to counter the norths guerrilla fighting tactics. Our hope was that using the advisors would end our involvement, but in reality it was just the start. #16 (Advisory effort in Vietnam) -
Cuban MIssile Crisis
In 1962 along with the slow beginning of our involvement in VIetnam war, we were at the possible start of a nuclear fallout. Our military was put on DEFCON-2 which was getting ready for nuclear war. Although this was more of a cold war thing, it was a major event that shaped both wars. #18 (Cuban Missile Crisis details) -
Gulf OF Tonkin Incident
The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident was in a way an excuse for LBJ to fully bring the U.S. into war with North Vietnam. Without this incident there would be no way Congress approved of going to war. The battleship Maddux was across the 17th parrell and was in North Vietnamese waters patrolling waters and was fired at by Viet Cong. This then ment we needed to act and fully become involved. This came from #24 (Gulf Of Tonkin incident/resolution -
Operation Rolling Thunder
In March of 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder was given the green light. This operation would last a total of three years and be known as one of the biggest air bombing campaign in the U.S military. Within just one year of the bombings over 32,000 tons of bombs were dropped in North Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder plan was to destroy forest so that Viet Cong could no longer use vegitation for hiding. Also the bombings were used to cut Viet Cong supply and communication lines to the South. -
Kent State shootings
In 1965 students and staff of colleges all over the U.S began to hold massive protests against the Vietnam War. One of these campuses was Kent State University. During one of the protests the National Guard was called on to stop the rally because it started to become violent. The national guard fired into the crowd killing 4 students.This event really had people questioning if we could even trust our own military at home. -
McNamara testifies
In 1967 the secretaryt of defense, McNamara, came out to congress and said that Operation Rolling Thunder had been a complete failure. He said that the North had been effected in no ways at all. The reason this is important is because the public was being shown these bombings as great things, but now they knew it was a lie. This led to civil unrest in the states. -
Tet Offensive
In 1968 the Viet Cong launched a massive scale offensive on both South vietnamese and U.S soldiers on a day that was supposed to be a cease fire. The Viet Cong were able to conquer a majority of bases in the south. Once this news hit home people knew that there was no way the end was near and it was time for LBJ to be kicked from office. #26 (Tet offensive-1968) -
My Lai Massacre
After the Tet offensive a small squad of soldiers were led to a rural village by Captain Ernest. His orders that he gave was that anyone in the village were either VC or VC sympathizers and were to destroy the village. over 300 unarmed civilians were slaughtered by our military that day. It was covered up for a year until word finally got out that only civilians were killed. -
Civil RIghts at home
Back at home, civil unrest was at a all time high more specifically with actual civil rights.During the 1950's Martin Luther KIng Jr. began protests for equality for black people in the U.S and he contiued these rallies and protests till the day he was asassinated in 1968. Up until around 1968 MLK cared nothing for the war, but around 1968 he began to protest against the war and became more violent with protests. MLK was the start of millions of people protesting Vietnam. #21 (Black Nationaism) -
Operation Menu
Once Nixon became president he started a covert bombing operation in Cambodia. The plan for these attacks were to destroy supply lines of the Viet Cong. The secretness of the bombings soon became known in the U.S. and sparked even more unrest in both the government and of the people. -
End of the Vietnam War
In 1973 Nixon signed the peace deal to pull American troops of out VIetnam once and for all. WIth our troops finally home the North Koreans invaded South Korea in 1974 and became communist VIetnam. Although South Vietnam fell quickly we had our men back at home and no longer fighting in a useless war.
