Time Line leading up to and of the Vietnam War

Adapted from the timeline at www.pbs.org 

1945:

- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies

- President Harry Truman authorizes the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. One on Hiroshima on August 6th and one on Nagasaki on August 9th leading to the Japanese surrender. 

- Ho Chi Minh and his People’s Congress create the National Liberation Committee of Vietnam and form a provisional government, following Japan’s surrender to Allied Forces ending WWII. Japan transfers all power to Ho’s Vietminh.

- Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam

- British forces land in Saigon, and return authority to the French

1946:

- France recognized Vietnam as a “free state” within the French Union. French troops replace the Chinese in the North

- ENIAC, the world’s first automatic digital computer is introduced

- Breakdown between French and Vietminh negotiations

- Indochina War begins with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam launching its first attack against the French

 

1947:

- Vietminh moves north of Hanoi

- Marshall Plan announced, laying out the details of Truman administration plan to assist Europe in its rebuilding post-WWII

- French general Etienne Valluy fails in defeating the Vietminh

 

1949:

- Elysée Agreement signed by Bao Dai and French President Vincent Auriol, in which the French pledge to assist the building of a national anti-Communist army

- NATO is formed 

 

1950:

- The Chinese and the Soviets offer weapons to the Vietminh

- June 25, Communist forces from North Korea invade the Republic of South Korea, and President Truman appeals to the UN to take action. North Korea is deemed an aggressor, and Truman immediately sends US air and naval troops.

- The US sends $15 million to aid the French in the Indochina War

 

1951:

- Ho Chi Minh creates the Workers’ Party

- President Truman dismisses General Douglas MacArthur

 

1953:

- France grants full independence to Laos

- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for espionage and passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.

- Vietminh forces invade Laos

1954:

- Battle of Dien Bien Phu, where the Vietminh lay siege to the French garrison, and win

- President Eisenhower cites “domino theory” for Southeast Asia

- The Geneva Accords announced: a provisional demarcation at the 17th parallel will divide Vietnam until a nationwide election can be held in 1956. The United States does not accept the agreement.

1955:

- Diem rejects the Geneva Accords and refuses national elections

- China and the USSR pledge financial support to Hanoi

- Diem becomes President of the Republic of Vietnam

1956:

- The French leave Vietnam

- The US assumes military training of the South Vietnamese forces

- Cold War tensions escalate between US and USSR; Nikita Khrushchev proclaims “history is on our side. We will bury you!”

- Eisenhower defeats Stevenson for the US Presidency

 

1957:

- Communist insurgent activity in South Vietnam; guerrillas assassinate more than 400 South Vietnamese officials 

- Terrorist bombings of Saigon

- Soviets launch Sputnik I

 

1958:

- Communist forces settle along Mekong Delta

- The first US Earth Satellite is launched

 

1959:

- North Vietnam created Group 559 and begins infiltrating weapons into South Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh trail; this will be a target for future military attacks

- Vice-President Nixon engaged Khrushchev in “Kitchen Debate”

- US servicemen killed in guerrilla attack in Vietnam, becoming the first Americans to die in the Vietnam War

- Diem orders the crackdown on communists

 

1960:

- North Vietnam imposes universal military conscription

- Sit-in demonstrations against racial segregation begin in the southern US

- A US spy plane is shot down over the USSR; the impending US-Soviet summit is cancelled

- John F. Kennedy is elected president of the United States

- Diem survives an attempted coup

- Hanoi forms the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam; Diem’s government dubs them the “Vietcong”

 

1961:

- Battle of Kienhoa Province in which 400 North Vietnamese guerrillas attacked a village and are defeated by South Vietnamese troops

- Bay of Pigs – the US plot to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro fails miserably. Kennedy’s ability as a leader is questioned, and he has doubts about listening to future military advice

- Kennedy and Khrushchev meet in Vienna

- Vice-President Lyndon Johnson visits Diem in Saigon

- Kennedy authorizes the “Green Berets” a Special Forces operation that will specialize in counterinsurgency

 

1962:

- US Military employs Agent Orange, a defoliant to expose roads and trails used by Vietcong forces

- Cuban Missile Crisis – it is revealed that the Soviets have placed nuclear missiles on Cuba and aimed them at the US; Kennedy orders a naval quarantine around Cuba to abate it

- Diem palace is  bombed in another attempted coup

- Diem beats Bao Dai in a rigged election, and proclaims himself President of the republic of Vietnam

- Senate Majority leader Mike Mansfield reports on his return from Saigon, that Diem has wasted the two billion dollars the US has sent there

 

1963:

- Vietcong units defeat the South Vietnamese Army in the Battle of Ap Bac

- Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have A Dream” Speech in Washington, DC

- Buddhists protest against Diem government; Diem, a Catholic, has been removing Buddhists from key government positions. Buddhist monks light themselves on fire in public places as a form of protest

- Diem is overthrown and murdered by operatives in the South Vietnamese military, who have the tacit approval of the US

- President Kennedy is assassinated; Vice President Johnson assumes power

 

1964:

- In a bloodless coup General Nguyen Khanh seizes power in Saigon; South Vietnamese junta leader, Major General Duong Van Minh is placed under house arrest, yet remains a figurehead chief-of-state

- Gulf of Tonkin Incident – three North Vietnamese boats allegedly fire torpedoes on the U.S.S. Maddox; this occurs after six months of covert US and South Vietnamese naval operations in the international waters off the coast of North Vietnam.

- The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passes unanimously in the House of Representatives and by an 82-2 margin in the Senate. It allows Johnson to secure a formal Declaration of War against North Vietnam from Congress.

- The Vietcong attacks the Bienhoa Air Base

- Johnson beats Republican candidate Barry Goldwater for the presidency

 

1965:

- American bombing raids of North Vietnam begin in February and are termed Operation Rolling Thunder, and are nearly continuous for the next three years

- The 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrive in Vietnam to defend the US airfield at Danang; they are the first US combat troops in Vietnam

- First conventional battle of the Vietnam War in Ia Drang Valley, between the US 1st Air Cavalry Division and the N.V.A. (North Vietnamese Army); heavy casualties on both sides

- US troops levels exceed 200,000

- First “teach-in” protest of the US policy in Vietnam takes place at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in March; in May a nationally broadcast “teach-in” reaches over 100 campuses

 

1966:

- First US B-52s bomb North Vietnam along the Mugia Pass, the main route the N.V.A. used to transport personnel and supplies through Laos and into South Vietnam

- South Vietnam Government troops take Hue and Danang

- President Johnson meets with South Vietnamese premiere Nguyen Cao Ky and his military advisors in Honolulu; Johnson promises continued support against the North but adds that they will monitor South Vietnam’s effort to expand democracy 

- Veterans from World Wars I and II, and the Korean War stage a protest rally in New York City;  they burn discharge and separation papers in protest of the US involvement in Vietnam

- The Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) calls for a withdrawal of all US troops from Vietnam, and issues a report claiming that the US military drafts puts a high discriminatory burden on the poor and minority groups.

 

1967:

- Operation Cedar Falls, in which 16,000 US and 14,000 South Vietnamese troops set out to destroy Vietcong supplies outside of Saigon 

- Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks out against the war and suggest merging antiwar and civil rights groups

- University of Wisconsin students demand that corporate recruiters from Dow Chemical, the producers of napalm, not be allowed on campus

- Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara appears before a Senate subcommittee and testifies that US bombing of North Vietnam has been ineffective

 

1968:

- Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia allows the pursuit of the Vietcong into his country

- North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive, in which North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces invade South Vietnam, including Saigon; within days US forces recapture Saigon and many of the other captured areas

- Battle for Hue lasts 26 days in which US and South Vietnamese troops try to recapture Hue, a site that had previously been a religious retreat and which was captured by the Communists during the Tet Offensive. Upon the US and South Vietnamese victory, they discover mass graves of thousands of people who were executed during the Communist occupation

- Westmoreland requests 206,000 more troops

- My Lai Massacre – on March 16th the members of the Charlie Company, the11th Brigade enter the village of My Lai and are encouraged by their superior officers, namely Lt. William Calley, to kill, “this is what you’ve been waiting for – search and destroy – and you’ve got it.” News of the atrocities shake an already divided American public

- President Johnson announces that he will not run for reelection

- Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis

- Paris Peace Talks begin between W. Averell Harriman representing the US and former Foreign Minister Xuan Thuy representing the North Vietnamese

- Robert Kennedy is assassinated

- Demonstrations and antiwar protests surround the area of the Democratic Convention in Chicago as they prepare to nominate a presidential candidate

- Richard Nixon is elected president  just beating out Hubert Humphrey with 43.4% of the popular vote, as compared to Humphrey’s 42.7%

 

1969:

- President Nixon begins secret bombing of Communist supply routes in Cambodia andgives the go ahead to “Operation Breakfast,” the covert bombing of Cambodia, which continues for 14 months without the knowledge of Congress or the American public

- Secretary of Defense, Melvin Laird, discussed policy of “Vietnamization” the goal of which is to shift the burden of defeating the Communists away from the US and to the South Vietnamese Army

- Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79

- Journalist Seymour Hersh reports My Lai Massacre to American civilians for the first time; Lt. William Calley is already charged with the crime of murder by the Army

- Major Antiwar Demonstration in Washington, DC

 

1970:

- Prince Sihanouk tries to maintain Cambodia’s neutrality and wavers between opportunistic alliances with China and then the United States; a coup led by his defense minister, Lon Nol, ousts Sihanouk

- National Guardsmen open fire on a group of students protesting the war at Ohio’s Kent State University; 4 students die and 8 others are wounded. Nixon publicly condemns the incident, but warns that “when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy.”

- The number of US troops falls to 280,000

- Secret Peace Talks begin between Henry  Kissinger and Le Duc Tho

 

1971:

- Lt. Calley is convicted of murder for the My Lai Massacre

- The New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, which reveals the deception of US policy in Vietnam on the parts of the executive branch and the military. Nixon appeals to the Supreme Court to stop the publication, since they consider it ‘sensitive information’; the Supreme Court sides in favor of the Times and Free Speech

- Nixon announces a plan to visit the People’s Republic of China

- Thieu is reelected in South Vietnam

 

1972:

- Nixon orders troop strength be reduced to 70,000, responding to charges of Democratic presidential candidates that he is not trying to end US involvement in Vietnam fast enough

- Secret Peace talks revealed – Kissinger and Le Duc reach an agreements on many areas leading to a cease-fire in Vietnam; South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, opposes the agreement

- Nixon administration orders heavy B-52 bombing of areas around Hanoi and Haiphong

- The break-in at the Watergate Hotel

- Nixon wins reelection

 

1973:

- Paris Peace Accords signed by Kissinger and Le Duc calling for a cease-fire the agreement is scheduled to go into effect on January 28th

- Announcement of the end of the military draft

- Final American troops leave Vietnam

- The Senate Armed Services Committee begins a hearing on the Secret Bombings, the US bombing of Cambodia. Allegations made that Nixon allowed bomb raids of the neutral Cambodia; all bombing is to cease at midnight on August 14th

- Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho win the Nobel Peace Prize; Kissinger accepts, Le Duc declines, stating that a true peace does not exist in Vietnam yet

 

1974:

- Thieu announces a renewal of the war

- A report by the National Academy of Science declares that the use of chemical herbicides used during the war will cause long-term damage to the Vietnamese ecology

- The Communists take the Mekong Delta Territory

- The House Judiciary Committee begins the Nixon Impeachment Hearings in May, condemning him for the secret bombing of Cambodia

- Nixon resigns from the presidency, Vice President Gerald Ford assumes the post, becoming the only president to not have been elected President or Vice President by Electoral College

- Highest level of North Vietnamese Communist forces in South Vietnam

 

1975:

- Communist forces capture Phuoc Long Province in South Vietnam; North Vietnamese leaders interpret the lack of a US response as an indicator to move more aggressively into South Vietnam 

- The village of Hue falls to the Communists

- Ho Chi Minh Campaign initiated by the North Vietnamese in order to “liberate” Saigon

- The Khmer Rouge accept the surrender of Lon Nol, the Cambodian leader, on April 16th. The Khmer Rouge victory begins the period of genocide engineered by dictator Pol Pot

- President Ford, anticipating the fall of Saigon to the Communists, announces that as far as the US is concerned, the Vietnam War is over

- South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh surrenders unconditionally to the Communists, led by North Vietnamese colonel Bui Tin, on April 30th. The last Americans in Saigon evacuate.