Vietnam War Timeline

  • Domino Theory coined- Eisenhower - inlight of Vietnam

    Domino Theory coined- Eisenhower - inlight of Vietnam
    The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a row of dominos.
  • Geneva Accords

    Geneva Accords
    The Geneva Conference was a conference that was intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War and involved several nations. It took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26 April to 20 July 1954.
  • Assassination of Diem

    Assassination of Diem
    Ngô Đình Diem was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam, and then served as the first president of South Vietnam from 1955 until he was captured and assassinated during the 1963 South Vietnamese coup.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
    It stated that "Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repeal any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression." As a result, President Johnson, and later President Nixon.
  • LBJ ordered 1st troops to Vietnam

    LBJ ordered 1st troops to Vietnam
    President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. This effort was foundering when John F. Kennedy became president.
  • My Lai Massacre

    My Lai Massacre
    The Mỹ Lai massacre was the mass murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians by United States troops in Sơn Tịnh District, South Vietnam, on 16 March 1968 during the Vietnam War.
  • Tet Offensive

    Tet Offensive
    The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.
  • Nixon’s Vietnamization policy

    Nixon’s Vietnamization policy
    Vietnamization was a policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops".
  • Nixon sends troops into Cambodia

    Nixon sends troops into Cambodia
    Enhancing the destruction, in April 1970, President Nixon ordered United States troops to occupy parts of Cambodia. Nixon claimed that the soldiers were protecting the United States' withdrawal from South Vietnam.
  • Kent State shooting

    Kent State shooting
    The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 40 mi south of Cleveland.
  • Hard Hat Riot

    Hard Hat Riot
    The Hard Hat Riot occurred on May 8, 1970, in New York City. It started around noon when around 400 construction workers and around 800 office workers attacked around 1,000 demonstrators affiliated with the student strike of 1970.
  • Nixon’s Christmas bombing

    Nixon’s Christmas bombing
    The impact of the so-called “Christmas Bombings” on the final agreement was difficult to assess. Some historians have argued that the bombings forced the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table. Others have suggested that the attacks had little impact, beyond the additional death and destruction they caused.
  • Paris Peace Accords

    Paris Peace Accords
    The Paris Peace Accords, officially the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam, was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War.
  • War Powers Act

    War Powers Act
    The War Powers Resolution is a federal law intended to check the U.S. president's power to commit the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of the U.S. Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a United States congressional joint resolution.
  • Saigon Falls

    Saigon Falls
    The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese.