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Military Goes to Vietnam
The Eisenhower administration was concerned that if Vietnam fell under Communist control, other Southeast Asia and Pacific nations, including even the Philippines, would fall one by one. In response to that threat, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed in 1955 to prevent Communist expansion. President Eisenhower sent some 700 military personnel as well as military and economic aid to the government of South Vietnam. This effort was foundering when JFK became president. -
Geneva Accords
Negotiations to end the conflict were held in Geneva, Switzerland. The resulting Geneva Accord provided for a temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh controlled North Vietnam, and anti- Communist Ngo Dinh Diem held the South. French troops left, and the United States became the principal protector of the new government in South Vietnam. The accords called for elections to be held in 1956 to reunite the country under a single government but Diem refused -
Plane Shot Down in Soviet Union
A United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while performing photographic aerial reconnaissance deep into Soviet territory. The single-seat aircraft, flown by pilot Francis Gary Powers, was hit by an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile and crashed near Sverdlovsk. Powers parachuted safely and was captured. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
A joint resolution that the United States Congress passed. It is of historic significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty". This included involving armed forces. -
Troops Land in Vietnam
The United States rapidly increased its military forces in South Vietnam, prompted by the realization that the South Vietnamese government was losing the Vietnam War as the communist-dominated Viet Cong gained influence over much of the population in rural areas of the country.The objective of the U.S. and South Vietnam was to prevent a communist take-over. North Vietnam and the insurgent Viet Cong sought to unite the two sections of the country. -
Antiwar Protest in Chicago
Protest activity against the Vietnam War took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In 1967, counterculture and anti-Vietnam War protest groups had been promising to come to Chicago and disrupt the convention, and the city promised to maintain law and order. For eight days the protesters were met by the Chicago Police Department in the streets and parks of Chicago while the U.S. Democratic Party met at the convention in the International Amphitheater. -
Invasion of Cambodia
President Richard Nixon authorized U.S. combat troops to cross the border from South Vietnam into Cambodia. The preemptive strike was aimed at forestalling communist North Vietnamese attacks into South Vietnam from their sanctuaries there even as the South Vietnamese were being primed to assume more responsibility for the conduct of the war and U.S. forces were being withdrawn. Nixon sought to justify his decision as a required response to North Vietnamese aggression. -
Paris Peace Accords
To establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The treaty included the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government.US ground forces up to that point had been sidelined with deteriorating morale and gradually withdrawn to coastal regions, not partaking in offensive operations or much direct combat for the preceding two-year period. -
U.S. Troops Leave Vietnam
The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come." America's longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes. During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths. 153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. -
Saigon Falls to North Vietnam
NVA shell Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon, killing two U.S. Marines. Conditions then deteriorate as South Vietnamese civilians loot the air base. President Ford now orders OFW, the helicopter evacuation of 7000 Americans and South Vietnamese from Saigon, which begins with the radio broadcast of the song White Christmas. The last Americans, ten Marines from the embassy leave.The war is over.