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United States Supporting the French
When President Eisenhower was taking office in 1953, he continues to support the French military campaign against the Vietminh. By 1954 the United States was paying roughly three-fourths of the France's war costs. -
Domino Theory
During a news conference that year, Eisenhower defended United States policy in Vietnam by stressing what became to be known as the domino theory - the belief that if Vietnam fell to communism, so would the other nations of the Southeast Asia. -
Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
The French commander ordered his forces to occupy the mountain town of Dien Bien Phu. Seizing the town would interfere with the Vietminh's supply lines and force them into open battle. The French force at Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietminh. The defeat convinced the French to make peace and withdraw from Indochina. -
Geneva Conference
To end the conflict the negotiations was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam and a pro-Western regime in control of the South. In the 1956 elections were to be held to reunite the country under a single government. When the time came in 1956 to hold a countrywide elections, as called for by the Geneva Accords, Diem refused. -
Self-Immolation
On June 11, 1963, flames erupted around a Buddhist monk as he set himself on fire to protest government religious policies. -
Tonkin Resolution
President Johnson announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. He insisted that North Vietnam's attacks were unprovoked and immediately ordered American aircraft to attack North Vietnamese ships and naval facilities. But Johnson didn't reveal that the American warships had been helping the South Vietnamese conduct electronic spying and commando raids against North Vietnam. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Johnson expanded American involvement by shifting his policy to a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam. This campaign was named Operation Rolling Thunder. That month the president also ordered the first combat troops into Vietnam. American soldiers were now fighting alongside the South Vietnameses troops against the Vietcong. -
Teach-Ins Begin
A group of faculty members and students at the University of Michigan abandoned their classes and joined together in a teach-in. They informally discussed the issues surrounding the war and reaffirmed their reasons for opposing it. The gathering inspired teach-ins at many campuses. In May 1965, 122 colleges held a "National Teach-In" by radio for more than 100,00 antiwar demonstrators. -
Anger at the Draft
Martin Luther King, Jr. broke his silence: "Somehow this madness must cease. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam and the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path was have taken, I speak as an American to the leader of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop must be ours." -
Hawks and Doves
By 1968 the nation seemed to be divided into camps. Those who wanted the United States to withdraw from Vietnam were known as doves. Those who insisted that the United States to stay and fight came to be known as hawks. As the two groups debated, the war took a dramatic turn for the worse, and the nation endured a year of shock and crisis. -
Tet Offensive
It is during the Vietnamese New Year, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese launched a massive surprise attack. The guerrilla fighters attacked virtually all American airbases in South Vietnam and most of the South's major cities and provincial capitals. -
Vietnamization
This process involved the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops while South Vietnamese assumed more of the fighting. Nixon announced the withdrawal of 25,000 soldiers, Nixon refused to view this troop withdrawal as a form of surrender. He was determined to maintain a strong American presence in Vietnam to ensure bargaining power during peace negotiations. -
Massacre at My Lai
Americans learned of a horrifying event. That month, the media reported that in the spring of 1968, an American platoon under the command of Lieutenant William Calley had massacred possibly more than 200 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai. Most of the victims were old men, women, and children. Calley eventually went to prison for his role in killings. -
Kent State
Kent StateOnio National Guard soldiers, armed with tear gas and rifles, fired on demonstrators without an order to do so. The soldiers killed four students and wounded at least nine others. -
The 26th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. -
The Pentagon Papers
Support for the war weakened further in 1971 when Daniel Ellsberg, a disillusioned former Defense Department worker, leaked what became know was the Pentagon Paters to the New York Times. The documents revealed that many governmetn officials during the Johnson administration privately questioned the war while publicly defending it. THe Pentagon Papers confirmed what many Americans had long believed: The government had not been honest with them. -
U.S. withdrawal of troops
President Nixon dropped his longtime insistence that North Vietnamese troops had to withdraw from South Vietnam before any peace treaty could be signed. In October, less than a month before the 1972 presidential election, Henry Kissinger emerged from his secret talks with Le Duc Tho to announce that "peace is at hand." -
War Powers Act
In 1973 Congress passed the War Powers Act as a way to reestablish some limits on executive power. The act required the president to inform Congress of any commitment of troops abroad within 48 hours and to withdraw them in 60 to 90 days unless Congress explicitly approved the troop commitment. -
The War's Human Toll
The United States paid a heavy price for its involvement in Vietnam. The war had cost the nation over $170 billion in direct costs and much more in indirect economic expenses. It had resulted in the deaths of approximately 58,000 young Americans and the injury of more than 300,000. -
South Vietnam surrendered
The United States had barely pulled out its last troops from Vietnam when the peace agreement collapsed. In March 1975, the North Vietnamese army launched a full-scale invasion of the South. On April 30, the North Vietnamese captured Saigon, South Vietnam's capital, and united Vietnam under Communist rule. They renamed Saigon Ho Chi Minh City.
